Here are five really good reasons to consider hosting a golf event, or partnering with another organization to plan a golf outing.

1. The Earning Potential is High

The first reason your school should have a golf outing is that these events are money makers, if they are done right. Here’s a list of eleven ways you can earn money at a golf tournament:

1. Golfer/team fee
2. Corporate sponsorship fees
3. Underwriting opportunities (meal, beverage cart, course fee, etc.)
4. Merchandise sales (your organization’s t-shirts, hats, hoodies, etc.)
5. “On the Course” contests
6. Mulligan sales
7. Raffles
8. Auctions
9. General donations
10. Separate dinner tickets for those who don’t play golf but just come for the meal
11. Revenue from an add-on of a walk-a-thon (held at the same time as golf outing and both groups come together at a shared banquet)

2. People are Familiar with Golf Tournament, So It’s a Natural Sell

Another reason that your PTO/PTA or school group should have a golf tournament is because they have become so popular. As a result of this popularity, you will have an easier time convincing people to attend. Certain incentives like an awesome course, a good crowd to network with, the ability to win some cool prizes, and the chance to escape the office for a day are all reasons people will be very open to your invitation. Of course, people will also want to support your non-profit, as well.

When it comes to fundraising, it’s best to stick to known entities. For the creative people who run non-profits, I know it’s sometimes frustrating to do what everyone else is doing. Where’s the originality? Where’s the stamp of your own unique personality? “Everybody has a golf outing. How boring!”

While the spirit of this thought may have validity, the fact of the matter is that if you want to ensure you raise money, you should stick to the events that are proven to do that very thing. Golf outings are designed to do exactly this.

3. It Offers Opportunities for Parents to Network

This reason can be a real selling point when you are trying to recruit teams to golf. Not only will your participants want to support your school, but many of them will also look forward to networking with other golfers who will be in attendance.

I realized this point very early in my nonprofit career. I would be making calls, trying to get folks to commit to playing in our outing and more than a few people would specifically ask me if certain individuals had already signed up or if it was likely they would be signing up. I came to see myself as a kind of a golf tournament match maker.

At the time, I was relatively young and working at a summer camp, and I didn’t realize it, but many of the campers’ parents were very aware of who the other parents were in the camp community. Our golf outing was the perfect vehicle for them to get to know one another and potentially create some new business connections.

Once I opened my eyes to this reality, I saw it happening over and over and came to view our golf outing not only as an excellent fundraiser, but also as a service to the parents of our campers and the camp alumni.

Once we actively started to help people make these introductions, the value of our outing increased and in the long run, greatly benefited our nonprofit.

4. It’s a Great Chance for You to Have Personal Contact with Donors

From the moment you arrive at your golf tournament (as the leader), there are literally dozens of items that need your attention. It is very easy to get pulled into handling one crisis after another. Before you know it, half the day is gone and you’re already exhausted.

On the day of the golf outing, the best thing you can do for your school is to be an incredibly gracious host. Golfers will be looking for you when they arrive. They’d like to feel welcomed by the “boss”. So, this is exactly where you should be. Greeting people when they arrive, seeing foursomes off at the tee box, milling around the cart corral – these are the hot spots for mixing and mingling for you.

Once players are off and away, a good place to visit would be one of the contest holes, like “Closest to the Pin” or “Longest Drive”. There is always a lot of fun going on at these special holes. You can encourage the players to bet high and really have a good, relaxed time with the players. They will really appreciate the time you spend with them in this way.

(If it makes you feel better, you can take a walkie-talkie or cell phone with you so that you can be reached by your staff in case of a planning emergency.)

I’ve always found that golf tournaments provide an excellent opportunity to share a few quality minutes with my important (read: bigger) donors. I can run new ideas by them, ask them for advice on a particular project and just make myself exclusively available to them for a few minutes. This has always been well received.

It’s also a chance to build better relationships with those who could become bigger contributors. A few laughs and some sincere camaraderie can go a long way toward developing your donor base.

However, if you’re back at the club house, working on organizational details, you’ll miss these incredible opportunities and in the long run hurt your cause.

5. It’s a Great chance to Honor People at the Banquet Afterwards

Since golf tournaments usually attract a large number of people from your community, it is a fantastic time to use the banquet after a day of golfing as a time to hand out some of your organization’s most prestigious awards. In fact, if you establish the post golf-outing banquet as your organization’s premier ceremony, you could draw people just to this event itself.

