One of the challenges that school fundraisers face is keeping the enthusiasm going during the course of a product sale. Procrastination and insanely busy schedules often pull students and parents away from the focus needed to make a successful fundraiser.

I recently came across a great article that talks about various strategies to keep that initial momentum going and not suffer from the emotion drop off that can really hurt your overall success.  The following is an excerpt from the article. To read the entire piece, please click here.

How to Keep Your School Fundraiser from Dragging

by Clay Boggess

A primary goal for your school fundraiser should be to reach your money goal in as short a period of time as feasible. The idea that the longer you give your students to sell the more money you will make is not necessarily true. In fact, this philosophy can also work against you. The longer your fundraiser lasts, the lower the sense of urgency that your sellers will have and the more they will tend to procrastinate. Most actual selling takes place during the first 3-4 days of the sale so a two week selling period is usually optimal. Here are some things that you can do to ensure that your fundraiser doesn’t turn into a longer drawn-out experience.

Define and promote your end date

Make sure that your end date is set in everyone’s minds before your fundraiser ever starts. This includes reinforcing the date with you school staff and parents. You will also want to announce it to your students at your fundraiser kickoff as well as promote it throughout your sale. Put your end date in your parent letter as well as publicize it on Facebook. We provide our customers with a school fundraising guidebook which includes pre-made form notices that you can send home reminding parents about your fundraiser end date. The point is, make a big deal about when order forms and money are due by announcing it as often as possible and in as many ways as you can.

Have consequences for late orders and enforce them

You are bound to have stragglers so be ready for them. If you plan to accept order forms after the end date for your fundraiser, let people know that they only have a certain time period to turn them in. We ask our sponsors to mail their order forms to us for processing about a week after their end date. This allows time for them to collect and process late orders. Any late orders that come in after that time can still be faxed in; however, we encourage them to set an additional 2 day deadline date for faxed orders as well. Any orders that come in after that are not guaranteed to ship with the original order but rather will arrive in a separate late shipment.

Follow up with late money as quickly as possible

TO READ THE REMAINDER OF THE ARTICLE, PLEASE CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE ORIGINAL

Photo by: ben.ramirez

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Restaurant Gift Card Fundraiser

The restaurant gift card fundraiser is great for the tough economic times we are all facing right now. You’ve probably found that most of your fundraising customers are cutting back on their discretionary spending budget and not purchasing as much from you as before. That is to be expected in tough financial times.

But the restaurant gift card fundraiser taps into a different part of their household budget, the dining/entertainment budget. No matter what – we all still eat out occasionally. It never hurts to remind your customers that not only are they helping your group and its cause out but they are also saving 60% off their meals out that they would be normally buying at full price if it wasn’t for you and your restaurant gift card fundraiser.

Pricing	Price Per Card	Profit
Buy 10 or more cards	$10.00	50%
* 100% profit guarantee! If you don’t make a profit, you can return unsold cards. Quick delivery in 2-4 business days, rush overnight available.

How It Works

 # Participants

 100% Profit Guarantee – You will make a profit or your money back!

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Back of Card (click to enlarge)

Sample Restaurant.com Partners

This fundraising program is so simple and risk-free! The cards have no expiration dates for you to worry about and unredeemed cards can be refunded if unscratched or damaged.

View full list of restaurant partners »
Thousands more available and new restaurants added daily! As Seen On

With 50% profit, free shipping, and a 100% risk-free guarantee, you’ve got nothing to lose! Supporters will love saving 60% on every meal. Start your Restaurant.com Gift Card Fundraiser today!

P.S. Order now to receive your fundraising cards in 2-4 days! We provide FREE SHIPPING nationwide and we guarantee you’ll make a profit, making this a completely risk free fundraiser!

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I return any unsold cards?

If you do not make a profit on this fundraiser, you can return any unsold restaurant.com gift cards as long as the back code has not been scratch off.
Do I have to pay for the cards upfront?

We have two different payment options for you:

1. You can pay upfront using a credit card, e-check, or by mailing in a check.
2. You can pay 10 days after receiving your cards. For this we will need a credit card to authorize or a purchase order from your organization.

