Funding Your Program with Leah Sheldon

Leah Sheldon shares tips for going beyond bake sales to build a sustainable fundraising model that can support a vibrant music program.

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Show Notes:

00:00: Introductions

03:28 What does the fundraising landscape look like these days?

04:00 Traditional fundraising: Sales and Raffles

06:00: How to choose the right time and the right things to sell

08:10 Challenges of sales-based fundraising

10:30 Build a strong team of parent volunteers

11:37 Passive Income Fundraising Sources: online donations/crowd-sourcing/project funding 

14:30 Know the policies of your school for fundraising, handling money, and restrictions on uses of various accounts

16:37 Getting creative on fundraising: Sponsorship ideas

19:45 It doesn't hurt to ask -- you never know who's just waiting to help out.

20:45 Sponsoring Students: "Make it possible for a student to join band"

21:30 Creative raffles: parking space raffle, seating raffles, "band on demand" raffle

23:45: Shoe drives

25:15 Grants: What they are, where to look for them, how to get them

27:30 Finding a match between the granting organization and your program

29:00 How to work with your administration on funding

31:30 Covid Relief Funding: CARES & ESSER

35:11 Last thoughts: Build a core group of parent volunteers, know your school policies, send thank you notes. And, above all else, don't do nothing: even if it's one little thing, your students and families will see your own investment in the program and it will be reflected in their attitudes.

Links:

NAfME’s ESSER Funding Toolkit: https://nafme.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/ESSER-Funding-Toolkit-2021.pdf 

How to develop a needs statement for grant writing: ​​https://www.grantsedge.com/needs-statement/ 

Grants4Teachers: https://www.grants4teachers.com 

GetEdFunding: https://www.getedfunding.com/c/index.web?s@1_9EUGaBPOylM 

Scholastic: https://www.scholastic.com/teachers/teaching-tools/articles.html

Grant Watch: https://www.grantwatch.com/cat/42/teachers-grants.html

Solfeg:io - https://solfeg.io/music-education-grants

Transcript:

[music]

0:00:21.6 Gregory Ristow: Welcome to Notes from the Staff, a podcast from the creators of uTheory, where we dive into conversations about music theory, ear training, and music technology with members of the uTheory staff and thought leaders from the world of music education.

0:00:37.0 Leah Sheldon: Hi, I'm Leah Sheldon, Head of Teacher Engagement for uTheory.

0:00:40.7 GR: And I'm Greg Ristow, founder of uTheory and Associate Professor of Conducting at the Oberlin Conservatory.

0:00:46.9 LS: Before we begin, we want to thank our listeners for your feedback and episode ideas. We love hearing your thoughts. Let us know what you think at [e-mail].

0:00:55.9 GR: Our topic today is Funding Your Classroom. And we're again turning the tables. I'll be interviewing my co-host, Leah Sheldon. Leah is Head of Teacher Engagement for uTheory and an experienced public school music educator, having served as a middle school and high school band director, assistant marching band director, and kindergarten through fourth grade elementary music teacher. A recipient of the Teacher of the Month Award through Partners in Education, Leah is passionate about helping teachers meet the needs of today's learners. Leah, thanks for joining us.

0:01:27.6 LS: Thanks for interviewing me.

0:01:29.2 GR: So Leah, for our listeners who may not know you in this context, how is it that you have wound up having so much experience in this area of fundraising and funding a classroom? 

0:01:39.9 LS: Well, when I taught, I taught in a wonderfully supportive district. The administration and the community were both very supportive of music programs and arts programs in general. I was very, very lucky in that sense. But the district as a whole did not have the means to create an appropriate budget that is required by an instrumental music program, or even a choral or elementary program, for that matter. It was very fairly allocated across the district, but it just didn't leave me with enough to, say, purchase or maintain instruments. And we had a large percentage of each class in the programs, so we're talking about a lot of stu