Education Opportunity Project Spotlight: Digital Deets

Image Description: Image of the word digital directly above the word deets. The two words are overlaid over an orange and teal though bubble.

Voqal believes that an educated population is necessary to achieve a more socially equitable world. Unfortunately, our education system often time suffers from the same inequities we are trying to address in the rest of our work. To address this problem we created the Education Opportunity Project (EOP). More specifically, the EOP exists to address education opportunity gaps by providing capital and strategic advice to entrepreneurs and organizations working to improve educational outcomes for disadvantaged populations. This month we highlight one of those organizations, Digital Deets.

Digital Deets started as School Deets, a comprehensive school communications tool with the mission to better link parents, especially in families where English is not the native language, to school in order to improve student outcomes. In 2020, it added a very innovative school fundraising program to its already stellar communication platform and became Digital Deets. This innovative fundraising program is designed primarily for schools without a sophisticated Parent-Teacher Association (PTA) or other fundraising body. It engages community champions (which in many cases are parents from the school) to facilitate a variety of fundraising programs with community businesses. Local businesses purchase sponsorships to share promotional content with schools. Schools passively raise money while streamlining communications and businesses reach their target audience while supporting local schools.

Digital Deets founder and CEO, Heather Wilson found inspiration for Digital Deets from her first-hand experience with the pressures of fundraising as a teacher, a volunteer, and a community organizer. She rarely saw a consistent and sustained effort to raise funds within her local community. She envisioned a way for schools to raise money all year long by allowing businesses to tap into the school communications already taking place. It quickly evolved into a fundraising engine that is fueled by local businesses partnering with schools and nonprofits. Heather’s mission to create stronger, more connected communities has come to life with Digital Deets.

Education fundraising is a hidden source of opportunity gaps in education due to the highly inequitable and variable nature of school fundraising. This is especially true for schools that lack robust and wealthy PTAs. The work Digital Deets is doing to address this inequity is exactly the type of innovative approach to education inequity the Education Opportunity Project seeks to support. We are excited to invest in Digital Deets and look forward to the more equitable education system that will no doubt result from its work.

Learn more about the Education Opportunity Project and the amazing organizations it supports here.