Fundraising Incentives for your School!

One thing is clear! Incentives work.

In planning your next fundraiser, make sure you are providing a good reason for folks to get involved.

Everyone loves encouragement

Regardless of what you use to encourage participation in the fundraiser, the more you can do to get people excited and interested in helping, they more effective your fundraising efforts will be. Here is a list of groups that could use encouragement:

• Students
• Teachers
• Administrators
• Faculty
• Principals
• Parents
• Relatives
• Community

So, it certainly seems impossible to provide incentives to all these groups but it's really not all that challenging.

Here's why:

Parents, Relatives & The Community

The reality is that parents, relatives and the community at large receive the gift of charitable giving, helping children and improving education. Having said that, they still need some encouragement to purchase. That's where running a quality fundraiser comes in. A good gift catalog or a cookie dough offer should be enough to earn their support.

Faculty, Administrators & Principals

When it comes to the school, it's not always easy to garner the support of teachers, principals and administrators. With everything going on today in schools with budget cuts and lower fundraising returns due to a bad economy, many schools are getting more involved on their own.

Our best advice is to ASK!

Ask the principal to send out an email, ask the receptionist for help if needed and ask teachers to encourage their classes to participate. Yes, perhaps a bit different asking for help but it will produce results. Keep in mind that not all incentives require money - freebies and delivering cups of coffee go a long way.

Students

Students should be incentivised in a few different ways if possible. A good fundraising company will provide daily incentives to remind them to work on the fundraiser daily as well as a quality prize program. There are a number of other ideas that will help so consult with your fundraising rep. Most likely they work for a company that will supply other ideas as well such as a top-seller prize.

This is one case where your fundraising company can really be of assistance. If a school does little to promote a fundraiser, the results will likely reflect that. On the other hand, if a school and fundraising company work together to really promote the fundraiser, it will be a huge success!

In the end, here's your success challenge: get everyone you can involved and reward everyone you can!

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Jay Moneta is the Vice President of Believe Kids Fundraising and blogs here regularly. If you would like more information visit www.BelieveKids.com If you enjoy the information here, please share links or leave comments, questions or feedback for me. I can also be reached on twitter - twitter.com/BelieveKids Thanks for looking!!

Comparing Fundraising Offers - 5 Hints to a Better School Fundraiser!

We know there is a big difference between fundraising companies and their offers.

Without question, it can seem like schools are 'sold' like a used car salesman. These days, it's hard for school volunteer groups to sort through real information come up with a true expectation of what their fundraising company should deliver.

These hints should make it easier to compare fundraising offers:

1) Get it in writing before you commit.

If you are accepting numerous offers for your fundraiser, let every company know what your preferences are and encourage written offers. Don't be swayed by representatives that tell you they 'could' do things - just get their best offer in writing up front!

Once you have all the offers give each vendor a chance to fix and improve their offer if you either change your preferences or have a better offer on the table. Keep in mind that with negotiations, you can improve your offerings but you have to ask. Remember, even a good company can't fix something in their proposal if they are unaware it needs fixing.

2) Don't let anything keep you from hitting your goal.

• If you have a relationship with a rep that you know is not offering you the type of fundraising options that would produce results, get out there and take a look at other options (if you are one of these groups, you know what I mean).

• Ask your fundraising company what promotional materials, goodies and extras they will be providing that help your sale! There is one company I know of (shameless, I know) that increases student participation by offering complimentary charm necklaces during the fundraiser to boost sales. Just one simple and organized promotion can make a huge difference in the outcome of your fundraiser!

• Look into each company to see if they have anything they offer that helps get principals, teachers and faculty involved. Getting true support from the school could just be the number one factor in improving sales. Ask what they have to offer.

3) Get the facts

The truth is, hardly anyone ever does. But if you ask what average sales are per student and participation rates for all the companies you are looking at, the most productive fundraiser will surface. You can take this data and compare with what you know about the results of your schools previous fundraisers. Then focus on improving the numbers (see #5 below).

4) Know that you will look good!

If you end up with a ton of complaints, your fundraiser wasn't a success no matter how much money you make.

Ask some or all of these questions:

• How many items did you backorder last year?
• Did you replace, refund or give credit for these items?
• How long did the process take to satisfy these customers?
• Who do customers call in case of damages, missing items, ordering issues, etc?
• How does the company guarantee accuracy?
• What is order turnaround time?
• Who processes the order forms?
• Can schools track their sales?
• Can my customers also buy online?

If you are not talking to a customer service oriented company, it should be quite obvious by the answers you receive (shameless promotion #2 - Believe has a look good guarantee).

5) Improve your sales - Ask each company what they offer that will increase your sales.

• Offering quality items at good prices produces value. When you offer a good value, you will get sales. Therefore, things like lower price points, nicer catalogs and a nice shopping site may just help. These items may be somewhat intangeable so start a list.

