We spoke for over an hour, and I learned a great deal from her. Below, I have listed eight of the best tips she shared with me for running a carnival that makes a lot of money. If you would like to see an excellent example of a website set up just for a school carnival, check out their site here.

Here are a few of the ideas I picked up from our interview:

1. Use older students in the school to promote the carnival to younger students.

Barbara told me that their planning team recruited a handful of fifth graders (who are the oldest students at Tomahawk) to go into the younger classrooms and get the K to 4th graders totally fired up to attend. They made sure the students they chose were very outgoing and personable.

These mini-pep-rallies happened just a couple of weeks before the carnival itself. Barbara said that the fifth graders have much more “influence” over the younger kids than teachers, the principal, or the PTO volunteers do. Believe it or not, the fifth graders are “cooler” than adults. (Who knew?) The lesson is: If you want a lot of kids to convince their parents that they “have” to go to the carnival, get the older kids to stoke their passion!

2. Get teachers involved in the planning process.

Barbara said she learned this lesson the hard way. Two years ago, they had a number of teachers actually sit on the carnival planning committee. As a result, these teachers were very aware of all the latest news and deadlines, and they twisted the arms of the other teachers to support the event in their classrooms.

Last year, however, there was an unfortunate mis-communication that resulted in many teachers missing some key information about carnival planning, and consequently, teacher participation was way down. This hurt the overall effort.

The lesson is to be absolutely positive that each teacher is fully aware of all the vital dates, deadlines, forms, and other news that they should know. On a practical level, Barbara strongly recommends that you make sure teachers are actually reading the fliers that they are stuffing in their students’ homework folders. Many times a teacher gets busy and can miss vital information.

3. Use yard signs to promote the carnival.

One of the best marketing tools Barbara told me they use are the campaign-style yard signs that you see during political elections. She said they spent approximately $300 and purchased 50 or 60 very simple signs that read “Tomahawk Carnival This Saturday”. That’s it. Big bold letters. No date, no time, no directions. She said that more people comment to her about those signs than any other form of advertising they’ve tried. Also, since the message isn’t date specific, they can use the signs year after year. They just had to commit to the idea that their carnival would always be on a Saturday. Sometimes, low tech is the best approach!

4. Negotiate with any organizations who conflict with your carnival date.

Barbara told me that the only conflict they found on their carnival date was a youth football league in their city. A number of the students at Tomahawk play in this league, so she was fearful that the carnival attendance would be down.

Therefore, she went to the football league organizers directly and explained her situation. She asked them, well in advance of them creating their season schedule, if they could use her date as the “bye” week. She also asked if they could delay the start of the games that would be played that day until later in the afternoon, so the kids could still attend the carnival and then make the game in plenty of time.

Because she used the right approach, was respectful, and made her request far in advance, the league officials were able to work with her, and the conflict was resolved. The moral of the story is don’t be afraid to work with people to get what you want

5. Be careful not to lose money if you sell activity wristbands.

One of the interesting observations that Barbara shared with me involved the sale of wristbands that allow carnival-goers to participate in many of the games and activities without having to buy individual tickets. I really like the wristband concept for many reasons, but Barbara did have one warning.

Just this past year, Tomahawk decided to switch from a ticket-based system to exclusively using the wristband system. However, in reviewing the results of this experiment, she noticed that the school actually lost some money.

To explain, she used herself as an example. Last year, under the ticket system, she, personally, spent over $100 total at the event with her kids. That includes food and game tickets. She spent more than many other families, because she was there all day, organizing the event, and her kids were with her.

But, when the school switched to the wristband system this year, her total outlay was under $50! Same amount of kids, same food consumption. She realized that she spent way more money buying her kids individual tickets than she did buying the wristband, which was priced at $10. That was good for her personally, but bad for the school overall.

To make up for this gap, Tomahawk will raise the price of the wristband next year to $12, sell a combination of wristbands and individual tickets, and possibly increase the number of activities that the wristband doesn’t cover.

There are many advantages to selling activity wristbands. Just don’t make them so affordable, that you lose money.

6. Don’t buy expensive concessions to re-sell.

When it comes to picking your carnival menu, be careful not to pay too much for the food that you sell. For instance, in the past, Tomahawk has contracted with the fast food chain Chick-fil-A to provide their tasty chicken sandwiches. They get a deal from the restaurant because they are buying in bulk and because they are a non-profit.

However, they are still paying a relatively high price per sandwich. So, they can’t very well turn around and tack on a huge amount to make a substantial profit from their carnival customers. No one would buy the sandwiches at outrageous prices.

So, from a money-making perspective, make sure the food you’re selling is cheap enough (preferably donated!) for you to make a decent profit. Having a popular item, like a Chick-fil-A sandwich, is appealing, but ultimately, it is counterproductive to your goal to raise money.

7. Make sure parents know the carnival is a fundraiser, not just a feel-good get-together.

While this may seem like an obvious point to those of us deeply involved in volunteering at our children’s school, there are many parents who just don’t put two and two together. If your school carnival is meant to raise money, you need to make sure this message is heard loudly and clearly by everyone in your audience.

