How Does Your Elementary School Ask for Support? 10 Triggers to Get Parents to Act.

When your school has an event, fundraiser, activity, homework or a form that needs to be filled in, how do you ask for action?

I think we could all use a bit of insight as far as what makes people act and it's not always obvious.  What's clear is that in today's day and age, if we want a response we have to go after it.

First off, there are triggers.  Triggers that peak our interest - triggers that make us act.  In order to better understand what makes us tick, we've got to understand what triggers us to take action.

I am not suggesting that schools need to be ruthless marketers, and some of these triggers can backfire or produce negative perceptions in the mind of a parent, but I offer you these none-the-less.  Now, you can understand what will get a parents attention.

So, instead of asking for something from parents and assuming they will want to get involved, use a technique instead.  Appeal to one of the triggers below.  For instance, put the words, 'takes only 2 minutes to complete' on the next form you send home and watch them come back the next day instead of taking a week or more.

Anyway, here ya go!

10 Common--and Effective--Emotional Triggers

 

Please comment below and keep the conversation going on Facebook or Twitter

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Embezzlement Happens - Resources and Articles for PTA PTO parent groups - Prevent PTA Theft!

Most likely, every school across the country as well as PTA's and PTO's will be handling large amounts of cash and will certainly have checkbooks and bank accounts.  Anything from a band concert, concession stand, school carnival or product fundraiser to writing checks for supplies or paying vendors is an opportunity.

With all this fiscal 'stuff' comes exposure to theft and embezzlement - an opportunity for a criminal act to occur.  Every school needs stringent rules and procedures when it comes to handling money and bank accounts in order to minimize risk.

Here are a few resources that can help you, your PTA or PTO and entire school limit risk of theft and embezzlement.  So, the next time that you host a car wash, fundraising carnival, fun run, rummage sale, school dance, safety fair or any other event that involves money or making or receiving payments, you'll be better equipped to keep everyone and funds safe!

Preventing Theft: Why It's Crucial

PREVENTING THEFT IN YOUR PTA

TIPS TO PREVENT THEFT IN YOUR PTA

Hopefully you enjoy the content found here and share what you've found with other PTA and PTO members as well as administrators and principals alike. There's a lot to gain from safe, smart fiscal management and money handling. Thanks for taking a look!
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Although, that last paragraph really ends this blog post, I have one more article to pass on. I didn't include it in with the list above because it doesn't really have schools in mind. The info is good and important though so, if you have a minute, give it a look...

Embezzlement Happens. It’s What Charities Do Next That Matters

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Jay Moneta is the Vice President of Believe Kids a school fundraising company supplying school fundraising catalogs to elementary schools nationwide. I love comments on my blog so please leave a comment good or bad below or follow Believe Kids at twitter.com/believekids or facebook.com/believekidsfundraising

Thanks for looking and if you get a chance, tell someone about this blog - believejay.blogspot.com

School Hints: Create a System of "Checks and Balances" for PTO / PTA

Schools need systems and in particular, systems of "checks and balances".  A system of "checks and balances" means that no one person is in charge to the exclusion of others.

If you run a school PTO or PTA or other parent group, you need to have systems in place.  Systems will protect the reputation of the group and the school and prevent problems and issues in their tracks.  I'll explain exactly how in just a minute.

If you are a principal or school administrator, taking the time to ensure that groups within your school have systems in place will help you and your reputation, not to mention keeping the school safer.  I'll explain...

By way of ridiculous example, let's say you have a cookie.  That cookie is supposed to be eaten by you and you are looking forward to it.  You leave it unattended and when you return, it's gone. You are sad.

Now, let's say you have a cookie.  You tell everyone that you will be eating that cookie after your lunch.  You return to find the cookie is still eaten.  Apparently, someone walked in afterwards that did not know and yeah... they ate it.

Finally, let's say you have a cookie.  You ask another person to hold on to your cookie for you instructing them not to let anyone else eat your cookie.  You confirm that they are not going anywhere or leaving it unattended.

