Professional Development Funding Sources

Donors Choose – An online charity aimed at providing crowdfunding to K-12 public schools throughout the United States. Teachers post project requests on the site. Donors can then contribute to those projects in amounts as small as one dollar. Approximately 70% of projects are successfully funded. If a project does not meet its stated goal, funds contributed are returned to the donors.

Class Wish – A website that allows teachers to create a “Wish List” of the materials needed for their classrooms. Supporters then contribute money designated for specific K-12 schools or teachers. ClassWish then purchases the materials and has them shipped directly to the school. ClassWish is a nonprofit organization and donations are tax deductible.

Adopt A Classroom – A nonprofit organization that pairs donors with teachers to raise money for their classroom needs. 100% of the funds received are made immediately available to the teacher through an online credit.

Piggy Backr – A crowdfunding website that focuses on schools, communities groups and youth. Individuals and groups seeking funds in these areas create a project fundraising page on the site. Donors contribute using credit and debit cards. Once the fundraiser is over, Piggybackr sends the funds seeker a check for the amount raised, minus a small percentage-based fee.

Classy – A crowdfunding website designed to make things easy. Bring your story and mission to life through beautiful, brand-centric campaign pages without a single line of code. First campaign is free to launch.

Fund For Teachers – An organization that grants to teachers that allow them to “pursue self-designed professional learning experiences.” Eligibility is open to PreK-12 teachers, who apply by submitting detailed descriptions of their proposed fellowships. Awards of up to $5,000 are made to individuals and up to $10,000 for educator teams.

The NEA Foundation – A nonprofit organization that has invested over $7.1 million funding nearly 4,500 grants to public school teachers aimed at enhancing teaching and learning. It is supported through educator contributions, corporate and foundation sponsorship, and other sources. More than $11 million in grants have also been made directly to unions and school districts through the Foundation’s Closing the Achievement Gaps Initiative.

Awesome Without Borders – A global community advancing the interest of awesome in the universe, $1000 at a time. Each fully autonomous chapter supports awesome projects through micro-grants, usually given out monthly. These micro-grants, $1000 or the local equivalent, come out of pockets of the chapter’s “trustees” and are given on a no-strings-attached basis to people and groups working on awesome projects.