30 days That Shape a Year of Learning

In the next 30 days, we are raising $15,000 to support the extraordinary work that happens every day at The Family Cooperative (TFC). On day 30, we will come together for TFC Fun Day—a community-wide celebration of our incredible community!

In past years, fundraising has supported visible projects, like renovating our backyard, that made impact easy to see. This year, the need is different. But the impact is significant.

Joyful learning and discovery happens every day at TFC, made possible through the care and creativity of our educators and the thoughtful use of very limited resources.

This year’s campaign supports everything that makes TFC, TFC—within and beyond our classrooms—enriching materials, strengthening environments, and deepening the everyday learning experiences of children. It also helps sustain essential daily operations across our school, making this goal critical to maintaining the quality, stability, and continuity of our program.

Every gift becomes part of daily classroom life. Materials support investigations that unfold over weeks and months. Environments invite repeated return and deeper inquiry. Children’s ideas are revisited, expanded, and shared through relationship, reflection, and care.

If you love TFC—or love someone who does—you already know the care, curiosity, and quiet magic that live in our classrooms every day. We’re asking you now to help sustain and strengthen that work for our children, today and into the future.

Our Goal: $15,000

Supports the materials, environments, and experiences that define our classrooms throughout the year.

What Your Gift Makes Possible

At TFC, every gift becomes a moment of discovery, connection, and growth. The examples below offer a glimpse of what your support helps make possible over time.

$25: Getting Our Hands Dirty

Materials for children to investigate texture, transformation, and process through hands-on learning (flour, salt, corn starch, sand, shaving cream, baking soda, vinegar, etc.).

$50: Making Learning Visible: Documentation for a Month

Documentation is an essential part of Reggio-inspired education, which includes photos, notes, and displays that reflect children’s thinking back to them.

$100: A Spark of Exploration: Shared Provocation Supplies

Open-ended materials like bendable wire, clay, containers made of various materials, and handmade loose parts.. Children use these materials to explore ideas, experiment with concepts, and wonder endlessly.

$175: Outdoor Discovery for One Season

Supports outdoor spaces and materials where children explore, observe, and connect with the natural world through play in every season.

Tools for Seeing More Deeply: Digital and instant print cameras, magnifying glasses, microscopes, binoculars, mirrors, viewfinders, and colored lenses
Tools for Representing Thinking: Clipboards, waterproof notebooks, drawing materials, whiteboards, and simple audio recorders support children in documenting and revisiting their ideas through multiple languages making their thinking visible over time.
Tools for Making Invisible Forces Visible: Wind ribbons / streamers, kites, sound tubes / listening devices, shadow tracing materials, sun print paper
Tools for Slow Observation: Sit spots (portable mats or logs), bird feeders / insect habitats weather tools (rain gauge, windsock)

$300: A Month of Creative Exploration for the Whole School

Invite children to explore more deeply through drawing, building, sculpting, and design.

Artistic Quality & VarietyMaterial Quality: Heavier-weight or specialty papers (watercolor, textured, handmade), bold drawing utensils, varied tools for color exploration and mixing Pigment-rich paints or natural dyes, real clay
Tools for Refinement & Detail: Fine-tip tools, styluses, Droppers for controlled color mixing, Precision scissors, hole punches
Materials for Dramatic Expression: fabrics and silks, representative figures and dolls, and household supplies
Design, Structure & Perspective: blocks or pieces that can stack, click, or stick, materials for filling and dumping
Materials to Ignite the Senses: lights & reflective objects, soundmaking materials, textured surfaces

$500: Community Learning Experiences for One Term

Visits to/from local artists, educators, and community members, helping children build connections and learn from a wider world.

$700: Support a Classroom for a Year

A full year of emergent curriculum for one classroom, giving teachers flexibility to respond to children’s interests with new materials and experiences as learning unfolds.

$1,000: Transform the Classroom Experience

High-impact equipment like interactive light tables, sensory exploration systems, wind tubes, and other large-scale tools that invite deeper engagement and collaboration.

$2,000: One Month of School Building Operations & Care

Cleaning and utilities that keep classrooms safe, clean, and ready for learning each day.

$3,000: Celebrate our Educators Across the Entire School Year

A full year of professional development as well as support, a holiday gathering , and other meaningful moments of appreciation for our brilliant faculty. Honors the educators who care for, support, and inspire TFC children every day.

Stretch Goal: $20,000— Investing in Our Educators

There is no TFC without our teachers.

If (when!) we exceed $15,000, every additional dollar will directly support educator growth and sustainability.

Additional funding will support:

Reggio-inspired workshops and conferences
Time for collaboration, reflection, and documentation study
Ongoing professional learning in emergent curriculum

When educators grow, classrooms evolve, and every child benefits.

30 Days That Shape a Year of Learning

Help Support TFC!