Arriving in time for the new school year, the platform gives schools and their local business sponsors one shared place to track sponsorships, prove they were delivered, and keep partners coming back year after year.
As Central Florida students head back to class next month, many teachers are once again buying supplies out of their own pockets. American teachers spent an average of $895 on classroom supplies last school year, a 49% jump since 2015, and 97% said the budget their school provided was not enough to cover what their students needed. Local business sponsorships help close that gap, but only when schools can keep the sponsors they work so hard to win. My School Partner, a new web platform launching in time for the new school year, was built to do exactly that. It is available now at myschoolpartner.app and is free to get started.
Every year, local businesses sponsor schools in exchange for banners, social media posts, event invitations, and more. But once the check clears or the in-kind donation is given, almost no one tracks whether those promises are kept, and good sponsors quietly stop coming back. My School Partner solves that with a single shared record. The school lists what each sponsor was promised, marks each item delivered with proof such as a photo of the banner or a link to the post, and the business confirms it. Both sides can see exactly what happened, which turns a one-time donation into a recurring partnership.
“The start of a new school year is full of promise, and it is also when so many of these sponsor relationships are set in motion,” said Heather Kaley, co-founder and President of My School Partner. “For 15 years I watched schools lose wonderful sponsors, and it was almost never about money. It was because a promise got lost in the shuffle, or a business never saw the good their support actually did. As a parent volunteer and an educator, I knew what that lost money cost our kids. My School Partner is the tool I always wished I had.”
The platform serves both sides of the partnership. Schools get one place to manage every sponsor, prove their value at renewal time, and hand the entire program to next year’s board in a single step, which solves the loss of knowledge that comes with annual volunteer turnover. Businesses get proof of everything they paid for across every school they support, plus a year-end summary for their marketing and their taxes.
“A partnership only lasts when both sides can see it working, and that is as true in a boardroom as it is in a cafeteria,” said Mark Kaley, co-founder. “As the school year begins, we want local businesses to feel confident their community support is landing, and schools to be able to keep the partners they work so hard to win.”
My School Partner was founded by Heather and Mark Kaley, a husband-and-wife team who each spent more than 15 years on opposite sides of the same problem. Heather, also a licensed educator, led PTOs and served on boards, while Mark advised hundreds of small businesses as a public relations and business strategist. The company reflects both perspectives, built for the school and the sponsor alike.
The timing of the launch is deliberate. The opening weeks of the school year are when parent groups line up sponsors to fund field trips, classroom supplies, teacher appreciation, and student programs for the months ahead. Setting those partnerships up well from the start, the founders say, is the difference between a sponsor who gives once and one who stays for years.
My School Partner is available now at myschoolpartner.app. Schools can create a free account to set up their sponsorship program before the first bell, and businesses invited by a school can view and confirm their sponsorships at no cost. Likewise, businesses can create a free account to set up their sponsorship, and schools invited by the business can view and confirm the sponsorship at no cost.