Happily, when you return, the cookie has not been eaten.  Yum!

Now, I've just told the lamest story ever. And, if I were you reading this, I'd be just about to get really mad at the crazy author.  But, alas!  I've run into perhaps a lamer story and this one is real. 

Police: Teacher stole money from dances, school fundraiser

According to this article and, of course, this is alledged, this teacher had control of product, pricing, inventory, cash, cash drawers and making payments - all without any accounting or double-checks.  It most likely seems rediculous looking back at it now but the school was not operating responsibly.  There just was no system, no 'checks and balances', no accountability.  In the end, there was theft.


Here are a few helpful hints:


If you are throwing an event, two main organizers would be helpful.  They can control issuing cash drawers and tallying drawers.  Other jobs could be spread amongst other teams with systems in place to insure proper product ordering, inventories and accounting. If multiple people are funneling information into one place, risk is minimized.

• Make payments to vendors via check after invoice
• Count out cash drawers ahead of time
• Use multiple-person teams to create accountability
• Inventories checked before and after every event
• Have a policy on money handling and holding
• No students responsible for cash
• Deposit funds immediately into bank

I'm sure there are a number of improvements that can be made to just about any event to improve safety and security.  I'm not really getting into everything here, it's just a few things that I came up with after reading the article.  In the end, here is the simplest grading system you can place on your events:

No communication -FAIL

Tell everyone personally what is going on - FAIL

Have two-person teams following specific rules - PASS!


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Fundraising for Fun

If you don't need to fundraise for money, you can fundraise for fun.  Here is an article where a school went from auction to fall festival.  They lowered the income but upped the fun!

New Thomson school fundraiser geared for kids

The takeaway:

If you are having an event for fun, keep the fundraising elements as far in the background as you can.  Don't name it a fundraiser and don't talk about it in terms of a fundraiser.  Do try to make money but don't be upset if the profits aren't there.  Really focus on throwing an entertaining event and you can create a fun thing that is repeatable year after year!

If you are having a fundraiser, place raising money at the top of your list!  Figure out how to get the most money in and have the most community members participate.  Whatever you do, make it short and sweet and raise the money so you can move on to other things. 

Really what I am suggesting is that schools separate big fundraisers from other events.  Make a large amount of money on a focused fundraiser which frees the school up from other burdens.

To put it another way, don't try to make a fun fall festival all about the money.  Make it about the event, the fun, the experience, the teamwork or spirit of it.  Make the money secondary unless you know you can raise significant funds while still having fun.


Hope that makes sense but feel free to contact me anytime or leave comments good or bad below.

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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Why Fundraisers with Risk Suck

So, here's the thing...

Fundraising has been beaten and bashed and overdone and chewed and spit out multiple times recently.  It's an uphill battle.

Hosting a successful school or group fundraiser is a challenge even for the best of us.  So, please don't put you, your group or your school in a position to do any of the following:

1) Fail.
2) Appear as-if you've failed.

Take a look at this quote.  I'd say this band leader feels like a failure even before the event and for good reason.  They need to sell 350 tickets to break even.  Now, that's risk.

insufficient funds for musical group fundraiser 9 Hours, 9 Minutes ago
Our group has decided to host a musical event night. We only have $1400 right now in our pto account, but group we are having costs $3,500. We are selling tickets for $10.00 a person but would need to sell at least 350 to break even. High hopes that this is going to be a great event, but how do we cover ourselves as a group if it doesn't. In the end we need to pay them $3,500. HELP!!!!!

If you are going to hold an event with this type of exposure you need to take 'fundraising' out of it.  Have your money in the account and be prepared to spend it all!  That's right... be prepared to lose your $3,500 guarantee to the band you're bringing in and then make sure everyone has an amazing time!  Then make tickets inexpensive enough to pack the room!

That's throwing a successful event!

