3 Questions to Answer Before Your Next School Fundraiser

If you want to reach your fundraising goal for your group, you are going to have to do some work during your sale. If you merely hand out your fundraiser packets to your students and expect them to sell without providing some sort of in-sale motivation or accountability, don’t be surprised by your lack of results in the end. Some school fundraising sponsors feel that the purpose alone should be enough to inspire students to get out and sell. While this is definitely important don’t assume that it’s going to be enough. Here are 3 questions that should be answered before your next fundraiser:

1. Did You Establish a Goal?
This may sound like an obvious question; however it really isn’t so straight forward for many sponsors. There are many fundraising groups that need to raise money yet don’t feel that establishing a purpose is necessary. They feel that once they have the money they will figure out what to do with it. This is backwards thinking. Every fundraiser should have a specific purpose and once that’s established the amount of money needed to achieve it can be determined. There are many people who won’t support a fundraiser unless they feel comfortable about where their money will be spent.

2. Will You Communicate Your Goal?
Once you have established your goal you will need to communicate your goal to everyone involved. Use your fundraising kickoff to discuss this with your students and make sure that your parent letter gets home to your parents so they can read about it as well.

3. How Will You Work Towards Your Goal?
Make sure that your students are working towards your goal by reminding them to sell on a daily basis. Elementary school fundraisers usually do daily announcements over the intercom. Some schools take it further by incorporating periodic prize drawings into their announcements. If you are doing a high school fundraiser you can actually track your sales progress by asking your students to present their order forms at various times during the sale. High school students can also receive various types of incentives during their check-in dates.

Establishing your fundraiser goal is only the beginning. It’s going to take work on your part as well as theirs in order to achieve it.