Funding Solutions for the Budget-Strapped School!
Yes, you know that a visit from a real, live, published children's author is a phenomenal way to excite your students about reading and writing, and that you can hardly keep that author's books on the shelves after the visit, but how can you convince those that make the budget to part with the required funds? With a little creative financing, of course. Here are some effective, workable tips for funding your author visit (or visits!):
1. Sponsorship: Find out if a local bank or business would be willing to sponsor an author visit in exchange for exposure on the announcement materials: "Author Jane Doe's visit sponsored by: Local Bank" or something similar. I have a sample sponsor request letter which is available on request to modify and send to your potential local sponsor. Be sure to ask far in advance!
2. Grants: Free money is great, or almost free since you'll need to invest some time into the proposal. You'll also need to allow plenty of time to get the grant money. A good list of available grants to start with is:
3. Internal Fundraisers: Yes, they can be a lot of work, but they also have the potential to be fun-raisers! The possibilities of creative fundraising are endless, and here's a few ideas to get you started:
a. At-Home Field Trip: Since students sometimes have to contribute to go on a field trip to a distant educational experience, maybe you could charge them for a educational experience in school! It wouldn't have to be exorbitant: 50 students paying $10 each or 100 students paying $5 each would cover an author who charges $500/day, excluding expenses.
b. Birthday Book Club: Students can sign up at the beginning of the school year for $10 each, and when the student's birthday rolls around they get to pick out a book to "donate" from the stack of new books on hand in the library. The is marked "Donated by [student's name] on his/her birthday [date]" and added into circulation. The students love to see their name in a book, and if 100 students join, that's $1000!
c. Adult Spelling Bee: This is almost guaranteed fun, and the students will love to watch their parents and teachers sweat it out in front of a microphone! You could do this a number of ways, but here's a starting point: have each class pick a team of 3-6 adults and charge each team $50 to enter the contest. Line up some moderators, pick a date, and invite the town! Once you have a crowd, you could even hold a raffle drawing and sell refreshments.
3. Partnership: This is the way to go if your school can come up with part of the money, but not all, and it's an amazing way to for your school and local community organizations to work together towards a common goal. Send a request for the funds which are lacking to a local organization, and let them know that this is good PR and a great opportunity to serve their community. Organizations that promote literacy are a good place to start (such as Rotary, Lions, Kiwanis, Friends of the Library, etc.), and local businesses (such as Wal-Mart, Target, ALDI, Toys 'R Us, etc.) could be interested as well. You can also target organizations which tie into the author's presentation or book, such as: pets, environmental awareness, historical studies, etc. I have sample partnership request letters available on request, but be sure to be as specific as possible in your request, both in what you are asking for and what benefit the partnership would be to them. Again, be sure to work this out far in advance!
4. Virtual Visits: The number of authors willing and technologically capable of doing virtual visits is growing! A virtual visit involves a fast internet connection, a webcam and an internet phone service (like Skype). You can project the author's image onto a screen for your students to see, and then you and the author can interact in real time! Obviously, this type of visit does not have all the advantages of of a live visit, like book signing, eating lunch together, etc., but the advantage to you is that it costs less--usually between $100-200 per session. If this seems like the most reasonable option to you, please ask me about which author you would like to have "visit", and I can let you know if they are ready for it.
5. Accomodations: Most of the authors I work with do not need anything fancy when it comes to a place to sleep. A modest hotel room or even a private room in someone's house is usually sufficient. Many hotels will even donate a room if they know it is for an author visit!
6. Author Discounts: Keep an eye out for authors coming to your area for other events: another school visit, a conference or association meeting, or even a vacation! If the author is already in your area, he or she could probably offer a discount in expenses, and maybe also in their fee.