That means you’ll need to repeat it over and over again to make sure the concept sinks in. Barbara suggests putting this “fundraiser” disclaimer on every piece of written information that goes out to the community.

I would even suggest being very specific in telling moms and dads what the money will be used for. If you hope to convince parents to drop significant dollars on silly little games and to get locked up in a “jail”, you’re going to have to appeal to their logical sides and show them the bigger picture- i.e. the school’s financial need. Just don’t assume they know that you actually do want to raise some funds.

8. Don’t get too caught up in having a theme.

I asked Barbara if they used a different theme each year, like “Pirates” or “Day at the Farm”. She told me that their carnival takes place just before Halloween, so there are a few autumnal decorations, but overall, they didn’t want to get locked into the time or the expense that comes with rotating out a different theme every year.

There are many schools that do go the whole nine yards on costumes, decorations, and “atmosphere”, but Barbara thinks that by keeping themselves “theme-free” they can be flexible from year to year and never get pigeon-holed. Ultimately, by not using a theme, they save time and money.

Conclusion

Over the past four years of her involvement with the Tomahawk Elementary School Carnival, Barbara Rypkema has learned a great deal about putting on a first rate carnival event. All of the lessons above come from practical experience and first-hand trial and error. I want to thank Barbara for her time and willingness to share her expertise with me for this article.

If you would like to learn more about planning a successful school carnival, please visit my website, EverybodyHatesFundraising.com. I have many more free school carnival articles, as well as my 186 page e-book, The 2009-2010 School Carnival Money Making Guide.

Some common examples of items used in product sales are: cookie dough, chocolate, wrapping paper, magazines, and popcorn, although virtually anything, as long as it’s sellable, can be used to make a profit for the school.

Product sales are popular for four main reasons:

1. They are simple to plan and execute. The companies have really made these things fool-proof for both the school administration and the parents.
2. Over the years, people have grown to develop an expectation that they will have to sell something to raise money for their kid’s school, so they are already pre-disposed to participate.
3. School administrators generally don’t like to spend too much time thinking about creative fundraising ideas, so product sales have become “no-brainers”.
4. Product sales are very reliable financially. You can take the number of students participating in the sale and get a fairly accurate estimate of what you can expect to bring in.

Even though the actual planning and executing of a product sale are relatively easy to navigate, there are still a number of questions that you should ask either yourself, your product sale representative, or the people in your community before making a commitment to one particular product or company. Failure to ask these questions or questions like these put you at risk of having a substandard fundraising event.

1. Is a product sale the right course of action at this time?
The first series of questions I would recommend you ask yourself or those close to you in the school administration is “Have you already relied too heavily on product sales for your fundraisers?” Also, “Are we risking alienating parents, because they have too many product sales in their lives?” Remember that you are not the only organization that is attempting to raise money in your area. Many other groups are competing for donations with you, and you can only hit up Grandma and Uncle Louie so many times.

The real downside to product sales is the “eye roll” factor. When students bring home the paperwork, are parents rolling their eyes and saying “Oh no, not another one…”

I’m not saying that you shouldn’t pursue a product sale. As I mentioned above, they can be very helpful. But, you can’t just whip one out every time you need to raise some cash. You’re going to lose a lot of potential support if you do.

2. Do you have an opt-out option?
In recent years, many schools have begun to offer an opt-out option for their fundraisers. This is a great idea. Basically, you advertise to parents that if they do not want to participate in the product sale but still wish to help the school, they can simply write a check. You can suggest a dollar figure that is close to what you hope each student will actually sell.

The greatest advantage to an opt-out option is that you are offering an avenue of giving that didn’t exist before. In the past, a family who was really turned off by product sales would just pitch the information you sent home into the trash. Zero donation. However, by really playing up this opt-out option, you are offering to remove the perceived headache from people’s lives. Some parents may actually feel so thankful that they will write a check and skip all the things associated to selling products.

For a much more in-depth discussion of the increasingly popular opt-out option, please click here.

3. Is the company reputable?
If you decide that the time and the circumstances are right for you to go ahead with a product sale, make sure you put in some research into the company you are thinking about working with. A simple search on the web will likely yield many reviews of the proposed company. It is also wise to ask the customer service folks at that company to provide you with phone numbers of past clients. When talking to these past clients, ask them about their overall experience, how the customer support was, if they were prompt in returning your calls and thorough in answering your questions. If there were problems with the order, were they helpful in resolving them? Also ask how the parents responded to the item itself? Was it high quality, was it a big seller? Or was is a flop? Would they use the same company again next year?

4. Are you getting a high percentage of the profit?
It is also very important to be extremely clear about what percentage of the profit you will receive. There are so many groups out there offering to help non-profits raise money, that it’s tough to tell who is really on your side. One way you can tell is how generous they are with their percentage split.

Granted, they are providing the item(s) for sale and they do have expenses of their own to cover, but you are asking people in your community to spend their own time, money, and connections to help your school. That counts for a lot. Therefore, you shouldn’t be taken advantage of.

