Category Archives: Fundraising

Start Your Fundraising Using Fundraising Calendars

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While not all of the best fundraising ideas can be done fast, you should know that using fundraising calendars are different. With the effective use of fundraising calendars at the turn of the year, it is really quite easy to raise a significant amount of money fearlessly fast at the most opportune time. Let me show you how you can do this kind of fundraising fearlessly fast with the right weekly steps. Just go through the different steps below and see how you can easily and quickly raise the funds you need.

Week 1: Prep Work – The first week for your fundraising campaign with custom calendars is all about prep work. You will need to gather materials and information for your calendar design. Do your market research first and identify who you want to target to sell your custom calendars as well as the prime locations where you can market to them.

Next, try to gather all the images, software and other tools that you need to develop designs best suited to those target markets. Make sure that you also compose all the needed feature text, fundraising campaign information and contact details. Finally, try to acquire the tools and software that you are most comfortable in using, as well as any calendar templates that you might want to use. Once you have all of these materials setup, you should be ready to develop your design.

Week 2: Development and Testing – Design development for your fundraising calendars can actually be done in just a few hours, but depending on your expertise, testing and the adjustments that you need to do, the whole process should safely be done in a week. During this time of course you will be developing your design using your own desktop publishing software. Make sure that you enhance your images and be clear cut with your layout. Proofread and check several times so that you won’t have mistakes in your content.

Once you have a rough draft finished, do not forget to test your calendar layouts by printing them on your own and having other people check it out. Get some feedback from colleagues and even random strangers if possible. These tests and feedback should give you some ideas on how to improve and refine your calendars to make them ideal for fundraising. Finalize your design after integrating all those feedbacks and refinements.

Week 3: Printing – Finally, once the development and testing is finished you go on to the third week for printing. If you print your calendars online, you can actually have those hundreds of calendars finished within one to two days. This is of course a rush calendar printing job that is more expensive. However, you can safely reserve at least five days for normal printing without incurring any extra costs for the rush order. Just make sure you choose the best online calendar printing that you have access to. Check their quality guarantees and their printing options just to be sure it is ideal for your fundraising calendars.

Week 4: Deployment – Lastly on the fourth week, once the calendars are delivered, you can then deploy your custom calendars and start your fundraising. Besides advertising your calendars at your shop or office, do not forget to promote it proactively by informing your social network about it and just generally marketing your calendars through promotional materials. Do everything that is in your power to get word about your fundraising calendars and you should get those fundraising results you wanted as quickly as possible with the best possible returns.

Great! So within a month you can actually be able to raise funds for your campaign using only color calendars. It is quick and fast fundraising fearlessly through custom calendars.

Benefits of Online Calendar Printing in Fundraising

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All fundraising ideas need a little help from something. If you are using fundraising calendars as a means to get extra funds, your best partner is an online calendar printing company. Yes, you heard me right. Since you will be developing fundraising calendars, a good and effective calendar printer is the ideal partner to help you out. Many small businesses and special projects have hired online calendar printing companies to great effect for their fundraising ideas, so you should really consider it as well. Let me explain to you point by point why online calendar printing is good for you and your fundraising campaign.

a. Competitive pricing – When you do try to print your calendars online, you will see that most online calendar printers have competitive prices. With the online marketplace as vibrant and changing as it is, most firms offer competitive prices for most calendar printing orders. This means that you will experience generally cheaper and competitive printing quotations wherever you go in the Internet. This is great for your fundraising campaign with calendars of course, since you will want to minimize the printing price.

b. Detailed and customizable options – An added advantage in printing your custom calendars online is that you can actually choose all of your printing options. Most online printing companies will offer you detailed choices for your calendars. This includes what paper materials to use, the inks, the binding, the coatings etc. You can choose all the settings you want to create, for a truly customized fundraising calendar. You won’t get talked into anything you don’t want to use and of course get full control of the printing, including adjustments in price. This is great especially when you want your fundraising calendar to have that certain printing quality to it.

