Elementary School Fundraiser - Offering Value

When it comes to school fundraising you can offer value or not offer value. 

Here's a story for you.  I just went to a restaurant that was basically a theme park.  It had wagon rides, a petting zoo, a duck pond, playground, live band and a number of other attractions.  It was a lot like a roadside attraction you may find just off a highway exit but it's basically in Denver.  So, one would expect that the snack bar would have a $5.00 coffee and the gift shop would have items so overpriced it would be shocking.

As it turns out, it wasn't true.  Coffee was cheap and the gifts were priced right.  So, you got all this entertainment for what turns out to be reasonable prices. 

It's not what one would expect. It was true value on top of a bunch of entertainment!

So I spent a bunch of money and I wasn't the only one doing so.  Bought dinner, had a bunch of vintage candy, fudge covered apples, bought a bell thingy for my kids teacher, had espresso and fed the animals at the petting zoo with their quarter machine.

It was a fun experience.  This is what your elementary school fundraisers should offer.  A bunch of activities and items that are quality and priced right so people want to be a part of helping the school.

If you think what you are offering is a disappointment or is going to be when all is said and done, don't do it.  Be proud of what you offer and price it so it sells.  If you're greedy these days, you'll earn less.  I promise - I hear fundraising horror stories all the time from people who don't quite understand why offering value is so important.

It's a supply and demand issue.  If you have something in limited supply that is popular, you can charge more.  On the flip side, when you have an item that is not in demand, you have to charge less.  A jazz band at the high school should not be charging $20 per ticket UNLESS they already have a track record of selling out at $15.  I know, sounds confusing but there is a price for everything that we buy that makes it cheap, perfect or too expensive.  Find that perfect price and you will sell to happy customers.

I know so because I'll go back to the restaurant and I am even sharing my appreciation for being the recipient of perfect prices.  I believe your school fundraising event guests and your catalog buyers will thank you for offering diverse, quality and priced right services and items!

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See where I went this weekend:  http://whitefencefarm-co.com/

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The Future of School Fundraising

School fundraising is at an interesting crossroads.

Somehow we need to bring back the 'glory days' of school fundraising. It would seem that long lost are the days when every parent that could financially help contributed when asked.

Lower participation today is having an impact on all fundraisers and events. As a result, schools have been adding more and more fundraisers to make up for lost revenue due to the economy and less students participating in the fundraisers.

Rest assured, this is not just traditional fundraisers such as fall catalogs or cookie dough that have lower participation. These fundraisers are performing better than ever, but participation is down across the board.

Schools across the nation are reporting less traffic at their events, fewer auction bids, fewer attendees at fundraising concerts and less money from bake sales. Clearly, the economy is having an impact across the board.



That's not to say that there aren't stand-outs. Even in a bad economy, people start successful businesses or sell a new invention or even become movie stars when conditions are less than ideal. Your fundraiser can be a wild success even in difficult times as well. While many schools are complaining about less than stellar fundaisers of all types we have hundreds of success stories just from last year alone! All schools that succeeded in the face of an economic downturn and lower participation.


So, what's the future of fundraising look like?

First off, this is a loaded question. Nobody knows if the Government will step up to properly fund schools or what corporate or governmental changes will occur to have an impact on it. It's easy to assume that no changes will be made and schools will continue to lose financial ground, but nobody has a crystal ball.

It's no surprise to hear that school fundraising is not generating the interest it once did. Of course, the need for fundraising has continued and the need for financing in schools has only increased.

There are a lot of fundraisers out there and school pta, pto, ptsa and ptso groups want to try new things. There's a changing of the guard so to speak because fundraisers do not generate the participation they did a few years ago.

Here's the solution.

As a general plan, I believe that hosting a large traditional fundraiser or school-wide event per semester and focusing entire efforts on it is the way to go. But, every parent must know that the school expects them to participate. Parents must be told how much money they should give or raise and then be provided incentives to encourage them to hit the goal!

Keep it simple

I suggest keeping things simple, downplaying small fundraisers and promoting the main fundraiser with everything you've got! Use the principals email list, newsletters, online, using posters and banners, etc. to market your event!

