Yearbook Fund · Sponsor a book for a student who cannot afford one · Early access · 2026

Every student deserves a yearbook — the fund that makes it true when a family cannot pay

Yearbook Fund is the campaign and giving platform for school yearbook programs. Families, alumni, and local businesses sponsor books for students who cannot afford one — in increments the school sets, tracked in plain view, with the platform taking none of a gift. The school sets the goal and the per-book amount. Donors give through the fund. Every covered student gets a book. Early access — no pricing commitment, no signup, no live giving checkout today.

Book a conversation How it works

Zero platform marginthe platform takes none of a gift — only the payment processor fee, deducted off gross first

Exact centsno-skim ledger — fee off gross first, largest-remainder reconciliation, no hidden margin

School-controlledschool sets the goal, per-book amount, deadline, and covered-student assignments

Consent-gatedstudent and family data owned by the school, never sold or shared with donors

The mission — why this exists

Every student deserves a yearbook — not just the students whose families can pay

A yearbook is not a luxury item. It is the record of a school year — the one a student keeps for decades, the one they hand to their own children someday. A student who could not afford one does not get a second chance at it. The year moves on. The book goes out of print.

Yearbook Fund exists because yearbook programs have always had students who cannot pay, and no good tool to let the community help. An adviser who wants to cover those students has to stand up a generic crowdfunding page, collect cash by hand, or quietly absorb the cost. None of those are built for a school. Yearbook Fund is.

The fund is simple on purpose. The school sets the price of one book and the number of books that need to be covered. The community gives in that increment. The platform takes none of what a donor gives — only the payment processor takes a fee, deducted off the gross before anything is split. Every covered student gets a book. The school controls which students those are. A donor never sees a student’s name.

Book a conversation See the platform

How it works

A Yearbook Fund campaign in four stages

Yearbook Fund runs on a campaign rhythm: the school configures the fund, the community gives, progress is tracked in plain view, and covered students get their books at distribution. Every stage is described as it is built today.

Step 1 · Launch — the school configures the fund

The adviser or administrator opens the campaign: sets the per-book giving increment (the cost of one yearbook at the school’s price), the total goal (how many books need to be covered this year), the campaign deadline, and whether the fund is open to the whole school community or a narrower audience. The campaign page goes live with a clear progress counter and a plain-language explanation of where the money goes. The school also defines any recognition policies: whether donors are thanked publicly, what a business recognition note may say, and how the school will assign covered-student slots to families who need them. Family and student data is consent-gated from day one — no contact is added to any list without opt-in.

Step 2 · Giving — the community sponsors books

Families, alumni, and local businesses find the campaign page and give in the increment the school has set: one book, two books, or a bulk cohort. A donor who gives anonymously is recorded in the ledger without a public attribution; a donor who includes a recognition message gives the school the option to use it at its discretion. A local business that underwrites ten books sees the covered count confirmed in its receipt but never sees a list of student names. Every gift flows into the exact-cent ledger: gross, processing cost, net to school — calculated at the time of the gift. The live giving checkout that processes payment is honest-off today. The giving substrate is built and the checkout will be enabled when the payment rail is turned on.

Step 3 · Progress — transparent totals, books assigned

The campaign page updates as gifts arrive: covered books, remaining books, total raised. The adviser sees the full ledger — every donation, every donor name or ‘anonymous’ flag, every covered-student slot assigned. When a family cannot afford a book and the fund has covered slots available, the adviser assigns one: the student gets a book, the donor gets a thank-you at the school’s discretion, and the ledger records the assignment without sharing family information with the donor. The covered-student assignment is always a human decision made by someone at the school.

Step 4 · Distribution — every student who needs one gets one

At distribution day, every student with a covered-slot assignment picks up a book. The ledger shows the full giving history: who donated, how many books were covered, which students received sponsored copies (visible to the school only, not to donors). The campaign closes and the school can export the full record: donation ledger, covered-student assignments, donor receipt history, and communication consent status. The export belongs to the school. The record does not disappear if the school ever leaves the platform.

