CM Name: Ilana Rosen

Where Ilana took her kids: Costa Rica

Her email address: ilanarosen86@gmail.com and phone #: 608-712-7087

When to start planning: September or earlier

# of Students who attended the trip: 10

Total Cost Per Student: ~$1,950

Total Length of the Trip: 9 days

How she raised the money:

• She solicited small donations from several donors (friends, family, students’
contacts).
o She hosted “letter writing parties” where students wrote letters to
personal contacts
o Sent out emails to friends and family
o Students and parents sold coupons for special deals to restaurants
like Papa John’s (especially popular right before the Super Bowl)

How she followed up with donors:

• Student-written thank you notes
• Monthly emails/ blasts announcing updates or progress made toward planning
for the trip

Travel Agency
• Explorica
• It’s helpful to provide parents with contact information to the travel consultant
and/or to parents whose kids went on past Explorica trips to Costa Rica

How she prepared students for the trip

• Made sure students applied for and received passports several months in
advance of the trip
• Held pre-departure meetings where she discussed trip logistics and facilitated
team building activities
• Assigned research projects about Costa Rica

Criteria for selecting chaperones:

• It’s helpful if all chaperones…
o Are on the same page as to what the overarching purpose of the
trip should be
o Work well together
 o Have some travel experience

CM Name: Alli Baugher

Where Alli took her kids: Spain

Her email address: alli.baugher@gmail.com and phone #: 717-253-6455

When she recommends you start planning: As soon as possible (to apply for grants!)

# of students who attended the trip: 8

Cost per student through EF Tours: To Spain, it’s $2,000-3,000 per student, whereas
for Costa Rica it costs around $1,500 per student.

Total Length of the Trip: 8 days

How she raised the money:

• She solicited small donations from several donors (friends, family, students’
contacts).
o Wrote letters to friends and family members that included a direct
link to the trip Paypal account
o Hosted a “bowl-a-thon” where people paid up front to participate
and knew all proceeds would go to the trip
o Delivered Subway sandwiches to teachers during in-service days
o Used applications on social networking sites like Facebook (e.g.,
Causes.com)
• For her upcoming trip to Costa Rica, she is going to apply for grants. She
recently applied for a McCarthey Dressman Grant (deadline already passed,
but helpful for future reference!). Alli’s recommendation is to do Google
searches for educational grants like the NEA Student Achievement Grant,
Build-a-Bear Grant for educational projects, etc.)
• Fundraising tip: tell parents and students long in advance of the trip if you
expect that they’ll have to contribute some portion and allow them to pay off
contribution in small monthly installments

How she followed up with donors:

• Sent student-written thank you notes to donors
• Sent monthly emails/ blasts announcing updates or progress made toward
planning for the trip
• Posted updates and student bios on her trip blog (if you do so, it’s helpful to
have students sign media release forms…she made one herself and had
students sign it)
• Sent a video and photos of the trip (watch her video)

Travel Agency
 • EF Tours
o If you take your kids to Spain, Alli recommends the Spanish Fiesta
Tour

How she prepared students for the trip

• Made sure students applied for and received passports several months in
advance of the trip
• Held pre-departure meetings where she discussed trip logistics and facilitated
team building activities
• Assigned research projects about Spain and talked about travel-related topics
like culture shock/jet lag/etc.

Criteria for selecting chaperones:

• It’s helpful if all chaperones…
o Work well together
o Have some travel experience
o Speak Spanish (if you want the trip to be a language immersion
experience)