School Fundraisers and The School Principal

School Fundraisers and The School Principal

Hey, your principal is influential!  He's also probably not supporting the fundraising efforts at your school very well.  Yikes!  The truth sometimes hurts.

Fact is, from this side (the school fundraising company side), when Principals are involved with a fundraiser, it's something noticeable, something tangible, something remarkable!  It's not uncommon to see new fundraiser records set the first time a principal gets involved.

I'm not making any sort of political statement, propaganda, myth or anything else.  I know principals are busy. I know many support the PTA and PTO, etc. but, the numbers speak for themselves. 

If you want your fundraiser to truly succeed, teamwork is necessary.  Your school principal is a big part of that.  With their help, Teachers will know that the fundraiser is important.  If that is the case, the teachers tell the students that it's important. 

This is the way things happen at school!

The end result is that the students tell the parent!


Next up...

What parents should do when a fundraiser comes their way.

Ok, until next time...

The Best High-Profit Elementary School Fundraisers for PTA's PTO's

If you are involved with a PTA or PTO at your elementary school, you know first-hand the challenges of picking a successful school fundraiser.

Have you noticed a tendency to not want to burden parents, to want to be as gentle as possible because the economy is in trouble or you believe parents are hit up too much?

Believe me, your not alone!

Here's the thing though.  I've watched PTA's and PTO's choose the softest, least intrusive fundraisers only to schedule additional fundraisers later in the year.  I've seen fundraisers that take so much work to organize, that other functions of the parent group grind to a halt.  I've seen so many fundraisers run in a year, that parents stop participating in school sponsored activities.

So, there are a lot of companies, services and self-hosted fundraisers available to you but there's a secret.  There's a way to achieve the best high-profit elementary school fundraiser for your PTA or PTO.

How you ask?

Well, you could go through the numbers right?  The only numbers needed are estimated number of participants you can expect multiplied by how much on average a participant will sell.  You could ask your fundraising company what their participation is in your area and what their average sale is..  You could look at last years event fundraising records for the number of tickets sold and the income generated.  Or you could go a completely different way.

Ok, you ready for the secret?

Pick the fundraiser that will generate the most action, excitement, RESULTS!  What you are looking for is a RSVP, a ticket sale, a commitment, a purchase or an attendee!  Yes, instead of the softest sale, you want the hardest in-your-face sale in the history of sales!

So whatever you choose, make sure that the principal will get behind it!  Ensure that each and every teacher will become an active participant and supporter!  Make sure that every parent knows why it is important and why they just have to participate!

With any luck, you've picked a fundraiser that can extend to the community or even nationwide (as in the case with many high-profit elementary school fundraisers - no obligation disclaimer as this is my company).

Regardless of who you use for your PTA or PTO Fundraiser or what type of event you choose to host, there is no substitute for planning and careful execution!  Keep your fundraiser short and make it important and forget about having to run other fundraisers later in the year because you didn't hit your fundraising goal! 

This approach will shatter your fundraising records!

Ok, until next time!

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elementary school fundraisers

Fundraising Ideas - Understanding Frozen Cookie Dough Fundraisers

Here's the low down.  The last few days have been a discovery and summary of the most successful elementary school fundraisers. 

By that, I mean a school or group can feel accomplished in a few main ways.  First off, customers are happy.  Secondly, there is lots of profit and goals were met.  Lastly, the fundraiser was easy to manage.

The first exploration was into Fall Catalog Fundraisers and specifically gift & wrap catalog fundraisers. These fit all 3 categories best in my opinion.  The fundraiser is easy to run without volunteers, offers very substantial profits and customers are left happy if a reputable company with quality products is chosen.

Next, we took a look at school auction fundraisers.  These offer substantial profits and parents love it.  Unfortunately, it takes a lot of work to organize the event.  There really is no nationwide component so the fundraiser auction is aimed at parents and usually not the community at large.  Inviting community members that are not parents of the children at the school may be a good way to extend the sale a bit.

Today, I want to explore frozen cookie dough fundraisers.  What folks don't know about frozen cookie dough is that elementary schools can raise a tremendous amount of money selling a product that is in demand.  As a commodity, food is something we do acquire and consume on a regular basis.  Then, add to that the fact that a good sweet is hard to resist.  This makes selling cookie dough profitable. 

The quality of product these days is top notch. 

There are quality ingredients and the dough is not made in someones kitchen.  This is pretty big business, all things considered, so cookie dough is made in large production facilities - the same facilities that handle making the dough for retail, restaurants and food service. This means the product is safe and held to the highest standards in food preparation.  The reason to point this out is that our first rule above is now met and customers are happy to cook up some delicious cookie dough. 

The cookie dough is delivered frozen which means that distribution is a bit more challenging than a gift catalog.  The product cannot sit out for an extended amount of time.  So, the day of delivery can be stressful on the PTA, PTO or volunteers helping with distribution.  In the end, deliveries happen smoothly but I do think schools have a bit of apprehension thinking that parents will not come and pickup the frozen product in time. 

Notifying them ahead of time when the delivery is becomes very important.

The pros - very substantial profits selling something that has a high customer satisfaction.

The cons - delivery day can be a bit of a challenge for the fundraising chair as they wonder if parents will be showing up.

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Until tomorrow!