The full platform

Five engines — honest about what is built and what is coming

Every feature is labelled honestly: Built means the underlying engine is production-ready. In development means the surface, wire-up, or carrier integration is in active build. We do not claim otherwise.

School-configured campaign — goal, per-book amount, deadline, and progress in plain view

The campaign substrate lets a school configure its own fund: the total goal in dollars, the per-book giving increment (the cost of one book at the school’s price), the campaign deadline, and the scope (whole school, a single grade, a graduating class). A live progress counter shows how many books are covered and how many remain, updated as gifts come in. The adviser sees the complete ledger: every donation, every covered-student slot, every dollar from first gift to the last day. The campaign substrate is built and production-ready. No school has launched a live fund on yearbook.fund yet — early access is the honest posture. If you want to be the first program to run one, a conversation is the right next step.

Campaign substrate built · live giving checkout honest-off

Zero platform margin on gifts — the exact-cent ledger with fee-off-gross-first

The platform inserts no margin between what a donor gives and what the school receives. The only deduction is the payment processing cost, applied off the gross first — before any split is calculated — so the school always knows exactly what it nets on any giving increment before the campaign opens. A largest-remainder reconciliation pass ensures every cent is accounted for with no penny silently coerced into a platform margin. A school that sets a $65 per-book increment can model exactly what it will net per donation before a single gift arrives. The exact-cent ledger and the no-skim split engine are built and production-ready. The charge rail that moves money to the school is honest-off — present in the platform, not enabled for live payouts today.

No-skim ledger built · charge rail honest-off

Business and alumni bulk giving — underwrite a cohort, name nothing about a student

A local business or alumni donor can underwrite a block of books at once — covering five books, ten books, or a full class without selecting individual students. The school receives the covered count, assigns them to students internally, and the donor never receives a list of student names or family contacts. A business donor can include a recognition note the school may use at its own discretion (a thank-you in the book, a mention at distribution day); what the school chooses to share is the school’s decision, not the platform’s. Alumni associations can coordinate a class-gift campaign that covers the incoming class in memory of their own senior year. The bulk giving substrate is built and production-ready. The live bulk giving checkout that processes payment is honest-off — present in the platform, not enabled for live transactions today.

Bulk giving substrate built · live checkout honest-off

Who gives

Three giving audiences — each with a different story, all on one substrate

School families

A family that can afford a book and wants to pay it forward is the most natural Yearbook Fund donor. They know the school, they know the price, and they often know — without needing to be told names — that some classmates will not have books. Families give in the per-book increment the school sets, anonymously or with a short note the school may share. The giving form makes the act simple: how many books, a name and email for the receipt, and done.

Alumni

An alumnus who remembers what their yearbook meant to them is exactly who this is for. Alumni associations can coordinate a class-gift campaign: the graduating class of a given year underwrites the incoming class, or a reunion committee covers a cohort in memory of their senior year. The bulk giving substrate handles multi-book alumni gifts in one transaction; no list of current student names is shared with the alumni group. The school receives the covered count and assigns the slots internally.

Local businesses

A local business that sponsors books is not buying advertising. It is making a gift to the school community, with a receipt and a school-controlled acknowledgment. What the school chooses to say — a thank-you in the book, a mention at distribution day, a note in the newsletter — is the school’s decision, not the platform’s. A business that underwrites ten books receives a receipt showing ten books covered; it receives no list of student names, no family contacts, and no claim on what the school says or does not say in return.

Student data & family consent

The school owns the record. Donors see nothing about a student they should not.

Student and family data is owned by the school and is never sold to, shared with, or visible to donors, businesses, or outside companies. A donor who sponsors a book does not receive a student’s name, family contact, or any identifying information. The school decides what recognition, if any, a donor receives — and that decision is made by a human at the school, not automated by the platform.

