Build School Fundraising Momentum Before Your Kickoff

Most schools wait until the kickoff to start promoting their school fundraiser. And why not, the main reason you have a kickoff in the first place is to motivate your students to sell. There are probably many reasons why people don’t promote their fundraiser before their kickoff including:

• They’ve never done that and think that what they’ve been doing works fine
• They don’t want to do any more than they have to – after all it’s just a fundraiser!
• They are too busy to do anything above and beyond the norm
• They don’t want to potentially interrupt any classroom time with potential distractions etc. After all, convincing the principal to do a kickoff assembly will be quite an undertaking as it is!

Why should you promote your sale before your school's fundraising kickoff? The main reason is so that you can start building momentum by creating anticipation for the kickoff date in the minds of your students. And with anticipation comes eagerness and passion so when your kickoff finally arrives, your students will be even more excited about your fundraiser than if they never heard anything about it before. This increased enthusiasm should translate into increased sales, which is why you are going through the hassle of school fundraising in the first place. After all, you want to do well enough on this fundraiser so that you don’t have to do additional fundraisers just to meet your financial goals. A good example of this is when you go to the movies. What you see before your movie starts are the previews. Movie promoters know that they will sell more future movie tickets if they promote coming attractions ahead of time to a captive audience. This is great advertising because people have learned to expect the previews as a part of the movie experience so they are receptive to it. Well, the same concept applies to your students. When you promote your fundraiser ahead of time you end up making your audience eager for the actual event. Here are some ideas for promoting your school fundraiser before your kickoff that won’t take up too much of your time:

• If you have a marquee, advertise your fundraiser for all to see
• Put your fundraising information in your newsletter. Make sure to make it brief yet exciting and informative 
• Use your PTA / PTO / School website to get the word out
• If your school district has an ‘automated phone calling’ system, incorporate it to remind the parents and students about selling as well as when money and order forms will be due
• Use social media (like Facebook etc.) to spread the word
• Share information about exciting prizes that the students will be eligible for during morning announcements (don’t give it all away though – remember these are only teasers!)