140 tickets sold is not bad in my opinion for a live music event, but, a fundraiser should be never be like this.  If you are wondering if you're going to lose $1,600 then the fundraiser is not following the rules above.  It's either that the tickets are under-priced or the band is over-priced.  Either way, 350 attendees to break even is not a fundraiser in my book.

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Jay Moneta is the Vice President of Believe Kids Fundraising - an elementary school fundraising company with focus on heavy-hitting fall gift catalog and cookie dough fundraisers.  I appreciate comments here on my blog or at twitter.com/believekids  Thanks so much!

Do Students Know Where School Valuables & Cash are Kept for Safe Keeping?

Schools need a safe place to keep money.

Perhaps from fundraising efforts or petty cash or funds from ticket sales or other events. It's pretty much a fact nowadays that there will be some need for safekeeping in schools for a variety of reasons.

So, why is it that stories about stolen money continue to surface such as this one where $1,000 was stolen... I could probably find hundreds of additional examples with a bit of research as well. Take a look:

Thieves steal school kids' fundraising money

This type of thing basically resonates with me in two ways:

1) Keep all valuables in a safe and limit access to just two accountable people - then record them.

2) Prevent anyone who does not keep their valuables in the safe from complaining or otherwise going to the press or police when things go bad.

Prevention is pretty darn easy. A heavy safe, memorized combination by principal and a third party that is responsible for checking things in and out and keeping a log of contents. Maybe even have a two signature policy on the log when items are checked in or out.

Keep the safe hidden from students and watch out for hidden cameras from resourceful students that want the combination.

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Side note: Aren't there night deposits at banks where businesses leave their daily sales? Huh. Maybe a policy by which all money collected over $100 needs to be put in a drop box immediately without ever staying at the school. To the best of my knowledge anyone can make a deposit easily with just a deposit slip.

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Back to the safe and camera idea - here you have two potential security risks: the principal and the third party. Put a security camera on there in case you really want to know if someone other than the designated two have accessed the safe. Make this hosting of video files elsewhere so they can't be tampered with.

If you want to get really tricky, record the safe without the knowledge of the two folks in charge of the safe :)

Bada bing!

Anyone who get's their fundraising money stolen from then on who doesn't check it into the safe is out of luck and they should not turn that crime in to police. Just sweep that theft quitly under the rug.

If you know you will have large amounts of cash on-hand, have a plan, then have a backup plan, have insurance, hire a security guard if needed. Just make sure you don't leave large amounts of money around in a compromising location - EVER!

Don't let students follow the cash around and don't leave them in charge of it. Don't let them count it. Don't keep thousands of dollars in one location where a thief can walk up and snatch it:

Teen Suspected in Fundraising Event Theft

I bet the thieves in both of these stories saw that money go into the 'hiding place' it was stolen from which means that in both cases, these thefts were completely avoidable.

If you leave your fundraising or event money laying around for people to follow you are creating a temptation. A temptation can become a crime very easily from that point if there are no real barriers remaining to them having the money.

Create barriers!

• Plans to hide money are barriers
• Safes are barriers
• A few hand-selected people in charge are barriers
• Recording devices are barriers
• Security guards are barriers

If you don't do some of these suggestions or even consult an expert, when money is stolen, the story shouldn't be about the awful criminal that needs to be brought to justice. Hey, I am not even remotely saying that I condone the thefts and I absolutely know it's wrong any way you cut it.



But if you make it this easy, the story should be about how you failed to protect the money.

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Jay Moneta is the Vice President of Believe Kids Fundraising. I am not a security expert, nor am I even up to snuff on security policies at schools. I also don't know all of the details involving these cases so if my facts are inaccurate I apologize. I really feel that in many ways, schools and groups should take their responsibilities up a notch in areas such as this. If you read blogs and news stories, you will see this type of thing over and over again. I sincerely hope that one person changes the way they think about how to protect themselves from theft at their school - just one.

