As you consider various sources of donations for your organization or charity, businesses can be the perfect partner in supporting your important work. Unlike the process of seeking donations from family, friends, and community members, reaching out to businesses with a request letter or specific d

As you think about seeking out donations for your organization, the way you write your donation message can be the difference it takes to turn a potential donor into an actual donor. While it can be challenging to come up with creative donation message ideas, the communication you send can build th

An auction event is a highly effective way to fundraise for your organization. Certain auction item ideas typically do better than others when bringing in the most bids and highest donations. If you’re looking to turn your donor into the winning bidder, these 10 unique silent or live ideas can le

Whether you need new uniforms or want to take your team to camp, cheerleading fundraisers are the perfect way to help get your cheerleading squad to the next level. Here are seven creative cheerleading fundraising ideas for spring and summer that you can easily plan and execute with your squad

Auctions are a great way to enhance donations for any kind of fundraiser. From booster clubs to PTAs to dance troupes or youth sports teams, creative auction baskets ideas can drive competitive bidding and put more money into your organization's coffers. We collected 17 terrific auction basket i

With baseball season now pretty much year-round, teams are often seeking creative baseball fundraising ideas to help support their budding all-stars. Baseball is an extremely popular sport in the United States, with millions of kids participating on youth teams at various levels from little league

Anyone seeking to generate money for a non-profit organization, booster club, youth sports team, or PTA/PTO knows that fundraisers happen year-round. One great way to get donors excited and drive significant donations is to offer auction baskets. Who doesn’t love a friendly competition to support

In the United States alone, almost 2 million nonprofit organizations are vying for the attention and dollars of potential donors, according to the 2021 Nonprofit Trends and Impact Report from the Urban Institute. And in 2020, small non-profit groups took the biggest hit during the economic crisis p

With the focus on equity, diversity, and inclusion these days, it’s important for organizations to ensure that their events are accessible to their entire community.  While you may already feel as though your team does their best to host a fundraising event where everyone feels welcome, t

While in-person fundraisers are a popular way to engage with your community, and raise funds for your important cause, adding virtual fundraisers and hosting hybrid fundraising events is a smart way to broaden your reach, and ensure the maximum number of potential participants are able to join in o

The online fundraising platform is increasing in popularity for teachers, school districts, PTAs/PTOs, and all kinds of booster clubs. Not only are organizations pressed for funds, but they're also pressed for time. That extra funding is critical and your community needs it now. As a busy workin

With spring approaching, many organizations are planning their upcoming events and searching for creative fundraising ideas to get their community involved and rally their support for a good cause.  Whether you’re looking for in-person or online fundraising ideas for sports teams, like ba

While elementary school and high school Parent Teacher Association/Organization membership have traditionally been the realm of moms, the times are changing, and dads are increasing their interest and involvement in school organizations. This shift in father engagement can definitely have a positiv

Whether your school's parent organization is linked to the National Parent Teacher Association (PTA) or is an independent local school organization, you have something in common. Eventually, officers will transition, and all the knowledge needs to pass from the outgoing officer to the incoming offi

As more organizations return to in-person fundraising, it’s important for them to consider the impact that COVID-19 will have on attendance. For the last two years, most events have been almost exclusively virtual, and while in-person participation has increased as of late, many potential attende

Imagine it—you and your team vetted all the fundraising ideas, landed on an amazing plan, planned your fundraising event, and now it's time to get the word out.  But how will you market your fundraising campaign? Overnight, you have become a marketer. Suddenly, you’re in charge of creat

Parent access to technology, as well as their motivation to adopt and engage your school software systems, can have a major impact on the effectiveness of your school communications. Generally speaking, most leaders and educators know that effective parent communication plays a key role when it com

Managing school notifications and parent communications is a frustrating task for many K-12 families. With so many different school notifications, it doesn’t take much to overload the phone of a busy parent. However, schools and districts must tackle the challenge of reaching every parent in thei

If your school is selling items like spirit wear or collecting payments and school fees, creating an online shopping experience is a sure-fire way to make it easy on parents, students, and your school. Online school stores and payment services eliminate the stress for parents that are hoping their

The 2021 National Family Engagement Summit will take place October 13-15 at the Norfolk Waterside Marriott for those attending in person or on the Whova app for those attending virtually. The conference, which is hosted by Successful Innovations Inc. and NAFSCE, will feature three full days of grea

AUSTIN, TEXAS — SEPTEMBER 1, 2021 Wednesday, September 1st marked the start of Livingtree’s month-long fundraising challenge for Children’s Cancer Awareness Month. The Austin-based education technology company partnered with the Livestrong Foundation to bring awareness and raise money

Family engagement plays a powerful role in the academic lives of students and is often what sets successful schools apart from others. Research shows that when families are engaged in learning, students demonstrate better grades, test scores, attendance, and behavior (Henderson, Mapp, 2002).

