Key Elements for Planning Successful School Fundraising Events

Copyright (c) 2008 AIM Fundraising

Every day I talk with people who have had their school fundraising program dropped in their lap. Many times they have taken on the job because there was no one else to do it. In every case, their main concern is that they do a better job on the school fundraising campaign than was done the year before. Imagine the pressure of running a sale in such a way that the school actually makes less than they did last year. Now that is what I call pressure!

To make your life a bit easier here is a simple guide to ensuring that your school fundraising events achieve their goals and operate smoothly. Namely, that they are both profitable and trouble free.

1. Setting a Goal

The very first thing that you must do is determine how much money you need to raise. Take into consideration the expenses you are likely to have. Coming up with a figure on exactly how much you need to raise can be a pretty big chore. It also helps your cause to have specific instead of "general" goals.

Running a school fundraising campaign with the intended goal to "raise as much as we can" is very hard to communicate to parents of your students and will likely not get a lot of support. If you find that you really don't have anything pressing that you need to raise money for, it is better to give the parents a break and simply choose to not do a fundraiser.

2. Determine Your Timeline.

When conducting a fundraiser you must set a timeline. It is wise to consult a professional fundraiser if you are planning to do any type of product sale. They can help you determine a timeline that will allow you plenty of time to conduct your fundraising activities. They can even help you plan events around your calendar so that the Fall Carnival won't interfere with your product sale, and your product sale won't interrupt your Book Day's and so forth.

3. What is Your Target Audience?

Determine who you will be targeting in your fundraising. Ask yourself is you want to make your school fundraiser a product sale or a family type of event fundraiser like an auction or carnival. Or, do you need to try to raise more money by doing a product sale like cookie dough or Christmas wrap. Each one of these type fundraisers have it's own application in different schools. There are some schools that do a spaghetti dinner and make ten's of thousands on them, while others will barely break even.

4. Incentives.

I have found that the prizes that are given in a particular school fundraising program has more to do with it's success than any other single factor. A school could almost sell five dollar bills for ten dollars and do very well if you motivate the students and parents correctly.

One misconception about prize incentives is that many believe that the bigger the prize the better the sale. If one of the prizes for the top seller is an item that is the latest craze that year, then you will have a better sale. Do not fall into that trap.

The power of school fundraising is in the size of the group, not in who sells $1,000 worth of "stuff." Think about it, would you rather have 2 students sell over $1,000 and 25% participation in your sale? Or would you make much more profit if you had 40% participation and no one sells more than $80.00?

When you think about it, the prize that gets the most kids to sell $80 is much more important than the big prize that gets 2 kids to sell $1,000! And what is really sad about that is most professional fundraiser don't get that let alone the average PTA Fundraising Chairperson!

5. Promotion

How will you promote your fundraiser? One of the best ways to promote your fundraising campaign is by throwing out lots of reminders. When it is time for the school fundraiser, be sure to send a letter or an e-mail to parents long before the sale starts. Send another informational letter home with your sales brochure. Parents can be busy people and sometimes things slip their mind.

Though this guide is geared toward school or groups in the education system these are the basic steps involved in any form of fundraising. Use these steps to plan your events. If you spend some time in planning and making sure that you are sticking to the plan, you'll find that your school fundraiser will go as planned.