Fundraising with a Conscience
Lights for Learning™is a unique, youth-oriented program that raises money for schools through the sale of energy-efficient products including ENERGY STAR® qualified CFLs, LED strands and night lights, low-flow showerheads, and weatherstripping kits. Through the program, children sell these products (rather than traditional school fundraising items such as candy and gift wrap) by utilizing take-home order forms, organized booth sales at school or community events, or permanent sales kiosks. Participating groups receive 60% of the profit from product sales and top sellers are publicly rewarded for exemplary sales achievements. Periodic contests encourage students to apply their creativity toward creating videos and posters promoting energy efficiency.
â–ºView the Winners in the 2009 Lights for Learning Poster Contest
Driving the Message Home
Lights for Learning™ provides a valuable platform for educating students, teachers, and families on energy efficiency. Program presenters are available for informative and interactive presentations at participating schools, illustrating the tangible benefits of adopting energy-efficient products and simple energy-saving behaviors. These assemblies focus on the use of energy-saving devices, home energy conservation, and the national ENERGY STAR campaign. The program also provides educators with a set of lesson plans, materials, and fun activities that are suitable for a variety of subject areas, all centered around the theme of challenging students to reduce their own energy use.
By promoting energy-efficient products and practices in their neighborhoods and through dinner-table conversation at home, the children become educators to their community on energy efficiency. The habits that students adopt through the Lights for Learning™ fundraiser make energy-conscious and environmentally aware choices an integral part of the rest of their lives.
Flexibility & Experience
MEEA understands that youth-oriented programs need to fit the specific, shifting needs of individual schools. Lights for Learning™ can be tailored to the participation of a few schools, or dozens. Fundraisers may last for weeks, or can be scheduled around a single event. Eligibility can be extended beyond schools to groups such as park districts and museums, the Boy Scouts of America, church groups, and 4-H Clubs. The specific product mix is revised from year to year, and educators decide whether to use the program's materials, or their own.
MEEA has worked over the past five years to nurture Lights for Learning™ from a small pilot, to a broad campaign featuring multiple sponsors and the involvement of hundreds of schools and thousands of students. Lights for Learning™ has grown with each successive year, boasting high retention of past participants from year to year, and glowing testimonials from students and teachers alike. Best of all, because of MEEA’s extensive experience in running Lights for Learning™, program ramp-up and launch can take place in short order.
The Sponsor Connection
Lights for Learning™ is the ideal program for putting a human face on energy efficiency. By enlisting eager youth partners, you avoid getting lost in the swarm of day-to-day advertising. When students speak out in their community with a unified voice, people tend to listen. At the same time, program sponsors gain the benefit of building stronger ties to youth and the community. And of course, educating children on saving energy while they are enthusiastic and impressionable is an investment that pays dividends for decades to come.
For more information on Lights for Learning™, contact Chad Bulman at (312) 784-7275, or cbulman@mwalliance.org.