Thanks for the opportunity. I can be reached on twitter - twitter.com/BelieveKids or via comment on this website. If you like what you read here, please pass on a link to this site - www.believejay.blogspot.com

Thanks!

School Fundraisers that Flop, Pt. II - The Laws of Supply and Demand

Schools are being challenged this year more than ever and what's happening out there is very sad indeed. Take a look at the Alum Rock Union School District music program. They just hosted a fundraiser only to have just a few dozen attendees - no doubt a crowd comprised mostly of the parents of musicians.

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Here's the story:
Schools try fundraisers to save music, sports, small classes
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Now, I feel pretty bad that a music program has to spin their wheels like this. I also think that music and art are not 'extra' and believe they should be funded along with the three R's but that's a story for another day.

Here's some sound fundraising advice - Think things through.

In order to really evaluate the potential success or failure of your fundraiser, you've got to dis-associate yourself from your love of what you do. Go ahead, pull back, release your passion, relax your posture a bit and look objectively at what is going on. If you have an expert or a way to reach an expert you should consult them before the event is planned if you can. Back to our current example.

Today, two things are happening:

1) The climate of fundraising in schools is resistant - meaning that people are more likely to resist your fundraising efforts than support them.

2) A concert or whatever fundraiser you offer is in essence, a commodity (in this case entertainment) and there is a value associated with it. What this means is that your event is subject to the laws of supply and demand.

So, Unless your event is mandatory, you are not going to gain attendance simply because of an obligation to your fundraising event. In fact, if you look at the example above, the band concert most likely was attended by folks that felt obligated. I'm guessing that not many came out because of the entertainment (I feel bad saying that, but the event needed to be more special in order to draw a crowd).

Secondly, your event has a retail value. In order to price the tickets, I believe two things are true. You want to price the tickets low enough to pack the auditorium but you want to maximize your returns as well.

Ask yourself what a going rate price is for a similar event. Ask yourself what you would pay to see just the activity and take the fundraiser aspect of it out of your mind. There are not many tickets that are $20 out there for bands that do not have some fame. That turns out to be $40 per couple and that's a lot for a school function. Unfortunately, I know that many similar concerts are free or maybe just a few dollars and many in the summer are outdoors as well.

In order to stay competitive, a lower ticket would have increased ticket sales and then something else could have been introduced to increase revenue such as concession sales, some sort of vendor rental, art sale, auction, drawing or raffle.

A theme of some sort could have been introduced to attract a targeted audience in larger numbers. Instead of just folks that love Jazz, perhaps having a children's song set would have been enough to market to parents of younger children. I'm not saying this is what they should have done, just an illustration of some way to make the event draw other than a concert by a band. This is a concert - for kids - by a band and that has more appeal. Come up with your own ideas here though because I am really just making that up and have no idea if that would draw folks out or not but I do believe there is a way to add a more targeted audience to nearly everything and gain participation.

So, in the end, think things through, make every effort to make your events special and memorable and consider that when hosting a fundraiser, you are subject to laws of supply and demand.

Unfortunately, today's school budgets are creating quite a supply of fundraisers so you have to create that demand by making it special!

Best of luck out there!

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Jay Moneta is the Vice President of Believe Kids Fundraising with headquarters in Englewood, CO. I blog about school fundraising here on www.fundraising-advice.com and can be reached on twitter - twitter.com/BelieveKids

If you enjoy the content here on my blog, please take a moment to forward on the link or comment here. Thanks for looking!

Crushing School Fundraising Myths - A Not So Nice Take on a DIY Fundraising Idea

I just read a post about fundraising on a parent group message board. It was from Kris. Here is an excerpt about what she had this to say:

"Times are tough for parents. There are children that their parents can't afford hot lunches. They are not going to buy over priced wrapping paper, cookie dough, candles, etc."

She goes on to say that if they had a haircut night the school could charge $5 per haircut and the school can get 100% of the money using volunteer hair stylists. She offers some additional revenue by combining this effort with a bake sale by selling baked goods also and she finishes up with this point:

"Everytime you have a fundraiser company involved, they have to make their money too. Your going to be paying 4 times the amount the product actually costs."