Involve the Principal, Administrators and Teachers

There is considerable power in a group getting behind an activity. If a principal doesn't lead the way, administrators and teachers will no doubt make fundraising less of a priority at the school.

Yes, teachers do not want to lose valuable instruction time to fundraising. The only way to accomplish this is to have them fully support one fundraiser per semester. Then they won't have constant interruption when another fundraiser comes along to make up for lost revenue.

Get parents involved

In my opinion, schools have to do more to get the parents involved. This starts with schools making their expectations clear.

Demand more from your fundraising company

Fundraising companies have to do more to offer true value and incentives that affect sales and participation. Fundraising companies that care how much money a school makes will be the ones that re-invigorate fundraising and forge the future.

Barring a change in Government or a restructured educational system, using heavy-hitting fundraisers and getting faculty and the community involved can return us to the glory days of fundraising.

A better economy won't hurt either :)

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Jay Moneta is the Vice President of Believe Kids. A nationwide fundraising company offering fundraising catalogs and frozen cookie dough fundraisers.

If you have a comment or suggestion, please leave it here below or find me on twitter - twitter.com/believekids

Thanks for looking!

8 out of 10 Public Elementary Schools Use Product Fundraisers

<--begin rant-->

I just realized something.

8 out of 10 public elementary schools use a traditional product sale of some sort in their fundraising efforts.

I'm not really sure what constitutes a product fundraiser in the study that produced the statistic but that means that most of those have to be gift & wrap fundraisers and frozen cookie dough. There just aren't many other school-wide product sales that I know of besides magazines and those are usually the middle schools.

So, stop and think about that number for a minute. 80% use product fundraisers!

The fact is, product sales are heavy-hitting fundraisers - that work!

I have noticed a bit of a groundswell recently on messageboards and comments on my blog from companies that want to build their businesses out. The thing is, they are so quick to say that nobody wants to buy gift wrap or magazines or chocolate or cookie dough.

And that's their marketing strategy!

I mean, seriously? I think what they really mean is, they want to spread the rumour that nobody wants to buy that stuff so they get some traction on their fundraisers.

The truth is, it's just NOT TRUE!

They don't market that they have a more profitable or effective fundraiser, just that they have a better option if you truly believe nobody will buy cookie dough.

<--end rant-->

Top School Fundraisers - Fundraising Options for Elementary Schools

If you're considering a fundraiser for fall 2010, you've got one good shot at hosting a wildly successful fundraiser! You can do this despite anything stacked against you.

Here are the most successful fundraisers for elementary schools:

• Fall Gift & Wrap Catalog
• Frozen Cookie Dough
• Large Well-organized Events

This fall is very important. As a matter of simplicity let me just suggest that if you have a successful fundraiser such as an auction or fall catalog sale, stick with it. Make improvements to what you currently offer - make it more important, make it more obvious that you need the support of students and parents.

If you are being hit up by a wide variety of companies offering various fundraisers, get the facts. It only takes a few minutes to ask some of the tough questions. The factual questions that will allow you to minimize your risk. Concentrate on some of these items before moving on to the ones that feel more comfortable to you:

• What is the average sale dollar amount per student
• What is the average number of items sold per student
• What is the average overall participation rate
• What is your profit margin given these numbers at your student count

These numbers will allow you to calculate the potential sale with that vendor. If you are considering an event run through these same numbers estimating your attendance and average sales.

Do this for every vendor before you decide on some of the other factors such as:

• Volunteer time needed
• Student participation programs
• Drawing prizes & incentives
• How order processing works
• How product distribution works
• Quality of products / service
• Commitment to customer service
• How damaged / missing items are handled
• Commitment to offering value
• Number of backordered items last year

There are just some fundraisers floating around out there that will not be in the same league as the fall gift catalog, cookie dough or large event.

Affiliate programs, single product fundraisers such as trash bags or coffee, donation drives, box tops, scratch cards, discount cards, seasonal items, cell phone / toner recycling, clothing drives, hair cut nights, spirit nights or pizza fundraisers are not created equally. These programs often earn only a small percentage of the heavy-hitting traditional fundraisers.