I believe that the absolute minimum you should accept is 40% of the overall profit. And that would only be if it were a truly great product that was sure to make a lot of money for you and the amount of effort you had to put in on your side was very low. Otherwise, it is just not worth your group’s time and effort.

There are plenty of great fundraisers out there that will split the profit with you at 50-50 or even 60-40 in favor of the school. Find those groups instead.

5. Will your group actually buy the product?
The next question you should ask yourself and the people in your community is “Will they actually buy the product?” It’s very easy to make decisions on your own, but that is not always the best thing to do. Something that might sound wonderful to you could be a real disaster to everyone else. Then, you’d be stuck with a product no one wanted to buy or sell. Your fundraiser would be ruined.

Talk to the company, as well, to find out how well a particular item you are interested in sells.

6. Is the item good quality?
Along this same line, you need to make sure that the item you will be selling is high quality. If you go with a product that is cheaply made or of low-quality, that will reflect badly upon you and the school. While you may reach your sales goal this time, people may not trust your judgment again and not participate.

Ask the company for a sample of the product first, before you commit.

7. Is the product in keeping with a focus on good health or environmental awareness?
While not everything we do in life has to be good for us or good for the environment, it is important to show that you are concerned about our kids’ well-being and the well-being of our planet. So, if you do elect to have a product sale fundraiser that is based around sweets, like chocolate or cookie dough, you should balance that out later with an active event like a walk-a-thon or a recycling drive.

If you don’t strike this kind of balance, parents will start to wonder about who’s making the decisions.

8. Is anyone else in your town selling that particular product?
As I mentioned earlier, your school is not the only organization in town raising money through product sales. Just this past fall, I was asked to do the exact same fundraiser for my daughters’ elementary school and her cheerleading team, back to back. I couldn’t believe it. I loved my daughters’ cheerleading class, but there was no way I was going to go BACK to my friends and family with the SAME fundraising scheme.

Groups in a small town need to work together so this kind of fiasco doesn’t happen.

Conclusion
Product sales can be excellent way to make money for your school. In the perfect situation, the school gets a terrific product that will sell wildly and provide them with a big percentage of the profit. However, that kind of scenario can only happen when you, as the fundraising leader, do your homework. It is very easy to skip the research and just trust that a company will have your best interests at heart. Sadly, that isn’t always the case, and many schools have experienced the downside to product sales. Don’t let that be you.

Photo By: Caroline Middlebrook

Keep these ideas in mind to get parents involved and energized while working on your school project.

1. Clear Goals - When working on a school fundraiser, make sure that parents understand why you are doing this project. Do they know that the band needs new uniforms and funds to attend a special competition? Do they know your school needs new computers? Whatever the need is, make is specific and clear so that parents see a deadline and parents see a specific goal. Giving parents (or anyone), a specific goal makes it feel more achievable. Making your message clear helps them to fully understand the need for the fundraiser.

2. Make It Easy – Some parents may feel confident stepping into a fundraising assignment, but others may not have any experience. If you break down tasks into measurable goals, they may realize that this is something that they can achieve. Sometimes they may also realize that they have done something similar to this at work or for another organization – and this will make them feel more confident going into the task. Breaking down the task also gives them the opportunity to ask questions about what they feel most challenged about.

3. Good Leaders - Every project should have a leader that is concerned with the project, but they should also be concerned with developing future fundraisers for the school. How can they help new parents get involved and do their best for the school? By listening, by being available and by responding to questions. Sometimes simply knowing that someone is there to answer your questions and to listen to you gives you the confidence to go forward with your project.  So choose leaders carefully.

4. Do Less Fundraising - According to the Association of Fund-Raising Distributors & Suppliers doing less fundraising is truly “less is more” in many ways for your fundraising efforts. If you make many fundraising “pleas” during the year, parents will grow weary of the drives and working on them. Those that donate will also grow tired of giving, or will be unable to give as often as you’d like. Having one or two fundraising efforts a year could be far more successful than many, smaller efforts.

5. Keep the Energy Up – Make your project seem exciting and stay positive about it. No one wants to work on something that is a real drag. Make meetings seem inviting by offering refreshments (coffee and cookies are quite inexpensive). Even if there are parts of your project that are challenging, keep a positive attitude about your fundraising project for your school and remind people that making an effort will have an impact.

6. Listen – Sometimes new volunteers come onto a project and they have ideas that could make a difference. They may be ideas that are a little off-the-beaten path, or they are not from the “tried and true” members of the Committee. Change is often necessary to be successful, and a good school fundraising project is open to change. Simply by listening to your volunteers you can be aware if changes need to be made. This will help you raise more funds and will most importantly, help you have strong relationships with your volunteers. This will keep them quite motivated.

7. Say “Thank You” – Thank volunteers early and often. What would you feel like if you gave your time to a project and people did not even say thank you when you completed it? Probably you would think twice about volunteering for them. Saying “Thank You” is a critical step in motivating volunteers each step of the way. At the end of a project it would be nice to send thank you notes, too. Parents who feel appreciated are more likely to volunteer for the next project.

