10. Divide the total cost by the number of students and charge for a field trip! Good news? NO BUSES! Way cheaper. Usually $2-3 per student.
9. Use school funds! Okay, we know this doesn’t happen very often, but sometimes a little can be squeezed to offset the big number.
8. PTA/PTO funds! Parent -Teacher Organizations love funding these programs because they reach all of the students in a school, not just one grade level.
7. Are you a Title 1 school? We are eligible to be paid with Title 1 money, due to our stringent alignment to the standards! (We’ll also waive your deposit.)
6. Be creative – use any combination of the above options to Create Your Own Invoice! No seriously, we don’t mind at all. Record number of invoices for one school = 4. Can you beat that?
5. Write a grant! Oh, wait – you don’t have time. Let us help you! We love waxing on about the benefits of our programs for your students. You just fill in the easy parts and we’ll do the rest.
4. Use our book “Maribel McTuft’s Grand Adventure” to fund your program! Pre-sell our geology adventure story to students for a price you set. We sell them to you for $5, but you may charge $7? $8? $10? Whatever you wish to offset costs for your program. And participating kids get a great book to keep!
3. Business Partners are the best! Have a local business who would like their name listed as sponsoring your school’s in-school field trip? Reach out and see who wants to be affilated with an amazing school experience.
2. Has anyone in your school written a Donors Choose grant before? We are pros at this process! We’ve been excited to help schools fund our programs with this process – we will help you write it AND advertise it through social media!
1. Have a connection with a home school group? Open up one of your sessions for them to attend and charge per student to offset your costs! Everyone wins.
These are only the ways we have seen our programs funded in the past. We also have certain grade levels want the program and partner with other schools. Pick a location and bus the other kids through – we call it 5th Grade Round Up. Ask for details!
Have another idea? Leave it in the comments for us!
