Connecting Schools With Great Fundraising Ideas.

Recently, I have been reading a book called “Life’s a Campaign” by Chris Matthews, who is the host of MSNBC’s program Hardball. The subtitle of this book is “What Politics has Taught Me about Friendship, Rivalry, Reputation, and Success”.

In this book, Matthews shares the lessons he’s learned from working with and covering successful politicians.

I was particularly struck by a chapter he wrote that was called “Ask!” In this chapter, he gives many examples of how successful politicians raise the millions of dollars needed to run a congressional or presidential campaign.

Many of the lessons he draws upon can easily be applied to raising money for your school. Over the next few posts here at Top School Fundraisers, I will share with you some of these ideas that I have found to be particularly interesting.

One of the thoughts that made a lot sense to me involved enlisting the help of small donors and thus creating a large army of people dedicated to your cause.

Matthews uses President John F. Kennedy’s presidential campaign as a prime example. Since this book was published early in the current election cycle, he does not mention the immense grassroots campaign that Senator Barack Obama has built.

About Kennedy, Matthews wrote:

“…the idea was to sign up every volunteer you could. It didn’t matter if a person was just stopping by the headquarters; they might be recruited if only to write personal thank-you notes on behalf of the Kennedy family to others who had stopped by.

“The trick was to get them doing something, anything, that turned them into “Kennedy volunteers”. Once these new foot soldiers started sharing their enthusiasm, their neighbors would want to come on board too. In this way, it soon became a communal experience that motivated people and cemented loyalties.”

In a school setting, it is very easy to focus only on the small percentage of people who actually volunteer their time and money. You have sent home countless fliers and posted dozens of meeting notices on bulletin boards to get new people engaged in the process. Still, only a fraction of the parents respond to your call. This can be very frustrating.

I think what the Kennedy campaign did very well is find what I call “micro-commitments” for people to start out with. Writing a few thank-you notes is such a “micro-commitment”. These kinds of tasks can be handled by someone who just wants to test the waters of being involved. I think that many parents who shy away from your organizational meetings are afraid of getting sucked in and asked to do too much.

If you can find a way to break down larger tasks into much smaller ones, you might have a better chance of bringing folks on board and not “freaking them out”.

Of course, this is going to mean that you engage in an aggressive (yet pleasantly respectful) networking campaign of your own. Many parents are in hiding. You might need to loiter in the parking lots, make personal phone calls after the dinner hour, or use friends of friends as intermediaries to plant the seed of “micro-commitments”.

The exciting reward is the possibility of developing these new “micro-recruits” into dependable and highly-motivated volunteers. Once people get an opportunity to make a real difference in their kids’ school, even in a “micro” sort of way, the easier it is to ask them to give just a little bit more. And then, just a little more, again.

After reading this particular section of Matthew’s book, I take away the message that I don’t always have to try to hit a home run. Often, a lot of singles will actually add up to a much higher run total.

Link to Part Two in this Chris Matthews’ Series

Link to Part Three in this Chris Matthews’ Series

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