Keeping volunteers motivated for your school fundraising project can take a little time and a little effort. But volunteers are valuable and our schools need terrific volunteers involved and dedicated to their success!

It’s a web-based application called VolunteerSpot.com.

1. First you create a (free!) account.
2. Then you use a “planning wizard” to create files for all the events that require volunteers. You also type in the times and the job descriptions.
3. Next, you invite volunteers with an email or through a link.

Your potential volunteers will instantly receive an attractive email invitation in their inboxes, asking for help on the date you specified. The reader has the option of clicking a “No Thanks/Not This Time” or “Sign Up Now/Learn More” link.

“The Sign Up Now” link takes you to a very graphically pleasing calendar that has the exact times and jobs that are available. The program automatically tracks and edits who signs up for which jobs, and it will tell future volunteers when certain times/jobs are filled!  You, as the volunteer coordinator, just have to check back on the calendar to see which jobs are still open.  It’s amazingly simple.

Ok, so you’ve got to see this for yourself. Click here to go straight to their Try It Now page.  It only takes a second and you’ll quickly see how it can save you hours.

The best part about this is that the service is completely FREE!

Here is a list of features and benefits taken directly from their site:

Simplify recruiting- Invite volunteers to sign up simply and easily in one of three ways:

• enter email addresses in our simple planning wizard
• paste a URL link in your own email message or email group (listserve)
• put a sign up button on your website

VolunteerSpot is clipboard compatible- If you already have a list of assignments on a paper sign up sheet, enter them in VolunteerSpot and schedule automated email reminders.

Sign up volunteers easily and instantly- Allow volunteers to select assignments immediately upon entering VolunteerSpot. No phone-tag, no delays. Get them enrolled and committed while their interest is high.

Get started quickly- A simple organizer wizard allows you to completely customize volunteer activities. Create one-time events or volunteer activities that span multiple days, weeks or months. Enter job descriptions, shifts, and requests for supplies.

Eliminate the clutter- Ditch old-school paper sign-up sheets, index cards, clipboards and endless ‘reply all’ emails. Schedule events using our simple organizer wizard.

Keep organized- Print sign-in sheets and rosters. Quickly see who’s coming, what shifts are covered, what people are bringing.

Keep in touch- Communicate with your group and notify them of needs, changes, etc. Suddenly need 10 more people to help? Simply update your activity page and let VolunteerSpot do the work.

Schedule automated reminders- Stop making reminder calls. VolunteerSpot sends automated messages reminding your volunteers of their commitments.

Having worked at a school myself, I know how difficult it can be to organize a volunteer drive. However, an active and thriving volunteer network is essential if a school is going to raise the money it needs to provide a top-notch education for its students. VolunteerSpot.com looks as though it can be an incredibly useful tool for your volunteer recruitment efforts. Try it out!

1. School Carnivals Are Incredibly Popular With Students and Parents Alike
Quick, which would you rather do- go to the school carnival or visit to the dentist? See? No contest. OK, maybe that’s not a fair fight, carnival vs. dentist, but the fact is, a school carnival is one of the absolute highlights of the year for any school that has one. It has all the best rolled up into one great package: people having fun, the school making money, and if it’s a really good carnival, there’s always food of some variety on a stick.

2. Carnivals require lots of people as volunteers, but the work is fun and not stressful.
Even though carnivals require a number of people willing to take charge of a wide range of responsibilities, the vast majority of jobs involve having fun and interacting with people. Whether it’s baking items to sell, running games, passing out prizes, decorating the carnival space, face painting, or even selling tickets, the atmosphere of a school carnival is light and enjoyable. These are exactly the kinds of jobs to break new volunteers in on. Once a person has mastered the art of the school carnival, he or she may be ready to take on more challenging volunteer duties within your fundraising team.

3. Carnival Expenses are Low
Since carnivals are held in the school building itself, there won’t be any facility rental fees the school will have to pay, which can often be one of the most expensive items in the budget. Also, food can be donated, and games can be used year after year. Many decorations can also be used more than one year. Of course, there will be a desire to add some new things each year, but the core of the activity can be relatively inexpensive to operate year in and year out.

4. Carnival Income is High
While expenses are kept low, the opportunities to generate revenue are high. Of course, you have the admission tickets, but there can also be charges for food, entertainment, games, and contests. All of these can be purchased with tickets or tokens, so that cash doesn’t have to be handled and potentially lost. Also, revenue can be made from renting out booths to local non-profits, so they can market themselves to the carnival attendees.

5. School Carnivals Become Instant Traditions and Reliable Income
In fundraising, you are always looking for something that will be a guaranteed success, year after year. It’s important to be able to count on a certain range of income. Therefore it is wise to develop activities that will become traditionally expected by your community. Carnivals are so popular, they become one of these traditions almost instantly. Imagine holding your first carnival one year, and then canceling it the next. That doesn’t seem very likely.