• Find out what you have access to as far as tutorials and advice, email templates, marketing materials, contests, etc. Rate the quality of the parent letter, prize program and catalog. By getting a sense of how students, parents and the community will react to the fundraiser, you can choose the right company for your needs.

Not all fundraising companies are used car salesmen. Good luck out there and thanks for looking! I hope that you found the information helpful!

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Jay Moneta is the Vice President at Believe Kids Fundraising and blogs here at www.fundraising-advice.com I encourage feedback, comments and questions here or at twitter.com/BelieveKids Feel free to visit our website www.BelieveKids.com for more information.

Choosing A School Fundraiser - Ease, Protitability & Timing

Choosing a fundraiser is a bit tougher these days. With everything going on in the fundraising industry along with budget cuts in schools and a flailing economy, schools have some tough decisions to make now that will determine their fundraising success in the fall.

Here is a list of considerations that will help you in choosing your next fundraiser:

1) Consider fundraisers based on profitability.

Most schools have a main fundraiser that is their heavy-hitter. This year, focusing more effort on this fundraiser is your best bet. Promoting a number of small fundraisers this year will detract from the one that is responsible for the largest revenue.

The biggest fundraisers for fall 2010 will be a fall gift & wrap catalog, frozen cookie dough and well-promoted events such as auctions or a-thons. Stay consistent - if you have been building a successful fall auction for 3 years for instance, stick with it! This fall is not the year to take a chance on something new or un-tested.

• Fall Catalog - A gift catalog includes gifts, magazines, jewelry, candles and a bunch more all designed to have a high participation rate and sell-through rate. A fall catalog is preferable to any single item fundraiser because it offers options. All-in-all, anyone opening the catalog can find something they can use or give as a gift.

• Cookie Dough - Frozen cookie dough has been a top-seller because it is a commodity - food. Food is always in demand so it is easy to make top-dollar. With a cookie dough fundraiser, there are some concerns on delivery day - you will need volunteers to help sort and distribute the product. Make sure to make parents aware of the delivery day anyway you can so they come and pickup the frozen product. With a reminder, the vast majority of parents will be there to get the goods. You may need just a bit of frozen storage for just a few parent orders.

• Large Events - auctions, carnivals and a-thons (walk-a-thon, jog-a-thon, read-a-thon) offer the opportunity to raise large amounts of money. The most successful groups have a repeatable event that they host year after year. This way, the fundraiser offers consistency and improves a groups chances of getting folks out to the event. Be careful when starting a new event because you may have a difficult time judging the outcome. In general, marketing the event becomes critical. The downside of hosting an event is that it requires a ton of volunteer hours.

There are a number of other fundraising ideas out there including single product fundraisers such as trash bags, batteries, candles and if you are considering one of these fundraisers for a school-wide fundraiser, you will really want to compare. It's very likely the sales for these little fundraisers, will not be what you expect.




2) Choose based on ease of use - volunteerism

Some schools have a lot of volunteer support and some struggle a bit with getting help. If it helps you to think of fundraising in terms of ease of use, the easiest is a catalog sale which needs no volunteers, next is cookie dough where help is needed on delivery day and finally any event in which case planning and execution both need volunteers. I know it sounds pretty obvious, but if you know you won't have proper support, don't launch a new event.



3) Choose based on timing

When it comes to timing, fall is where it's at. The fall fundraising season extends roughly from September - November and is responsible for the vast majority of fundraising revenue. Any of the fundraisers will work well during this period of time but there are a few things to consider where timing is concerned.

Are there any competing fundraising efforts around the same time? Consider this... If you promote something right before your big fall fundraising effort, you will likely have less of a response on your fall fundraising efforts. Understanding how this works is simple.

By way of example, let's take a movie night - if 100 people were to show up on a Friday night and you added a viewing on Saturday night as well would you expect 200 people? Unfortunately, you'll really have the same pool of interested folks perhaps with the addition of just one or two that couldn't make the Friday. So, you'd be looking more like 52 per night.

Point is, even though you may get a few more participants, you'll also lose some who will just wait for the next fundraiser. Without writing a book here, let me just point out that the less fundraising you do around the time of your big fall fundraiser, the better!



4) Choose based on benefit to the community.

This one is a bit more challenging to explain. You may want to occasionally offer a fundraiser that benefits the community at large instead of purely being focused on the financial rewards.

There are times where supporting a foreign country in distress (such as Haiti), a local firehouse fundraiser, cancer awareness, perhaps you get to hold a safety fair or something like that and finances are not the main consideration, don't make visitors feel like you have a hand out. Try not to make it seem like the school is doing the fundraiser wherever possible. There is a difference between the school raising money and a donation drive being done at the school if you catch my drift.

If it is a local event, hold it for fun and educational sake in support of the cause. Leave the fundraising to the larger fundraisers wherever possible. This is your chance to strengthen the sense of community and they will be more willing to help you when the main fundraiser comes along.