Do your research, then put all of your marketing efforts behind your largest and most profitable fundraiser you can. You can increase your fundraising profits for the year by removing efforts that do not work and by concentrating more on the fundraiser that creates the highest sales average and participation percentage!

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Jay Moneta is the Vice President of Believe Kids Fundraising and blogs regularly about elementary school fundraising. If you would like to discuss this or any of my posts, please comment here or on twitter - twitter.com/BelieveKids

Thanks for the opportunity to share my thoughts and if I can put my company to the test with any competing fundraisers for the benefit of your school, just let me know.

If you enjoyed the content here, please consider forwarding a link to a friend or co-worker that would enjoy them as well. I am working hard to provide helpful information and would appreciate any support in terms of interested visitors you may be able to recommend. Thanks!

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!!

5 Tips for Choosing an Elementary School Fundraising Company

There are a number of fundraising options available this fall. Anything from single item fundraisers to large events. Of course, it is our contention that fall gift & wrap catalogs, frozen cookie dough fundraisers or well-promoted events will generate the best results.

Regardless of who you choose to help you with your fundraising efforts, you will want to know the company has your best interests at heart and will help you achieve additional sales and participation over your previous efforts. Today, schools should not accept average in themselves or the school fundraising company they choose.

For the purposes of this post, I will be assuming that you are doing a fall gift & wrap catalog sale or frozen cookie dough fundraiser which for most groups is their main fall fundraising effort:

1) Stay positive - When choosing a fundraiser and fundraising company, being open to discussions about fundraising only serves to better inform you of what is out there and what is being offered.

All too often, schools blindly return to fall fundraising efforts that don't work well because of a general unwillingness to research what heavy-hitting fundraising programs and options presently exist.

By simply letting companies know that you will be making decisions on a certain date, you will not be 'sold' anything but you will have the opportunity to gather valuable data by each and every fundraising call or visit.

2) Define your parameters - It's best to start off by jotting down any specific needs your group has. If you do a dunk tank every year for example, make sure to mention this right up-front in your discussions with various fundraising companies and fundraising representatives.

If you know you have certain needs that are specific to your school, mentioning these right away allows fundraising companies and fundraising representatives the opportunity to put them into their written proposals which means in most cases, they pay for them. If you wait to mention them until after you are registered, you'll most likely be picking up the bill.

3) Get it in writing - It's best to have a few fundraising companies vying for your attention. If you choose 3 reputable companies that seem to fit the bill, let them know what you are trying to accomplish and get their offer in writing. It's all too easy for fundraising reps to say 'we can do that' or 'that's something we can do' and really not commit. Saying 'we can' is not the same as 'we will'.

4) Be honest - In the discovery period before you choose a fundraising company, if you have any historic numbers of your sales, feedback from parents or insight from the principal about what would help the sale, let it be known. There's really no reason to hold anything back.

Your fundraising company can help you increase your sale! They just need to know a bit about your fundraising history.

5) Negotiate - Rarely do schools take the time to negotiate a deal but there are times where it's in your best interest as an elementary school to do so. When you get to the point that you have an offer in writing, your last call to that fundraising company should include something like... 'If we sign today can you throw in a top-seller prize? We were thinking a new bike?' Then pause and wait for your answer.

At this point, your chances of getting that bike are pretty good! At least from my experience here over at Believe Kids Fundraising. I know that when we offer an elementary school fundraiser and we get to this point in the negotiations, it's very likely we will accept.

So, there you have it. 5 solid tips for choosing an elementary school fundraiser. I have some other free insight for you. Check out this post entitled Choosing a Fundraising Company - Why Comparing Apples to Apples is Tough...

We don't have to take our school fundraising so seriously all the time - so, make sure you have some fun with it! Having said that, we should take our negotiations seriously!

Good luck out there!

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Jay Moneta is the Vice President of Believe Kids Fundraising and blogs here and at the School Fundraising PLN

I encourage comments and suggestions here or on the believe kids twitter.

