Because our company name is ‘Big Event Fundraising’ we occasionally receive a call from a school that wants to bring in one of our big events, like our Big Event Magic Show or Big Event Reptile Adventures Show, and use them as the actual school fundraiser.
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Fundraising Ideas - Elementary, Middle & High School Fundraisers
Planning a Fundraiser
There are many things that fundraising coordinators need to consider when planning a fundraiser. Find out what should go into preparing for a sale
2 primary considerations for any school fundraising group is making sure to pick a strong sales brochure that will work well for their area as well as selecting an effective prize program that will motivate their students to sell.
There is ongoing debate over whether it’s the school fundraising brochure or the school prize program that has the greatest influence in determining the success of a school fundraiser. One thing is for sure however, and that is if you have a bad prize program, your sales will probably suffer. Even more, what people don’t often think about is, even if they have a good prize program, how do they plan to promote it?
Most groups that use our Super Party Prize Program to motivate their students to sell for their school fundraiser know that they need to sell 8 items or more from their sales brochure in order to gain admission to the party.
Fundraiser groups that are united towards reaching their goals will find greater fundraising success than those who aren’t. The question then becomes how do we achieve unity if we haven’t already? In order to ensure that your group is unified it will be important to ask the following questions.
How committed are your members?
Before you consider a fundraiser project make sure that you know how committed the members of your group are. In other words, how strongly do your members:
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.
Let’s face it, school fundraisers aren’t easy and most people don’t look forward to doing them. However if you expect to raise a lot of money with minimal effort put into your sale you’ll probably end up even more disappointed. Successful fundraising takes hard work, smart planning as well as persistent seller follow-up and accountability. Unfortunately, if you are looking for a quick-fix to your group’s financial needs you’d be better off watching the late-night infomercials.
Should high school students be required to participate in their group’s school fundraiser? Because most high school groups need money, many sponsors require it. They make it clear from the beginning that to be a part of the group all students must support it financially. Fundraising with these groups is therefore:
Let’s face it, nobody wants to fundraise. Schools do fundraisers because they have to. Once you realize that all of the possible ways that your thought of to possibly avoid having to do it only brings you back to the ‘fundraising table’, the last thing that you want to happen is for your fundraiser to fall short. After all, you don’t want to have to go through this more than once in order to meet your financial goals. When all is said and done, does anyone really want to do a second fundraiser? Then why don’t more people put their best foot forward with their first fundraiser?
There was a time when schools collected money for their fundraisers when the products were delivered to their customers. On paper, post collect fundraising sales often initially looked very strong for because it was easier to get people to place orders without having to collect money. The problem was actually chasing down the money when it was time to collect. This was often difficult because: