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!

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!

Fundraising becomes vital for programs - not extras!

I was really interested to read this news story:

Fundraising becoming vital for school programs

It's obvious the problem of school funding is nearing a crossroads. Budget cuts that now have the PTA raising funds for vital programs. With any luck, we'll hit bottom soon and realize that what our schools need a new path. An invigoration - Renewed hope.

Right now is such an exciting time in our schools!

I believe we are on the cusp of integrating technology and hand-held devices that will revolutionize learning in the classroom and our schools will soon go paperless.

I believe we will have a new two-way learning experience where teachers and students will discover together and not just recite fact.

Schools will become a centralized place where groups of like-minded students will collaborate in ways we haven't imagined yet and still, distance will no longer be a factor for those needing to connect digitally. Reaching out to experts in the field or distance learners will be immediate and commonplace.

It's time we put schools first for a while.

Collectively, we will decide what is paid for by parents and what is Government paid and what will remain an obligation of fundraising companies and the PTA or other parent group that will assist in the efforts to make funding schools a community issue.

What's clear is parents will have to come to terms with the fact that throwing out a fundraising packet or making a token contribution of $20 per family or something like that is not going to fund the extras that the school requires.

If parent groups are now going to be supplying vital programs and even school supplies, schools will need to ask parents for hundreds per semester.

Schools will need to get behind fundraising efforts like never before and simplify and prioritize their fundraisers ensuring maximum results.

Government will need to step up and realize that music and art and special ed and technology and having a school nurse is part of what we expect out of today's core curriculum and are not extras.

We need to get the word out to the community that schools are not existing properly without their input and contributions.

Community-wide efforts can bring about new and renewed support for schools and when a community knows a school is in trouble and is given a way to help, we see them rise to the occasion.

Recent school budget cuts may just be the catalyst the community needs to contribute financially to local schools.

Businesses can stop thinking about education as an industry and think of it more of a charity. Companies that are able should put more effort on local schools in any way they can including providing free products, grants and scholarships.

Creating products for education or charging less for existing technology would also be of great assistance.

We'll see what develops but I'm sure you agree that putting focus on our schools will help and it's a great investment.

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Jay Moneta is the vice President of Believe Kids Fundraising. I can be reached here by leaving comments or on twitter. Thanks for taking a look! Please forward on the link if you found the information valuable.