Ah, sea class, trips abroad, outings to the museum, cinema, or the staging of a play with his comrades … In short, educational projects. Of all the moments, sometimes endless, that children spend in school, these are the ones they will never forget. However, the company of these projects is often very expensive and many schools are increasingly difficult to finance them. To achieve them all the same, certain French schools must work to find funds elsewhere than in the public and turn to alternative means of financing, sometimes quite baroque.
“Being dependent on the municipality has advantages when it is generous. Operating in addition to parents’ associations (students) is very profitable when committed and have money ”writes a head of the establishment that remained anonymous, in a call for testimonies published on April 2 on the website of the union of school directors (S2Dé). “But otherwise, it gives schools without means. This opposite case is not a minority ”he adds, deploring cases comprising “An insulting student budget”.
Thierry Pajot, secretary general of the S2Dé union, also notes this problem in his school: “Parents of students show less and less interest in the school. Today, in my establishment, each gives an average of 9 euros per year. ” Not enough to undertake ambitious educational projects for everyone. However, they are essential in the educational journey of the students, he recalls. “These are moments that children will keep in mind all their lives. Also, they are founders of good manners. ”
Besides, the French state goes in this direction. In September 2022, on the initiative of President Emmanuel Macron, the National Refoundation Council (CNR) was created, with an educational axis entitled “Our school, let’s do it together”. With an “educational innovation fund” of 500 million euros to be distributed during the presidential five -year term, the system aims to be “An unprecedented approach to consultation aimed at developing innovative educational projects that meet local needs”. According to the latest figures dated February 19, 2024, nearly 95.7 million euros were allocated to 6,003 projects, which were selected among the 13,007 files which were the subject of a request.
The call to partners
Obviously, the 500 million euros fund has not yet finished streaming on schools. To help them carry out their educational projects, some academies offer another idea: prospecting in order to establish partnerships. “If each project belongs to the school, college or high school that launched it, the call to the partner is essential. He brings his expertise or financial support ”wrote the Paris Academy in May 2023.
“Using the private sector is always ambiguous. Normally, this is not the role of a public school to go and go to businesses. ”
“We enter the era of the empowerment of establishments”deplores Frédéric Grimaud, school teacher in Martigues (Bouches-du-Rhône) and associate researcher at the University of Aix-Marseille. During one of the many trips he makes to give conferences about his research, he even discovered the existence of internships entitled “Educational project engineering”, which aim to train the directors of establishments to carry out their projects.
This training is the subject of a “invitation to a mission order” with the directors called, of which Slate.fr obtained a copy. “Part of this internship is to learn how to find funding to complete their projects”specifies Frédéric Grimaud, while deploring that certain academies are increasingly pushing their schools to finance themselves independently of public funds.
Educational crowdfunding
If the Paris Academy evokes as potential partners communities, cultural or scientific institutions, associations or foundations, it is clear that certain schools turn to other private funders, namely natural or businesses. This is particularly the case with the project kit, a crowdfunding platform created in 2017 on the initiative of national education and which aims to allow schools to pay their school outings and other educational projects.
In recent years, the activity of the project kit has exploded. In 2024, this public interest group collected a total of 2.42 million euros. These funds made it possible to finance 1,969 educational projects. It is almost twice more than in 2023 and more than ten times more than in 2021. Among the donations that have been made on the platform, 67% come from natural persons – not parents of students – and 33% of legal persons, largely located in 75% of cases in the same department as the school (and 44% in the same commune).
1969 successful crowdfunding 🏆
7,800 accompanied parents #Tne🤝
🚨 The 2024 activity report of the project kit is published!
👉 Find the key figures and more… https://t.co/zhbtfvfhgq pic.twitter.com/g0pki7lgab– Project kit (@trousseaprojects) April 15, 2025
The representative of the directors, Thierry Pajot, is somewhat skeptical about this mode of operation. “Using the private sector is always ambiguous. Normally, this is not the role of a public school to go and go to businesses ”he lets go. On the contrary, estimates Julie Carbonnier, director general of the project kit. According to her, the campaign to fund a project in itself raises interesting educational issues. “Students invested in collection must understand how a project is financedshe says. They must learn to present it, to pit it and succeed in convincing to bring donations together … It is a group work that meets several educational objectives. ”
Frédéric Grimaud stresses that this method inevitably risks creating inequalities between schools. “The establishments of which the parents of students are the wealthiest will have easier to circulate their kitty, since they benefit from the network of the latter, often more developed”advances the professor of Martégal schools.
To respond to this problem, the project kit is based on the support of six partners, including the GMF mutual, the ADP Group Foundation (formerly Aéroports de Paris), the Maud Fontenoy Foundation or the Society of Authors, Composers and Music Publishers (SACEM). In 2024, the latter contributed to the tune of 179,508 euros to give a “Financial boost” At 645 collections deposited by establishments in the priority education network (REP+), geographically isolated or welcoming schools exposed to the risk of dropping out of school or with disabilities.
An impasse on commercial neutrality?
As virtuous as these gifts can be to schools, some teachers keep a suspicious distance concerning private actors. This is the case of Rosmunda T., professor in a high school in the North under pseudonym. “We authorize private companies to meddle in public financing”she breathes, by issuing serious doubts about the alleged philanthropy of funders. His question is therefore as follows: “In exchange for what do they do?”
“It is not about advertising, but discreet and symbolic communication. These counterparts are neither time nor money. “
The answer is partly found in one of the podcasts published by the project kit, entitled “How to mobilize businesses during your collection?”. In this episode, Eddy, a user of the platform, explains that he convinced companies in particular thanks to an argument: the tax exemption of donations. According to Julie Carbonnier, the average donation of companies on the project kit is 400 euros, which, in this case, results in a tax reduction up to 60% of the amount given.
Another tip is advanced by Margot, another user of the platform. “For companies that make donations of more than 50 euros, we make a little thank you jar with posters from their business. We try to make a little ad. “ On the project kit, this operation is usual. For example, to make it possible to finance a trip to the Pyrenees of a third class of the Pablo-Neruda college in Stains (Seine-Saint-Denis), a donor of 200 euros or more is ensured in exchange for seeing his logo or name “Appear on project communication media (website and social networks of the project or establishment, donor wall, etc.)”.
“We offer a captive audience of minors to a private company”denounces Rosmunda T. The northern professor fears that the concept of the project kit contravines the principle of commercial neutrality which is law within national education. Julie Carbonnier denies it and argues that the platform acts within the framework of the rules of patronage. “It is not about advertising, but discreet and symbolic communicationshe nuances. These counterparts are neither time nor money. “
In the end, a question arises: are public schools intended to get closer and more closer to private actors? In 2021, Jean-Michel Blanquer, then Minister of National Education, pleaded in this sense at the microphone of BFM Business. “We have to get out of the clichés where there is a closed national education in the world of the economy and an economy that would not understand anything about educationhe launched against journalist Christophe Jakubyszyn. The worlds must get closer, understand themselves. ” For his part, Thierry Pajot refuses to depend economically on companies economically. “I am not yet ready to enter this private questhe sighs. But indeed, perhaps one day it will be necessary. ”