Ok, Here's the Real Deal!

First off, parents will buy over priced wrapping paper, cookie dough and candles and so will their friends and coworkers and relatives if the cause is worthy.

Secondly, Kris would have you believe that a $5 per haircut plus bake sale proceeds would raise money - It won't. Take just a moment to stop think about it for a moment. I think you will discover for yourself why this is not effective.

If you haven't stopped reading, get ready for the spoiler: at $5 per participant, you can't make any money. If 25% of students show up you'd make $437 on a school of 350. The bake sale may contribute to things a bit but freshly cut hair and baked goods don't mix. Without bragging about our numbers, let me just say that a catalog sale will consistently generate many, many, many times this in profit.

By using a fundraising company and paying them for their products and service, schools benefit from the programs, promotions, experience and proven systems that not only make it easy but make it many times more effective than fundraisers held on ones own.

Here is an example. Let's say you want to travel via air without using an airline. You can learn to fly and you can rent a plane but it's not going to be easy, cheap or efficient.

Here are Kris' assertions against fundraising companies:

• Nobody can afford to buy over priced stuff
• Companies charge more than items are worth

Here are her reasons for hosting ones own event:

• Can host your own events without expenses
• Adding a bake sale will improve revenue
• Volunteer hair stylists will be interested
• It's easy to host your own event

Yikes, at this point it kinda sounds like I'm being mean doesn't it? It's not my intent. It's just that the rational doesn't work.

I know some things about how Kris thinks. It's because I have a tendency to do the same exact thing.

I am always thinking I can do something better or cheaper than a company that charges money for their products and services. I am a perfectionist and an artist and I like to create things. In the end, I know now that in most cases, it's not worth it. I can rely on others to create things so I don't have to start from scratch and learn everything from square one, making all the rookie mistakes along the way.

In the end, if you are able to create and host a successful event, I have all the respect in the world for that. I absolutely love seeing a 10th annual event. It's a marketing powerhouse and it works. Creating a successful and repeatable event takes work and consistency but if one picks the right combination of simple factors, your event can be tremendously successful.

When it comes to saying that product fundraising doesn't work then suggesting an event that without a doubt would be difficult with a good chance of failure, I just gotta step in to say that there is a reason fundraising companies offer value - because the fundraisers we produce are proven successes. They raise more money with less work than the vast majority of fundraisers ever run. They are consistent and are improving. I can only speak for my company when I say that product quality and value to the consumer are improving consistently.

Here are some fundraising truths:

• People buy fundraising products
• Sales averages are often much higher
• Fundraising companies offer value-added services
• Product fundraising requires less volunteer help
• Typical retailers don't give margins away (let alone 50%)

I guess what I am saying is be careful what you believe. I'm not advocating you use my fundraising company, it's not about that. Here it is... Don't let someone lead you down the path to an under-performing event fundraiser because they don't understand the value that a company provides.

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Jay Moneta is the Vice President of Believe Kids Fundraising and is feeling rather bad about bagging on Kris' ideas so badly. If you want to leave a mean comment for me here on my blog, I would totally understand. I can also be yelled at on twitter - twitter.com/BelieveKids for my lack of understanding or barraged via my homepage at www.BelieveKids.com

Choosing A School Fundraiser - Ease, Protitability & Timing

Choosing a fundraiser is a bit tougher these days. With everything going on in the fundraising industry along with budget cuts in schools and a flailing economy, schools have some tough decisions to make now that will determine their fundraising success in the fall.

Here is a list of considerations that will help you in choosing your next fundraiser:

1) Consider fundraisers based on profitability.

Most schools have a main fundraiser that is their heavy-hitter. This year, focusing more effort on this fundraiser is your best bet. Promoting a number of small fundraisers this year will detract from the one that is responsible for the largest revenue.

