Ideas for Elementary School Fundraisers and Fundraising Success! Pt. 1

Setting the stage

It's can be scary realizing you have to find a fundraiser for your school or group but there's some good news.  Although I am not going to make the claim that you will succeed at every fundraiser, if you follow the ideas here, you have the very best possible chances.

When I was 10 I had a school fundraiser.  It was horrible.  I had to sell raffle tickets.  They were the worst photocopies ever and I was quite sure that everyone I approached thought I made them myself.  I gathered my confidence best I could and headed off to sell.  As the doorbell rang, I could barely get out my sales pitch.  The only reason that I was able to sell my "quota" of tickets was because my school had a secret weapon.

They told me how much I needed to personally sell and I sold it.  They told me what the money was for and I told everyone I pitched.  It was in these sentiments that the importance of the fundraiser transferred from them, through me and on to my customers - even with a fake looking product.


So, as I was selling these in my neighborhood alone after dark I realized that it's not in what you sell, but in how you sell it.  Although I was scarred by the situation, I did become a successful sales professional many years later.

Your elementary school deserves to spend time doing effective stuff - things that work!  An elementary school fundraiser is only effective if it's important and that the reason it's important is communicated.  Secondarily, there has to be an achievable goal that can be broken down to a per-seller goal.  That is how true success is achieved.

If we're in agreement on that, we can move on to part 2. The Goods

Kissing a Pig - Elementary School Fundraiser Incentive

The Pig

The Kiss

The Aftermath

Hey, if you're throwing a spring or fall fundraiser, is there anything you can do to add excitement and a challenge to the fundraiser? 

It's a sure-fire way to create additional support and revenue!  I've posted my book 101 Low & No Cost Promotions for Your Fundraiser in a previous post and you can get a copy for free here.  Just select the download link at the top of the SlideShare presentation. 

Maybe your elementary school fundraiser could use one of the promotions or ideas to take your fundraiser over the top! 

Promotion works!

School Fundraising - Principal Incentives and Contests

Schools that focus on promotion succeed at their fundraisers.  

So, a few months ago I put together a document that would help school principals get involved with their fundraisers.  I wasn't going to do much with it and then something strange happened.  People wanted it.  As a result, principals started choosing a promotion from the sheet to do in their own schools.  I want to offer that to you so it may help you in whatever fundraising you do.

The reason this document is so powerful is because when it is handed to busy principals, they can find something from the list that will work in their school and quickly hand the paper back - even while carrying on a conversation and walking briskly. It's amazing that this one document, when handed to a principal, can generate thousands of dollars in fundraising sales in literally a minute.

Here is a link to a document that features 25 fundraising promotions for school principals.  These low-cost and no-cost solutions:

25 School Principal Contest & Fundraising Incentives

Hope it helps and feel free to share!

School Fundraising Ideas - Setting up a fundraiser display

There are a lot of ways to get the word out on a fundraiser and as much as I would like to believe every school promotes their fall fundraiser with vigor, I know many don't - but they could.

Regardless of if you are a school that promotes or doesn't, I just want to share the photos of this display from Roxbury Elementary and maybe you will realize that you can do this too.

Maybe not in the exactly same way, maybe not as artistically and maybe not as good - this is after-all, clearly an artistic display.

Still, just maybe you can think in terms of what will take your school fundraiser up a notch or two like Roxbury Elementary did last week. What can you come up with?

Setting up a display with care let's everyone know that something is important.  We all know that things that appear important often are treated as such. Clearly, Roxbury Elementary school should be commended for their efforts here.

What most people don't realize is that this type of promotion can increase a fundraiser to the extent that other fundraisers are no longer needed at the school and who wouldn't want to fundraise LESS!

So, It's an interesting concept as far as school fundraising ideas go and also product fundraisers.  The moral of the story: do less fundraising and do it well just like Roxbury shows us here first-hand.  This is the type of fundraising effort that creates success and this is proof that it certainly can be done.

CONGRATULATIONS ROXBURY ES!

New & Unique School Fundraising Ideas

New and Unique School Fundraising Ideas are dangerous ground. But before anyone gets worked up, let me explain:

There have been traditional fundraisers for many years. They are tried and tested. They are largely successful. Over 80% of elementary schools will host a traditional fundraiser this year and that's a lot of schools. I know from our end that nearly every school that switches to Believe Kids will have increased profits over their previous fundraiser.

Subsequently, along come some new fundraisers such as cookie dough voucher programs, online only fundraisers, gift card fundraising, custom printed products, Coke Rewards Fundraising, Tupperware fundraisers, Avon fundraisers, online malls, affiliate programs, recycling programs, gold party fundraisers and others.

So, what's the big deal?

The big deal is that if you ask a PTA or PTO president what they are looking for in a fundraiser, they will respond that they want something new and unique. Many of these new fundraisers fit the bill.

But do they really?

Probably not. In reality it's not in our nature to really want the newest thing. We don't necessarily want the dentist just out of college or to hire a 7 year old baby-sitter.

