Connecting Schools With Great Fundraising Ideas.

When I was a school principal, I was great for having all these wonderful ideas over the summer and putting them into place in the fall. I’d be all gung-ho for a few weeks about these new ideas, but then, you know, well, um… Things got sort of busy, and teachers were complaining, parents were complaining, students were complaining, the state was complaining, and on and on, like that. You know, normal life in a school.

But, just because I fell off the good intentions wagon, doesn’t mean that my ideas were necessarily bad. It’s just that life got in the way. Just like any other new year’s resolution.

But, since most of us are now back from the Christmas and New Year’s holidays, it is a good time to think back to all those awesome ideas we started out with in the fall.

Of course, every school, every parent-teacher group, every principal, and every circumstance is different, but here is a list of some generally good ideas that maybe you wanted to improve upon in this current school year. How has your progress been? Are you still pushing hard to develop good habits? Or has something else cropped up to divert you from your goals? Let’s take a look.

1. Are you using a passive fundraising strategy, in addition to your normal money-raising activities?

2. Have you instituted an opt-out policy?

3. Are you doing a good job of making your school warm and inviting?

4. Have you thought of ways to increase the level of your school’s spirit?

5. Have you eliminated fundraisers that don’t earn as much as you need or are not worth the organizational headache?

6. Have you evaluated your fundraising calendar to look for conflicts with other school’s or other non-profit fundraisers?

7. Have you found ways to improve your school carnival or if you don’t have one, are you planning one for this year?

8. Have you planned something radical for fundraising? Something that is creative and might get news coverage/publicity because it is so unique?

9. Have you done a good enough job thanking and recognizing your school’s volunteers?

10. Have you done enough recruiting of potential new volunteers?

11. Have you looked over where the parents of your students are employed? (Possible professional services donations)

12. Have you tried to institute fundraisers that take advantage of the current trends of being health and environmentally conscious?

13. Have you trained your staff (and yourself) to “up-sell” your students’ parents every time you have contact with them?

14. Are you putting yourself in the shoes of your students’ parents each time you make a fundraising decision?

15. Are you asking for input from a broad spectrum of parents to see if your idea will go over well?

16. Have you read Sandra Sim’s new book on how to write excellent fundraising letters?

17. Are you being creative enough with merchandise sales at school events like school football games?

18. Are you really committed to doing the “little things” right in your fundraising efforts, like good organization, attention to details, carrying through on your word, etc?

19. Are you helping your parents with strategies on how to sell products on the school’s behalf?

20. Are you constantly updating your school’s database with current addresses, email addresses, and phone numbers?

21. Are you thinking of ways to create unrelated business income that could help support your school?

22. Have you kept up a quality dialog with your school’s highest donors?

23. Have you looked for creative ways to save money on advertising?

24. Have you made sure that you are shopping local, so that you can not feel lousy when you hit them up for donations for your auction or ads in your school yearbook?

25. Are you sending out a regular email-based newsletter so parents are sure to see it in their inbox as opposed to crumpled up in their child’s backpack?

*Bonus!*

26. Are you making yourself available and actively introducing yourself to school families that you don’t know?

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