How to Motivate High School Students to Fundraise

Some feel that high school students perform the worst out of all school-aged students when it comes to fundraising. By the time students reach high school they are no longer as excited about winning prizes like they were when they were younger. It also takes a lot more to motivate a high school student to sell for a variety of reasons: 1.) they are probably tired of fundraising because they have done it for a long time, 2.) they are therefore bored with the entire process, 3.) they have a lot of other things going on and claim that they don’t have the time, or 4.) they are just plain lazy or don't care. This group is definitely capable of performing poorly when it comes to fundraising, yet it doesn’t have to be that way.

There are several things that can be done to convince high school students to participate in your fundraising project, but none that is more important than communicating the purpose for your fundraiser. What is your purpose and why is it important to them? How will they benefit directly from the money that is raised? This is one advantage that you have with this group that you don’t have with younger audiences. High school students will understand this more than perhaps any other age group and be able to comprehend the benefits that come out of achieving your purpose.

When it comes to winning prizes, most high school students no longer want the same prizes that they won in junior high or elementary school. You may need to get their attention with other more creative prize programs. This is why we offer sportswear prize programs and cash prize programs to our high school groups. If you sponsor a high school team for example, you can offer customized sportswear with the school’s colors, name and mascot. This will promote team spirit and unity and is much more desirable for a high school student to work for because it is associated with their team.

It is also important to add additional incentives that won’t cost you very much but that will make your fundraiser fun and interesting to your sellers. What follows are a couple of ideas to consider:

• Money Game – Designate 3 separate days for money drawings (the day after your kickoff, halfway point and the day that orders and money are due). Let’s say that you are asking each student to sell a total of 10 items. Tell the students the day before each drawing day that you will pick one of their names out of a hat and that if they have sold say 3 items by the 1st drawing and can prove it by showing you their order form (as well as have some or all of the money collected and ready to turn in) then they win $20.00. If someone wins the 1st drawing then the 2nd drawing at the halfway point will also be for $20.00. At this point of the sale they have to have 7 items sold. What makes this game interesting though is that if the one person’s name that was drawn out for the 1st drawing doesn’t win then the 2nd drawing becomes $40.00. This sends a powerful message to everyone to be ready with their items sold for the next drawing. In other words, not only will the student whose name was drawn out regret that he or she didn’t sell but it will motivate him or her to be ready the next time. It also makes it more exciting for everyone because the drawing amount just got larger. Finally, the 3rd drawing will either be for $20, $40 or $60 depending on what happened on the previous drawing days. Make sure that you remind your students that to be eligible to win they must have their order forms and money envelopes with them.
• Mystery Person – Designate 1 adult on campus to be the ‘mystery person’ This person receives instructions that they are to not say anything until the first person approaches them and asks them to support your fundraiser. You will want to provide them with a voucher of some kind that they can then give to the student to turn into you as proof that they indeed approached this person. This will motivate your sellers to get in the mindset of approaching and talking to adults on campus and then hopefully taking this mentality out into their community.