Believe Kids Elementary School Fundraising - The Low Down...

This blog has never been self-serving. I didn't intend for the information here to ever be about my company and certainly not about me. It's time though, given some feedback I have received to give a quick summary about me and my company. I think it will give some valuable insight as to why I spend my time writing about how to improve funding in schools.

First off, I believe my personal mission is to speak up for children that won't speak up on their own. I have two kids and have found that they are very resilient. If they lack something, they find a way to cope and they move on. I believe adults in our society need to intervene any way they can to better provide for children when they wouldn't say otherwise. In my case, I believe good teachers are the key to recognizing when children lack a learning tool.

I believe in good teachers.

A good example of this is my belief in, and commitment to quality teaching. I believe that teachers should make every student feel like they are the teachers favorite. I believe there should be enough teaching styles to reach out to the future artist and the engineer and the zoologist and I don't believe reciting facts is the way to reach these very different personalities.

I believe in technology.

I believe that schools should commit to being ahead of the technology curve and not behind it. Technology has changed the way we teach but I'm not convinced we know that yet. All the research tools and resources needed to create a new and collaborative learning experience already exists in handheld devices and computers already on the market.

I expect a technological revolution in schools within the next 10 years whereby paper is largely replaced with hand-held devices.

I would like to be at the forefront of financing this revolution.

Professionally, Believe Kids Fundraising is about excellence. We pay attention to detail in every product and service so that we not only raise money for schools but maximize the fundraisers profitability so schools can fundraise less. Fundraising less means improving relations with parents and we think having a hand out too often creates resentment. We want parents and schools to work together because after all, both parents and schools need each other.

So, while we raise the bar with our elementary school fundraising programs, we will continue to set our sights on improving relationships and enhancing education with good teaching and technology.

One thing we know about the future of education, is that we are honored to be a part of it!

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Jay Moneta is the Vice President of the Believe Group and blogs here and at the School Fundraising PLN. If you enjoyed the article, please comment or share the link to this blog: www.believejay.blogspot.com or hit me up on twitter: www.twitter.com/believekids

Thanks so much!

Believe Kids Elementary School Fundraising Programs - How to find out more about us...

We are not the most aggressive group and we're not vacuum salesmen. In fact, as far as people go, we're a pretty laid back group. We're parents and we're fun and we think that our products should speak for themselves.

We're Amazing but we Hide it Well :)

We spend a lot of out time innovating and improving and we like to think folks will find us and discover what we're all about and how amazing we are. Unfortunately, our mentality there is a bit flawed and we know it. Although we are a successful nationwide school fundraising company, there are bigger, more local and more in-your-face companies out there and let's face it - people are too busy to dig as deep as it may take to find us.

What's the Deal...

The deal is that if you've found this post, take that extra minute to find out more about Believe Kids. If nothing else, visit the homepage at www.BelieveKids.com and take a look around.

Unmoderated Comments

We've got a number of unmoderated comments posted under each of our programs page. We do not make anyone post to there, nor do we remove negative posts if any were to occur. We are a very confident group indeed.

Give us a Call

Call us at 1-877-7-BELIEVE (1-877-723-5438) and if you are a group that does traditional fundraisers such as a fall gift and wrap fundraising catalog or frozen food fundraisers (cookie dough), we'd like an opportunity to get you a customized proposal.

The one thing you can rest assured with is that if you don't feel our proposal is the best, we both move on knowing that one day we may be able to work together. We don't get mad or keep calling on you if we're not in alignment with your needs at any given time.

In the End...

We just can't explain ourselves properly but our referrals can. We can provide an unlimited amount of referrals for you in any state. By having a chance to talk with some of our current and past customers, you may just find that Believe is a good fit for you.

We'll continue to create excellent fundraisers first, knowing that the word is getting out there, but we invite you to take just a moment to discover for yourself what we're all about.

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Jay Moneta is the Vice President of Believe Kids Fundraising and blogs here at www.Fundraising-Advice.com

I encourage discussion and conversation as well as feedback or suggestions so please subscribe to this blog, leave comments or find me on twitter - twitter.com/BelieveKids

Thanks for looking and sorry about the self-promotion blog post - it just had to be done. Ok, see ya next time!

Believe Kids Fundraising - Technical Review - Live Chat for your Blog or Website

We've decided to try live chat.

It's something we offered nearly 10 years ago and it's time again now. Back in the day, live chat cost a TON. Now, Live chat can be free!

What we went with for live customer service chat is from Plugoo - www.plugoo.com and is free provided you are OK with one chat at a time. This free version is what we are testing now until we determine how many folks want to chat online with us. If it turns out it becomes popular, we'll upgrade.

Why this is cool

Plugoo comes into my Windows Live Messenger deal so when a chat comes in it's just like someone here in my office sending me a message. I am very familiar with it and it's already in use - so it's perfect! In fact, the program will works for a slew of instant messenger clients so if you use aim or ICQ or something else it will work.