c. Quick-fast quotes – Of course, one of the best things about printing online is that you get your printing quotes really fast. By just adjusting your options and presenting your design, online printers typically will have a quotation for you within seconds. So you can really adjust your budget for fundraising quite easily with online printing in mind. You do not need to wait for confirmation or anything to get the specific details of printing quotations.

d. Chance of great wholesale deals – As with any printing job, there is always a chance of great wholesale deals. Print enough of your custom calendars and you will get discounts on a per piece basis. Beyond that, there are actually great online discounts, coupons and many other interesting offers that you can take advantage of to help you with calendar printing. What’s good about it is that you can be notified of the deals as quickly as possible with online alerts to your email. So really you can probably get the best deals imaginable as quickly as possible if you partner up with an online printer.

e. Effective deployment options – Finally, what online printers are great for is their delivery service. You do not have to pick up those color calendars yourself. You can have them be delivered to your own house, or you can have them deployed to the different areas you want them to be positioned. This is particularly effective if you have multiple branches or sites for fundraising around the state or even around the country. So deployment worries for fundraising calendars are a thing of the past with online printing.

So as you can see, online printers are the best partners if you are using fundraising calendars. Never forget this as you start your fundraising campaign. Good luck!

Facts About Fundraising Using Calendars

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One of the lowest risk and low investment fundraising ideas that you can have are fundraising calendars. It might not sound as snazzy as a fundraising dinner, or a fundraising marathon but fundraising calendars can be a simple and easy way to get some extra funds for a good cause. Don’t believe me? Well, let me give you the easy facts that should convince you that custom calendar printing for a cause can be your key to extra funds for your project.

a. Low cost investment – If you look at the typical quotations for calendar printing, you will discover that it is pretty cheap. In fact it is remarkably cheap than setting up a whole big event with all the logistics and extra staff you need to hire. In most cases, a typical batch of calendar printing for fundraising should cost you only around 20%-30% of the budget for a big fundraising event depending on how many custom calendars you print. So this is perfect for projects who only have limited resources for investment.

b. Easy to create, even by yourself – Another great thing about using calendars for fundraising is that those custom calendars are very easy to create. You can even create the color calendars yourself to save on staff fees! With just a simple desktop publishing application, a digital camera, a calendar template, inspired imagination and some elbow grease you can have a decent looking calendar for fundraising in no time at all. With the tools today, you don’t really have to be an expert to do it!

c. A breeze to mass produce – It is also a fact that color calendars, even heavily customized ones are easy to produce. If you have a great printer at the office or at your home, it is very easy enough to churn out your calendar pages and prints. On the professional side of things, you can hire online calendar printing companies to do the job. With just a quick order in their website and of course an email with your designs attached you can do the whole calendar printing process quickly. In fact, you can have it printed in rush and get it in a day or two. So calendars are really a breeze to mass produce. So if you have a busy schedule, fundraising calendars can be very convenient for you.

d. Very easy to deploy and sell – Fundraising calendars are also very easy to deploy and sell. Besides using your own booth or shop to sell them, you can also easily distribute them to your colleagues and friends to sell to others. You can even have other community shops to sell them easily enough since there is no real maintenance or anything needed to sell them. So there is no real worry about the actual execution of a calendar based fundraising campaign.

e. Always sells a lot at the turn of the year – Finally, if you are worried that your fundraising calendars aren’t going to work, think again. By timing your calendars to be sold at the turn of the year, you can easily sell a lot of them and turn out lots of extra funds for your project or campaign. Everyone needs new calendars once the turn of the year starts and you can be sure of significant sales in the months of December and January. So there is no real problems in getting results from fundraising calendars as long as you time them right.

Great! As you can see, using custom calendars for fundraising can be a low risk, low investment but high benefit project that almost anyone can do effectively. So why not use calendar printing for fundraising? You’ll never regret the decision.

