Streamlined Fundraising Tool for Classrooms Improves Donations

Full stack software development creates a school micro-fundraising website

While parents are filling shopping carts full of school supplies in the weeks before school starts, educators are doing the same—not with funds from the school budget, but with their own salaries. The price for supporting their classroom needs financially is often a costly burden for teachers.

The Giving Conundrum: What’s the Most Efficient, Effective Way to Donate?

Parents and involved community members are invested in their neighborhood’s school success, but it’s often hard to know the most impactful way to give. We’ve all received that timid knock on the door from a child selling chocolate or wrapping paper from a school booster corporation and opened our wallets. However, a sizable chunk of the fundraised amount is often lost to the booster corporation.

If a teacher wants more customized financial support for the classroom, the options are unwieldy and time-consuming. DonorsChoose requires the full fundraising amount to be raised by a specific date. A donation list set up via SignUp Genius must be updated manually and is better set up for one-time events. Both of these individualized fundraising platforms don’t allow for school administration oversight, an important option that allows administrators to track trends in classroom needs, stay aware of classroom supply requests, and manage potential tax implications and grant support for requests.

Solution: A Micro-Fundraising Website with Administrative Oversite

With those challenges in mind, Pruim Consulting, LLC, created a micro-fundraising website supported by Argis Solutions’ full stack software development experience. Argis Solutions designed, managed, and developed the web-based fundraising platform using JavaScript, Angular, Ionic, Node.js, Express.js, iOS, Android, PostreSQL, MongoDB, Git, GitLab and DigitalOcean. Stripe and Plaid were the payment platforms for credit card and ACH transaction processing.

Result: An Elevated Education

The easy-to-use website connected teachers’ day-to-day requests (from snacks to colored markers) with engaged parents to provide secure points of micro-fundraising, while providing oversight for school administrators. Parents were able to quickly access information on how to best support their children’s educators. With the platform, funds raised for educators weren’t filtered through a booster corporation, maximizing donors’ dollars. Maximized donations enabled student access to needed supplies and experiences, elevating their education.