Tag Archives: Direct Give

Support Direct Give Nov. 1-15!

We are excited to kick off our annual Direct Give campaign for this 2021-22 school year! This is one of the biggest PTA fundraisers of the year, so let’s make it count!

A green lawn filled with pink plastic flamingos

You’ve probably heard of flocking…this year we have outFOXing! Instead of flocking someone’s lawn with flamingos, you can outFOX your friends/neighbors by surprising them with a small Genesee yard sign. The more you donate, the more signs you can pick up.  Write notes on your signs and place them at your friend’s or neighbor’s houses or businesses, or even at the school. Your signs will share support for the school throughout the community too!

How to participate: Give online here between Nov. 1 and 15, then pick up your signs in-person at the Dakota Homestead (corner of 50th Ave SW and Dakota) at designated times throughout the campaign. Remember to request a matching gift if your employer offers it!

Orange and white sign with Fox logo and text "You have a friend at Genesee Hill Elementary"

Sign pick-up times:

  • Thurs. Nov. 4th – 2:15-2:45pm
  • Tues. Nov. 9th – 2:15-2:45 pm
  • Sat. Nov. 13th – 10:00-10:30am
  • Wed. Nov. 17th – 1:00-1:30 pm

Direct Give Donation Levels:

  • 2 signs for $50
  • 5 signs for $100
  • 12 signs for $250
  • 25 signs for $500+

Look for these signs around the neighborhood starting next week!

Why give to Direct Give? PTA funding allows GHE to be a more inclusive and equitable school where every child thrives and every family is valued by providing:

  •     School supplies for ALL students
  •     Access to technology in the classroom
  •     Professional development for staff
  •     Library and text books
  •     Key specialists (reading specialist, math specialist, counselor), Tutors & Monitors (CHAMPPS)

Your generous donations make this happen! Thank you — we can’t wait to see your support all over our West Seattle neighborhood!

Please email our fundraising chairs at fundraising@geneseehillpta.org with any questions.

Direct Give Raffle Prizes

When we were brainstorming Direct Give for this school year we were hesitant to approach local businesses because we know many of them have had a financially devastating year due to COVID.  We decided to go for it – but approached them with a different strategy then in years past.  Specifically we:

  • Sought out smaller donation increments. For example, instead of requesting a larger $100 donation, we requested four $25 vouchers with minimum order amount or gift cards. This will hopefully bring more families into their business where they would likely end up spending additional money.
  • Committed to market their business to our school community.  We love being able to highlight local businesses that continue to keep making our West Seattle community so special.

With all that said, we ended up with a tremendous response from our business community.  We hope that you will support these businesses the same way that these businesses are supporting our community. 

Here is the full list of received donations:

A special thank you goes to Neil Strohbusch and Jodi Lansky for doing all of the procurement for these items!

2021 Direct Give

First off, we are very fortunate to have an amazingly supportive community and we should all be proud of this!  Genesee Hill Elementary parents, staff, and students have proven time and time again that we are all focused on the betterment of and support for each other.  

The PTA and Genesee Hill Administration are tasked with making sure the necessary programs are in place for our kids to be successful.  Many of our in-person programs are not being funded this year and that has drastically reduced the overall PTA budget.  However, we still need to raise an additional $60K of funds to support the programs our kids are benefiting from virtually that unfortunately are not funded by our school district and the State of Washington.  For example: providing school supplies for all students, allowing our staff access to professional development, purchasing library and textbooks, and providing specialists (beyond what the District accounts for) to further support our kids in math, reading, art, and social/emotional health.

To help meet this need we will be running our Direct Give campaign: February 23rd through March 11th.  Here is the plan for this years campaign:

  • Give: Pick an amount that your family is comfortable with then head over to the Direct Give link.

DOUBLE YOUR IMPACT!  During the month of February your donation is generously being matched 1 to 1, dollar for dollar – up to $26,000!  $10 becomes $20.  $100 becomes $200.  $1000 becomes $2000.  Extra special thank you to the Genesee Hill families that contributed to make this opportunity available!

  • Receive a Yard Sign:  With a minimum of a $50 donation, you will receive a yard sign delivered to your doorstep.  There is a spot for your family to be creative and create something fun for kids to find.  Draw, paint, attach something – the sky is the limit!  Once done, put the sign out in your yard for Genesee Hill kids to discover.

  • Get Entered into a Raffle:  We are hosting three raffles every Friday throughout the campaign.  Think: gift cards and coupons to local restaurants, bottles of wine, etc.  Give early to increase your chances of winning.  Raffle winners will be posted each Friday on our PTA Facebook page.

  • Participate in the Scavenger Hunt: All Genesee Hill kids are invited to look for Yard Signs as they pop up in the neighborhood.  See this blog post for more details!

Share in the fun at #ghedirectgive

Note:  Yard signs are available for the first 300 families who donate or up until Thursday, March 11th.  All yard signs and any raffle winnings will be delivered to the local West Seattle address provided at time of donation in the Kindful link.

2021 Direct Give Scavenger Hunt

Who doesn’t need a little motivation to get outside this time of year?  We have created a fun activity to get you moving around our community and maybe even giving a socially distant “Hello” to a fellow Genesee Hill family!

Starting Tuesday, February 23rd there will be yard signs popping up in GHE families yards.  Signs will be numbered and there will be a fun little item added to the sign – we are calling it the “treasure.”  Your job is to find the signs and then record the treasure.

Here is how to participate:

  • Get your Scavenger Hunt Tracking Form – forms will be available outside of school in a labeled box starting February 23rd or at this link right now!
  • Walk/bike/skip/drive around our community looking for the yard signs – they look like this:
  • Once you find a sign, record the treasure you found on the form – for this sign you would record #23 and ‘Lego Chicken Guy’
  • Repeat a bunch – how many signs can you find by Thursday, March 18th?

For fun, we are hosting a random drawing for prizes.  To enter the drawing, fill out the Scavenger Hunt Entry Form by 6:00pm on Thursday, March 18th.

Pro Scavenger Hunt Tips:

  • This is the current Genesee Hill attendance area map.
  • Don’t forget that the attendance area recently changed, and we still have many Genesee Hill families that live in the area North of ‘SW Charlestown St’ and South of ‘SW Hanford St’ to the east of ‘California Ave SW’.
  • Make a note of your favorite treasure you found- we have a question about it on the Scavenger Hunt Entry Form.

Share in the fun at #ghedirectgive

Note: Prizes will be randomly selected and delivered to the address provided on the Scavenger Hunt Entry Form.  All Genesee Hill students are welcome to participate- there is no correlation between donating to the Direct Give campaign and participating in the scavenger hunt.