Grading Fundraising Calendars Benefits

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Want to know if fundraising calendars have the passing marks that match some of those other fundraising ideas out there? In this special article, we will tell you our different grade marks for fundraising calendars and the precise explanations why they are so. Hopefully this allows you to realize specifically the benefits that a fundraising calendar can provide you, giving you the best information available to compare this fundraising tool to others. So let me show you the exact fundraising calendars’ grades have according to experts.

Cost : A

When it comes to production and deployment costs, fundraising calendars get a perfect “A”. This is because fundraising calendars are basically cheap to produce and distribute. While other fundraising ideas will run into thousands of dollars, printing calendars will only cost you a few hundred. For small fundraising projects to just the opening salvo for a big fundraising campaign, custom calendars have the perfect costs for anyone. Even with limited resources, you should be able to manage creating a good custom calendar with free software, free design elements and cheap calendar printing, as long as you know where to look. So cost wise, fundraising calendars are perfect.

Effectiveness: B

In terms of effectiveness, using color calendars for fundraising is a decent “B”. We gave it a “B” because it is not always a sure fire way to get several times the returns, but it still gives you great returns on your investment. This is the case because with custom calendars, you do have competition from other commercial calendars. Your fundraising calendars will have to go head to head with professionally made calendars which can sell for cheaper prices if need be. . So you will have to work and be competitive with your fundraising calendars for them to be effective. If you really work hard though with the design and distribution, it should get you amazing results though, giving you a great fundraising boost, especially at the turn of each year.

Ease of design: A+

When it comes to creation and design, we gave fundraising calendars a whopping “A+”. Why? That’s because designing custom calendars today is simply a breeze. Most desktop publishing applications today (even simple ones like Microsoft Word) can create a simple calendar design for you with convenient calendar templates. Other design software can use special calendar templates that you can actually customize yourself in various ways. So whether you are a newbie that needs some quick calendar formatting, or you are an expert that wants to control every aspect of the design, color calendars can be a breeze to design for you. There is just so little trouble with dealing with it; that is why a fundraising calendar design gets an A+ in this category.

Ease of printing: B

Printing calendars gets a “B” on our grades. Why? That is because printing calendars is pretty simple, easy and very convenient today. While you will still need some know-how and maybe a little bit of research on the process of printing and the best options in color calendar printing, the whole process can easily be simplified by online calendar printing companies. These firms can typically help you with the whole process, letting you choose the precise details that you want to change. After that, they can handle the rest of the process, delivering you the finished products within days. It is very easy to print, as long as you willing to learn and try to get the hang of what is happening.

Deployment : B

Finally, on deployment, we give fundraising calendars a “B”‘. It is a “B” simply because it is relatively easy to deploy, but you will have to do all of it with some footwork and creative marketing. To get lots of custom calendars sold for your campaign, you will have to do be a bit extensive with your activities. Passively selling custom calendars will not give you the best results. You will need to promote and get other people to help you sell those calendars to get returns from them. So while they are easy to move around and sell, you will have to work to get them to the right people.

So those are the grades for each aspect of fundraising calendars. Overall it is a good positive spread of grades. It is good enough for you to seriously consider using custom calendars in most of your fundraising campaigns.

Create Fundraising Calendars For Your Social Cause

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Raising money for your social cause can be quite a challenge. It is not always easy to get people give you money for support and assistance. You need to be creative as well as be able to take risks in raising funds. Previously, you may have had experience raising funds through the traditional ways: conducting garage sales, hosting dinners. If you want a new idea, you may want to create fundraising calendars. Fundraising calendars are great way to generate money. Before the year ends, fundraising calendars can be a hit among everyone. These are great gift ideas as anyone who is looking forward for the New Year prefers the functionality of fundraising calendars. Before you go on designing and printing fundraising calendars, you may want to take a look at the following guidelines first:

1. Establish your cause.

On your fundraising calendars, always keep the pictures relevant. The pictures should say a great deal about what cause you are supporting. You do not just sell fundraising calendars without setting an identity for your organization. Check what are the images, whether they are illustrations or photographs, you can use. Make sure that the images are of high resolution. Otherwise, the appearance of your fundraising calendars can be pixilated.

