Fun vs. Cash - Your School Fundraising Dilemma

There certainly is a dilemma when it comes to fundraising for fun or profit when it comes to your school fundraisers.

Should schools be focused on creating fun and educational events or put the needs for money first and focus on heavy-hitting fundraising?

Obviously, school needs will vary.

Some schools do extraordinarily well with one gift and wrap catalog fundraiser while others hold auctions, festivals or special events that their school has developed over time.  Some get the fundraising out of the way and then have some fun while others host fundraisers constantly throughout the year hoping that a number of little efforts will add up.

Given that schools are so diverse in their offerings of both fundraisers and events, there is no one way to say exactly what combination of fun vs. cash is right across the board.

That's not to say that there aren't some hard and fast rules to keep in mind when planning a school fundraising and parent group event schedule.  The top consideration would always be to push forward and not take a step backwards.  This means that it would be foolish to repeat previous failures or to replace fundraisers or events that work well.

So, what's the right answer?

The right answer is to raise the money you need in the most effective way you can while keeping school needs in mind.  Avoid 'fundraising fatigue' by focusing your fundraising on one heavy-hitting fundraiser.

I see it this way.  

Make the money you need in one effective fundraiser and encourage participation. 

Do not go against the flow of what works for the school.  For instance, if you have a long-standing traditional auction and it's succeeded for 10 years, keep it! If you have a yearly band concert that puts hundreds of attendees in the seats, keep it!  If you have a safety fair that gets kudos from parents every year keep it!

Have one concentrated fundraiser to make money and innovate it as best you can.  Keep it fresh and keep it producing substantial profits. 

Then provide fun optional events that you can also make limited money on but don't call them fundraisers OR make it seem like the money made is important.  OFFER VALUE!

I recommend providing services.  For instance,  a free school outdoor movie nights are a great way to create comradery amongst students, parents and staff.  But what's even more exciting is selling glow sticks, movie candy, drinks and popcorn.  Also, spirit gear t-shirts would be an exciting table to have setup at a movie night as well.

These things do not seem like fundraisers even though, technically they are.  And thats kinda the point.  You have a fundraiser and ask for donations then you don't.  Get it over with and raise the money then back off and have some fun.

That's how I see it right now and I believe that too many fundraisers equals less revenue and less engaged parents. A heavy-hitting fundraiser and then having some fun just makes more sense.

Principals - Attention Spans and One Main Fundraiser

What I see as the biggest threat to schools today is how to effectively capture and utilize the limited resources of parents.  As time goes on, I realize just how competitive our time has become.  As a society, our attention spans often max out at mere seconds.

Online alone, we have an attention span between 4 and 9 seconds according to experts.  We're not talking just online though - check this out... The term 'attention span' as I understand it, originally described a child's ability to pay attention relative to adults.

In our super-fast paced lives these days, I believe that, often times, our children have about the same ability to concentrate on one thing as adults.  I'm no psychologist or anything but at home, particularly at certain parts of the day, I jump around from one thing to another faster than a trapeze artist at the circus. My children are quite happy to do one thing during these times.

So here's the point.  Things get crazy and there's a limited amount of time and money available at any given time.  Schools are competing for this time and money.  Therefore, schools have to grab the attention of time-starved parents and demand attention.

Fortunately, parents care deeply about their children and their journey of learning.  Every day holds surprises and discovery.  It's magical for parents and a job for schools.  When a child returns with a backpack brimming with papers, it's an amazing thing.  So much creativity mixed in with a bunch of updates, fundraisers and other stuff.

It's my personal and professional goal to help improve school funding.  Of course my expertise is in fundraising but as a parent of school age children, I see the parent side as well.  When there is too much stuff coming home, parents have a hard time recognizing the importance of one thing over another.

It's sad but true.  The reality is, that parents get easily overwhelmed.  As most parents would attest, keeping tabs on simple things can be a challenge and when it comes to a bag overflowing with papers, it becomes too much and everything gets lost.  I've recently seen this in person on the donation drive our school was hosting.  There was no less than 10 other things to look at and the competition with all of the other documents was just too much. 

 In closing, pay attention to what gets sent home and minimize it as much as possible.  Are there documents that could be condensed or a sorting system that could create a distinction between one type of item, say artwork, from notices?  There is room for improvement and any improvement means more attention paid to each document.

Think in terms of providing the minimum necessary to get everything across and in this day and age, rely on the web, social media and websites to provide in depth information that parents and the community may be searching out. 

Hope this helps remove a paper from a school bag in a town near you :)

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reference:  http://zigzigger.blogspot.com/2010/11/attention-span-myth.html

Believe Kids Elementary School Fundraising – Client Testimonial

It's nice when people like what we do.  This video is on the Believe Kids corporate blog and is self-serving, but you can take a look if you want.

Caution: Link is self-promotion

Believe Kids Elementary School Fundraising – Client Testimonial