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

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