Recaudación de Fondos para Niños

For educators: Put the fun back in fundraising!

The total funds needed to develop a captive breeding facility to save the large-crested toad are close to $50,000. The good news is that the Amphibian Project Team has raised half of that amount already! We are counting on classes like yours across the country to raise any amount you can to help out. If fundraising for kids is impossible for your class, than please, please, please teach your children about amphibians using these curricula anyway!

Imagine not only teaching your students about amphibians, but also the sense of pride they will gain from participating in the process of saving an entire species from extinction. Through fundraising, students will be able to see the dollars or pennies they raise at work through our zoo updates. This will be a lesson that they will carry with them for many years to come, along with the knowledge that “I Helped Save the Large-crested Toad!”

Fundraising doesn’t have to be work! In fact, the fundraising ideas we’ve included are fun and can be seamlessly integrated into the educational process. These ideas are intended as suggestions and you can modify them to suit your student’s interests or school’s policies.

Funds for Frogs:

Conduct a ‘Walk for Frogs’! Students can raise pledges to support a walk to a local pond, park, or natural area to raise awareness about the amphibian extinction crisis and help to save their ‘adopted’ frogs. If your school doesn’t have a nearby natural area, your walk can take place on school grounds or even indoors. Perhaps your ‘walk’ is a run or even a hop and pledges can be collected by the block, lap, or number of hops. Be creative! This is a great event for Earth Day or Leap Day (February 29th).

Sell raffle tickets for prizes or host an auction. These prizes or auction items could be donated by parents, local companies or by community residents. Or they could be crafts made by the students (i.e. ceramic bowls, flower pots, toad abodes, etc.). Auctions are fun ways to raise funds for a good cause. Ask your friends, parents, teachers, or local companies to donate new or gently used items that can be auctioned off to save frogs. Particularly successful items include unique crafts, furniture, or even excursions hosted by local citizens (local kayak or canoe trips, a special outing or frog walk at your local nature center, etc.). You can choose a particular theme or simply have fun with what you get! If you can’t host a full auction, you can always pair a silent auction with another frog event such as a play, breakfast, or slideshow. At silent auctions, items are set up around a room, each with a suggested opening bid on a sheet below them. Attendees can visit each item at their leisure and indicate their bids. By the end of the event, the last person on the list (the highest bidder) wins the prize.

Use your knowledge of frogs and their habitats to develop a play, video, slideshow, or other creative public event. Request that attendees make a donation to your Save a Frog initiative.

Cook a spaghetti dinner or pancake breakfast at your school. Make it a froggy theme by decorating lily pad placemats and creating a decorated frog habitat in the room and ask for donations.

Hold an endangered frog art contest. The winning drawing could be made into a t-shirt that can be sold by the students.

Work with a local business to donate a portion of their earnings to your class on important days like Leap Day or Earth Day – or both! Kids could create posters or other awareness-raising materials to be displayed at the business or school to increase sales.

Frogging challenge! Try to find as many frogs as you can in your schoolyard. Be careful not to disturb them! Take pictures so you can identify them later. Get pledges for each frog identified.

Pennies for Peepers: Collect all that loose change lying around, or unspent lunch money.

Frogs saved: A viable captive population should consist of at least 500 individual frogs of one species. To save 500 frogs we need to raise $50,000. This represents $100 per individual. Your contribution can help us fill our aquarium.