Dance Teacher Blog
Funding Your School's Dance Program
Not every school has the time to fundraise for their dance teams, dance companies, or dance academies. There are many opportunities for a dance program to raise money that are quick, easy, fun, safe and not a burden on your students' parents. I recommend each dance teacher joining the following organizations to help open up the possibilities of fundraising for their programs.
DonorsChoose: This site allows you to create a wish list for your students and parents to view and donate funds. Donors Choose will even match funds and ship the items to your school at no cost.
Discount Dance: Discount Dance offers a Teachers Program that allows studio and school dance faculty to register their school for costumes discounts, dancewear discounts, and teacher dancewear discounts. When you register you receive a Teacher Program # that you give to your students so that when they purchase their dancewear online your school gets points and the dancer gets up to 10% off of their items. Each teacher can set up 1.) A Wish list for the redeemable points and, 2.) Teacher Approved lists of dancewear so your students/parents can shop easily.
It's hard to be a department, the Performing Arts department, that demands so much outside time and money to keep the program thriving and the administration gleaming that you came under budget. With the amount of money parents spend on tights, ballet shoes, tap shoes, jazz shoes, leggings, warm-ups, leotards, dance bags it's no wonder parents are exhausted of being asked to pitch in and donate again....and again.
Parent Volunteers are a huge resource for dance programs in education. Parent volunteers can be utilized for performances, field trips, competitions, and other dance program events. Their help saves the school time, money, and faculty effort. Parent volunteers can sign up at Back-to-School Night and volunteer to help well in advanced. This allows the teacher to plan for assistance well in advance.
My parent volunteers help me out with the following:
- Set-up/Clean-Up before and after shows
- Hair and Makeup (for the chignon challenged)
- Transportation to and from events, performances, competitions, field trips
- Backstage help-Dressers, Check-In,
- Stage-Load In/Strike (breaking down the show afterwards-ask the Dance Daddy's)
- Building props, building sets
- Food & Water!! (Picking up, making, and/or dropping off)
- Photography & Videography
- Purchasing of production items (Be sure to check with your Dept. Chair and Principal first)
- Flower sales (my parents love this one)
Volunteers can help save a program over $10, 000 a year. Give incentives! VIP seating for one show a year, and give each parent volunteer two free tickets. Also have all of your dancers sign cards for your parent volunteers, the parents get a battement out of this one! (Get it!) At the end-of-the year show have the parent volunteers stand up to a loud round of applause and then have the students of the parent volunteers give their parents a flower and the card. Super sweet gestures like this increase your chances for more volunteers year, after year.
Check out this website for a great tool for keeping track of your volunteers: Volunteer Spot
Happy Fundraising!
B. Curry
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