Tread lightly here only with respect to item 3 above. If you are focusing on a community event around the time of your fall fundraiser, you will likely hurt the sale you are counting on for the majority of the years income.

Megan Fox and Brian Austin Green - School Budget Cuts Video - Hot for Teachers

Megan Fox and Brian Austin Green in Hot for Teachers - a video speaking out against budget cuts in California public schools.

Even though this was produced to help public schools in California, the video resonates with schools all around the country. Please chime in here but I can't think of a time here recently that has brought school budget cuts to the forefront such as this video is capable of. Please take a minute to view the video and leave comments here or on my twitter page - twitter.com/BelieveKids

Here is the video speaking out against school budget cuts in California, take a look:

Hot for Teachers w/ Megan Fox and Brian Austin Green from Megan Fox

BTW, we're not affiliated with this video, I just think it's something you would be interested in watching. :)

School Fundraisers that SELL - 3 Helpful Hints!

I am a computer geek and as such, I scour the web for interesting information.

I know that every fundraising company has an agenda and for that matter I do too. As the Vice President of a national fundraising company, I naturally want people to use my elementary school fundraisers wherever possible.

The thing is, I have a mission... I want to share any information I can that will allow schools and groups to have fundraising success!

I hope this post increases your sale regardless of what types of fundraisers you host and what fundraising companies you work with.

This post relates to how fundraising companies market to you in order for you to pick them. Naturally, every fundraiser has sales bullet points but some fundraisers fall flat while others are wildly successful. How can you recognize one from another?

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1) New and unique is not always better.

There is a difference among fundraisers. Since I am a computer geek at heart, I do see just about every offer online. They are marketed largely the same and every one claims to be profitable. But can they ALL really be equally profitable?

First off, You have new fundraising ideas and you have traditional proven favorites. Any new fundraiser may come with new ways of fundraising. The consideration here is that new is not always better. It's likely revenue will drop until students, parents and the community know how to effectively participate in the fundraiser. If you're trying a new fundraiser that has not been tested, make sure your goal reflects that.

Online malls, affiliate programs and coupon programs are examples of new fundraisers.

On the flip side, Traditional fundraising still leads the way in top-dollar fundraising. It tends to work better simply because the community knows what to expect and they know how to do their part.

Frozen cookie dough, gift and wrap catalogs and magazine sales are examples of traditional fundraisers.

2) Choosing the right program for your school.

Let's face it. There are different types of fundraisers and there are different types of schools. Finding the right match for your group can be difficult. Make sure to look back on the history of fundraisers at your school. If you don't have good records, make sure to keep track from here on out so you have good numbers. Some schools can sell chocolate bars, some catalog and some succeed at large fundraising events. So, your insight from the school perspective is critical.

We offer basically 2 fundraisers at Believe Kids, a fall fundraising gift catalog and a frozen cookie dough fundraiser.

These fundraisers have consistently been proven to increase sales over similar fundraisers. So, yeah! We have an amazing catalog but is it right for everyone? No. '
There are times where keeping it fresh or offering a product-in-hand fundraiser is a better option.

Your insight on what is right for your group can really make a difference. The last thing you want to do is have to try every single fundraiser out there in order to figure this out.

Just be careful in allowing fundraising company marketing to decide for you what is right for your group.

3) Putting down others

If a company markets by way of belittling the traditional heavy-hitting fundraisers, they may not be the right company for you.

Traditional fundraiser i.e. magazine sales, frozen cookie dough, large events such as auctions and walk-a-thons and fall gift catalogs have a proven track record for raising significant dollars. If a fundraising company has an ad that says that these things don't work, they are misinformed.

80% of elementary schools rely on these traditional fundraisers every year as do countless middle schools, high schools and other groups. There is no basis in fact to advertising claims that 'nobody wants wrapping paper or cookie dough anymore'.

The truth is, nobody wants what the companies that market this way offer and that's the best they can come up with. If a company is using a marketing tactic that suggests that traditional fundraising is not working, proceed with caution.

There you have it!

3 down and dirty hints to increasing your fundraising success with us or any other company. Remember to get professional advice online but also via phone. Reach out with a phone call to companies you believe offer value and significant profits. Talk over your situation with honesty. You'd be surprised at how helpful fundraising companies can be!

In your phone calls to school fundraising representatives, you can ask them specifically what participation they expect out of your group and what average sale per student you should receive. If they are up-front with you, you will have good numbers on what should be most profitable for your school. Use these tips and whatever else you can find online and over the phone. Use whomever is the best fit for your group and remember...

We just want you to succeed!
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Jay Moneta is the Vice President of Believe Kids, a nationwide elementary school fundraising company. If you find the information here valuable, please share the link to my blog - believejay.blogspot.com with friends.

Please comment here below the post and thanks for looking!