80 / 20 Rule for Charitable Giving & School Fundraising

I was checking out an article illustrating how some private schools are stepping up their school fundraising efforts by targeting certain groups and parents within the schools for large donations. I think it's interesting that the private schools (in New York City at least) are looking critically at their fundraising, but it does bring up some interesting points indeed.

One thing I noticed in the New York Times article was about charitable giving. Here's a quote that will interest you.

"In recent years, fund-raisers and school heads say, more revenue is coming from a smaller group of parents and what used to be the “80/20 rule” — 20 percent of the parents give 80 percent of the money — has become the 90/10 rule, or even the 95/5 rule."

Wow! So, 20% of parents gave 80 percent of the money has become the 90/10 rule, or even the 95/5 rule. It just can't stand!  What I mean here is that it's not sustainable to have 5% giving and 95% not.  The fact is, the majority should be donating to things like schools, not the minority.

Having said that, though, the reality is that parents are hit up frequently for donations and that's part of the problem.  Consistent fundraising and lots of newer groups fundraising (where in the past, they were dues based) in combination with a depressed economy is causing less people to participate in fundraisers.

To wrap this up, what is needed is less fundraising where the fundraisers are more comprehensive in encouraging everyone to participate.  What we know is that when a need is important, it is filled so if we make our fundraisers more important, they work across the board - for generous and non-generous parents alike!

Ok, until next time!

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Original post:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/27/nyregion/private-schools-mine-parents-data-and-wallets.html?pagewanted=1

school fundraiser
fundraising participation