2. Get the best calendar printers.

There are a lot of companies that offer printing services. Find one that can offer you quality prints. Check for discounts. These can make a big difference on your budget. See what your printing options are. Do not easily settle with a printing company for your fundraising calendars without checking your other possible choices. You may want to check the internet for printing services.

3. Monochrome over full color.

You can go for monochromatic fundraising calendars. As you know, you can save on costs if you go for monochromatic. Full color printing can cost quite a lot. If you want to go for monochromatic, make sure that the final outputs are of great quality. Otherwise, it would be better if you go for full color printing.

4. Check print samples.

As you have to sell these fundraising calendars, you want to offer the best to your potential clientele or customers. You do not want to offer them fundraising calendars that are not at par with those available in the market. If you wish to get the services of online printing companies, always request for product samples.

5. Inspect the outputs.

Once you have the sample print outputs, take a careful look at the design as well as content. You may find mistakes that can affect the over-all look of your fundraising calendars. Check each page of your fundraising calendars more than once. You may find major mistakes that need to be revised immediately.

6. Work on the content.

The design of your fundraising calendars is just half of it. You also have to work on other elements, such as the text. You may want to include messages to let your receivers get familiarized with your social cause. You can get the services of a copywriter for the job. If you are good at copywriting though, you can always do the task on your own.

Fundraising calendars are a great way to raise money for your organization. However, you have to make sure that what you present to your potential donors are of high quality.

Guidelines for a Successful Fundraiser for your Church Youth Group

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You may have done it before. Lined up all your volunteers and youth group kids and set out ready for your best fundraiser ever. Then flop. Your fundraiser does little more than get your church youth group parents and a few grandparents to show up. What went wrong? Most likely it was a few common and easy to make mistakes that kept your fundraiser from being a huge success. With the following guidelines in mind your youth group will be able to fundraise, have fun and show community involvement.

Your essential guidelines for youth group fundraising success;

1- Advertise. It is not enough to stay with in your congregation or youth group families when you are publicizing a fundraiser. In order for your fundraiser to be a true success you will need to expand your horizons and look beyond your own back door. Often time’s local Christian radio stations will have free advertising space or may offer discounted advertising for your youth group fundraiser. You can also contact your local newspaper. With a little fines you may be able to negotiate a great price on advertising for your fundraiser. Finally do not forget the ever important flyers and posters. If your budget is low, set your youth group to making flyers and posters for your fundraiser. This will both save you money and show great participation by your youth group.

2- Gather Volunteers. Your volunteers are crucial to the success of your fundraiser. It is the rare youth group that can pull off a fundraiser with out any assistance. Start with the parents and grandparents of your youth group members, and ask them to help with your fundraiser. Then spread out to other members of your congregation. If you have clear cut goals for your fundraiser members are far more likely to participate. You will also want to have a designated and organized leader for your fundraiser. All your fundraising volunteers need to know who to go to for help and they need to feel that your fundraiser is on track and doing great.

3- Location, Location, Location. If you are having a simple cookie dough fundraiser then selling in your church’s fellowship hall will probably suffice. However if you are holding a community wide fundraiser where you are opening yourselves up to all the community to attend you will need to pick a well know location. Ideas for locations are large parks, highshcool or junior high football fields or community college concert halls. With proper planning you will be able to accommodate a large number of community members and pull off a successful fundraiser.

Follow these guidelines and your youth group will take fundraising from a lack luster event to your most amazing fun and profitable fundraiser ever.

How to Choose a Fundraising Company for a Profitable Fundraiser

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Copyright (c) 2008 AIM Fundraising

When it is time to set up for your next unique fundraiser, you may find yourself overwhelmed. There is so much to consider. The choices you make may seem insignificant but they can make the difference between having a good fundraiser or a great one.