If you enjoyed the insight here, please share this link www.believejay.blogspot.com with friends and aquantances.

Your School Can Have Consistent, Successful Fundraising Efforts - Despite the Economy!

It's easy to forget that traditional fundraisers and large events make up the vast majority of school-wide fundraising income. A fall gift & wrap catalog, frozen cookie dough and large events such as a-thons, auctions or carnivals are still the way to go when it comes to raising the big bucks.

With the economy being what it is, every type of fundraising is being challenged... It's not just selling fundraisers. An article I just read reported less attendance at spirit nights, less attendance at their fundraising events and less overall volunteerism. Everything is down across the board.

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Read Schools suffering as PTOs feel pain from the recession

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Despite the economy, any school can have consistent, successful fundraising efforts - and even raise more than ever. It takes a good simple plan, consistency and a bit of stern communication.

So, I have been following this post on the ptotoday.com messageboard. It has a number of replies for fundraisers that do not raise much money.

These fundraisers, as pointed out on the messagboard, creates fundraising 'noise'. This overabundance detracts from the success a school will have with their efforts.

I am not saying that these smaller fundraisers aren't valuable in the right circumstances, It's just that today's school-wide fundraising has some challenges. In particular, parents are more willing than ever to not participate in school activities and 'fundraising fatigue' is common.

Today, for a fundraiser to truly succeed, it needs to stand out and take center stage so to speak - it needs to be remarkable.

Here's why:

If parents get the impression that another fundraiser is coming right around the bend, they will pass on the current fundraiser. If parents believe a fundraiser will not have any positive effect, they will not participate.

If the parents do not participate in the fundraiser with the highest average sold per student and the overall participation rate, fundraising revenue for the school will drop significantly.

By offering a high number of small fundraisers, mediocre events and spirit nights, schools make it easier for parents to pass on the fundraiser they really should be participating in. Some schools exacerbate the issue by allowing teams, groups and charity drives to fundraise freely without due consideration.

By limiting fundraising efforts, parents will want to be involved with their kide education and will support it. The trick here is to offer the fundraisers that produce results. After all, a fall gift catalog, cookie dough sale or well organized events have a dramatically improved average over these other types of fundraisers.

Do what works and don't worry too much! You don't have to dismantle your entire fundraising scheme necessarily to succeed. Just start by thinking critically if there is anything you can do to focus efforts on the fundraisers that work best for you and minimize promotion of the ones that just don't.

(to be continued after some shameless self-promotion...)

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Shameless self-promotion:

Knowing what is a large traditional fundraiser and what is a smaller niche sale can be difficult. My company, Believe Kids, offers a spring and fall catalog as well as frozen cookie dough programs. We consider our offerings to be the most profitable product fundraisers in existence today for elementary schools.

Please visit www.BelieveKids.com to take a look at what we offer.
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(End shameless self-promotion)

Here is a screenshot from a school website I recently ran across. It is an example of how bolding and highlighting can send the wrong message. In this case, the school is hosting an upcoming fundraising event, however, based on this screenshot, parents need to be focused on box tops. The lesson here is to focus efforts on what works and reconsider promotion of things that are not making a huge impact.

This same school just wrapped up an event where they raised $700 but offered a limo ride which I can only imagine was $400. How is it worth their time and effort to promote this fundraiser when they could concentrate efforts on something that would raise many more times that amount. The $300 they raised could be made up by just a few students participating in a catalog or cookie dough sale. It's cleary a case of effort spent on things that don't produce results.

Concentrate on less frequent, more focused, heavy-hitting fundraisers.

By way of example, our largest cookie dough sale this year was $97,000 and 50% of that went back to the elementary school. There would have been no way for this school to achieve such a success if they hadn't done some things very right.

There are wildly successful event fundraisers as well. I recently heard about a private catholic high school that raised an astounding $750,000 in their fundraising efforts. Although for most schools something like this is unrealistic, we can still learn some valuable lessons from them.

