A nation of support showed up on Giving Tuesday

WINFIELD— The world is made smaller as Winfield-Mount Union music instructor Lindsey Pogmore pulls out her impressive fundraising chops, yet again. This past Giving Tuesday, donors across the nation completed four of Pogmore’s fundraising campaigns on the Donors Choose platform.

“I just had four projects funded today,” Pogmore said Tuesday evening. “One for some music for jazz band, one for a case for our cymbals to use while traveling, one for some additional auxiliary percussion instruments, and finally one for a new bass drum stand.”

The four fully funded projects consisted of over $1,400 in donations from around the country.

“[Donors Choose] has been great, because while we have a very supportive core of people who are always ready to help us out with projects, this let's our projects go out to a much larger audience, and people are able to support projects all over the country,” Pogmore said. “[Tuesday] was especially awesome, because every donation was doubled by an anonymous donor. We've received donations from all over the country.”

“Donors can choose to remain anonymous, but usually they will at least tell where in the country they came from, which is really impactful for students,” she said.

“They can see that support comes from all over, not just their own little area here,” Pogmore said. “This campaign alone, we received donations from Oregon, Idaho, New Hampshire, and Florida, to name a few.”

Pogmore consistently turns to Donors Choose for fundraising campaigns and has successfully raised just shy of $5,000 this calendar year alone for music and classroom materials.

According to the Donors Choose website, Bronx public high school teacher, Charles Best, created the non-profit platform in 2000 after he and his colleagues found themselves purchasing books, art supplies, and other materials for their students.

The National Education association states, “Well over 90 percent of teachers spend their own money on school supplies and other items their students need to succeed. Just before the pandemic, educators on average spent around $500 of their own money on classroom supplies over the course of the year.”

Best created Donor Choose as a website where teachers could post requests for classroom resources and donors from across the United States could fulfill these needs.

While the website does outline some restrictions, the premise is as simple. A teacher creates an account and starting a fundraising campaign.

Donors Choose encourages new teachers to invite their family, friends, and community to donate through the promise to match donations from new donors on their first campaign.

With each campaign, Donors Choose outlines all expenses related to request. Donors are well informed where they are sending their money.

Because Donors Choose ships the materials directly to the teachers, donors comforted in knowing donations go exactly where they intended.

While Pogmore awaits the delivery of the latest materials, her classroom already benefits from previous campaigns.

“Probably the largest project I have had funded through Donors Choose is for a new drum set,” Pogmore said.

Donations of over $1,000 came in for the drum set campaign in May.

Additionally, notes of encouragement accompany many donations.

“The notes of encouragement have been awesome,” Pogmore said.

“I LOVE watching everyone grow in their own activity AND I LOVE JAZZ BAND!” one anonymous donor from Iowa wrote on Pogmore’s campaign for new jazz band music. “The proper tools will help with all of that and will help all of you! Good Luck!”

“Caring Classrooms make for excellent friends!” donor Jenny Puzzo from Plymouth, Minnesota wrote with her donation to Pogmore’s classroom bass drum stand. “I'm sure your students are going to have amazing experiences with these materials!”

Music teacher Ellie Henry from Zionsville, Indiana quoted Mr. Roger’s with her donation to additional percussion instruments.

“We live in a world in which we need to share responsibility. It’s easy to say, ‘It’s not my child, not my community, not my world, not my problem.’ Then there are those who see the need and respond. I consider those people my heroes,” Henry quoted Mr. Rogers.

Comments: AnnaMarie.Ward@southeastiowaunion.com