You will be able to choose your payment option choice when you are placing your order online.
How do the supporters use the restaurant.com cards?

To use the card, your supporters will go to fundraising.restaurant.com. They will enter the code on the back of the card into the website and enter their zip code to see what dining certificate options are available in their area. The dining certificate options will range from $15.00 to $50.00 and it can be used all at one location or can be split up to be used at multiple restaurants. They would print out the dining certificate that they chose and present it when they go to the restaurant. *Please note that only one dining certificate can be used per visit and there might be a minimum purchase requirement. Any stipulations will be listed before your supporters choose the dining certificate.
Are these cards customized?

The cards will not be customized and so any unsold cards can be returned for a full refund within 60 days of getting the cards.
How many times can the card be used?

The cards is valid for up to $50.00 for restaurant.com dining certificates.
How much do the restaurant.com gift cards cost?

Each card costs $10.00 and is sold to supporters for $20.00. Your profit will be $10.00 per card.
Is there a minimum number of cards I need to buy?

The minimum purchase is for 10 restaurant.com gift card

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A couple of years ago, I wrote an e-book called the School Carnival Money Making Guide. It’s 186 pages long and gives all sort of practical advice on how to earn more money for your school at your school carnival.

Here is an excerpt from the book about how to run a basket auction. If you enjoy it, check out the entire book at www.everybodyhatesfundraising.com.

Basket Auction

Another great way to make a significant sum of money at your carnival is to add in the element of a basket auction. This strategy of bundling together a group of related items into a beautifully wrapped package has become very popular at silent auctions. So, it’s easy to transfer the idea over to your carnival without too much difficulty.

Here are some very important things to consider when deciding to add a basket auction to your carnival:

You must let the people who will be attending the carnival know, well ahead of time, that you will be having a basket auction in addition to your carnival, since bidding on these items can easily stretch beyond what most people would plan on spending at the carnival alone. You want to make sure that people bring their check books or credit cards to access larger amounts than they might have in their purses or wallets.

You can do this by prominently proclaiming this on the fliers and other printed notifications that go home about the carnival. You could even go as far as to name your event “The ____________ School Carnival & Basket Auction”. It’s kind of hard to miss it then!

Since you will have to solicit the items that you place in the baskets, you will need to put a team together to do this. This is an involved process that requires the right amount of confidence, congeniality, tact, gumption, creativity, and drive from the people in charge. If the average basket has six items in it, and you decide you want to auction off 20 baskets, that’s 120 items your team will have to procure. That can take significant time and effort, but the reward could be well worth it.

Do not forget to properly record each item that is donated, as well as send a thank-you/recognition letter to the donor.

Click here to enroll in Jim Berigan’s FREE year-long school fundraising e-Course!

If your school has a separate auction at a different time of year, I don’t think it would hurt to have a small basket auction add-on to your carnival. However, you want to be careful not to over-burden your business supporters by going to them too many times per year. You may decide to use certain businesses for the carnival basket auction and different businesses for your regular silent/live auction event and not cross the two lists.

Overall, a basket auction will add to the excitement of the event and raise some extra dollars. If your school doesn’t have an auction though, this is a chance to really dip into that “auction” revenue pool.

You will have to make a decision as to whether the baskets will be sold in a silent auction, a live auction, or a combination of both. Since there will be so much else going on however, I’d recommend going with a silent auction format.

Other things to consider with a basket auction:

• To generate excitement for your Basket Auction, take attractive photos of the baskets once they are put together and put them on your school’s website and/or Facebook page. This is the best way for parent to find out what will be available.

• As I mentioned in an earlier chapter, the basket auction will benefit greatly from the use of an emcee. He/she can also serve as the auctioneer and really stir up the interest and the bidding in the baskets.

• You should have a goal in mind for what each basket will sell for. If you see that prices are not going in that direction, use the emcee to fire up the bidders.

Here are some suggestions for basket themes and contents.

1. New York Times Best-seller Basket

A selection of two or three top selling books from the NYT bestseller list, gift certificate to book store, reading lamp…

2. Arts & Crafts Basket
Paint, markers, crayons, scissors, easel, construction paper, craft kits… (more…)

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Do your PTO meetings suffer from a lack of attendance? Do you need more volunteers for everything your group tries to accomplish? Do the same few people show up for everything and do virtually all the work?