Here are some quick thoughts on what is contributing to fundraising success today:

1) Choose the right company and fundraiser type for your group.
2) Limit the total number of fundraisers throughout the year.
3) Vigorously express the importance of participation to parents.
5) Incentivise students, parents and faculty in every way possible.
5) Involve principals, faculty, staff and volunteers in a cohesive effort.
5) Use every tool at your disposal to market the sale.
6) Extend the sale beyond just school attendees parents.
7) Make it remarkable!

Regardless of what type of fundraising you do, make it special and make it important. Remember that less is more!

If there is one thing that you take away from this article, please just remember that if you roll from one fundraiser to another, it will become very easy for parents to dis-engage and lower participation will surely follow. On the flip side, if you keep it simple and focus your efforts, you will work less and profit more!

Thanks for the opportunity to share my thoughts and I hope the information is of help to you and your school!

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Jay Moneta is the vice president of Believe Kids Fundraising. If you enjoyed the information on this site, please consider forwarding on the link or following my blog. I also encourage feedback, comments and suggestions here on my blog or on twitter.com/BelieveKids Thanks for looking!

Simplify Your School Fundraisers and Avoid Fundraising Fatigue.

I just posted a comment on the highly acclaimed greatschools.org website about how some fundraisers should be reconsidered. It's a 'less is more' comment as I will explain in this post. Since their article was originally written, smaller and less productive fundraisers have gained popularity because folks are looking for new and unique fundraising ideas but they do not have the same profitability in most cases as larger traditional fundraisers. Here is my take on why focusing on what works and keeping it simple when it comes to school fundraising.

It's about time school fundraising got a bit simpler. Let's return to the days where fundraisers were sent home and parents happily contributed and encouraged the community to get involved. It's harder and harder to get parents involved and the reason is becoming clear:

There are just too many fundraisers.

When parents realize another fundraiser is coming around the bend in a week or two, they have an excuse to not participate in the current school fundraiser. Doesn't sound like much of a problem does it? They will contribute on the next one, right?

Here's what happens. Schools are generally used to a huge fall fundraiser such as a gift catalog (shameless plug - Believe Kids has the best fall gift catalog!). This one is the important one that the school counts on. Let's just say there was a bake sale and a book fair and a promotion for donating box tops in the weeks previous to the fall catalog. The pool of folks willing to participate in the next one is very likely to dwindle. There is some money to show for those efforts no doubt but it's very likely to have consequences.

The more fundraisers, the more money raised... right? Not necessarily. The problem in a nutshell is called 'fundraising fatigue' and it's completely avoidable. Fundraising fatigue is a simple concept, it's a backlash from parents when they feel they are the target of too many fundraising events throughout the year. Parents will complain and in general stop participating in events, fundraisers and perhaps even classroom related activities as well. Over time, this can result in schools that complain they have no parent involvement.

A very big factor is that the other fundraisers don't have the dollar averages a fall catalog sale will generate. So, for every parent that doesn't participate in the big fundraiser, more money is lost than was gained by the batteries or box tops or whatever stole the gift catalog 'thunder'.

Focus your efforts on what works.

Take into consideration the ease of use, reputation with parents and the community and profitability so that when you know you have a fundraiser that will make the community happy while raising the big bucks, you can put ALL your efforts into it and minimize the other fundraising 'noise'.

Just in case this appears to be a negative take on single product fundraisers, box tops, book fairs, it's not. There is a time and a place for these fundraisers but if they are interfering with the turnout at your main fundraising event, frozen food or gift catalog fundraiser.

Promote the fundraisers you want people to participate in. Make it a huge thing. Involve the principal and faculty. Create hype! Then, minimize the hosting and promotion of smaller less valuable fundraisers. Pass on anything that you believe could lower your average sale or anything that will interfere enough to have less students participating. Then put all your efforts into the fundraisers that put the most funds back into the school.

Simplify.

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Jay Moneta is the Vice President of Believe Kids Fundraising and blogs here at fundraising-advice.com Please comment if you would here or join me on twitter - twitter.com/BelieveKids Thanks for looking!