The biggest fundraisers for fall 2010 will be a fall gift & wrap catalog, frozen cookie dough and well-promoted events such as auctions or a-thons. Stay consistent - if you have been building a successful fall auction for 3 years for instance, stick with it! This fall is not the year to take a chance on something new or un-tested.

• Fall Catalog - A gift catalog includes gifts, magazines, jewelry, candles and a bunch more all designed to have a high participation rate and sell-through rate. A fall catalog is preferable to any single item fundraiser because it offers options. All-in-all, anyone opening the catalog can find something they can use or give as a gift.

• Cookie Dough - Frozen cookie dough has been a top-seller because it is a commodity - food. Food is always in demand so it is easy to make top-dollar. With a cookie dough fundraiser, there are some concerns on delivery day - you will need volunteers to help sort and distribute the product. Make sure to make parents aware of the delivery day anyway you can so they come and pickup the frozen product. With a reminder, the vast majority of parents will be there to get the goods. You may need just a bit of frozen storage for just a few parent orders.

• Large Events - auctions, carnivals and a-thons (walk-a-thon, jog-a-thon, read-a-thon) offer the opportunity to raise large amounts of money. The most successful groups have a repeatable event that they host year after year. This way, the fundraiser offers consistency and improves a groups chances of getting folks out to the event. Be careful when starting a new event because you may have a difficult time judging the outcome. In general, marketing the event becomes critical. The downside of hosting an event is that it requires a ton of volunteer hours.

There are a number of other fundraising ideas out there including single product fundraisers such as trash bags, batteries, candles and if you are considering one of these fundraisers for a school-wide fundraiser, you will really want to compare. It's very likely the sales for these little fundraisers, will not be what you expect.




2) Choose based on ease of use - volunteerism

Some schools have a lot of volunteer support and some struggle a bit with getting help. If it helps you to think of fundraising in terms of ease of use, the easiest is a catalog sale which needs no volunteers, next is cookie dough where help is needed on delivery day and finally any event in which case planning and execution both need volunteers. I know it sounds pretty obvious, but if you know you won't have proper support, don't launch a new event.



3) Choose based on timing

When it comes to timing, fall is where it's at. The fall fundraising season extends roughly from September - November and is responsible for the vast majority of fundraising revenue. Any of the fundraisers will work well during this period of time but there are a few things to consider where timing is concerned.

Are there any competing fundraising efforts around the same time? Consider this... If you promote something right before your big fall fundraising effort, you will likely have less of a response on your fall fundraising efforts. Understanding how this works is simple.

By way of example, let's take a movie night - if 100 people were to show up on a Friday night and you added a viewing on Saturday night as well would you expect 200 people? Unfortunately, you'll really have the same pool of interested folks perhaps with the addition of just one or two that couldn't make the Friday. So, you'd be looking more like 52 per night.

Point is, even though you may get a few more participants, you'll also lose some who will just wait for the next fundraiser. Without writing a book here, let me just point out that the less fundraising you do around the time of your big fall fundraiser, the better!



4) Choose based on benefit to the community.

This one is a bit more challenging to explain. You may want to occasionally offer a fundraiser that benefits the community at large instead of purely being focused on the financial rewards.

There are times where supporting a foreign country in distress (such as Haiti), a local firehouse fundraiser, cancer awareness, perhaps you get to hold a safety fair or something like that and finances are not the main consideration, don't make visitors feel like you have a hand out. Try not to make it seem like the school is doing the fundraiser wherever possible. There is a difference between the school raising money and a donation drive being done at the school if you catch my drift.

If it is a local event, hold it for fun and educational sake in support of the cause. Leave the fundraising to the larger fundraisers wherever possible. This is your chance to strengthen the sense of community and they will be more willing to help you when the main fundraiser comes along.

Tread lightly here only with respect to item 3 above. If you are focusing on a community event around the time of your fall fundraiser, you will likely hurt the sale you are counting on for the majority of the years income.

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!

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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