The mood is perfect for it. Everyone is gathered, they’ve spent a day in the great outdoors, having fun, and enjoying each other’s company. At the banquet, all the participants come together to share a meal and swap stories from the day of golfing.

As the leader, you can first hand out all the golf-related awards from the contests like “Closest to the Pin”, “Longest Drive”, and of course, all the teams who won the different divisions. This will be a good segue into the more serious recognitions.

When I worked for the summer camp, this is when we passed out our “Thomas Bean” award, which went to the person who best exemplified the ideals of a servant leader for the year. We would always have some wives and even mothers who would come to the banquet just to see the “Bean” award passed out. It became a great tradition.

I would recommend that you have a volunteer whose sole job it is to take pictures all day long. Of course, many pictures should be taken during you award ceremony.

Conclusion

If a school golf tournament is planned and run correctly, it can be a day filled with joy, excitement, humor, good will, and generosity. You can improve existing relationships with donors and develop new friendships that could lead to future support. You can also help develop the bonds that exist between people inside your community, and at the end of the day, you can raise thousands of dollars for your non-profit.

If you’re not running an annual golf outing, I would strongly urge you to get in touch with some local golf pros and leaders of other non-profits to inquire about their experiences and suggestions.

For more information on planning a school golf tournament see: Three Important Steps to Planning a Charity Golf Outing

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

One of the first things your prom committee will do is to create a prom budget.  This will help you know how much everything will cost and how much money will need to come in to pay for the event.

Many schools also charge a entry ticket for students who go to prom, but that is usually not enough to cover the costs of putting on the event.  So of course that leaves us with fundraisers for prom. Most of the time the students have fundraisers for prom starting a year or more in advance.

There are a lot of ways that high schools raise the money needed.  Usually the prom committee is in charge of planning the event and the fundraisers.  Sometimes parents help with raising money too.

List of Prom Fundraising Ideas

1. Have a prom dress sale to get rid of your old dresses and make some big bucks at the same time!  You can accept any kind of formal wear, weddings too, to attract even more buyers.

2. Speaking of fashion, how about a fashion show fundraiser?

3. Parents could have a night of fun all to themselves with a wine tasting fundraiser.

4. For a more elaborate adult-only fundraiser, a second chance prom could be a lot of fun.

5. Have a talent show at the school carnival (even if your high school doesn’t have a carnival, see if you can do this at a local elementary school!)

6. You can have a sale to raise funds for prom such as a candle fundraiser or cookie dough sale.

7. One school held a volleyball tournamet to raise fund for prom.

8. Have a dress up day at school or a sporting event in dress up – one high school rugby team played a game in prom dresses to raise funds!

9. Another great competition would be a video game tournament like Wii sports
or DDR.

10. Work with a local restaurant which will donate part of the proceeds to your group. Chik-fil-A, Pizza Hut, Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream, Marble Slab, Ci Ci’s Pizza and Sonic are just a few of the ones that offer this.

• You have commitment ahead of time so you know how many people to expect at the actual event.
• They are fun, competitive events that people enjoy participating in.
• You can hold additional fundraisers at the tournament: food/drink sales, raffles, auctions, etc.
• Tournament fundraisers are great for all ages!

Here’s a list of some of the most popular tournaments and links to resources to help you plan them:

Some of the best tournaments appeal to a wide audience:

Team sports tournaments are great for elementary to high school students (and even adults)

Volleyball: An Annual Volleyball Remembers a Special Girl

Basketball: A three-on-three basketball tournament or a Shoot for the Hoop game

Soccer: The Ultimate Guide to Running Your Own Soccer Tournament

Bowling: Bowling Tournaments for Fun and Fundraising

Not quite a tournament, but football contests can be fun!

Individual sports are also great… Tennis Tournaments a Successful Fundraiser in Any Season

And there’s golf tournaments of course: Three Important Steps to Planning a Charity Golf Outing

Think beyond traditional sports. How about…

Pool Tournaments are great for anytime of year: Annual Pool Tournament Fundraiser a Success

You could have a darts contest the same night as the pool tournament.

A horseshoe tournament might sound old-fashioned but it’s easy to add on to another outdoor event.

Dodgeball Fundraiser lets you re-live your school days.

or for summertime fun, a dodgeball tournament using water balloons!

