Believe it or not there are successful school fundraising companies out there that did not build their business on having local fundraising reps in the field. Believe is one of them. We do a lot of nationwide school fundraisers but it's a common discussion about how we could operate without reps in every area of the country. It does seem rather ingrained that we should be local and available in that way in every area we have contact.
Although we do have some reps and they are absolutely awesome, we also designed our programs to work with consultation from our home office. In many ways it's faster and more efficient. Schools communicating directly with headquarters is something that schools find to be a great benefit - they don't have to wait for their rep to contact headquarters and get back with them.
There are many more reasons why we have been able to build a fundraising company with a different than expected business model, but the reason I am writing is just to express one main thought:
A fundraising representative's job is to implement.
In doing so, they can make a fundraiser just that much better. Not to single-handedly run it or sell everything themselves, but just to encourage participation in the fundraiser which will lead to sales - a fundraising representative is there to make the fundraiser they offer smoother and more productive, nothing more.
Having said that, what they are selling is perhaps the most important question. If the fundraiser in itself is average, even the best fundraising rep can only make it average plus just a little bit.
Regardless of if your fundraising rep is in the field or in our headquarters, make sure you have an amazing fundraiser FIRST! Then an amazing school fundraising rep second.
This means that your rep is making an amazing fundraising even better!
The expression 'That's like putting lipstick on a pig' comes to mind. Because it's a futile effort to try to improve something that starts out just average. It'll end up average plus a little bit given the needs of schools today, that's just not good enough.
_______________________________________
Note: This is in no way a dis of any fundraising rep, in fact, I believe they add a valuable service to the industry - especially when the fundraising programs and services they offer are exceptional!
Jay Moneta is the Vice President of Believe Kids Fundraising and blogs here at fundraising-advice.com (believejay.blogspot.com). I can be found on twitter - twitter.com/BelieveKids and encourage comments, feedback or suggestions! If you enjoy this blog, please subscribe, link to it or let someone know about it! Thanks for looking!
No comments:
Post a Comment