5 alternative ways to fund a school Wall Art Project

There are many ways to fund school Wall Art project. Enhancing your learning environment will have a huge impact on pupil wellbeing and staff morale.

It’s not always easy to find the means to fund a school Wall Art project. So, here are 5 tips for finding other funding options outside of your school budget. These can help you generate additional money for projects like Wall Art.

Government Funding

In March 2018, the government invested £500 million in improving school buildings and increasing school places. This was in addition to your annual Capital Allocations.

If you are an academy or sixth form you can apply for additional funds from the Condition Improvement Fund. These funds must be related to improving your school buildings, specifically.

You may also be eligible for the Priority School Building Programme or if you are opening a new school a Project Development Grant.

Grants from Charities and Education Organisations

If the additional government funding pots do not apply to you there are many charities, philanthropists and other agencies to try. Many of these will fund specific projects for schools that are well worth investigating.

Here are a few examples of how to fund a school wall art project:

• The Wolfson Foundation is a charity that offers grants for education projects.
• National Lottery Awards for All – one of the focuses of Awards for All is to improve the spaces that matter to communities. This is a perfect remit for funding for a school Wall Art project. Your school matters to you and your community and Wall Art can make the space more enjoyable.
• Education Funding Agency
• Big Lottery Fund
• Sport England
• School Funding Service
• Princes Trust
• Grants For Schools
• Funding Grants
• NCETM
• Go Fund Me

Finding the best grant for your school Wall Art project is the first step. It takes experience and skill to win one of these grants, especially for larger values. There are various companies and professionals out there who can help you find the right grant for you. They can also support you in your application process/bid writing. So, it can be worth investing some of your budget in employing professional services to assist you:

http://schoolfundingservice.co.uk/

http://schoolfundingservice.co.uk/blog/

Search here for more grant opportunities:

http://funded.org.uk/main-site-navigation/grants/

Crowdfunding

We are all used to friends and family raising sponsorship for charity events through sites such as justgiving.com. Many schools are now applying the same crowdfunding process to raise funds for projects in school. At one level you can crowd fund amongst your parents and local community. You can  also put together a crowdfunding project to generate sponsorship from business and outside sources.

Rocket Fund is a crowdfunding site where teachers can create projects and share these projects with contacts. This is a great way to get parents and the local community involved in supporting a specific project through monetary donations rather than time which in our busy lives these days if often easier.

Crowdfunder allows parents and your community to donate but also sources donations and sponsorship from the charities, organisations, business and donors that they work with on a regular basis to increase your funding possibilities.

There are also companies that will help you crowdfund on a wider scale for larger amounts to cover bigger projects. You can find out more about how to get started with crowdfunding here http://funded.org.uk/main-site-navigation/crowdfunding/

Generate additional income

Letting school halls, sports facilities, playgrounds and charging for the use of your car park on evenings and weekends are all popular ways to generate income for projects such as school Wall Art. In turn, this will make your building more ‘sellable’ as a letting option to potential users. Here are some articles that may help you with what you are already doing or get you started on self-generating income:

Education Business

My Pebble

The Key

Many schools use passive income generation without realising it. But, in this current climate, it is a good idea to strengthen these partnerships and ensure they are getting direct results for you. Passive income is where money is made for doing nothing or very little, usually the swap of skills or processes that are useful to the other party that you already do.

Parental and Community Involvement

Many schools are very lucky to have active and supportive PTA’s who will be only too happy to help raise funds for projects such as school Wall Art. Below are some useful organisations who can support your PTA in the work they do. There are also some funding sites that may be useful if your PTA is less active or find it difficult to get the numbers to support events:

FundEd is a magazine that has lots of funding ideas at different levels and presents case studies of schools who have successfully raised funds for specific projects. They also offer seminars and training to School Business Managers. Here they provide advice and support on ways to generate income and overcoming barriers such as bid writing.

Shopping Affiliate Schemes involve staff, parents and stakeholders shopping online as they would normally. At the same time, the retailers donate a percentage of the purchase to you, the school, at no extra cost to the purchaser. All you have to do is promote and encourage the use of the giving sites to your stakeholders so that you benefit from the donations.

Here are a few to try:

Give As You Live

Easyfundraising

For further tips on how to fund a school wall art project don’t hesitate to contact us and we can discuss how your school may be able to benefit from funding sources.