Backer

Backer is a digital-first fundraising platform that lets K-12 teachers, parents and community groups launch crowdfunding campaigns for classroom supplies, extracurricular programs and small campus improvement projects. The site hosts campaigns ranging from $200 for basic art materials to $25,000 for robotics labs, placing it in a mid-range price band relative to other education crowdfunding sites. All activity—campaign creation, donation processing and fund disbursement—occurs online; there is no retail component. The company differentiates itself by pre-approving every campaign for alignment with U.S. school district policies and by offering a proprietary “Classroom Registry” that converts Amazon, Staples and DonorsChoose wish-lists into a single shareable link. Backer charges no platform fee to donors and guarantees that if a campaign reaches at least 80 % of its goal the organizer still receives the funds, a policy it pioneered in the education vertical. Its most visible collection is the “STEM Starter Bundle,” a curated set of tech kits that has funded over 4,500 middle-school engineering programs since 2019. Core users are U.S. public-school teachers aged 25-44 who spend an average $280 of personal money on supplies each year and seek community support without the administrative burden of traditional grants. Secondary customers include PTA boards, after-school coaches and parent boosters who value transparency, tax-deductible giving and the ability to track exactly which items their dollars purchase. Backer competes with general crowdfunding portals, teacher wish-list aggregators and district-level grant platforms. It separates from generalist sites by embedding IRS-compliant tax receipts, automatic vendor ordering and district SKU validation, eliminating post-campaign paperwork that often deters educators.