6. People are Familiar with the Concept of a School Carnival, so They Come Ready to Have a Good Time.
Even if your school hasn’t ever held a carnival before, most people have been to at least one sometime in their lives. Therefore, you’re not going to have to do a lot of explaining or convincing to get folks involved. This is one of the reasons why you could expect a very respectable turnout your very first year doing it. People are hesitant to try things that are unfamiliar to them. The good news is that most everybody not only knows what a school carnival is, but they also have good memories of it.

7. Carnivals Allow for Teachers and the Principal to Relax
Once you swing open the doors on the school carnival, a whole new feeling spreads over the school. Gone are the worries about tests and having a hallway passes. The joyous, euphoric, and electric atmosphere allows everyone, including teachers and the administrative staff to relax and enjoy the festivities. Having worked as a school principal, I always felt is was important to take every opportunity to have fun with the parents of my students, as well as my staff of teachers. It improved all our relationships and increased our ability to work together.

8. Carnivals Build Camaraderie with Both Kids and Adults.
Carnivals also have the ability to help parents get to know one another. I think that when parents of students get to know each other in a relaxed atmosphere, friendships can be made. This is not only beneficial to them, but also to the school in that it seems to increase the number of volunteers we get for school activities. Even if you have a busy schedule, if your best friend is working the school carnival, you might also be inclined to do so, because it becomes a social opportunity.

9. Since So Many Schools Do Annual Carnivals, There is Abundant Information Available Regarding Carnival Themes, Games, Contests, Entertainment, Revenue Producers, etc.
With the exponential growth of the Internet, it is simple to find out extensive information on almost any subject- school carnivals, especially. A simple Google search will yield a wealth of knowledge. Also, it is wise to talk with families who are new to your district. Perhaps they have suggestions from their old school that worked. Trust me, if you put the word out there that you’re thinking of launching a school carnival, you’ll have people banging down your door with ideas.

Conclusion
Fundraising for any kind of a group is hard work. Often, the results are uncertain, but I can’t remember a time when I ever was ambivalent about how much money we were going to make. There’s always been an urgency to make as much as possible with every event or sale. With a carnival, you have just about the closest thing to a sure bet that you can find in this world of fundraising. As I mentioned in the introduction, a carnival mixes the best of everything, and everyone has a good time. In my estimation, that makes the idea of having a school carnival a real no-brainer.

Here is a very simple way to raise money at your school without much effort- My Coke Rewards from Coca-Cola.

The idea is simple. You sign up for a “My Coke Rewards” account. You become the account manager. You will have access to check your account and trade in your “points” for items for your school.

Then, let everyone in your school community know that if they drink a participating Coke product (Coke, Diet Coke, Coke Zero, Sprite, Dasani water, Fanta, Mr. Pibb’s, Fresca, Minute Maid Lemonade, Vault, Powerade, and Barq’s Root Beer) they should donate the bottle cap (with the code printed on the underside of it ) to your school. Also, be sure to remind them that they cannot enter the code in themselves prior to giving it to you. It must be un-entered for it to have value to the school. (No double-dipping!)

As the account manager, you will receive a catalog with all sorts of great items that will benefit your school, such as sporting goods, creative supplies, and textbooks, to name just a few.

It would be wise to find a volunteer (or you can do it yourself, I suppose) to do the work of entering in all the codes to the Coke website.  Other than that, the work required is very minimal.

This whole process is very similar to Box Tops and Campbell Soup Labels. The key is to promote the program within your community and get as many people participating as possible. Since people drink a lot of soda, this shouldn’t be that hard.

This is a program that can run twelve months, non-stop. Make a big splash at the beginning of the school year to get people thinking about it, and you can collect this points all year round, including the summer, when soft drinks are flying off the shelves.

As I have written before, there are many people who never participate in any of your school fundraisers. Of this group, some may just feel they don’t have the extra money to donate. But, these folks most likely are buying products with redeemable labels. Convince them that they CAN make a real difference by staying vigilant with turning in their labels each month. This will let them feel as though they are contributing in a meaningful way and may ultimately lead to them take a larger role at school.

For those of you who live in states that have bottle deposit laws (California, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, Michigan, New York, Oregon, and Vermont), the Coke Rewards program is doubly terrific, because if the families give you both the cap and the bottle, you can return the bottle for cash (five or ten cents , depending on the state) and the cap for prizes! But, of course, families can elect to just give you the cap and save the return deposit for themselves. However, if you live in any of these states, you should definitely make a play for both.

Photo By: Dominic’s Pics

Today is such a day, when we pull out our microscopes and peer deeply into our organization’s image. Let’s talk about voice mail and answering machines. We’ve all got ‘em, but are we getting the most out of them that we can?

This may seem like a very basic point, but I do believe it is worth covering, since I’ve heard many, many dreadful messages that have spoken very poorly of the people who recorded them.

10 Cardinal Rules of Recording Answering Machine Messages

1. Keep it up to date.
It’s embarrassing when you have a message that talks about an event or a date that is two weeks old. If you ever change your outgoing message for a time-sensitive purpose or event, make sure to change it immediately afterwards.