At Livingtree, we strive to connect schools and families so that schools can communicate effectively and engage parents in their student’s learning. That’s why we’ve built extensive translation features within the Livingtree Engage communication platform. Why is it important to translate s

When students were home during the school closures, quarantines, and virtual learning brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, more people than ever before have realized the immense amount of work and dedication that teachers put into their jobs day in and day out on behalf of their students. More and

The way our society communicates has changed, drastically! Data, that's now over two years old, shows that 96% of Americans own a cellphone, and 81% of Americans own a smartphone. The technology available today is faster and easier to use than ever before. And now the millennials that grew up using

“Family engagement means more than simply informing parents about their child’s progress or challenges” [IRIS Center] When it comes to one of the most important components related to student success and school improvement, it’s mission-critical to understand the meaning of family engagem

Family engagement is a key component in both school improvement and student success. Research shows that when families engage in their child’s learning, students demonstrate better grades, test scores, attendance, and behavior. The problem that many schools face is that some traditional family

Looking for a communication alternative to SchoolMessenger that families will love? SchoolMessenger is a good platform for sending mass notifications and communications. However, many schools and districts want a better solution for connecting their families to the classroom, school, and distric

If your PTA could run one fundraiser for the whole school year or run several throughout the year, which would you choose? Most would likely choose the first. Because let’s be honest, organizing school fundraisers and collecting donations isn’t necessarily a quick and easy process. It takes

No matter the scale, when you are dealing with an emergent situation, you should notify all of your staff and families in as many forms as possible to ensure the message is received. That’s why Livingtree developed its new Urgent Alert feature on the Engage platform. The new feature is now ava

What is Teacher Appreciation Week? Teacher Appreciation Week, which also incorporates National Teacher Day, is a week-long celebration that honors and celebrates teachers for the contributions they make to education. It offers students, families, and administrators an opportunity to show their a

How do you replace face to face school fundraisers? The current global health crisis has thrown a wrench in a lot of activities related to K-12 education. School fundraising is an essential activity that happens in the background of the school ecosystem, so it's not typically top of mind for mos

With millions of students experiencing school disruptions due to the COVID-19 pandemic, both teachers and families are making plans to keep students on track and learning while at home. That means that students and their families are now in the position of driving that learning. But, teachers are s

As recently featured in a CNN article, the educational company Scholastic “has launched a ‘Learn at Home’ website that has daily courses for students from Pre-kindergarten to grades 6 and higher.” This free, open-access digital hub was created to help keep students learning while school sc

Just last week, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the Coronavirus (COVID-19) spread a global pandemic. What we know for sure is that this virus is at the top of everyone’s mind, especially the minds of family members with children in school. This pandemic is something the world has nev

First and foremost, we hope you are healthy and safe. Our thoughts are with everyone and all of the school communities affected by this pandemic. This is something the modern world has never dealt with before, and these are uncharted waters for leaders across the globe. COVID-19 is at top of mind f

Whether you are a district administrator, a school administrator, an educator, or even a community member, chances are you've seen an online fundraising campaign from one of your local school classrooms or programs. With the reported rise in school crowdfunding campaigns across the country, it's cl

Crowdfunding provides enormous opportunities for today's classrooms and school programs to raise money because of its efficiency. Organizers can create campaigns in no time, and share them with hundreds if not thousands of people online. However, these same opportunities also pose serious risks

As a growing number of school communities turn to crowdfunding and raise more money than ever before for their classrooms and programs, what should be celebrated as a victory has turned into a concern for school district administrators. The concept of online fundraising in K-12 schools has erupt

Livingtree Give’s new feature centralizes fundraising procedures and equips school districts with a comprehensive process to pre-approve fundraising requests from any programs or sites like DonorsChoose, GoFundMe, SnapRaise, and more AUSTIN, TX, October 7, 2019 – Livingtree, a fundraisi

Livingtree introduces program in North Dakota focused on bringing families closer to their child(ren)’s learning experiences at school through innovative strategies and technology. AUSTIN, TEXAS -- OCTOBER 28, 2019 Schools across North Dakota have officially began a partnership with Li

