Planning and managing a school fundraising event can make you want to pull your hair out or perhaps start banging your head on a table out of frustration. Here are seven helpful fundraising ideas that will help make your next school fundraiser a smooth and profitable success.
1.) Plan for Success
Efficient planning is integral to the success of not only your school fundraising campaign but any project you might think of. Without a well thought out plan of action chaos will reign and your project will suffer as a result no matter how good your fundraising ideas are. In fact, you should have a primary plan as well as a secondary and tertiary.
2.) There can be Only One!
There can only be one captain of a ship and the same holds true for your school fundraising program. Too many chiefs and not enough Indians is a recipe for failure as well as a bad idea. Pick a competent person to be in charge and then let them be in charge.
3.) Delegate Authority
Assign specific tasks to people in whom you have confidence and trust. In your planning create a list of tasks that must be accomplished and choose personnel for each task. Ensure that each of your chosen staff understands that accountability for their assigned task falls squarely on their shoulders.
4.) Promotion is the Key
Get the word our about your school fundraiser. Proper promotion of your event will ensure that you reach your goal. Send out press releases to local media outlets. Don't forget your own school web page is a great way to post your fundraising ideas and opportunities and get the word out about it. Depending on the type of fundraiser you are planning will dictate if creating flyers and asking local business to place them in store windows would be helpful. There are many ways to promote an event and you should take advantage of as many of them as possible.
5.) Pre-Sell for Success
This tactic will work effectively for any type of school fundraising event. If your fundraiser is an event like a dance or dinner or some kind of ticketed event, you will do much better pre-selling your tickets. Start the revenue stream long before the actual event. When items such as cookie dough or Christmas gift items are your main products start mentioning it to friends, family, and neighbors ahead of time.
6.) Multiple Income Streams
Do not put all of your eggs in one basket. Multiple income streams have been a recipe for success in business for many years and you should be running your school fundraising just like a business. If you are placing your whole years planning on the success of only one program, then you may find yourself in a shortfall. You might even have another nearby school start the same thing your were planning to do the week before you kick your fundraiser off. If you are located in a small town, this can be a huge blow to your school fundraising success. Try using multiple events to your advantage. This is an excellent way to reach your goal as quickly as possible and spread out some of the risk.
7.) Post Event Analysis
While not part of the actual event planning phase this is something that you should not overlook. Analyze how each of your school fundraising efforts performed. Which ones did your customers like the best? Which ones made you the most money? What school fundraising event was the easiest to do? You can use your analysis of your current campaign to enhance future fundraising efforts. It is especially helpful to write these things down in a journal for the next board to view in case all the faces on the board change from year to year. This way, they don't have to re-invent the wheel like you did!
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School fundraising should be a fairly simple process that helps your school meet it's goals. If you have been disappointed with your school fundraising results lately, you should click on this link and see how you can imporve your results.
