Your Organization Can Be a School’s Long-Term Partner
You already want to help kids succeed, you just need the right way in. Caring for Kids connects businesses, congregations, nonprofits, and civic groups with Kansas City schools through a coached, proven process, so your good intentions turn into a partnership that actually lasts.
88% of partners say they’re Equipped or Very Equipped for school partnerships.
89.5% say they’re Connected or Very Connected to their principle or school liaison.
75% of partners say working with local schools enhances staff morale.
Ways to Make Your Support Count
There’s no single right way to partner with a school, so we build the partnership around what your organization already does best. Depending on your goals and capacity, that could look like:
- Mentoring students, one-on-one or in small groups
- Serving as a reading buddy for an elementary student
- Volunteering at school events and in classrooms
- Collaborating with the other partners already serving your school
- Sponsoring or donating directly to CFK
- Helping us expand our network to new schools and partners
The best way to find out what fits is to see the model in action.
Want to start helping today? Download our free guide on 38 ways to serve schools.
What’s in It for Your Organization
A school partnership gives back to your organization too, in ways that go well beyond good will.
Visibility That Matters
Partnering with CFK puts your name in front of principals, teachers, families, and a community that already trusts us, changing how people see your organization.
A Boost for Your Culture
Volunteering as a team gives your staff, congregation, or members a shared sense of purpose and a firsthand look at the difference their organization is making.
Pipeline for Talent
Especially in our high schools, partnerships open the door to real-world learning, mentorship, and internship opportunities for students who could become your organization’s future team members.
A Real Tax Write-Off
Donations made through our galas, sponsorships, and giving campaigns are tax-deductible, so your generosity counts twice.
Meet Us at an Event
The easiest way to see how a partnership works is to show up. Join a Lunch & Learn to hear about our mission and meet other partners, come to a school’s partnership kickoff to see goals get set for the year, or join us at the Heart of a Champion Gala, our biggest fundraiser, where we celebrate the partners and students making it all happen.
How You Can Partner With Local Schools
Mentoring
A mentor is one of the most consistent, trusted adults a student can have. As a CFK mentor, you meet regularly with a student, one-on-one or in a small group, to build a relationship that goes beyond a single school year.
In our high schools especially, mentoring often opens into real-world learning and internship opportunities, giving students a direct look at what your organization does and where their own future could lead.
Reading Buddies
Reading buddies spend regular one-on-one time with an elementary student, building literacy skills and something just as important: a caring relationship with an adult that a child knows will show up. It’s a lighter lift than a full mentoring commitment, but it makes just as much of a difference, especially for kids who need consistency the most.
Volunteering
Not every organization can commit to a weekly mentoring relationship, and that’s alright. Volunteering gives you flexible ways to show up: helping at school events, supporting a classroom project, or lending a hand where a school’s liaison identifies the need. Your coach helps match the opportunity to what your team can realistically give.
Collaborating With Other Organizations
Most schools already have more than one community partner, and we’ve seen what happens when those partners work in isolation from each other: effort gets duplicated, and gaps still go unfilled.
We push for real collaboration, not just cooperation, meaning your organization coordinates with the other partners at your school, all working from the same set of goals instead of pulling in different directions.
Expanding the Network
Some of our best partnerships started with an introduction from an existing partner. If your organization knows a business, congregation, or civic group that would be a great fit for a school, or a school that doesn’t have a partner yet, you can help us grow the network simply by making the connection.
Other Custom Projects
Not every organization fits neatly into a single category, and that’s fine. If your team has a specific skill, resource, or idea that doesn’t match the roles above, your coach will work with you to design a project built around it and matched to a school’s real goals, rather than trying to fit you into a box that doesn’t work.
Become a Sponsor
Prefer to support us directly? Sponsorships and donations through our galas, events, and everyday giving fund the coaching and coordination behind every partnership, and every gift is tax-deductible.
What Principals and Partners Say
Ask a principal what changes when the community shows up, and you hear the same answer: they stop feeling alone. Ask a partner, and you hear that they finally know their work is making a difference. Here is what that sounds like in their own words.
Frequently Asked Questions
We help build relationships between schools and community organizations that go beyond a one-time donation or a single volunteer ship. Our partners form ongoing relationships, coached by CFK, built around the specific goals a school’s principal has set, whether that’s raising attendance, supporting families, or something else entirely.
When we say “partner,” we mean an organization that is supporting a school in the long term. Your role can be small or large, but it’s built to last.
Cooperation means everyone is being helpful, but working independently. Collaboration means your organization actively coordinates with the other partners already serving a school, all working from the same goals instead of duplicating effort or leaving gaps. That coordination is CFK’s job, and it’s what makes partnerships built through our process more effective than independent connections.
Every school’s goals are different because every principal identifies what their students, families, and staff need most. Common goals include raising attendance, improving behavior, strengthening family engagement, and building a healthier school culture overall.
Mentoring, reading buddies, classroom and event volunteering, collaborating with other partners already at a school, sponsoring or donating directly, and helping expand our network to new schools. If none of those fit, we’ll build a custom project around what your organization does best and the needs of a local school.
It ranges widely. A reading buddy might commit to 30 minutes a week, a mentor might meet regularly throughout the school year, and a volunteer might show up for a single event. Your coach helps match the commitment to what your organization can realistically sustain.
Join a Lunch & Learn
We host regular lunch and learns about how you can partner with a school. We cover Our proven 4-step process for community partnerships, what a partnership looks like day to day, and how to start your project.
We finish with time for your questions, whether you are brand new to this or you have served a school for years and want to do it better.
Join our next Lunch & Learn to see how you can serve your local schools.