Purifan Started the Clean Air for Kids to Help Schools Find Funding
Now that Purifans have been installed in more than 65 school districts, teachers, parents, school administrators and facility managers agree that schools would be healthier, 
and teachers and students would perform better, with filtered classroom air to remove allergens and odors. The problem for many schools is where to find the funding necessary to cover the entire school building and 100% of their classsrooms.. Available funding in local school budgets is limited and that typically means Purifans can only be placed in classrooms where teachers or students are having the most serious allergy or asthma health problems. The best solution is to raise enough money to fully equip the school buildings. To help schools find the funding, Purifan started a Grant Writing Service that prepares grant applications and helps the schools submit them to local sources of funding including corporations, private donors, foundations and government funding sources. Here are some examples of the Fund Raising Proposals for various size schools or school districts. 350 Student Single School 1,250 Students for Four Elementary Schools Proposed School District Policy Statement Clean Air for Kids Funding Registration Packet.
One of the most important issues for parents, educators, teachers and administrators to understand is that for many schools, the air quality problems are costing much more each year than it costs to install Purifans to dramatically reduce the problems. The actual financial payback is typically 20 times the cost, especially in states that fund schools based on daily attendance. The missed work costs for parents and teachers, medical costs run up for allergy and asthma treatment and the costs of common seasonal illnesses that spread through school like wildfire are real dollars being spent every year in most schools.
Even more important is that children who feel better in class, and miss fewer sick days will learn more and score higher on tests. This will give them a better foundation from first grade to learn more and test higher in second grade since lessons in second grade are based on material they were supposed to learn in first grade. By the end of a 7 years in a pre-K to sixth grade school equipped with Purifans, the average child in the school could be testing much higher, and be much better prepared to take on middle-school and high school. Give students a better learning environment and a better education is THE primary goal of a school system and the primary mission of a School Board. We challenge you to find an easier, cheaper way to improve student performance and test scores than installing Purifans. In states that fund their schools based on average daily attendance Purifans will pay for themselves with a 1/4 or 1/2 of 1% improvement in attendance. In actual schools Purifans helped achieve a 6.2% increase in attendance! See more about the fantastic financial payback of Purifans in this report. Click here for the IAQ Payback Whitepaper.
There are Many Ways to Get Funding for Cleaner Classroom Air Quality
When search for funding there are many sources of funding that can provide enough money to install Purifans in a classroom or an entire school. Someone just has to be motivated and committed do the work necessary. Here are 10 ways for any school to raise the money to install Purifans. See the expanded information below.
- School facility maintenance and repair budgets can have some funds available.
- Lease or Rent Purifans to eliminate the capital funding requirement. In states that get paid based on attendance increase state funding can pay for lease costs.
- Smart school boards are putting funding in their budgets to improve schools, raise test scores and keep teachers and students healthier.
- Schools are putting Purifans in bond issues for new buildings or renovation programs.
- PTA and Parent Fundraising groups can get very motivated by the health benefits for their children. Click Here to Download our PTA payback report.
- Ask parents to donate money for Purifans and Filter Service costs.
- Ask parents' employers for funding or at least some type of matching funding, they get their donation back when parents don't have to miss work and children don't run up health insurance costs.
- Teachers and their spouses have purchased Purifans to keep the teacher healthier and lower their personal health care costs and problems.
- Put on a Clean Air for Kids Fundraiser at your school. No product sales and a lot of fun!
- Apply for a funding grant from the EPA. Grants can go up to $25,000.
- Apply for a funding grant from local health foundations.
- Apply for a funding grant from health insurance companies like Blue Cross and Blue Shield.
- Apply for a funding grant from National Foundations focused on children, preventative health care and education improvement. Foundations like the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Dell Foundation and others support education, young children and wellness programs.
- Talk to your state legislators about special funding programs for schools in your state. They get this money back in many easy to understand ways.
- Talk to your national politicians about funding for low-income, head-start, child-care or special education classrooms
School Boards and School Budgets - School Board and Administrators that do their research on the internet will find hundreds and hundreds of scientific research reports on websites operated the EPA, CDC, New England Journal of Medicine, Teacher Unions, American Lung Association, Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology, Healthy Schools Network, IAQ Symposium and many more. The bottom line from reading all of these research reports will be that 50-60% of schools have serious air quality issues that are impacting the short and long-term health of the occupants including teachers and students. Portable classroom, older building and newer buildings with tighter construction and non-opening windows are all cited as problems. But our experience at Purifan is that anytime 20 to 30 people share the limited air in a 700-900 square foot classroom you will have higher rates of allergies, asthma problems and spread of contagious illnesses. It happens in offices, call centers, day-cares, nursing homes and school classrooms. While studies show water damaged buildings with mold or mildew will increase sickness rates by up to 300%, we believe all evidence points to the particulates brought into the room by the occupants can create a health problem in the newest building, facility or classroom. The tighter the construction the worse the problem will be. An airliner is the worst cast scenario with 160 people rebreathing the same small volume of air. School Boards are also faced with increased liability and risk of expensive lawsuits and recent suits by teachers have been successful in jury trials. There are overwhelming numbers of scientific research studies that show high levels of fine particulates are create serious health problems in school classrooms. In our opinion at Purifan this indoor air quality problem is not something that can be fixed WITHOUT filtering these allergens out of the air in the classrooms. Since the children are the source of the particulates, you have to filter the air in the classrooms to lower the health risk and problems they create.
