How to Have a Smooth School Fundraiser

If you’ve had any experience at all as the fundraising coordinator for your elementary school fundraiser you have probably formed your own opinions on what works and what doesn’t when it comes to ensuring a smooth running fundraiser.

The take-home message is this. If you want your school fundraiser to run smoothly your will need to have informed parents and students about what you are attempting to accomplish.

Organizations that run smooth fundraisers are good at using several different methods to communicate what it is that they want their students and parents to know at the various stages of the sale. There are several methods that can be used to get the word out to your students, parents and faculty to ensure that everyone is on the same page. Here are some of the basics:

• Incorporate important ‘need to know’ information into your daily promotional announcements to your students. Let the students know in advance about key notices that will be going home and why it is important that both they, as well as their parents, understand this information.
• Various notices are provided inside our School Fundraising Guidebook. It is highly recommended that you sent out notices during each key stage of your fundraising event. For example, when it is time for order forms and money to be turned in you will want to send home a notice that reminds parents to prepare for this ahead of time to ensure that you get a good response by your turn in date.
• If your district has a voicemail system that allows for messages to automatically be sent to a parent’s phone this is a powerful and easy way to communicate as well
• Post updates on your website
• Use social media like Facebook and Twitter to get important messages out
• If you have access to email addresses, you can send periodic email reminders

What follows are some examples of important notices that can be sent out at the various stages of your fundraiser:

• Mid-Sale Notice: Since you are already reminding your students on a daily basis about the importance of participating in your school fundraiser, this notice is more for the parents. From the time your students bring home their fundraising packets after the kick-off to the end of the sale your parents may forget about the fundraiser so a little reminder half way into the sale sure can’t hurt. This not only reminds the parents about the fundraiser but it might also create a sense of urgency to get out and sell while they still can. This notice should also convey that there is still time left to sell and that every sale matters.
• Order Form Money Turn-in Notice: As mentioned earlier, in order to get a positive response for money and order form collection, it is important to send home notices reminding students and parents that the end of your school fundraiser is fast approaching. If you have been doing a good job of promoting your sale to your students and providing this information verbally, chances are they have already been talking to their parents as well.
• Delivery Notice: It is important that you inform your students and parents about your fundraiser's product delivery. They might not only need to know when their order will be ready for pick-up but also where they will need to go to pick it up as well any other information that you might want them to know like, “Order must be picked up after school between 3:15 and 5:30 p.m. on the cafeteria stage”.
• Product Replacement Notice: If necessary, it is important to inform parents about how they can go about replacing any merchandise that may have been damaged during shipment or that may even be missing from their order. A good place to put this information is on your delivery notices

It is recommended that you sit down with your fundraiser planning committee well in advance of your fundraising kickoff date and brainstorm on what the important stages of your school fundraiser will be. It is also important to map out how you will be communicating these stages to your students and parents. Having this all planned out in advance will definitely safe you time as well as help prevent phone calls from parents.