For those who’d rather exercise brains than brawn:

Your fundraiser passes GO with a Monopoly game tournament.

Or choose another board game instead.

Bunko is a fun game that’s easy to learn.

A trivia night is sure to bring out the competitve spirit!

For instance, we shared their great news that eFundraising has increased the percentage the non-profits get to keep from their fundraisers. This is great news and should definitely help you make your decision about what kind of fundraisers to choose for your school.

Now, we have the opportunity to introduce you to the eFundraising team, by way of YouTube! Their creative team put together a terrific “behind-the-scenes” video that gives viewers a great insight into this company. I particularly like the part when the customer service lady is eating a cookie while talking on the telephone! I guess their cookies are just to delicious to put down!

The video is short- only three and a half minutes, and it will really give you a good insight into who you will be doing business with. It’s well worth the click.

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

It’s called “The USA Character Approved Awards” and our very own topic of school fundraising has landed right in the middle of this extraordinary promotion.

For a little background, here is their mission statement, as I found it on their website:

The Character Approved Awards honor the characters of the U.S.A. who are changing the face of American culture. Character Approved honorees are innovators in their field who influence our opinions, our style, and our view of the world. They surprise and inspire us with fresh ideas. They are celebrated by their peers. And they have an authentic style that’s all their own.

This year, in what they claim is their inaugural campaign, they have announced seven honorees, one each from the worlds of music, art, food, architecture, fashion, new media, and giving.

I spent a little time and looked at the write-ups on all of these individuals, but it was the honoree from the world of giving that jumped off the page for me.

His name is Charles Best, and he is the founder and director of an organization called DonorsChoose.org. This is a website that connects actual schools and classroom teachers with real donors, people who are looking to make a difference by making a financial contribuation that has a direct impact on the recipient.

As an example, here is a recent entry on the Donors Choose site:

 NURTURING FUTURE AUTHORS

“I teach first grade in a large, urban district. Over 90% of my students receive free or reduced lunch. My students live in a high need community. They would benefit from a wide variety of materials that make learning fun and accessible to all of them.

My first graders love to write. They are always authoring their own stories and writing notes to each other. I feel that they could be future authors and novelists. The materials requested would enhance their writing skills and continue to foster their natural affinity toward writing.

I am requesting a wide range of materials, from sentence builders to paragraph writing activities to story writing helpers. These materials will help my students learn the writing process. This will also help them becoming better writers.

Your generous donation will help my students hone the craft of writing. You will make it possible for my students to become better writers and future authors. Your gift would be greatly appreciated by not only me, but the eager writers in my classroom.

There is then an opportunity for a private citizen from anywhere in the world to make a secure donation directly for this classroom. Any amount can be given and the site actually keeps track of how close to the goal this request is getting. As of this post, the above class has received $270 of the $425 needed. Donors also have the chance to leave an encouraging message for the class to read.

This is really a visionary use of the Internet for the public good. I can definitely see why USA has decided to include Charles Best in their list of “Character Approved” honorees for this year.

Below is a video of the on-air commercial they are running, featuring Charles Best. Enjoy!

So, we are very happy to share some great news with you. Our friends over at eFundraising have significantly increased the percentage of money your school gets to keep from their chocolate fundraisers. In the past, schools selling their brands of chocolate would receive 40% of the gross receipts, while 60% went back to eFundraising. I do understand that high-quality chocolate is expensive, so I believe that justifies this kind of a percentage. However, they have now bumped the split across the board to 50-50.  In case of the $2 Chocolatiers Variety Pack , it’s now 60-40, in favor of the school! This is amazing! Chocolate fundraisers have always been a reliable and profitable income stream. This is even more true now.

In addition, eFundraising has re-vamped their chocolate product line. While the ever-popular “World’s Finest Chocolate” is still available, they have also added the popular Dollar Bar, as well as the “Chocolatiers” selection from Van Wyk.  In addition, if any of you have ever tried the tremendous Hebert chocolate bars, take note, there has been a name change. Hebert chocolate is now called Lamontagne. Have no fear, it’s still the same company and the same high-quality chocolate; it’s just different packaging.

If you are still searching for a great way to raise money for your school this coming spring, I highly recommend you check out the chocolate sales program over at eFundraising.

The service, the selection, the quality, and most of all- the percentage of the profits you get to keep- are all great reasons to choose an eFundraising chocolate sale for your school! Enjoy!

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