3 Keys to School Fundraising Success

1. Promote Your School Fundraiser Ahead of Time
When it comes to promoting your school fundraiser, most fundraising coordinators only think about targeting the students at the kickoff. While this is probably the most important way to market your fundraiser, it’s not the only way. If you decide to promote your sale before it happens, not only are you making your fundraising group aware of what is coming but you are also creating anticipation in the minds of your students about the kickoff itself. Your goal is to have everyone talking about it before it happens. There are a lot of fun and creative ways to promote your upcoming sale like:

• Introducing it during morning announcements. If the students will be able to see you, you can dress up in a costume that is somehow related to your fundraising theme or purpose as you are talking about it
• If you are on camera during your morning announcements you can have one or more of your top seller prizes hidden under a sheet and have the students try to guess what it is after giving two or three minor clues (You can do something similar by using a secured display case). Be careful not to give it away before your kickoff however!
• Post the kickoff date on the school website
• Place information about your fundraiser on Facebook and Twitter and encourage others to do the same
• Tell people about the purpose for your fundraiser in the school newspaper
• Send home a note addressed to your parents letting them know to expect their students fundraising packets shortly

2. Plan for an Amazing Fundraiser Kickoff
The kickoff is probably the single most important sales tool that you have to market your fundraiser and your students are your most important asset for driving a successful school fundraiser. Your kickoff should appear to your students like a well-orchestrated production. This is where you must sell your fundraiser to your students, and you have one shot to do it so make sure you do it right. Therefore, plan to make your kickoff as incredible as possible. The most important thing that you can do is attempt to make arrangements to have everyone at the kickoff assembly together. Why? Because the more students you have, the greater the energy and the excitement which will become contagious. Second, make arrangements for a good sound system which will play music as the students are walking in and again as they walk out. This will help to set an energetic tone for your kickoff. A good microphone is also important once the music is turned off and you are ready to start. If you are showing a video, make sure that the lights are turned off. Make your video presentation as large as possible by projecting it onto a large screen using a laptop computer that plays DVD’s as opposed to simply showing it on a regular TV. Remember; think ‘big and loud’ for your kickoff. Make sure to cover up your top seller prizes and reveal them towards the end of your assembly. Also, make sure to make arrangements ahead of time for any necessary equipment. Doing things at the last minute will only make you more stressed and may even cause for things to go wrong during the actual kickoff. A ‘dry run’ 30 minutes before kickoff to test your equipment sure won’t hurt either. Always end the kickoff by instructing the students to only go out and sell under the supervision of an adult. Your students should leave your kickoff eager and ready to get started.

3. Keep Promoting After Your Fundraiser has Started
A lot of schools think that once the kickoff is over all they have to do is sit back and wait for the orders and money to come in. Well, this will probably happen; however, if you want even more money to come in you will want to promote your fundraiser to your students and parents from the time that the kickoff ends to turn in day. After all, why not make an impact while you can still impact your sales results? For example, we recently had an elementary school fundraiser use our Big Event Magic Show for their prize program. They incorporated prize drawings into their sale and had someone outside the office every day collecting prize coupons in a bunny rabbit costume. This might sound a bit corny to adults but the students loved it and could wait to sell more so that they could turn in more coupons. The PTA then informed us that they more than doubled their sale from the previous year and the way that they promoted their daily drawings had a lot to do with it. Here are some ideas that you can incorporate into your sale:

• Additional incentives (and they don’t have to cost anything!)
• Incorporate daily announcements
• Send home reminder notices 
• Announce your top seller prize on Facebook and Twitter
• Post your prize program flyers in key areas around your school
• Design and post your own promotional flyers
• Use your marquee to announce your fundraiser