Penniless Teacher Non-Profit

A little over three years ago, I began Penniless Teacher to help teachers find FREE anything and everything for classroom use.  The response we have received from teachers world-wide knocked our socks off!

We want to do more to help teachers, especially since own government and local officials are doing a VERY POOR job of supporting classroom teachers.  Where would the world be without teachers?  In a sad state of affairs in my opinion.

We’re registering Penniless Teacher as a nonprofit organization! 

We have a TON of work to do behind the scenes to accomplish our goal.  Our mission is ALWAYS to help teachers STOP spending their own money for the tools necessary to perform the job for which they are hired and LOVE.

• No other profession EXPECTS highly skilled, college educated individuals to purchase items needed to carry out the day to day functions of their jobs.  It is difficult to even get paper-clips, let alone enough copy paper to last the entire year.
• No other profession EXPECTS you to work WITHOUT pay on your own time due to the mountains of paper work.
• No other profession is EXPECTED to stretch a 10 month salary over a 12 month period.  Other workers are eligible for unemployment for the 2 months teachers are not paid.
• No other profession is EXPECTED to come to work sick because there is no sub money.  In essence, we can’t even use the sick days earned!
• No other profession is EXPECTED to fund raise and crowd source for materials to perform their jobs.
• No other profession earns ABSOLUTELY NO vacation time.
• This “No other profession is EXPECTED” list is endless and a CRIME.

Meeting with a business coach yesterday, I was given the advise to contact principals and district officials to further our goal and bring more attention to Penniless Teacher.  Seriously?  Clearly this business coach knows absolutely nothing about how a school building operates.  I reiterated our goal to help TEACHERS to stop spending their own money.  Going to school officials is NOT the goal….we stop when we have reached the TEACHER.

The business coach states “You’re telling me that principals and school officials will turn down FREE items unless you follow THEIR rules?” (disclaimer: we know this doesn’t apply to all school officials)

YES, that is exactly what I’m telling you and we see happen on a daily basis.

The goal of Penniless Teacher is to physically place the items in the hands of the CLASSROOM TEACHER.  They are the PROFESSIONALS with EXPECTATIONS placed on their shoulders like no other profession.

Off the Soap Box

Non-profit organizations offer businesses partnership to utilize a corporate responsibility arm for tax write-offs!  We’ll take it how-ever we can get it for teachers.

Wouldn’t it be nice to ask for a box of copy paper or glue sticks and actually receive them without any more work (aka: crowd sourcing)?  We hope to do that for more teachers in the future.

We know our goals are HIGH and we hope to reach them as we continue to support classroom teachers.

Shameless Request

If you are a corporation, small or large, we want to hear from you.  We will NOT turn down items (or money) that teachers can utilize in their classrooms.  We welcome you with open arms as do our teacher fans!

Share this post far and wide.  It doesn’t hurt to keep the spotlight on TEACHERS!

Teachers, we need your help.  If you win something because you saw it posted on Penniless Teacher, please let us know.  These are feathers in our hats to be used as evidence of our work.  Tell us every time you win!  We know there is a long list, we just need you to inform us so we can leverage that information to solicit more support.