Teacher crowdfunding can bring important resources - tied to specific classroom needs, where government funding falls short. But it also opens educators up to substantial liabilities. It's crucial for school districts to understand how to manage the risks that are associated with crowdfunding campa

Are you preparing to be a family engagement rockstar next year? We're here for you, and we've made some new feature updates on the Livingtree Engage school communication platform to make engaging families a little easier! We are constantly working on new features that benefit the Family Engagement p

School districts across the country are faced with a new challenge when it comes to funding: managing the liabilities of crowdfunding (online fundraising). With the number of school teachers spending money out of pocket for classroom projects, and the after-school clubs and teams in need of addition

https://youtu.be/WxyEuydR-SQ In this week's episode, Livingtree CEO Gary Hensley discusses the current situation in K-12 schools when it comes to crowdfunding and the risks that teachers, donors, and the district all face when it's not done right.   Hi everybody, welcome to this week’s editi

AUSTIN, TX — May 21, 2019 —Livingtree, Inc., today announced the launch of The Family Efficacy Score™ (FES). Creator of Livingtree Engage platform, the private, safe, and secure community for teachers and families to engage in support of better learning outcomes for children announces a major

https://youtu.be/_vVyMc71NMA "Why is it that I have to buy something in order to support my child?" is the question that Livingtree CEO Gary Hensley poses. Over the last decade, there has been a shift in the way that parents prefer to interact with school fundraising.   Hey everybody and welco

The Basha High School Air Force JROTC program in Chandler, AZ, like many other school organizations across the country, depends on fundraisers to cover the costs of their program's equipment, supplies, and experiences. In years prior, the JROTC program worked with Snap-Raise to help them raise funds

https://youtu.be/0MSy-HFfutQ Do you know how school districts are funded? Livingtree CEO Gary Hensley took a moment in the first of our new vlog series to address the confusion of where districts receive their funding and the challenges they face. What are your thoughts? Hey everybody, my name

https://youtu.be/5pR0105g2K0 In this video, Livingtree CEO Gary Hensley talks about the beginning of Livingtree Give and why he originally started the company.  "I wanted to take an opportunity to talk a little bit about something that really was the beginning of Livingtree Give. The prod

Sarah Schwartz’s Education Week blog follows the recent Crowdfunding Research Report published by EdSurge, and outlines many reasons why a multitude of school districts like Metro Nashville Public Schools are banning the use of school crowdfunding sites like DonorsChoose.org. With the recent boom

Online fundraising is a growing area in K-12, and crowdfunding has exploded onto the scene over the last decade. While many students, families, teachers, and schools have embraced this new type of fundraising, school districts are facing unintended liabilities from these types of campaigns. EdSurge

In our increasingly digital world, there’s an app (or a dozen) for every need and/or want we can imagine. Education technology is no different. Every week, it seems like there is a different app for behavior, communication, attendance - you name it. With limited direction from the school or distri

Livingtree Give just added a little competition to education fundraising… We’d like to introduce the “Leaderboard” Feature! The "Leaderboard" feature is an option that you can choose to set up when you are creating your online campaign, which allows you to create a "competition" for donatio

Sixty years of research have led to family engagement strategies like Family Academic Socialization, Home Visits, Phone Calls, Parent-Teacher Conferences, and Academic Nights. However, a commonly overlooked component is the dedicated connection between school and home that allows families to unders

Every model of reform has as a necessary component: the idea that families need to be connected to learning. Family engagement is therefore not a nice-to-have, but a MUST-have if schools want to meet the goals they have for all students. Leaders in education can no longer ignore what sixty years of

When you hear the word “homeless” the first image that comes to mind probably isn’t a child, is it? And yet there are more than 2,300 students in the Austin Independent School District that experience homelessness each year. The effects of that are something that no child should experience, es

Every year on Livingtree Give, we see projects from outdoor gardens to programs for the arts. Every project has an outcome directly related to students. Where else can you have such an impact on the future of our country and the world to inspire a life-long journey of learning? One of the biggest p

Take part in this year's global day of giving! #GivingTuesday (11/27) + Livingtree Give What is #GivingTuesday and how is Livingtree Give involved? #GivingTuesday is a global movement where campaigns happen in almost every country in the world.  For the past two years, Livingtree Give (Form

We've put together a feature recap from the Fall of 2018 for all of our Livingtree Engage users. Here are the updates that went live this fall: New “Share A Message” Design Sharing a post has a new look! At the start of the school year, we updated the design and feel for users sharing messag