Leasing Purifans Can Help Lower the Need for Capital Improvement Funding - By putting Purifans on a 3 year operating lease the monthly costs can be about $55 per month per classroom. That is less than the value of saving one sick day for one student in the classroom. The government estimates a sick day costs the parents, their employer and insurance company about $240 per sick day for an elementary school child. The cost for a teacher sick day is higher because of their salary and substitute teacher costs. In a school with 95% attendance a 25 student classroom is averaging 23 student sick days each month! In one school that installed Purifans the average number of sick days dropped from over 18 per student per school year to under 7 sick days per student per school year! So cutting sick days can offer substantial payback to the families, their parents, the parents’ employers and their health insurance companies. Using the $240 per sick day saved the paybacks being achieved are 10 to 20 times the lease costs each year. In a lease program, the fourth year the school owns the Purifans for $1. Then the only cost is filter change costs 2 times per school year. This means the total costs typically are less than $10 per student per year to save $240 sick days!! Once a school building is equipped with Purifans, every class of students and teachers who use that building will have healthier, cleaner air.
PTA and Parent Fundraising Groups - Reports have shown the tremendous financial contribution to education from PTA and Parent Fundraising Groups. When school budgets are tight and parents understand the many benefits for their children's health and education that cleaner classroom air will provide, they typically take it on themselves to raise the funds needed to equip their school with Purifans. The great part about making Purifans a PTA project is the parents receive a tremendous personal benefit including:
- Children are healthier, so parents can stay at work, fewer missed work days.
- When children feel better in class they do better on test.
- Children who stay healthier need less costly health care, medicine and doctor's visits.
- Long-term health of children's respiratory system is a key to a healthy life.
- Teachers stay healthier, miss less school and feel better in the classroom.
What other fund-raising school project would provide such important benefits to the children, teachers and families. Contact Purifan for more information on how to raise the funds needed to make your school a Clean Air School. Download the PTA Payback Report. Download a Letter to Handed Out At School.
Grants from Government, Local and National Foundations Can Help Provide Funding
There are many local and national foundations who support children's wellness, children's health, improving education, local schools, local teachers and improving the local community. You can search the area for Health and Wellness Foundations, Private Foundations, Company Foundations, Health Insurance Foundations, Teacher's Retirement Fund Foundations and local corporate employers who would benefit from having lower health care costs for families, and would benefit from keeping employees at work instead of home with sick children. To get more information or help in filling out foundation grant applications send an email to stan@purifan.com.
Here are some additional Foundations or Sources of Funding Grants to apply to for funding:
There are thousands of local, regional and national sources of funding for children's health, wellness and improving education. We can help you by supplying word documents with answers to typical grant questions. We can give you cost estimates for funding your Clean Air for Kids Project. The typical cost to properly equip an elementary school or day-care is about $85 per student for the first year and $15 per year for filters in year 2 and 3. This means you should be seeking funding for about at least $115 per student or a bit more, to purchase Purifans, motors and pay for shipping, installation and 3 years of filter changes. This typically is sufficient for 2 Purifans in each classroom, Purifans in music rooms, computer rooms, teacher's lounge, nurse’s station, hallways, library, school offices and cafeteria. We can also provide you with benefits analysis to show the significant impact Cleaner Classroom Air can have on children's health, wellness and learning.
Boosterthon Fun Run - No Work School Fundraiser
Are you tired of fundraisers at your school that sell cookie dough, trash bags, light bulbs, candy, magazine subscriptions, wrapping paper and require children to sell door-to-door or to friends who don't want or need the products they have to sell. We recommend if you live in the Southeast part of the United States you consider the Boosterthon Fun Run. This is a healthy fund-raising program that has netted the average elementary school over $38,000 after all expenses which are paid for by the Boosterthon Fun Run Company out of their share. They do all the work, they spend all the time, they pay all the costs for prizes, postage and other expenses. The children spend one 30 minute meeting in a short kick-off assembly rally to get them motivated to win the prizes, and one hour in a special walk-run PE session held on the school property during the next week's normal PE class. No products to sell, no money to collect, no products to deliver, no parent time other than helping children create a call list for pledges from friends, neighbors and relatives. The friends and family the child calls will typically pledge so much per lap and as the child calls more people they have the potential of earning more money for every lap they complete. On the next week's Boosterthon Fun Run Day everyone has fun, gets a free tee-shirt and win some fun prizes, including some major prices for the best fund-raisers in each class. All the real hard work is done by the employees of the Boosterthon Company. Mailing pledge payment letters, providing prizes, and managing the Fun Run Day. This program is a really healthy way and a FUN WAY to raise money in any school. Checks are made out to the school and are typically 100% tax deductible since no products are provided to the donor. Kids have a great time, win some neat prizes and it promotes a good healthy activity for the children. Check out the testimonials and first year net-to-school results which average $38,000 but have approached $100,000 for some schools! Check it out at www.boosterthonfunrun.com for more information. Tell them Purifan send you!