I get it though, there's something truthful in there. Maybe the desire to have confidence in offering something different to the community. To prove to parents that there is something unique out there that will make them want to support education more.

Usually though, the wish for the unique backfires.

Many of the newer fundraisers out there are either ahead of their time or fall short because they are marketed as something they are not. Some online only programs have not found their market yet and others may work for small groups only but they market as if they solve the needs of larger groups alike.

I believe every fundraiser is inherently good. Meaning that, if the right group hosts the right fundraiser at the right time, they should be successful. Of course, the definition of a successful fundraiser is not the same across the board.

Herein lies the truth.

If a school wants to take on something new and unique it only needs to be aware that that newness will likely translate in a loss of income. Schools should pay close attention to picking an appropriate fundraiser. A gold party fundraiser is very likely not going to be the main school-wide elementary fundraiser one would expect.

One final consideration is that some fundraisers generate so little income that they can interfere with the main fundraisers at the school. Consider putting a bit more leg work and marketing into a main fundraiser and you can skip out on some of the little ones. Less is more when it comes to school fundraising.

In closing, traditional is good, new and unique adds risk and the wrong fit equals potential disaster. Make sure to pick an appropriate fundraiser for your group size and make sure the community you represent will understand how to participate in the fundraiser.

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I'm a fan of any fundraiser that does what it says it will do so I am not picking on any fundraiser in particular. Yes, I like traditional fundraisers but new and unique fundraisers are good as long as everyone is aware of the risks associated with them.

I encourage agreement as well as disagreement in comments placed below. If you have a thought, please share it and thanks for looking!

Top Elementary School Fundraising Ideas for Fall 2010

School fundraising has had an interesting go of it for the last few years. The economy and other factors have really created some confusion as to what works best in the fundraising world. On top of that, it's harder to get parents and the community involved. Hopefully, In just a few short paragraphs, I can shed some light on the most popular fundraising ideas for elementary schools.

If you are in the market for an elementary school fundraiser that will be school wide, you need to know that there are really no new and unique fundraising ideas that will out-perform the traditional fundraisers everyone is accustomed to for a large school-wide fundraiser.

Right now the top 3 fundraisers are:

1) Fall Gift Catalog
2) Frozen Foods (Cookie Dough)
3) Well-promoted Event (Auction, A-thon, Carnival)

Hands down, these three are the only way to raise the big bucks. There are plenty of single product fundraisers out there such as shopping bags, batteries, popcorn and chocolate bars. There are also some brand new fundraisers being tested - things like gift card sales for online shopping, voucher programs, etc. Although, it's possible to raise money with these other fundraisers, they may be suited for smaller groups.

School-wide fundraising is really a challenge so when it comes to fundraising ideas and getting unique fundraisers going - be cautious. Take into consideration the fact that the money may not be there in the end to the same extent you would have received through a gift catalog, frozen food fundraiser or a school-wide event.

What is clear today is that the more consistent and focused fundraisers are these days can determine their success. If a school gets behind a fundraiser, they can get out of it as much as the individual fundraiser will allow.

Gift catalog and frozen foods are the best performing product sales and work best for school-wide sales because of the support that comes with the programs such as incentives and prize programs. It's not a labor intensive operation so schools can run these sales pretty easily. Frozen food delivery does require help though because it's generally a lot of product being processed quickly during the pickup times.

At Believe Kids, we don't have anything to do with event fundraisers, but we think they are amazing if done well. Auctions, any A-thon such as a jog-a-thon etc. and school carnivals are tremendous. They do take a bit more volunteer effort but by hosting a good event can really galvanize a community while raising a lot of money.

We do recommend schools limit their fundraising efforts and most of the time, we suggest that schools do a fall gift catalog in the fall and a carnival in the spring. Frozen foods appear to perform very well in both fall and spring. Just be careful not not to overdo it. Fundraising fatigue is a bad thing. If parents are hit up too often they will resist more of your fundraisers expecting another to be right around the corner. Your school doesn't need this type of fundraising reputation - just stay focused on the big stuff.

All 3 of our fundraisers listed, when proper focus is put on them, can create an activity that can be repeated every year with an ability to anticipate the outcome to a certain degree. I have seen many events that have been a yearly endeavor and it becomes a 'thing'. When you have an expected activity like election day, a holiday or Black Friday for instance. They gain a certain marketing prowess. Everyone knows about the event and the result is that people get involved.

Hope that helps!

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Jay Moneta is the Vice President of Believe Kids fundraising. I encourage comments and feedback here on my blog or at twitter - twitter.com/believekids Thanks for looking!

Author note: I am very aware that I have a personal interest in promoting catalog and food sales and it may seem a bit self-serving :) Unfortunately for any skeptic, I do not have an ego about these sorts of things and I don't supply information without the ability to back it up. I feel it's important to get the information out there and have folks think about things on their own.

Alrighty, till next time!