A new school year is prime time for Cheddar Up—and now is the prime time to get your teachers prepped for that first bell.
Consider using our collections to create teacher wish lists. (You can easily customize one for sports teams, clubs, organizations and troops too!) If you already have a system, our setup could help you:
Collect, automatically consolidate, and create teacher wish lists in one place. No need to sift through paper forms or multiple internet tabs, or to build your own spreadsheets!
Serve all teachers equally. The specific process we outline here does not disclose individual lists—rather, it reflects the total quantities requested across the faculty. This eliminates disparity between classes that exceed their teacher wish lists and those that don’t get fulfilled. It also allows you to include admin and support staff.
Know when teaher wish lists are complete and know what’s left to purchase. There’s always that one classroom of parents who choose the exact same item.
Order, sort, and distribute items to guarantee delivery. With this system, parents pay at selection time, and you’re the one who places the order — no concern about an item being chosen but never making it to school.
Step 1: Create a collection to solicit teachers requests.
Add items from a predetermined supply list. Examples: dry-erase marker packs, white foam board, sticky notes, hand sanitizer, black ballpoint pens, red ballpoint pens.
Set each item’s “Exact Amount” to $0.
Under “Advanced Settings”, toggle on the quantity selector.
Save and send the unique URL (plus a due date 😉) to teachers and staff to make their selections.
Instruct them to “Add to cart” each item they want, specify the quantity when prompted, and submit once they’ve made all their choices.
You may choose to close this collection after the deadline. (You can always manually input orders if you have late requests.)
Step 2: Create a separate collection for parents to purchase items.
Replicate the collection from step one so that you have the same items listed.
Edit each item individually:
- Set “Exact Amount” to the cost at your preferred retailer.
- Under “Advanced Settings”, toggle off the quantity selector.
- Turn on “Set available quantity.” This will be the “quantity sold” amount from the teacher’s request collection report.
- Make quantity public so payers know their options.
Save and share!
Step 3: Parents visit the collection, select the items they wish to purchase, and pay on the platform.
Step 4: Your PTA makes one bulk order.
Step 5: You sort and distribute all the supplies using the tidy, consolidated report from the teacher’s request collection.
If all the items “sell out”?
That’s awesome! If you have more parents wanting to contribute, add a “Donation” item and let the payer specify the amount. You can disperse the funds among the teachers so they can purchase items not offered, or you could establish a supply closet for replenishment throughout the year.