Livingtree was created by a family in 2013 as a solution to keep families connected to the academic lives of their children through technology. As a company, we are on a mission to bring the best tech platforms and practices to schools and families, and believe that together we can bring out the bes

Social media can be a great channel for school and district administrators to post announcements and alerts for the broader community. But with the number of teachers and school administrators that have increasingly embraced social media as their primary way of connecting with parents and families,

Over the years, there has been a growing spotlight on the education funding gap. The gap has become more of a problem for many K-12 school districts with recent statistics showing an increase in teacher spending on school supplies. Many schools and districts are finding that traditional fundraising

 AUSTIN, TX, June 27, 2018 -- As the leading engagement platform provider for K-12 schools, we are excited to announce the hiring of the nation's leading expert in family engagement and former Acting Virginia State Superintendent, Dr. Steve Constantino who joins Livingtree after an esteemed car

We're thrilled to announce our participation in upcoming conference sessions. We're sharing best practices and frameworks based on millions of conversations and points of engagement. The focus of these sessions will be using technology to create positive and inclusive environments. We hope you'll jo

When Hurricane Harvey came ashore August 25, 2017, an estimated $180 Billion in damage across 300 miles resulted. The damage included 200,000 homes and over 300 schools. As the school year progresses and the initial and incredible rush of support depletes, there are still many educators and families

Unsharpened pencils, fingerprint free devices, clean notebooks, perfect crayons, unused erasers, clean desks, new class decorations - ahhh, the sights and smells of a new school year. It’s hard to believe a new one is already upon us. As a parent, I have the typical worries about what new teachers

LivingTree, a private social network for PK-12 family engagement, today announced the availability of attendance alerts, a new feature of its engagement platform. School and district administrators can now use LivingTree to quickly and easily share attendance alerts with families, extending the solu

One Million Dollar Grant Helps PK-12 Schools Across the Country Deepen Family & Community Engagement via Tiered Social Network® AUSTIN, TX, June 15, 2017 – LivingTree today announced that it has awarded $500,000 in third round Drako Community and Family Engagement Grants for Schools to dis

One Million Dollar Grant Helps PK-12 Schools Across the Country Deepen Family & Community Engagement via Tiered Social Network® AUSTIN, TX, May 22, 2017 – LivingTree today announced that it has awarded $250,000 in second round Drako Community and Family Engagement Grants for Schools to distr

Dr. Stella Pandhare, Principal of Nurture International School, says “Go for It” Nurture International School is in their second year using LivingTree. During this school year alone, Nurture International has shared 5600 posts, 440 files, 160 events, and 4800 photos. They are realizing their

One Million Dollar Grant Helps PK-12 Schools Across the Country Deepen Family & Community Engagement via Tiered Social NetworkR AUSTIN, TX, May 3, 2017 – LivingTree today announced that it has awarded $250,000 in first round Drako Community and Family Engagement Grants for Schools to district

LivingTree Executive Chairman Dean Drako Announces $1,000,000 Drako Community and Family Engagement Grant for Schools AUSTIN, Texas. April 4, 2017 – Dean Drako, LivingTree owner and executive chairman, announced today that he has funded the Drako Community and Family Engagement Grant for Schools f

We're thrilled to announce that we've been selected as a member of the 2017 National School Board Association (NSBA) Innovation Showcase. National School Boards Association Announces 2017 Education Technology Innovation Showcase March 21, 2017 Alexandria, Va.  (March 21, 2017) – The

Download report: FamilyEngagementTech Technology - The Future of Family Engagement --Districts struggle to engage the majority of families, even using 12+ methods. --Private, social networks, systemic approaches making an impact in family engagement. Family engagement is the number one driver of

AUSTIN, Texas, Jan. 31, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- LivingTree, a private social network for PK-12 family engagement, today announced the availability of Phone Alerts, a new feature of its engagement platform. School and district administrators can now use LivingTree to quickly and easily share phone

97% of principals and teachers agree that families and educators should be equal partners in supporting student learning Scholastic has released a principal and teacher report resulting from a survey of 4700+ schools. The entire report can be found here. It does an excellent job of covering topics r

Maria Cantu has been educating children for 12 years; 9 of those years at Daniel Ramírez Elementary School in Pharr, Texas.  She knew she wanted to become a teacher when she was volunteering at the Boys and Girls Club the summer of her 9th grade year. “I instantly fell in love with teaching." 

As shared in District Administration Magazine - Q&A with Joni Carswell of LivingTree Increasing student success with proactive family engagement efforts - Having a single platform to house all activity and conversation can help districts transform family engagement! What are the benefits of a