2. Make sure you actually have an outgoing message.
Some schools, who don’t have a fancy voice mail system, still use an old-fashioned answering machine, and these can lose their memory if there is a power outage. Don’t have a client or a school family member have to tell you you don’t have a message on the machine. This is the equivalent to being told your zipper is undone.

3. Don’t be dull.
“You’ve reached Eisenhower Elementary School. Please leave a message.” Come on! That’s terrible, but believe me, such messages are out there. Use a welcoming tone of voice, provide key information about your hours of operation, or at least give your web address to point them toward more details. If your enrollment period is coming up or is ongoing, make a point of that. Once your caller hangs up the phone, he or she should have a warm, fuzzy feeling about your school.

4. Leave an emergency or after-hours number.
A lot of school business occurs after regular office hours. It’s easy to say, wait until morning or wait until Monday, but really, you can’t afford to do that. If you have an auction or a golf outing coming up, leave a secondary contact number of a committee member. What if the caller was a business that wanted to donate an item for your auction, but they didn’t feel like leaving a message and they weren’t able to call back? That kind of thing happens and happens often.

5. Use the voice of authority.
The person who leaves the message should be the person who is in charge of the organization. I know that many people like to have a secretary with a pretty voice record the message, but personally, I like to know and hear that the head honcho is involved with what’s going on in the office. Unless the leader has the voice of Elmer Fudd, he or she should put a personal stamp on the outgoing phone message. And I think it’s poor when somebody else records another person’s voice mail message on a personal mailbox. Unless there is some sort of top-secret reason, that’s just the height of self-importance.

6. Use a script when recoding the message.
It sounds really cheesy if you are just “winging it” when you record your outgoing message. You shouldn’t have any “umms” or “ahhs” or awkward pauses when you can’t remember what you wanted to say next. Take a few minutes and write down what you are going to say. Then practice it a couple of times to get a flow to it, then record it. It will sound much more professional if you come across as if you know what you’re doing.

7. Pretend you are talking to a real person.
When thinking about the right tone of voice to use in your message, give the impression that you are actually having a conversation with one of your school families. That’s a mixture of politeness, interest, confidence, and just a little bit of salesmanship. You want to make sure the caller gets the impression you really are talking to him or her.

8. Enunciate.
If you have the habit of speaking quickly and sometimes slurring your words, slow down in your message. Don’t be nervous when recording. You don’t have to rush- there is plenty of tape. The last thing you want is people wondering what it is you just said.

9. Don’t say too much.
On the other hand, you don’t want to prattle on forever, either. There is a limit to people’s patience, so be very judicious in picking what you are going to say. Think about how long you would want to listen to a recorded message and don’t go any longer than that.

10. Repeat key information.
It always kills me, when a message does something good like leave a secondary number to call, but says it really fast and doesn’t repeat it. So, I have to call the machine back to catch it again. Do it right the first time. If you are leaving information that the caller will have to write down, repeat it twice and go a beat slower when speaking. I actually had a grandparent of a student compliment my phone message once because I did that, so I realized that many people appreciate that sort of attention.

Why is all this important for school fundraising?

Someone may read the above suggestions and really get the notion that I am crazy. Wound way too tight. Why on Earth could the answering machine be so important? Everybody has voice mail, everyone knows what to do, why waste valuable breath on leaving a fancy message?

The answer is simple. You, as a school, are serving customers. You, as a school, want those customers to donate money, whether it’s enrollment tuition, tickets to an auction, or cookie dough dollars. And by and large, people won’t give money to organizations that are sloppy. That is why you have a dress code for the staff at your school. That is why you want a well-designed website. That is why you want to have an inviting entrance to your school. You are trying to make an impression on your customers.

Don’t go to all the hard work of creating a positive image and then blow it by having a terrible answering machine message. I know it sounds unbelievable, but there are plenty examples of this out there in the non-profit and school world. Remember- be polite. Be fun. Be inviting. Give lots of important information. And be thankful they called you and not someone else.

Photo By: Alexander O’Neill

Case in point- this past week, I was attending a meeting of a group that one of my children is involved with. This group recently completed a major product sale fundraiser that underwrites many of the group’s expenses for the entire year. They put a great deal of emphasis on families meeting or exceeding sales goals.

Well, at this meeting, they were handing out the awards for the top sellers. I was sitting in the audience. The person leading the ceremony was actually an assistant, since the leader was ill and could not attend. I think the assistant was nervous talking in front of the audience, and he made a joke about the kids getting scraped-up knuckles from knocking on hundreds of doors to sell the product. At least, I hope it was a joke. Ha Ha Ha.

What!?! Was he kidding? Unbeknownst to me, were there kids actually knocking on strangers’ doors, selling the items?

Obviously, schools and other non-profit groups must not be sending kids out in such a dangerous way to raise money. Never, ever, let kids approach strangers to sell the products. I don’t care how safe you think your neighborhood is. Don’t do it. The risk is just too great.

My biggest concern is that a person with very little experience and very little knowledge in this field, suddenly finds him- or herself in a position of fundraising leadership. Before you know it, this person is making all kinds of basic mistakes, like letting kids go door-to-door, just like they did in “the old days”.