Family data that involves minor students is consent-gated: a family must opt in to communications from the school before their contact is added to any list. Consent is collected, not assumed. Consent can be withdrawn at any time. Minor student data runs on our own private systems and is never shared with advertisers or donors. The donation ledger is add-only by design: a correction is a new entry, not a silent edit. One-click export is available in writing — if the school ever leaves the platform, every record leaves with it.

What is built and what is coming — plainly

The giving engines are built. The live checkout is not enabled yet.

Built and production-ready today: the campaign substrate (goal, per-book increment, deadline, progress ledger); the sponsor-a-book giving ledger (covered-student slots, donor record, anonymous flag); the no-skim split engine (exact-cent, fee-off-gross-first, largest-remainder reconciliation, zero platform margin); the local-business and alumni bulk giving substrate (multi-book gifts, no student-name disclosure); and the consent and data layer (family data consent-gated, school-owned record, add-only-by-convention ledger, one-click export).

Not yet enabled for live use: the payment rail (the part that processes donor payments), the live giving checkout, the live bulk giving checkout, the charge rail (the part that moves money to the school), and live carrier delivery for campaign communications. These are honest-off — present in the platform, not enabled for live transactions. There is no live checkout here. No billing. No subscription. No school has launched a live fund on yearbook.fund yet. A conversation is the honest next step.

Connected to the school platform

The fund covers the students. The platform builds the book. Seen puts every student on a page.

Yearbook Fund is the giving layer inside the school publishing platform. homeroom.software is the platform: the yearbook, newspaper, newsletter, and literary magazine engine that builds the book the fund is raising money for. yearbook.press is the complete yearbook program: design, photos, proofing, print, and distribution in one place. Seen is the recognition layer: the programme that ensures every student appears on a real page, adviser-approved and consent-verified. For a general school fundraising campaign not tied to the yearbook, schoolfundraiser.network is the sibling platform: fundraising for any school program with the same no-skim split engine and exact-cent ledger.

homeroom.software yearbook.press seen.school schoolfundraiser.network

Early access · Advisers, administrators, PTO treasurers · Be the first program to claim this address

Book a conversation to see the current state honestly

Yearbook Fund is in active development. No school has launched a live fund on yearbook.fund yet. We do conversations that show the current state honestly: how the campaign is configured, how the sponsor-a-book ledger works, how the no-skim engine projects the net to the school for any giving amount, and what the covered-student assignment looks like in practice. There is no pricing commitment and no signup. If it looks right for your program, we discuss what early access looks like.

To book: email [email protected].

FAQ

Common questions

What is Yearbook Fund and who is it for?

Yearbook Fund is a campaign and giving platform for school yearbook programs. It lets families, alumni, and local businesses sponsor yearbooks for students who cannot afford one — or chip in toward the program’s overall cost. It is for the adviser or administrator who has students who want a book but whose family cannot pay, and for the community members who want to help but have no simple, trustworthy way to do so. The school sets the goal, the per-book amount, and the deadline. The platform runs the ledger and tracks progress in plain view.

Does the platform take a percentage of donations?

The platform takes no margin on top of the payment processing cost. The only deduction from a donation is the payment processor’s fee, applied off the gross amount first — before any proceeds are credited to the school. The platform itself inserts nothing between what a donor gives and what the school nets. An adviser can model the exact net for any giving increment before the campaign opens, so there are no surprise fees at payout. The no-skim engine and exact-cent ledger are built and production-ready. The charge rail that moves money to the school is honest-off — not yet enabled for live payouts today.

How does the sponsor-a-book model work?

The school sets the cost of one book as the base giving increment. A donor selects how many books to underwrite — one, two, five — and submits their name and email for the receipt. The school’s ledger records those slots as covered. Which students receive sponsored books is a decision the adviser makes: they assign covered slots to students who could not otherwise afford one. The donor never sees a student’s name or family information. A donor may include an optional recognition note — which the school may share at its own discretion (a mention at distribution day, a thank-you in the book). Nothing about a student is shared with a donor without a human at the school making that choice.