If you want to see how we integrated it, take a look at the top of the Believe Kids Fundraising homepage. Look for the Live Chat link. We just got done testing it and it's amazing! Have fun with it for your own uses and if you ever need any Believe Kids Fundraising customer service hit me up :)

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Jay Moneta is the Vice President of Believe Kids Fundraising and blogs here at http://www.fundraising-advice.com and can be reached at twitter as well. If you like this or any of my posts, please subscribe to my blog, write comments or send any feedback or suggestions. Thanks for looking!

Elementary School PTA / PTO Fundraiser - Thinking Outside the Box...

Thinking outside the box is dangerous ground. Whenever the topic comes up I cringe a bit and hope to goodness that folks understand how to manage creative thinking.

We deal with parent groups at schools on a daily basis, so when it comes to fundraising events, school fundraising gift catalogs or frozen cookie dough sales it's very common for comments to surface wondering what new and different ideas folks can come up with. The inference is that parents are dissatisfied with traditional fundraising and that we need something more creative.

For time sake, let me cut to the chase. With respect to whatever you are taking on, remember there is a set of conventional rules - a set of laws if you will that should not be broken. Then the icing on the top is the outside the box thinking.

In schools in particular, too many groups try outside the box thinking on the laws rather than set a good foundation and then build the exciting stuff on top of that.

The best way to understand this philosophy is by example - In order to take a shower you have to turn the water on. There is way around this basic law. If you create outside the box thinking too early in this process you now have to replace water as the source of the shower.

Here's another example for ya. Imagine for instance having a garage sale without putting up any signs or placing any ads. You may think that you can re-invent the garage sale and run one without ads or signage but the basic premise that people have to know about your sale. Nobody is going to show up and as a result you won't sell anything. Clearly not advertising your sale is not one of the laws you can break. Instead, if you want to give everyone at your sale a complimentary cookie - well, now you're talking effective outside the box thinking!

I'll leave you with this thought today. There are conventions that are tried and true and working and repeatable! If you are making a decision that requires out of the box thinking, try to use a convention that already exists as your base and then build on the extras using out of the box thinking.

Don't take me the wrong way here, if you can do something new and unconventional, that's in many ways what true breakthrough products and services are built on. When it comes to school parent groups and fundraising in particular, it's perhaps better to stick to what your parents will understand and want to be a part of. When you roll out something too mind-bending and unexpected you may lose the attention of the group of people you really need support from.

Until we meet again on this topic, don't be afraid to just say 'no' to out of the box thinking until you've got a winning combination of bare bones basics to rely on.

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Jay Moneta is the Vice President of Believe Kids Fundraising. If you enjoyed the post or would like to discuss this or any other fundraising related topic, please comment here or at www.twitter.com/believekids

Invitation to visit Believe Kids Denver Headquarters

Invitation to visit Believe Kids Fundraising Open House - Englewood, CO

We would like to invite you to the Believe Kids office & warehouse open house!

Come on over and grab a gift bag, see our 2010 product line, take home some product samples and see for yourself how we provide amazing service to each and every group fundraising with us nationwide!

This is an amazing opportunity to meet our staff, see our warehouse and checkout the 20 passenger Escalade limo! The kids love it!

Thursday February 18, 2010 11 A.M. - 2 P.M.

Invite as many people involved in your fundraising efforts as you would like! Please R.S.V.P. on twitter if you can come or email us www.Twitter.com/BelieveKids letting us know how many people in your group will attend.

We can't wait to see you!

P.S. Our office has a relaxed dress code so come as you are!

P.S.S. Don't forget to take a look at the pdf invitation :)

Results are in - Introducing our Fundraising Top-Seller Angelea!

We are so excited to announce to you the Believe Kids 2009 Top-Seller

Angelea!
Angelea sold 160 items in support of her school fundraiser!

Congratulations to you Angelea!

For the next week, our homepage
main image will be in her honor.

Visit www.BelieveKids.com to see our
thank you to our top-seller!

Believe Kids Fundraising Growing Despite Economy

We've completed a move to a larger office and warehouse and it feels good. Considering today's challenging economic environment, we feel blessed to be offering school fundraising products and services that are truly making a difference in schools and groups nationwide. Resisting sounding mushy, may I just say that we are glad our friends in education understand the true value of working with us to solve their fundraising challenges. We are honored to be moving forward knowing that we can grow to better serve the fundraising industry.

Top 8 reasons to visit www.BelieveKids.com!

1) We have a really nice looking homepage.
2) We have a trivia contest that is easy to win.
3) Your last chance to see the spring flowers before we change them.
4) We link to this blog and also twitter which we think is pretty cool.
5) On the bottom of the page, there's one of those bookmark buttons.
7) We lead interested guests perfectly into our other website pages.
8) The color scheme is oh so pleasant.

www.BelieveKids.com

P.S. Yes, I actually spent time out of my busy day on this :)