My guess is that most of the people reading this blog know better than this adult leader I ran into. I’m sure none of you would let your students approach strangers for sales. However, I do want to urge all of you to remind everyone you know involved in fundraising about this safety precaution.

Be very sure to write in your instructions that students are NOT to knock on unknown doors. Some parents, themselves, might not realize this is dangerous either, so do everything you can to banish this practice from our midst.

I know this seems like “Fundraising 101” level stuff. And some people might think I was being hypersensative to the joke made at my son’s meeting.  However, the consequences of being too casual or not careful enough are just too great not to say something.

Photo by: byscooter

You would think that simply because the teachers were school employees, they would be more than happy to do whatever they could to make sure we had the funds needed to do things like purchase supplies, buy new textbooks, fund field trips, and cover payroll. Unfortunately, however, that wasn’t always the case.

I found that some teachers, not all, actually resent the fundraising process. They believe that they were hired to teach, and that’s it. I agree that teaching is an incredibly demanding job and these dedicated servants don’t get nearly the recognition nor the compensation for what they do on a daily basis.

However, a school, in my opinion, is a community, and everyone has to pitch in to make it work. One of my favorite movies is the film Gandhi with Ben Kingsley. There is a scene in which Gandhi’s wife refuses to “rake and cover the latrines” at their ashram, deeming that job for a lesser type of person. In no uncertain terms, her husband, a peaceful sort, straightens her out, and she finally agrees to “rake and cover the latrines”.

Now, I’m not saying that fundraising is analogous to cleaning a toilet, but you get the point. Nobody is too good to help at any job. That’s my motto.

So, I heartily believe that teachers should be active and cheerful fundraisers. No exceptions. If they believe enough in the school to accept a paycheck they should believe enough to sell some cookie dough, if that’s what it takes.

Here are ten strategies I used to win over the more reluctant educators.

1. Lay out the goal in front of them
If a teacher doesn’t see the end result before he or she agrees to actively participate, it’s going to be hard to get them on board with you. You have to give them more than “It all goes toward the budget…”. If you can be specific and say “We’re going to use all the proceeds from the fundraiser to buy new textbooks for next year,” you will get more people behind your effort.

2. Lay out the calendar for them
Teachers are planners, by nature. If you’re just winging it, you’re going to have some enemies. Develop a plan at the beginning of the year, think it through carefully, get others to help you review it, look for scheduling conflicts of any kind, and then set it in stone. If you can give a year-long fundraising calendar to the teachers before the school year starts in September, you will achieve the goal of not angering them later on. I discovered that teachers need notice of changes. Sudden course corrections don’t go over well.

3. Take away as much administration from them as possible
I never saw a teacher who was sitting around with nothing to do. Most often, you’d find them buried behind stacks of homework papers and tests and their weekly lesson planner close at hand. The last thing a teacher wants or needs is to be given more paperwork. If you hold a fundraiser that requires a lot of administrative work, like filling out rosters, recording money in, collecting and filing order sheets, or organizing letter-writing campaigns, you’re going to lose a lot of your teacher support. They just don’t have the time.

While there are many factors that go into selecting a quality fundraiser for your school, one of the criteria must be an easy implementation that can be mostly carried out by your school office or a reliable volunteer. Do not stick the teachers with secretarial work!

4. Make the fundraiser popular enough where it sells itself and the teacher doesn’t have to coax them to participate
It is unwise to expect your teachers to be cheerleaders of the fundraiser. You may wish them to fill that role, but you will be disappointed more often than not. This is especially true if you have an extended fundraiser that spreads over a few weeks. The enthusiasm will fade quickly after the initial roll out. So, make sure your event or sale or whatever has enough appeal with the students and their parents where the teacher doesn’t have to keep encouraging them to participate.

5. Show them a clear priority list of what things will be cut without raising the funds
I know this sounds a little like blackmail, but whatever works, right? Sometimes your hands have to get a little dirty in school fundraising! I found that some teachers (again- not all) are like children. They think there is a money tree out in the backyard and mom and dad just go a-picking whenever something is needed. It really shocked me when I discovered this mentality among professional adults. I had to explain that there was no money tree, and if we didn’t meet our pre-established fundraising goals, we would not be able to go on this field trip or have that assembly or whatever. Once they realized I was serious, the message sunk in. I know that fear is not the best means of motivation, but it does have its pluses.

6. Make sure the teachers feel appreciated for their extra effort
This is an easy one to do, but also an easy one to forget. Of course, we always stress to thank our donors and volunteers, but we can’t forget to really stroke our teachers for all they do. And in my experience, the best way to do this is to do it twice. Once in person and once in a written card. It may take a little time and attention to ensure you don’t forget anybody, but in the long run, it is well worth your effort. As I mentioned, a lot of teachers feel that fundraising is NOT what they were hired for, so they are actually doing you a favor. While this attitude ticked me off, I swallowed my feelings to ensure that I could go back to them for future fundraisers.