Tips for a smooth frozen food and gift catalog fundraising delivery

KEEP IT SIMPLE...

I just posted some quick tips for a smooth frozen food and gift catalog delivery. They are super-quick. Here's the link: http://hotpockets.blogspot.com/2010/03/i-just-witnessed-combination-frozen.html

Basically, the idea is to have a very smooth delivery with as few items undelivered as possible. I was just able to witness a delivery of frozen food and gift catalog at the same time to an elementary school. I will be posting more about this soon but in the meantime, let me give just a quick rundown on what makes this process work well.

• Staying calm - The group stayed calm and formulated a simple plan on setup and execution. It just wouldn't have been much fun if there were a lot of stressful excitement. Do not worry!

• Get help & take your time - Doing a catalog fundraiser and a frozen cookie dough sale can add up to super-huge profits. But, don't make the mistake of thinking that there is no work to do on delivery day. Although, it's all easy and manageable, it's not likely one person can do everything in 30 minutes. Get help and give yourself plenty of time!

• Create a good flow in the room - When the pickup is going to happen, students and parents will have to enter the room, give their name and move on to checkout. If this is the setup you are after, block the entry and exit with tables in some way as to create a flow of people through the space. You want to leave enough room before the checkout stand so that some folks can line up during your busy rush. Otherwise, you'll have a backup situation on your hands. It's best not to let any parents find their own stuff as this will cause shortages and confusion.

In general, think ahead and keep it simple! Hope this helps!

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Jay Moneta is the Vice President of Believe Kids Fundraising - a nationwide elementary school fundraising company. Please take a moment to leave a comment or suggestion here or find me on twitter - twitter.com/BelieveKids

A school fundraising lesson courtesy of a major brand - Walmart.

Doing what's expected.

If your school is searching out a new and unique fundraising idea for fall 2010, consider this lesson from a major retailer. It reminds us why getting rid of things that people want is a risky proposition - even if it's not the most popular!

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Walmart returns items to shelves after lost sales
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To summarize, Walmart, in an effort to replace items with lower sales with new items, pulled a number of items from stores. It turns out that by removing something the community counted on, they lost the sale.

In the case of Walmart, they realized that instead of customers selecting another item in it's place, they choose to go elsewhere in many cases and do their entire shopping where they could get the specific item they were originally looking for.

When it comes to elementary school fundraising, if you can create a consistent set of fundraisers, whatever they are, you win! The Walmart story reminds us first-hand that if you remove something the customer is willing to support, they may not be willing to support it's replacement.

Concrete Examples

If you do a gift and wrap catalog sale in fall you are already doing the biggest and most profitable fundraiser of the year that we know about.

If you do a well-promoted event such as a thon or an auction and it has popularity and support within the community you are building a repeatable success as well.

If, on the other hand, you were to replace these with the newest and most unique school fundraisers, they must be more popular and more exciting than ever! As Walmart reminds us, you will lose customers just by switching to a new fundraiser the community doesn't understand or expect. Sometimes, new and unique fundraising ideas are not all they appear.

Plus, anything new and unique to fundraising doesn't sell anyway (whoops, did I say that out loud?). What seems perhaps a better way to close is to say that the world progresses by introducing new and unique things - we just need time to get used to them :)
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Author Note: I believe that there are some risky fundraisers out there for this fall. They include gift card sales for online shopping, home cookie dough delivery vouchers or any fundraiser that does not have a proper student prize program. Until there is a proven track record with these items, you may consider something else if you really have to meet a fundraising budget.
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Jay Moneta is the Vice President of Believe Kids Fundraising and I blog nearly daily here at fundraising-advice.com

If you enjoy my posts, please follow my blog and write comments and send it to your friends and even criticize or send feedback to me here or on twitter - twitter.com/BelieveKids

My company homepage can be found here: http://www.BelieveKids.com

Thanks for looking!

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!

