Schools are being challenged this year more than ever and what's happening out there is very sad indeed. Take a look at the Alum Rock Union School District music program. They just hosted a fundraiser only to have just a few dozen attendees - no doubt a crowd comprised mostly of the parents of musicians.
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Here's the story:
Schools try fundraisers to save music, sports, small classes
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Now, I feel pretty bad that a music program has to spin their wheels like this. I also think that music and art are not 'extra' and believe they should be funded along with the three R's but that's a story for another day.
Here's some sound fundraising advice - Think things through.
In order to really evaluate the potential success or failure of your fundraiser, you've got to dis-associate yourself from your love of what you do. Go ahead, pull back, release your passion, relax your posture a bit and look objectively at what is going on. If you have an expert or a way to reach an expert you should consult them before the event is planned if you can. Back to our current example.
Today, two things are happening:
1) The climate of fundraising in schools is resistant - meaning that people are more likely to resist your fundraising efforts than support them.
2) A concert or whatever fundraiser you offer is in essence, a commodity (in this case entertainment) and there is a value associated with it. What this means is that your event is subject to the laws of supply and demand.
So, Unless your event is mandatory, you are not going to gain attendance simply because of an obligation to your fundraising event. In fact, if you look at the example above, the band concert most likely was attended by folks that felt obligated. I'm guessing that not many came out because of the entertainment (I feel bad saying that, but the event needed to be more special in order to draw a crowd).
Secondly, your event has a retail value. In order to price the tickets, I believe two things are true. You want to price the tickets low enough to pack the auditorium but you want to maximize your returns as well.
Ask yourself what a going rate price is for a similar event. Ask yourself what you would pay to see just the activity and take the fundraiser aspect of it out of your mind. There are not many tickets that are $20 out there for bands that do not have some fame. That turns out to be $40 per couple and that's a lot for a school function. Unfortunately, I know that many similar concerts are free or maybe just a few dollars and many in the summer are outdoors as well.
In order to stay competitive, a lower ticket would have increased ticket sales and then something else could have been introduced to increase revenue such as concession sales, some sort of vendor rental, art sale, auction, drawing or raffle.
A theme of some sort could have been introduced to attract a targeted audience in larger numbers. Instead of just folks that love Jazz, perhaps having a children's song set would have been enough to market to parents of younger children. I'm not saying this is what they should have done, just an illustration of some way to make the event draw other than a concert by a band. This is a concert - for kids - by a band and that has more appeal. Come up with your own ideas here though because I am really just making that up and have no idea if that would draw folks out or not but I do believe there is a way to add a more targeted audience to nearly everything and gain participation.
So, in the end, think things through, make every effort to make your events special and memorable and consider that when hosting a fundraiser, you are subject to laws of supply and demand.
Unfortunately, today's school budgets are creating quite a supply of fundraisers so you have to create that demand by making it special!
Best of luck out there!
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Jay Moneta is the Vice President of Believe Kids Fundraising with headquarters in Englewood, CO. I blog about school fundraising here on www.fundraising-advice.com and can be reached on twitter - twitter.com/BelieveKids
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