7. Create an incentive of a “teacher” prize
This idea works with some people and doesn’t with others, but it’s worth trying out. To keep the teachers encouraging their kids throughout the duration of the fundraiser, think about holding a private teacher contest for the class that raises the most. You could set up a prize like a gift card to a restaurant or maybe even a day off, if you have the flexibility to do that. Some teachers will hate this idea and won’t want to participate, but others who have a competitive side to them will jump at this chance and it could really increase your bottom line.

8. Make sure teachers are familiar with what’s going on with the PTO or PTA group
I was surprised to find out how little involvement some teachers had with the parent-teacher group at their school. I guess some teachers viewed this as Just Another Meeting (JAM) they had to attend, and many ended up skipping the meetings all year long. I found this a bit self-defeating as the parents likewise had busy schedules, but they still found time to meet and work on ways to get much-needed funding for the school.

So, I would highly recommend making attendance at some of the PTO meetings mandatory. Teachers should at least show up at a handful during the course of a school year, just to show gratitude.

I did find that teachers who went to these meetings were often more willing to participate in fundraisers and generally had a better experience in the social fabric of the school community.

9. Make sure you follow through with everything you promise, so they can’t fault you later
This falls in the category of “CYA” (Cover Your Backside). If you are expecting your teachers, most of whom hate fundraising, to give it their all and jump through all the extra hoops, you had better deliver on what you promise them, namely solid organization and leadership. If you screw up deadlines, miss delivery dates, lose orders, or generally drop the ball, the teaching staff is going to see you as a fraud and not give their best effort, either. Be very careful- the teachers are watching you!

10. Make sure you report results to them, so they can see the fruits of their labor
This idea goes along with the recommendation of starting your fundraiser with a clear goal. It is equally important to frame the results of your fundraising efforts for your teachers when it is all over. Teachers, like most other people, like closure. If they invest their time, energy, and money, they would definitely like to know who you did. And, you can be a little more frank with your staff than you would be with the parents and other donors.

Break down things for them. Let them know where you think you did well and where you can improve. Ask them for their input and suggestions for the future. It will make the teachers feel like more a part of the team and potentially more willing to get on board next time.

Conclusion
Of course, it would be nice to have a money tree in the back yard. And the side yard. And the front yard. But, since that is not the case, you need to gather together all the support you can when trying to raise money- not everybody’s favorite undertaking.

I always saw teachers as the “front line” of our school community, so they need to be encouraged and supported at every opportunity. In return, however, you need them to use their positions of influence over the students to keep them selling tickets to auctions, hawking tubs of cookie dough, or writing letters to their Great Aunt Sally to raise the funds that are required by our schools today.

Photo by John Spooner

As readers of this blog probably know, I have been very interested, as have many others, in the historical developments surrounding Barack Obama and his journey to the White House. I’m not only intrigued by the political and policy aspects, but I’m also curious about his personal story.

So, I was naturally drawn to the news surrounding the Obama’s decision to send their daughters to a private school in Washington DC. I have no problem with this decision; I was the principal of a private elementary school myself, so I respect the decision the Obamas made on this particular question.

The school they choose is called Sidwell Friends. This particular school has a history of presidential children attending. Both Amy Carter and Chelsea Clinton were enrolled there, for instance. I wanted to learn more about why this school attracted such an elite student body, so I recently visited their website.

Of course, with a tuition approaching $30,000 per year, the school can afford to provide a superior education in many areas. When I started thinking about this, I was immediately a little jealous. I tried to think about everything I could have done at my school with that kind of a budget. But then I started to wonder about all the things that Sidwell does that don’t cost any money, but still add to a sense of excellence there.

For example, I read on the Sidwell website that they are hosting a series of one night seminars for parents of enrolled students called “Math Classes for Parents”. There’s a night for addition, one for subtraction, and one each for multiplication and division. The purpose of these evenings is to explain to parents how math is being taught to their children, what terminology is being used, and the logic behind the approach. Armed with this knowledge, parents are better able to help their students with homework, but they are also more likely to get involved in the overall educational process, which could even include volunteerism or financial donations. (Personally, I wonder if the Commander-in-chief will be attending multiplication night.)

In the past I have written about the profound impact that a healthy school spirit has on a school’s fundraising success. Any type of activity that gets parents into the school and engaged with their child’s educational experience will have similar results.

These math nights don’t cost the school much. I’m sure the teachers are volunteering their time, which is valuable, I admit, but budget-wise, I’m sure the events are negligible. Maybe some coffee and cookies? But the long-term benefits for the school are huge.

I mentioned this idea of math night to one of my own child’s teachers, and she said that she had worked in another district that did the same thing. So, I’m guessing that these math nights go on all over the country, I just hadn’t come across the idea myself until now.

But this is what I would like to hear from you, the readers of this blog. Are you involved at a school that has done something that has provided a great value but has had very little or no cost at all? What can we learn from your experience?

Please send me a comment below so we can talk about this question.

There’s that old expression, “A penny saved is a penny earned.” When it comes to school fundraising, this mindset could be a great one to adopt in the coming year.

How can we accomplish our goals without having to work so hard at fundraising?