Connecting Schools With Great Fundraising Ideas.

One of the most important tools available to any fundraising leader is the fundraising letter. With a finely-crafted missive, the leader will be able to clarify the mission, excite the audience, and deliver on the stated need.

However, getting the letter to the point where it is “finely-crafted” is the hard part. I believe there are five key components that should be implemented to give your letter a much better chance of hitting its mark.

Before you begin writing, I recommend that you jot down a quick outline. This will help you plot your individual points, provide your supporting evidence, and generally keep you on track.

The outline should be broken down into five sections. These are: attention, interest, desire, conviction, and close. By following these five “guideposts” you are taking your reader on a directed journey, exactly where you want him to go. And fortunately, since this progression makes rhetorical sense, the reader will actually be happy to go along for this ride, as opposed to a letter that is all over the place and never really gets to the point.

Let’s break down each of the sections.

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Today I have the pleasure to share some terrific insight into school fundraising from a recognized leader in this field. Tim Sullivan, the President of PTO Today, has spent his entire career in the education world. He has worked as a teacher and administrator at a NYC high school, then as a senior manager for a New England-based fundraising concern; and now as the founder and leader of PTO Today. He has spoken at hundreds of parent group meetings and to tens of thousands of parent group leaders all across the country. He also maintains a role as a senior writer for PTO Today magazine and is a leading voice on best practices in connecting with parent group leaders.

The PTO Today website is a phenomenal resource, full of vital information for anyone involved in education. As I have been working on our own blog, here at Top School Fundraisers, I have learned a great deal from Tim and his staff through their varied articles.

On Monday of this week, I wrote about “12 Ways to Overcome Fundraising Fatigue”. I thought it might be helpful to get Tim’s thoughts on this subject. Tim actually addressed this topic in a regular column he publishes called “Tim’s Turn”. The title of this particular article was “The Fundraising Myth”

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Today I am introducing a regular feature here at Top School Fundraisers. Since this site is tied so closely to Step By Step Fundraising, I will be using the same title it does, which is “Resource Roundup.” This is a collection of interesting articles from people and organizations in the wider world of education. Most of the links will pertain directly to school fundraising, while others may just be intriguing or noteworthy. In either case, I’m sure you will get a lot out of these great links. Enjoy!

Fundraising Secret #10: Read Blogs- from The Extreme Fundraising Coach, Marc A. Pitman- Advice on how to learn more about the field of fundraising.

A Fundraising Strategy Quiz- Christy Forhan from PTO Today challenges us to evaluate the effectiveness and appropriateness of our fundraising strategy.

Are Silent Auctions Losing Ground to Online Fundraising Auctions?- read a provocative article from Dawn Ringle of Business Wire on this question that could have a great impact on many of our schools.

Top 5 Tips for Safe School Fundraising- Heidi at USA Fundraising gives us a nice overview on making sure we keep our children safe during the course of any school fundraiser.

Playground gets daily workout to curb childhood obesity- an interesting article from the Associated Press in Tulsa World (OK) on a new style of playground equipment designed to improve children’s overall health.

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Tuesdays are the day that I highlight a particular fundraising event, sale, or process. Today, I am thrilled to bring you “Flamingo Flocking”! I have to admit, this is a variety of fundraiser that I was completely unaware of just a couple of days ago. But, in my pursuit to bring you creative options, I was struck by the audacity and simplicity of this idea and had to share.

We are all familiar with the pink flamingo yard ornament. One of the prime examples of American cultural kitsch, this plastic bird with metal legs has for years marked its owners as well… interesting. I think there are probably two types of people in the world: those who take the flamingos seriously as quality yard art and those who wouldn’t be caught dead with even one adorning their lawn.

For the purposes of this fundraiser, we are banking on the hopes that there are more of those in the latter category.

The fundraiser begins with the formation of a team of people who love to have a good time and make a little harmless mischief. These folks all need to be available to convene and operate under the cover of darkness.

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“Fundraising Fatigue” is a term that has cropped up in recent years to reference the feeling that individuals have been asked to make charitable donations to too many organizations too frequently. This has become particularly relevant after the Tsunami relief effort in 2004 and Hurricane Katrina in 2005. So many people contributed to these two emergency needs, that it supposedly took away available dollars from local causes.

It is possible that you may have encountered this malady before in your organization, or you may even have felt symptoms of it yourself. However, as committed members of our schools’ fundraising teams, we must rise above this situation in order to bring in the money the school needs.

The following is a list of twelve strategies you can use at your school to combat any cases of fundraising fatigue that arise.

1. Check your community calendar. Before committing to a fundraising timeline, do your homework and research any other fundraisers that target your school families- soccer, little league baseball, or even a church fundraiser. In bigger cities, it may be very difficult to find a completely open time, since there are so many organizations, but it is wise to try to select a window during which you are not conflicting with events that will put your people in a tough financial situation. Don’t assume that you will be every family’s first donation priority.

2. Set a good plan with your school board. During your planning process with the school board, evaluate what you’ve done in the past. What worked, what didn’t? Eliminate or avoid events that have a low return on your investment of time and money. Brainstorm with your board any possible obstacles that might arise to throw your plan off course. It is important to really devise a strong, confident, and well thought-out plan in this early stage. As I will discuss later on, it is not pleasant to have to go back to the drawing board half-way through the year. Make sure to review this site, www.topschoolfundraisers.com, for plenty of quality fundraising ideas and advice for your school.

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Today I want to discuss the topic of leaving comments on this blog. Guess what! I’m all for it!

As I mentioned in my first post, the stats on this site are amazing. There are a lot of people out there reading our regular entries. And that’s great! But unfortunately, we don’t know who you all are.

For Christmas, my son received the board game “Guess Who!” That’s the one where you have to ask your opponent questions about his characters’ physical appearance to eliminate suspects and discover the hidden person.

I’ve played a lot of “Guess Who” in the last couple of weeks, so allow me to use my finely-honed deductive reasoning to try to determine who’s reading this blog.

First, I would guess our readers are adults. I told my kids I was writing for a fundraising blog and their eyes glazed over and a couple of them fell instantly to sleep. (I’ll have to remember that trick for future use…) So, I guess I’m not a favorite of the younger set.

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Yesterday, I talked a little bit about the amazing collection of fundraising resources here at Top School Fundraisers. Having worked myself for a number of non-profit organizations, all of whom relied heavily on fundraising dollars, I can’t begin to overstate how valuable this information is. Taking the lead on school fundraising can be a tough and a lonely job at times; having a guide such as this can truly be a lifesaver.

Today, I’d like to look ahead for a little bit in order to give you an idea as to how this blog will continue to develop on a daily basis. As I mentioned previously, I am a big believer in consistency. I think having a plan and sticking to it is very helpful in achieving success. I do, of course, allow room for spontaneity, realizing that oftentimes, the best ideas come from these mental wanderings. However, the mission, the ultimate goal of this site is to “connect schools with great fundraising ideas” (see blog masthead for proof!), so I want to make sure we remain focused on this stated premise.

By and large, I think people like to know what to expect. I know that I, myself, am a creature of habit. I am much more likely to be a return customer, if I know that every time I come back, I’ll receive the same level of service, the same quality of product, and the same sense of satisfaction from the experience.

So, in providing you with this blog, I desire to live up to these expectations. That means I will do my best to post at a consistent time each day. It also means that I will set a plan, so you know what you can look forward to reading.

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