One of the most important things to decide is what you will do for your incentives for your new fundraiser. It is not only the product line but the incentive you choose which can make or break your fundraising campaign. Using the services of a professional fundraising company is one of the best ways to ensure that things will go smoothly. They do this kind of thing professionally and will guide you in your decisions.

Here are 7 useful tips to use when deciding which products, incentives and fundraising consultant to use in your fundraiser.

1.) Quality

Does your consultant firm offer a high quality line of products? Value is extremely important to your target customers. In order to succeed your customer must feel that they are getting a good value for their investment.

2.) Support Materials

When choosing a fundraising consultant it is important that you take a good look at any support materials that they offer such as product catalogs. A nice looking brochure work to dramatically increase your sales.

3.) Hidden Costs

Hidden costs can sometimes be overwhelming. Make sure that you understand and have taken into account the cost of catalogs, brochures, and shipping. Remember, any costs that you overlook are going to come off of the bottom line.

One thing to consider is that not all cost to your group are bad cost. For instance if you are pitching in on the cost of a particular prize or two in order to offer it at a lower prize level than it would normally be offered, those cost will come back to you 10 times over in the form of extra profit.

4.) Free Sample Pack

Does your fundraising consultant firm offer a free sample pack? If so use this to evaluate the quality of your fundraising product line before placing an order.

5.) Policy

Inquire up front as to the policy of your fundraising consultant with regard to replacement goods in the event of product damage during shipping. Discover what the terms of your fundraising company’s return policy is as well.

6.) Special Delivery

Will your product require special delivery methods such as refrigeration? Spoiled products are always a big concern when dealing with foodstuffs, especially frozen items.

One good thing about frozen cookie dough however, is that it does not require refrigeration like raw breads or cheesecake do. Take care in choosing your delivery area. If the cookie dough is delivered and placed in an area that is out of direct sunlight and not near a heat source brands of cookie dough like Chippery and Otis Spunkmeyer will deliver without the need for refrigeration. That is because sugar is actually a preservative in it’s own right and these particular brand have the lowest water content of other fundraising cookie dough brands.

7.) References

What is the reputation of your fundraising company? Ask for a list of past customers and contact them regarding the performance of your fundraising company. You might also ask what items were best sellers.

Choosing the proper fundraising company is very important to your fundraising efforts. These Seven tips will help you to choose a professional fundraising company that will work with you to ensure that your fundraiser is an overwhelming success.

Fabulous Five Fundraising Ideas

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Fundraisers come and fundraisers go but with these five fundraisers in your arsenal you will have amazing success. You will be very pleased with how profitable your fundraising will become when you begin to fundraise and have fun at the same time.

The first fundraising idea is to have a junk shop fundraiser. The idea is simple your group will canvas a neighbor hood around your church or school and ask for old junk items that people are willing to donate for your cause. You then can hold a junk sale and sell the items at discount rates. You will also be surprised to find out that many people are willing to support fundraisers with cash when asked for nothing more than there old junk.

A second fabulous fundraising idea is to have a celebrity fundraising garage sale. Contact local celebrities or even bigger name celebrities and ask them to support your fundraising cause by donating old used items. If you are able to negotiate with the celebrities to attend your celebrity fundraising garage sale your sales will sky rocket. People are naturally drawn to celebrities and the idea that they can come to a garage sale fundraiser and buy celebrity items while meeting and greeting the actual celebrity will draw people in. Remember with a celebrity fundraising garage sale you have to advertise to make it work.

Have a free concert of local bands that people can attend at your church or school. Then while people are listening to music you can offer bottled water and soda for sale as well as candy and other packaged goods. You can also increase the awareness of your cause and ask for fundraising donations. Bands are often times excited to help out local causes and may be willing to play for your fundraiser at little or no expense to you.