Sneak Peek - Fall 2010 Fundraising Catalog Preview

We just posted a preview version of our 2010 Fall Fundraising Catalog! This is the one that everyone is after: Preview the 2010 Fall Fundraising Catalog

Keep it as our little secret though :)

Catalog Fundraisers Schools Best Bet for Big Dollar Fundraising

Schools and groups have long relied on a gift catalog for their fundraising needs. Over the years, increasing fundraising budgets and budget shortfalls have forced fundraising companies to develop high-profit, easy to operate fundraisers.

These catalog fundraisers have a wide reach, offer a variety of popular items in several categories and often add an internet component to the traditional catalog sale to further enhance sales.

With the closing of Giftco, inc. (the largest product supplier to the fundraising industry) there will be some schools wondering if they should fundraise with an event fundraiser or another option this year.

Here’s proof that catalog fundraisers are still the best bet:

According to AFRDS (the association of fundraising distributors and suppliers) over 80% of schools report a fall fundraising catalog as their top annual fundraiser. At the same time, respondents to their polls report that running a catalog sale does not require the amount of volunteer help that other fundraisers require:

School Carnival - 59 volunteers
Auction - 28 volunteers
‘Thons’ (e.g., Walk-a-thon) - 22 volunteers
Breakfasts / Dinners - 17 volunteers
Raffles - 17 volunteers
Product sales - 7 volunteers
Direct Donations - 7 volunteers

((Believe catalog fundraisers do not even need 7 volunteers))

How Believe Kids is prepared to help you this year:

Since 2007 we have anticipated further consolidation in the industry and took steps to strengthen our relationships, increase our US products and suppliers and reduce fundraising retail prices. Here are a few areas of concentration:

• Believe lowered catalog prices on average $2.00 per item
• We offered more items under $20 than our competition
• Believe kept our average item price at $10 last year
• Offer better catalog organization with our ‘Table of Contents’
• We now have 12 years of product creation and 6 years of importing experience
• We have been the fastest growing fundraising company in America for 4 years
• We love our technology! Believe Fundraisers are the easiest to operate
• Believe owns our own warehouse – we do not rely on middlemen
• Believe will not be affected by the Giftco closing!

Why not just sell books, batteries or a green fundraiser this year?

There is a very good reason that schools rely on top-selling catalogs such as the Believe Kids ‘Magical Holidays’ gift catalog.

Catalogs that offer many popular items in many categories sell more – a lot more! Even though everyone uses batteries, not everyone will want to buy them. By offering many items, customers are more likely to find something they need (or at least really want to have)!

Maybe this is the year to try an event like an auction?

While we are advocates of switching up fundraising campaigns, there are a few things you will want to think about before trying an event fundraiser this year. The fall is traditionally the time for a large product fundraiser. It’s tried and true. You will earn more than you can any other way.

Taking a chance during the time of heavy-hitting fall fundraisers may leave you significantly short of your budget. In other words, take a risk during an off-peak time and test the waters! There are many successful fundraising events out there but they do take a lot of hard work to orchestrate.

With the economy in flux this year, the only way we would recommend you risk your fundraising income is if you had a successful event fundraiser last year. If that is the case, evidence suggests that this year’s events have a lower attendance due to the economy. Take the time to truly promote the event if you plan to succeed!

Believe, The Economy and Fundraising in 2009

Believe in particular has taken several steps to ensure a profitable fundraiser in the face of the worst economy many of us have ever seen. Our complimentary tools will reverse the effects of the economy. Other fundraisers are not equipped to make such claims.

This year, promotion of the fundraiser will play a bigger part than ever before. Fundraising with an under-promoted event, single product or a catalog that does not have tools in place to increase sales will likely fall short.

We are keeping close tabs on the effects of the economy on fundraising – regardless of it you use Believe or another fundraiser, we encourage you to write or call with questions and we will help you improve your sale. We will do whatever we can to protect schools this year and understanding the economic effects on our fundraisers this year will allow you to promote specifically to reverse them.

In closing

Despite anything you will hear from other companies, websites or any other source, product catalog fundraising is by far the largest and most profitable method of fundraising and is responsible for raising 2 billion for education every year!

There simply is no substitute for a high-gross fall catalog fundraiser!

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