Loonies for Literacy is a community-wide annual fundraiser to raise money for literacy projects in Calgary Board of Education schools. Similar to Toonies for Terry (but you get to keep the proceeds of your fundraising), students and staff will be encouraged to help their school fundraise by bringing in a loonie, asking family and friends to support their school, and reaching out to community supporters. For every dollar raised, community partners will provide a matching gift that will go towards supporting Calgary schools with the greatest need. For every dollar raised for your school another will go to a school in need!

Literacy projects can include:
– Books for school libraries;
– E-books or e-learning resources;
– Early learning resources;
– Decodable texts;
– If it has something to do with literacy, and your school needs it, let us know!

Event Lead up – December – January
– Up to Jan 2023, EducationMatters will be securing community sponsorships to match every dollar raised by schools during this campaign. These matching funds will be provided to Calgary schools with the greatest need. Through this, student efforts will benefit their own community and other communities across the city.

Event Launch – January 27
– EducationMatters will issue a press release the week of January 10^th to help garner community interest for the campaign.
– Loonies for Literacy launches on January 27 on Family Literacy Day.
Schools Fundraise Feb-April 23 (Family Literacy-World Book Day)
– School fundraising can be built around a single day, week- or month-long school-led campaign. EducationMatters’ team will be available to provide fundraising support and advice to individual schools as needed.

Event Ends – April 23
– Loonies for Literacy ends and we’ll announce the fundraising total.  This year Loonies for Literacy aims to fund at least $100,000 of literacy needs for students in CBE schools!

We want every school to participate in a way that is meaningful to them. We will provide posters, a dedicated school fundraising page to accept online donations and tally fundraising totals, and the option to add fundraising teams for each school through easy to use customizable fundraising pages.

To participate in Loonies for Literacy you’ll need:
– A way to communicate the event to your school’s students;
– A system for collecting physical donations throughout the campaign (if your school wants to offer this – the campaign can be run 100% online).

Fundraising efforts for your school can look however you want – the sky is the limit! Here are some ideas to get your creative juices flowing:
Elementary:
– As part of a week-long fundraiser, invite students to dress up as their favourite book character and bring a loonie with them from home.

Middle School/Junior High:
– Like the Terry Fox run, encourage students to use your schools online fundraising page (created by EducationMatters) to get support from their family and community.

High School:
– Create fundraising incentives by implementing a vote to choose books purchased for your school with the funds raised from Loonies for Literacy;
– For grade twelve students, fundraise to leave a legacy for your school.

Other Guidelines:
– Use our hashtag #LooniesForLiteracy on social media to share your school’s fundraiser;
– Share info about your school’s fundraiser via your weekly newsletter;
– Involve the students and staff by encouraging them to share stories on social media (like Instagram Stories or TikTok videos about what book you love or made you fall in love with reading).

We have a walkthrough on how to set up your team or team member page here. If you want to make changes to your school page, fill out this form here.

Reach out to Alicia via email and she will delete the duplicate account for you.

Text to Donate and our school fundraising pages do not communicate with each other so the donations need to be added manually. The Text to Donate gifts will be added to each school’s fundraising page every Friday.

Congratulations, you’ve raised money for your school to support literacy!

EducationMatters will transfer your fundraised dollars to you as a grant before the end of the school year.

There are no formal reporting requirements for Loonies for Literacy – just share with us how you spent your loonies! You can send us an email, send a video of your students using their new resources, or give us a shout on social media by Tweeting about it and tagging @EdMattersYYC or sharing on Instagram or Facebook and tagging @EdMattersYYC. We’d love to hear how the money you raised made a difference for your school and share your success with the rest of YYC.