Spirit Night Blues - Why Local Fundraisers are Not All That and a Bag of Chips...

I just ran across a blog post from a mother who suggested taking her schools fundraising local. I gave it some consideration and here's what I got... As a person involved with a nationwide fundraising company I see both sides.  The idea is pretty cool idea but also impractical for a few key reasons.

If you're not into reading some pretty complicated stuff coming up, just ask yourself if there are any instances where local companies don't perform as well as top national brands.  I think you'll be able to figure the rest of this post out on your own without reading it.

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I know that some parents get bent out of shape when asked to participate in fundraisers and the more fundraisers a school hosts, the more parents become frustrated. By now, anyone following my blog would recognize that I am a proponent of LESS but MORE EFFECTIVE fundraising!

So, local or not.  The fundraiser will play by the same rules regardless of if it's a local fruit sale, a spirit night or a fall gift and wrap fundraising catalog.  The performance of the sale will depend on how much fundraising the school is doing and where the school stands with respect to school spirit and parental support.

Beyond that, the fundraisers will be the fundraisers. There are a few main factors that think groups would want to consider.  Namely, the time and money they take to setup and the risk associated with them.  Then, the simplest way to view different fundraisers is that they have a participation rate and they have an average sale. The highest wins.


All this complicated stuff and yet, I believe I can make my point clear.

If you host a local fundraiser, just don't blow it.  Make sure that even though a local sale may be riskier and less profitable, make sure you can succeed.  See, you may just lose the benefit of systems and nuance and nationwide expertise when you host local fundraisers. But, if you're prepared to make sure the fundraiser works, then go for it!  If the profit is supposed to be less to the school and you're ok with it, that's ok.  Watch out if you think they will both profit similarly.

Just keep in mind that the fundraiser does matter.  It's not simply a matter of the same exact thing but just local.  It's different and sometimes that matters, sometimes it doesn't.  At least if you know there is a difference, you can make a more informed decision.

Ok, until next time!

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Thanks and as always you can find me on twitter/believekids
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elementary school fundraisers