Spirit Night Blues - Why Local Fundraisers are Not All That and a Bag of Chips...

I just ran across a blog post from a mother who suggested taking her schools fundraising local. I gave it some consideration and here's what I got... As a person involved with a nationwide fundraising company I see both sides.  The idea is pretty cool idea but also impractical for a few key reasons.

If you're not into reading some pretty complicated stuff coming up, just ask yourself if there are any instances where local companies don't perform as well as top national brands.  I think you'll be able to figure the rest of this post out on your own without reading it.

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I know that some parents get bent out of shape when asked to participate in fundraisers and the more fundraisers a school hosts, the more parents become frustrated. By now, anyone following my blog would recognize that I am a proponent of LESS but MORE EFFECTIVE fundraising!

So, local or not.  The fundraiser will play by the same rules regardless of if it's a local fruit sale, a spirit night or a fall gift and wrap fundraising catalog.  The performance of the sale will depend on how much fundraising the school is doing and where the school stands with respect to school spirit and parental support.

Beyond that, the fundraisers will be the fundraisers. There are a few main factors that think groups would want to consider.  Namely, the time and money they take to setup and the risk associated with them.  Then, the simplest way to view different fundraisers is that they have a participation rate and they have an average sale. The highest wins.


All this complicated stuff and yet, I believe I can make my point clear.

If you host a local fundraiser, just don't blow it.  Make sure that even though a local sale may be riskier and less profitable, make sure you can succeed.  See, you may just lose the benefit of systems and nuance and nationwide expertise when you host local fundraisers. But, if you're prepared to make sure the fundraiser works, then go for it!  If the profit is supposed to be less to the school and you're ok with it, that's ok.  Watch out if you think they will both profit similarly.

Just keep in mind that the fundraiser does matter.  It's not simply a matter of the same exact thing but just local.  It's different and sometimes that matters, sometimes it doesn't.  At least if you know there is a difference, you can make a more informed decision.

Ok, until next time!

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Thanks and as always you can find me on twitter/believekids
facebook.com/believekids
believejay.blogspot.com

elementary school fundraisers

School Fundraising Representatives in the Field - a Quick Thought.

Believe it or not there are successful school fundraising companies out there that did not build their business on having local fundraising reps in the field. Believe is one of them. We do a lot of nationwide school fundraisers but it's a common discussion about how we could operate without reps in every area of the country. It does seem rather ingrained that we should be local and available in that way in every area we have contact.

Although we do have some reps and they are absolutely awesome, we also designed our programs to work with consultation from our home office. In many ways it's faster and more efficient. Schools communicating directly with headquarters is something that schools find to be a great benefit - they don't have to wait for their rep to contact headquarters and get back with them.

There are many more reasons why we have been able to build a fundraising company with a different than expected business model, but the reason I am writing is just to express one main thought:

A fundraising representative's job is to implement.

In doing so, they can make a fundraiser just that much better. Not to single-handedly run it or sell everything themselves, but just to encourage participation in the fundraiser which will lead to sales - a fundraising representative is there to make the fundraiser they offer smoother and more productive, nothing more.

Having said that, what they are selling is perhaps the most important question. If the fundraiser in itself is average, even the best fundraising rep can only make it average plus just a little bit.

Regardless of if your fundraising rep is in the field or in our headquarters, make sure you have an amazing fundraiser FIRST! Then an amazing school fundraising rep second.

This means that your rep is making an amazing fundraising even better!

The expression 'That's like putting lipstick on a pig' comes to mind. Because it's a futile effort to try to improve something that starts out just average. It'll end up average plus a little bit given the needs of schools today, that's just not good enough.

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Note: This is in no way a dis of any fundraising rep, in fact, I believe they add a valuable service to the industry - especially when the fundraising programs and services they offer are exceptional!

Jay Moneta is the Vice President of Believe Kids Fundraising and blogs here at fundraising-advice.com (believejay.blogspot.com). I can be found on twitter - twitter.com/BelieveKids and encourage comments, feedback or suggestions! If you enjoy this blog, please subscribe, link to it or let someone know about it! Thanks for looking!

Being generous is a tough thing... The magic of donating to a school fundraiser.

"All lasting wealth comes from enriching others in some way." -Brian Tracy

This time of year, people nationwide are put to the test. Causes and donation requests are sure to come knocking and yet, the economy is having an effect on everyone. Not only are household budgets tighter but people seem to be buying what they need and not what they want.

I spend a fair amount of time reading posts and articles online. Over time, I have noticed that when an article about school fundraising comes up, regardless of if it is good or bad, it is likely there are a number of comments below the school fundraising article explaining the many rationalizations of not giving.

We get it. As a fundraising company owner and a parent, I really do get it and so does my company. I even have similar thoughts myself from time-to-time and I don't donate to every cause - I don't know that anyone is able to. But the point of this post - being generous takes a lot of effort. It is not something that comes naturally in many cases and it's not easy to stay in a generous mind-frame.

There is something in the act of giving to a local school that is magical. It is especially to realize just how young minds will accept and cope with very little but excel when the proper tools to learn are applied to their classrooms.

The last thing I want to do with this post is preach or pretend that the many causes that come calling should all be helped. I would suggest that everyone pick some area of interest to contribute to and just do it. It feels darn good. Give time or money to support the cause you feel best represents you. Get as involved as your time or interest will allow and have fun with charitable giving. It has it's rewards!

It's ok to tell someone you appreciate what they are doing but you support another cause. If you are not supporting another cause, a local school could really use your donation, time and support this year. You would be truly amazed if you could see your school donations put to work where it directly impacts a child's growth and understanding of the world around them. There's magic in giving.

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((If you have any feedback about my thoughts here, I would truly appreciate hearing from you. I am not an expert in charitable giving nor do I give the most either. I just see how important school funding is first-hand so I hope that gets across in my writing. Thanks so much for taking a look at my post.))

You can follow my tweets at http://www.twitter.com/BelieveKids