Teachers can raise funds for their classroom through Scholastic with a ClassroomsCount™ campaign. Here’s how one inspiring teacher used her campaign to create a more diverse classroom library. Start your own campaign to get books, magazines, and more trusted products in kids’ hands! 

As a teacher, you do everything you can to get kids to pick up books in your classroom. But as you know, it’s also incredibly important for kids to read regularly at home — which is why Shelby, a 3rd-grade special education teacher in Massachusetts, raised $510 through ClassroomsCount™. 

“My students are a pretty diverse group,” says Shelby. “Many of them might be speaking different languages at home, or they might not have access to books at their reading level.”

Through her campaign, Shelby told potential supporters that she wanted to raise money to send home books with the 11 students in her reading group. She then shared the campaign via email and social media — and said her friends and family found it easy to contribute funds. 

“I had a lot of people who really wanted to help,” says Shelby. “The site is very user-friendly and they were able to contribute however much they could to my students.”

With the $510 Shelby raised, she was able to give out rounds of books before her school’s holiday break and February break. Because of her campaign, Shelby will have books to send home with students for their next break in April and before summer break. 

“My goal is to keep sending books home with kids before their vacations,” says Shelby. “They were very happy and felt a lot of gratitude to be receiving books, especially books they felt were picked out just for them.”

If you’re hoping to raise classroom funds to send kids home with books for summer break (or for any other reason!), here are Shelby’s top recommendations:

1. Don’t limit who you ask. “Getting your campaign out to people is really important,” says Shelby. “There were so many people who I was surprised to see contribute. Even if you don’t expect people to contribute, they might be able to.”

2. List What You Want to Buy. “Explain exactly what the funds are for and specifically how you would use them,” says Shelby. “Look into books you want to purchase for kids and post the cost of those, so people can see how far the contribution actually goes.”

3. Explain Your Timeline. “Have a strategy in mind for when you would like to give out books and when you would need your orders placed,” says Shelby. Post this in your campaign description to add more context to your request. 

Start your own ClassroomsCount™ campaign today! For more inspiration, here are 10 amazing teacher success stories.