Creative initiative pays off for Arbor Montessori School through their Giving Tuesday Facebook campaign!

Arbor Montessori School, a well-established, AMI accredited school in the Atlanta area experienced great success with their initiatives on Giving Tuesday on November 27th! This day is dedicated to celebrating the generosity of giving and Arbor Montessori experienced just that from their community!

The Goal: Arbor had two primary goals for their campaign: to explore the feasibility of the day as a fundraising opportunity for the school and to give an additional boost to our Annual Fund for the year.

The Strategy: They established a lower asking amount and overall goal—$19.70 and $1,970—that corresponded with their founding year (1970!), to hopefully draw relatives and friends as donors rather than current families, who already donated to their Annual Fund in September. 

The Execution: The preparation for this day wasn’t easy for Arbor, but with clear, targeted goals they were able to hone their strategy. They sent details for how current families could participate in the parent communication emails the week before and the week of Giving Tuesday. Families were directed to share with their community, rather than donating directly. During Giving Tuesday, they shared stories from their teaching staff about who they were honoring with a donation. These were shared every two hours from 7am to 7pm and were accompanied by archival photos of Arbor staff and students through the years. 

The Vehicle: The fundraising campaign was set up to run entirely through Facebook donations. Facebook has a primer on how to set up the ability to fundraise through your page, which they followed. They fielded a few individual questions from donors who were not comfortable donating via Facebook, and pointed them to the standardized online giving form on their website. 

The Result: Arbor’s hard work culminated and their community answered proudly. They exceeded their goal of $1,970 and raised a total of $2,601 directly through Facebook! With non-Facebook and matching donations still being calculated, they expect the total will exceed $3,000 raised! The donors were a mix of current staff and families, their relatives, alumni, and grandparents. Through their posts we were also able to reconnect and engage with our alumni community in a meaningful way.

Fantastic work, Arbor Montessori School! We are so impressed by your creative hard work. High-five from the greater Montessori community!