Have an old fashioned bake sale. Bake sales are a great way to fundraise. With people being as busy as they are these days fewer and fewer people have time to bake home made goodies. With a fundraising bake sale people are able to support your cause as well as buy those baked goods that make them remember grandma.

Finally get online. With the internet being so active and so many people being online blogging and having a website is a great way to raise awareness for your cause. You can ask for donations through your website or offer options to purchase products through your site. Online awareness is a great way to fundraise.

Remember that a key to fundraising is to have your donors feel important and to know that you need them. Donors need to feel a personal relationship with the cause in order to support fundraiser, and always say Thank You.

5 Ways to Have a Successful and Unique Fundraiser

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Copyright (c) 2008 AIM Fundraising

When planning a fundraiser it is easy to get caught up in the things that do not make all that much difference in the outcome of the sale. Here are five things that if you will keep in mind while planning your fundraiser, will make a difference in the profit for your school.

Below you will find five things that a school or group can do that will greatly affect how much money is raised with their new fundraiser:

Step #1 – Profit Percentage Does Not Equal Profits.

A company offering 90% profit vs a company offering 20% profit is not necessarily a better deal for a school. Remember schools can not deposit percentage in their bank account, but they are allowed to deposit money. Most schools look at profit percentage as the number one priority when choosing what they will pick for their next new fundraiser. What I am saying here does not mean profit percentage is not important, but it should not be the school’s first and only priority when choosing their next new and unique fundraiser. It should be the school’s number one goal to raise the maximum profit possible with the least amount of hassles!

Step #2 – The Product You Sell Does Make a Difference (But Not As Much As You Might Think) Coming up with the right product for your new fundraiser does make a difference, however, it is not the most important factor in having a successful fundraiser. You have probably seen this in your own neighborhood, how two schools decide to sell cookie dough and they both sell them at the same time and the same price. But the difference in their results (Profits) were HUGE! So you would have to conclude that it was not the product that made the difference. So what is it that makes the huge difference? Hint, see Step #5!

Step #3 – Time Your Fundraiser as Early In the School year as Possible

When you kickoff your fundraiser is a very important aspect of it’s success. It is an undiputed fact that the first school who’s sales brochure goes into an office or neighborhood has higher sales than the one that comes last. However, timing is not the #1 reason why schools have successful fundraisers. Hint, see Step #5!

Step #4- Pick a dynamic person to head up your new fundraiser!

The excitement for a fundraiser starts with the person at the top. The person organizing the new fundraiser sets the tone and the level of the excitement and affects participation in the sale. Yes, the fundraising sponsor’s attitude and enthusiasm have a very important role in the outcome of any new fundraiser.

Step #5- Program Management (How the fundraiser is run) is the Number One factor in it’s success.

Program Management is the most important element on having a Successful fundraiser. You may know that “How” the school fundraiser is run is critical to it’s success, but the main problem is not many fundraising companies train the fundraising sponsors on proper “Program Management.”

Following are several key elements on Program Management:

A) Setting Goals for the School

B) A Memorable Kick Off

C) Maintaining Excitement for the Duration of the Sale

D) Finding Helpful Volunteers

E) Motivating the Students/Sellers

F) Motivating the Teachers and Staff members to Promote the Sale.

To get the HIGHEST sales on a new fundraiser the students/sellers must be properly motivated. You can even go so far as to provide motivation for teacher/staff members too.

The main reason why one elementary will make $8,000 while another similar school will make $15,500, is the way they did their prizes/incentives for students and for their teachers!

We at AIM have a saying “Students could sell $5 bills for $10.00 and do real well if you motivate them good enough.” The most important part of your fundraiser will be to provide incentives that truly motivate your students and teachers to participate in your sale like they have never done before! A measly 15% increase in participation can very easily double the typical school fundraiser. Participation is not hard to increase by 15%.

Key Elements for Planning Successful School Fundraising Events

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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.