Well, if this is the case at your school (and I know that it is, because it’s the same all over), then I suggest you look at how you are inviting people to the meetings.

Now, I know that this isn’t the magic bullet solution to the overall problem of volunteer recruitment, but the way you ask people to join your cause is important.

And, I have to say that, as an example, my own children’s elementary school isn’t doing a very active job of recruiting us parents to get involved.

At our school, the PTO meets once per month. I know this because they advertise their meetings in the school newsletter, which I receive and actually read.

In fact, here is the blurb they included in the most recent newsletter home:

Our PTO meets next on Thursday, November 17, at 5:30. All are welcome to join us in our school library.

This wording is pretty typical for the announcement. As they said in that old television show, “Just the facts, ma’am.”

When I see this in the newsletter, there’s nothing that grabs my attention about the meeting or really encourages me to change my schedule to attend this meeting. I just keep skimming the newsletter looking for anything that really pertains to my own kids.

I have said over and over in this blog, that working for the school’s PTO is basically a sales job. It’s marketing. It’s convincing people to give up their time and money for a reason. If you want them to do it, you have to “SELL” it.

So, the newsletter blurb is a fine place to advertise the meeting, but you need to say much more than just the time and the place. Include what you’ll be talking about. Add some drama, and there’s always drama you can include. (Like, “We’ll be discussing the budget for field trips this coming year. If we don’t raise enough money, there will be no field trips all year!) Also, make sure you advertise that there will be food (preferably pie). Food is always a big draw, especially pie.

But then the PTO members have to personally invite people to attend. Each PTO member should make it a goal to invite four friends to each meeting. Get on the phone with them or stop them in the school hallway, and twist their arms.  Use your friendship to guilt them into coming.  Then those four should put the squeeze on a few more. And so on. Personal invitations are the best way to get people involved.

If a two-line, uninspired blurb in your school newsletter is all you do to invite parents to join your meetings, you don’t have any right to complain that not that many people show up week after week. You need pizzazz, excitement, drama, a call to action, and pie.

Photo by: Tracy Hunter

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If you have been reading this blog for a while, you may know that I used to be the principal and administrator of a private elementary school. Therefore, I have worked with teachers closely and have learned about their struggles, challenges, and obstacles.

I have a great deal of respect for the hard and important work that teachers do. I am still currently involved in working with students, and there are many days I wonder how the teachers cope with so many young people on a daily basis.

I also know that the hours between 8:00 and 3:00 are only a part of the day teachers put in. With staff meetings, extra-curriculars, mentoring, and grading papers, their work day is long.

However, there are many schools that are getting absolutely zero cooperation from their teachers when it comes to fundraising or spirit building activities put on by the parent-teacher group in the school.

This lack of participation, especially when the parents have repeatedly asked for their involvement, can be very discouraging to the parents who are giving their time to the same cause the teachers are working for.

Nobody is accusing the teachers of not working hard. And nobody is asking the parents who are volunteering to give more of their time. But, what is the solution? What is fair to expect from the teachers?

Basically, I think the answer to this problem starts in the principal’s office.

I firmly believe that the principal sets the mood for fundraising at the school. If the principal thinks fundraising is “beneath” the faculty, then the teachers won’t be very helpful. But, if the principal sets an example, by being involved him- or herself, if he or she gets excited by the fundraiser at hand and makes an effort to pump up the students, if he or she verbally affirms the teachers who do get involved, then there will be a much more active participation from the teachers.

Teachers are employees, just like everybody else in the workforce. For the most part, employees tend to value what their boss values. They often reflect the taste of their supervisor. For example, if a principal arrives early to work on a regular basis, then the staff will recognize that punctuality is important at that school. If the principal chooses to be very formal in his or her wardrobe, it’s likely the teachers will follow suit (pun intended!).

So, if you are having a problem in your school with lack of teacher participation in fundraising activities, I suggest you start working on getting your principal to be much more active and enthused about raising the money needed to provide students with the education materials and experiences they need.

Photo by: by dumbledad

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