The Situation
Teachers across the country routinely spend their own money on classroom supplies, an average of $750 out of pocket per year, a number that climbed higher in the wake of pandemic-era inflation. Many post Amazon wish lists hoping strangers will help fill the gaps. It is one of those quiet realities that everyone knows about and almost no one acts on.
At the end of the fiscal year, back-to-school season underway, Michigan Virtual had $10,000 remaining in the advertising budget. We could have run one more awareness campaign. Instead, I proposed we put the money directly into Michigan classrooms and let that action do the marketing.
The Idea
We invited Michigan educators statewide to submit their Amazon classroom wish lists. From the more than 1,100 who responded, we selected 19 classrooms based on school need, the educator's submission message, and alignment with Michigan Virtual's mission. Then we purchased the supplies and shipped them to classrooms across the state.
The funded classrooms represented the full breadth of Michigan education. A few of the stories behind the selections:
The Strategic Decision
Not everyone was immediately on board. The concern was that spending state-adjacent budget on teacher wish lists might invite scrutiny rather than goodwill. That it could look frivolous.
My read was the opposite. Michigan Virtual exists to serve Michigan's K-12 community. Teachers are our most important audience. Proving that we understood their daily reality, not just their enrollment decisions, was exactly the kind of signal that builds durable trust. An awareness campaign buys attention for a week. This built something harder to manufacture: credibility that lasts.
Authenticity is a strategy. And sometimes the most strategic thing you can do is stop running campaigns and just do something good.
The Result
The campaign generated significant organic reach and genuine community response. Over 1,100 Michigan educators engaged statewide, far exceeding expectations. Teachers shared their lists, colleagues tagged one another, and the story spread well beyond Michigan Virtual's owned channels.
All submitted wish lists remained public on the campaign page throughout the school year, and Michigan Virtual encouraged the broader community to keep contributing to their local teachers. That extended the campaign's reach and goodwill long past the original $10,000.
It became one of the most talked-about campaigns we ran that year, measured not in click-through rates but in something harder to manufacture: people feeling like Michigan Virtual was genuinely on their side.