Fundraise Only When You Need To!

The longer I am in this crazy fundraising business the more I realize there are a lot of people offering their products and services as fundraisers.

In reality, the key to successful fundraising isn't to work on multiple fundraisers but is instead to limit the number of fundraisers to what is absolutely necessary.

Seems straightforward enough until the Fall arrives and a few outspoken folks let their opinions on fundraising be heard in forums and articles sending a stark reminder that folks would prefer less fundraising.  That time is fast approaching.  There are many schools and groups pushing parents to fundraise nearly constantly throughout the year.  It becomes too much.  It creates 'fundraising fatigue'.


I get it.  There's just too much fundraising.  It's a valid point. So, what should we do?

Agree that there is no excuse for over-fundraising at your school or within your group.  Focus your efforts on one major fundraiser and put all your might behind it. All of it!  Limit the time you work on this fundraiser and when it's over, take a step back and have some fun!

You'll know that the next time you ask for money, you'll get it and you will have higher participation and interest in your main fundraiser.  By being succinct you may even find that more parents ask about the group or volunteer to help.

With fundraising, less is more!

What School Fundraising Companies Won't Tell You...

We're pretty darn sure every school and PTA, PTO, PTSA, PTSO and all sorts of other groups get tons of fundraising offers every year. What if I told you there was a secret. Something that school fundraising companies don't want you to know.

Yes, there's a secret.

But first a bit of perspective. Fundraising companies want to sell their products or services. They aren't interested in if it's good for you, your school, your parent group or even your community. They have goods to sell, plain and simple.

So, what's the secret?



It's quite obvious that when presenting an offer, you want to put your best foot forward. This means that anything that is a negative will be hidden from view.

Here it is...

Fundraising companies that do not produce results will want to hide the following:

• The participation rate of students in their program
• The average sale of students in their program
• Profit margin, hidden fees, shipping cost etc.
• Your anticipated profit based on your school specifics
• Most frequent negative comment about their product or service



To cut to the chase, as a parent group member in a PTA, PTO, a school administrator or other group leader, it's your duty to uncover what is hidden beneath. A good fundraising company will tell you what to expect and how your sale should turn out. A low participation, low profit fundraiser will tell you that it's going to be easy and exciting for students and attempt to leave out the rest.

Why does all this matter?

You may want to have multiple revenue streams at your school so that have consistent fundraising and income but there's a bit of a problem. Parents will only participate in so many fundraisers before they pass on one.

If you have consistent fundraising going on, let's just hope they don't pass on your main fall heavy-hitting fundraiser!

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Jay Moneta is the Vice President of Believe Kids Fundraising and encourages any and all comments, suggestions and feedback here on this blog or via twitter - twitter.com/believekids

If you found this information helpful, please forward this on to someone who can benefit from the information and contact me via www.BelieveKids.com anytime.