Can businesses or alumni give in bulk to cover multiple books at once?

Yes. A local business or alumni donor can underwrite a block of books in one transaction: covering five, ten, or an entire class without naming individual students. The school receives the covered count, assigns covered-student slots internally, and the donor receives a receipt showing the number of books underwritten. No list of student names is shared with the donor. An alumni association can coordinate a class-gift campaign that covers the incoming freshman class in recognition of their own graduation year — the giving substrate supports multi-book gifts; the live bulk giving checkout is honest-off until the payment rail is enabled.

Does a donor find out which student received the book they sponsored?

Not unless the school chooses to share that information, which is always a human decision made by someone at the school. The platform does not share student names, family contact information, or any identifying student data with donors. A donor who wants to know their gift helped a real student can be told “a student at [school name] who could not afford a book will have one because of your gift” — and that is as specific as the platform goes by default. If a school wants to arrange a thank-you note or a mention in the book, an adviser handles that exchange. The student’s family is never exposed to a donor automatically.

Is the giving checkout live? Can our community donate through yearbook.fund right now?

Not yet. The campaign substrate, the sponsor-a-book giving ledger, the no-skim split engine, and the consent and data layer are built and production-ready — the logic, the goal tracking, and the distribution math are all there. The live giving checkout that accepts payment from donors is honest-off: it exists in the platform but is not enabled for live transactions today. There is no live checkout, no billing, and no subscription. When the payment rail is enabled (a founder-gated decision), schools that have set up their campaign will be notified. The right next step is a conversation where we show the current state honestly.

How does the school set the per-book price and goal?

The school enters the per-book giving increment — the actual cost of one yearbook at that school’s price — when it configures the campaign. The goal can be set in two ways: a dollar goal (cover the full program cost, with surplus going to next year’s fund) or a book-count goal (cover a specific number of student slots). The school also sets a deadline. The platform shows progress against the goal as gifts come in. The school controls all three numbers; the platform does not set or recommend pricing, because the school is the one that knows what its book costs.

How is student and family data handled? Who can see what?

Student and family data is owned by the school and is never sold to, shared with, or visible to donors or outside companies. A donor sees only what the school has chosen to show them, which by default is nothing identifying. Family data that involves minor students is consent-gated: a family must opt in to communications from the school before their contact is added to any list. Consent is not assumed — it is collected. Consent can be withdrawn at any time. Minor student data runs on our own private systems and is never shared with advertisers. The donation ledger is add-only: a gift recorded is never silently erased. If the school leaves the platform, the full campaign record — donation history, covered-student assignments, consent status — leaves with it on one-click export.

What can a school actually use right now?

The platform is in active development. In a demo, we walk through the current state honestly: configuring a campaign with a per-book increment and a book-count goal, how the sponsor-a-book ledger records a donation, how the no-skim engine projects the exact net to the school for any giving amount, and how the covered-student assignment works. None of those involve live payments today. A conversation is the honest next step — we show what is built, what the charge-rail timeline looks like, and what early access means for your program. No school has launched a live fund on yearbook.fund yet, so the first to claim the address starts it off.

How is this different from ad sales or from a general school fundraiser?

Ad sales (covered separately on yearbook.ad and in the yearbook ad network) are revenue the school earns by selling advertising space in the book to local businesses. A business that buys an ad gets a page or a spread in return; it is a commercial transaction. Yearbook Fund is a giving campaign: a business or individual donates to underwrite a student’s book with no advertising expectation. The business gets a receipt, and may receive a school-controlled thank-you, but it receives no page in the book and makes no commercial claim. A general school fundraiser (covered by schoolfundraiser.network) can raise money for any program goal. Yearbook Fund is specifically anchored to the mission: every student deserves a yearbook, and the fund makes that true for the students whose families cannot pay.