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InspiringKids Community Impact

A key component to achieving our mission is to motivate the community to invent new ways to make a difference and to capture that energy and result year-after-year. We aggregate social, environmental and community impact both by individual school and by all InspiringKids participants and broadcast it to the world to measurably prove that student actions do make a difference.

	6,400 bulbs planted on school grounds and in public spaces 17,000 trees planted in deforested parts of the world $1,600 donated to improve the environment in different parts of the world
	$11,000 contributed to school enrichment programs 8 projects funded for education, enrichment and health at schools in need 17,000 trees planted in four African villages $2,000 donated to fund projects at US schools in need 983 young civic-minded kids participating per year

 

 

Reflection

Part of the InspiringKids goal is for kids to internalize the concepts of philanthropy and to articulate the value of the activities and learnings. As part of the process, kids are encouraged to reflect on their experiences. We offer suggestions for reflection and capture the kids' responses on our website. This helps us eliminate opportunities that do not work as well as improve those that are working.

Quotes from students:

This past fall for their service afternoon, in addition to planting daffodils and discussing their potential impact, the students at one school were asked to consider other ways that they can positively impact the world. They were asked to complete the following sentence: "I/We can make a difference in this world by:________________." Here were a few of their responses:

Featured School

Marion Cross School, Norwich VT. embraces and incorporates consistent service learning activities to maximize impact from year-to-year.

Marion Cross uses the Bulb-a-Thon as a platform for a year-long series of learning activities that are leveraged in the classroom and culminate in a strategy for maximizing the value of each fundraising activity.

Doing: Fall Fundraiser

The success of the Bulb-a-Thon and its impact on Marion Cross is two-fold. The first impact is easily quantifiable: the bulb-a-thon proved to be a successful fundraiser for the school's PTO. In its first year the school was able to raise about $7,000, which was comparable to the product fundraising it had done in years past. Because of the unique nature of the InspiringKids fundraiser, the students were able to direct $2,300 to non-profits to improve their local, national and global communities, as opposed to sending it back to a traditional for-profit fundraising company. Finally all 306 students collectively planted 1400 daffodil bulbs to improve the visual landscape of their school grounds. The bulb beds face a commuter road and each spring, the blooming sea of daffodils provides a visual thank you for the community to enjoy and serves as a reminder to the students of their hard work.

The second impact is felt in the way in which the fundraising activity was embraced and enhanced by teachers inside and outside of the classroom. Teachers used the planting day as an opportunity to discuss how bulbs grow. The librarian read the book Miss Rumphius to introduce to young children to the idea that each individual can and should make the world more beautiful. The music teacher took the chance to sing songs about the environment with the children. The librarian discussed the concepts of philanthropy and spoke of the choices that the older kids would be debating and making in the winter. Together they watched a short video about Trees for the Future which solicits sponsorship to plant trees in villages where deforestation has caused poverty and hunger to show kids an example of what their philanthropy funds could improve.

The following fall the school added an activity when the art teacher got involved and assembled a quilt where every child made a square. The quilt theme was "the daffodil". When she unveiled the work to the students they were again reminded of the amazing overall impact a group can have when each individual contributes, even in a small way. The quilt was used as a way to discuss impact and ways that the students can have a positive impact inside their school, outside their school and in communities beyond their school.

Learning: Winter Philanthropy

In addition to the learning that occurred through the activities related to the fall fundraiser, over the winter the fifth and sixth grade students worked together to research environmental and social causes and to allocate the money that was in their philanthropy account. They identified and learned about national and global problems. They worked with real life budgets and put forth arguments to fund specific projects. By making choices, they began to understand that they can take action to make a difference and were rewarded with tangible feedback from the organizations to which they contributed.

Planning and Sharing: Spring Planning and Empowerment

Reflection & Planning: Marion Cross organizers are considering other stewardship possibilities to do for next year's fall fundraiser. They are considering looking into taking on a project that has wider community impact than just the visual appeal of the bulbs. The concept is that in addition to holding the Bulb-a-Thon for the younger kids, the older kids would complete a more complex service project that ties into current classroom curriculum. The older kids have spent time learning of the influence that invasive plant species have on native plants and ecosystems. As part of the new service project, each grade (3-6) would have a section of the wooded area adjacent to the school and would be responsible for eliminating the invasive within that section and then preventing it from coming back. The idea is to spread the large amount of work among a lot of kids, to rid the area of the invasive thus eliminating the opportunity for it to spread to other areas and to educate the community about the problems associated with the invasive in hopes that they will do the same on their property. For the fundraiser, the older students would get sponsors for the service of ridding the wooded areas of these invasive plants and would educate the public in the process. Although nothing has been officially decided, this idea illustrates the concept of another possible "Sponsorship for Stewardship" activity.

Empowerment: The students were approached by their art teacher to use some of their money to buy the materials to produce 500 clay bowls which would be sold to raise money for Africare. (Note: this is a project that they were familiar with and had been involved with in the past, although they had never been a part of paying for the materials). The kids used their new skills and hypothesized that a little investment ($500) along with some sweat equity (making and glazing the bowls, setting up and cleaning up the event) could yield significant profit ($8000) and achieve significant impact. The results of this fundraiser would be captured on their community page and would contribute to the overall impact calculation of the community.