July 28, 2008
Double Your School Fundraiser By Making One Simple Change
By Juan Franco
Going to school used to be all about learning and studies. Today, however, it includes many other activities and “fun” events as well. But these special events and activities cost money. With cuts is school budgets for many schools and school districts the only option they have to pay for these events is for the school to raise the money in some sort of fundraising event.
It is fundraising that many consider to be like the “third rail” on a subway system. It is either viewed as the power source to make things go or it is viewed as the thing everyone wants to stay away from. However, a properly run fundraiser is a blessing for all. There really is no reason why teachers, volunteers, students, parents and the community should dread the start of the school fundraising drive. If the product is right, the incentives are worthwhile, the rewards will be enjoyed by all.
Fundraisers that are view negatively are usually ones that are done for just a small segment of the school. For instance, if you are having a school wide fundraiser that most of the money raised is used for the 5th grade field trip, 80% of the school is being left out. Unless something is done to make it worth their while, you’ll have allot of unhappy kids and parents.
Sometimes you just have to wonder why it is that some schools will have huge sales and other schools in similar neighborhoods and similar size student bodies will have average results. They can even be selling the same fundraising goods, but their results will be miles apart. The answer to that question is not something that is readily apparent. It’s not the product or the neighborhood, it’s “How’ they run their sale that makes the most difference in the outcome.
A case in point is Fern Bluff Elementary in Round Rock, Texas. For years they had been having $25-$29,000 sales with their 700 students. One year, they made a few changes in only one thing…it wasn’t in what they picked for their fundraiser, that remained the same. All they did was make a change in how they ran their sale and the year after they had a $29,000 sale they had a $68,000 sale. They actually made as much that year as they had sold the year before!
They not only raised more money but they also increased participation of parents and teachers when it came time for delivery. They had always had a problem of finding enough volunteers to help when it came time for delivery. This time they had to turn people away! Nothing like that had ever happened at that school before.
All that came because they chose to run their sale differently than they had been doing it all those years previous. Napoleon Hill once said, “You can get everything you want in life if you help enough other people get what they want.” That is the basis for changing the fundraising environment at your school.
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