School Fundraising Prizes: How To Get It Right

I got this question yesterday from one of our new salesreps and thought that I’d put the answer out for all to see as this will affect any and every group that does prizes with their school fundraising program. And it really doesn’t matter if they are using Aim Fundraising or not, it will still affect them. Here’s the question:

“This morning I met with the president of Wethersfield Football. His main concern was how the prizes are distributed. Are these sent separately by U.P.S.? If so, are they sent in bulk or are they broken down at all.”

Prizes are shipped to arrive before the cookie dough (or any other school fundraising product). They do not come on the refrigerated truck. We can ship them in bulk (my favorite way because they are easier to hand out without error) or we can pack them by level. (Note: some prizes are so big that they aren’t packed with other prizes by level. So you still have to put some of the “large” prizes with the “package” of small prizes.) That is why I prefer to get them in bulk because you can pass them out just like the cookie dough and it takes seconds if laid out by level…. A, B, C etc.

Hope that helps. Forward this to him if you like. But basically, prizes are very easy. They get “hard” when they are not there on delivery day. That’s why we do everything we can to make sure they arrive well ahead of time (via UPS to the address of their choice).

The only thing that we cannot control on prizes is if we do not receive the prize list for a week or two after the order is placed. This happens sometimes when a group comes up with their own totals for the cookie dough and faxes or sends their totals in and “forget” to tally what they need for prizes. This is not a problem if we get the prize tally within a day or two of their cookie dough order. Since we stock our prizes in our own warehouse this still gives us at least 7 work days to pack, ship and transit time to customer and beats the cookie dough to the school.

So for your groups that end up coming up with their own totals, please make sure that they turn in their tally for prizes ASAP if it is not done at the time of making their order!

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7 Simple Fundraising Ideas for Profitable School Fundraising

Planning and managing a school fundraising event can make you want to pull your hair out or perhaps start banging your head on a table out of frustration. Here are seven helpful fundraising ideas that will help make your next school fundraiser a smooth and profitable success.

1.) Plan for Success

Efficient planning is integral to the success of not only your school fundraising campaign but any project you might think of. Without a well thought out plan of action chaos will reign and your project will suffer as a result no matter how good your fundraising ideas are. In fact, you should have a primary plan as well as a secondary and tertiary.

2.) There can be Only One!

There can only be one captain of a ship, one person “in charge.”  And the same holds true for your school fundraising program. Too many chiefs and not enough Indians is a recipe for failure as well as a bad idea. Pick a competent person to be in charge and then let them be in charge.

3.) Delegate Authority

Assign specific tasks to people in whom you have confidence and trust. In your planning create a list of tasks that must be accomplished and choose personnel for each task. Ensure that each of your chosen staff understands that accountability for their assigned task falls squarely on their shoulders.

4.) Promotion is the Key

Get the word our about your school fundraiser. Proper promotion of your event will ensure that you reach your goal. Send out press releases to local media outlets. Don’t forget your own school web page is a great way to post your fundraising ideas and opportunities and get the word out about it. Depending on the type of fundraiser you are planning will dictate if creating flyers and asking local business to place them in store windows would be helpful. There are many ways to promote an event and you should take advantage of as many of them as possible.

5.) Pre-Sell for Success

This tactic will work effectively for any type of school fundraising event. If your event is a dance, dinner, guest speaker, or other ticketed type of event you must pre-sell your tickets. Start the revenue stream long before the actual event. When items such as cookie dough or Christmas gift items are your main products start mentioning it to friends, family, and neighbors ahead of time.

6.) Multiple Income Streams

Do not put all of your eggs in one basket. Multiple income streams have been a recipe for success in business for many years and you should be running your school fundraising just like a business. If all of your efforts are concentrated in only one program, then your market may become saturated. You might even have another nearby school start the same thing your were planning to do the week before you kick your fundraiser off. If you are located in a small town, this can be a huge blow to your school fundraising success. Try using multiple events to your advantage. This is an excellent way to reach your goal as quickly as possible and spread out some of the risk.

7.) Post Event Analysis

While not part of the actual event planning phase this is something that you should not overlook. Analyze how each of your school fundraising efforts performed. Which ones did your customers like the best? Which ones made you the most money? Which ones were the easiest to do? You can use your analysis of your current campaign to enhance future fundraising efforts. It is especially helpful to write these things down in a journal for the next board to view in case all the faces on the board change from year to year. This way, they don’t have to re-invent the wheel like you did!

If you have been disappointed with your school fundraising results lately, you should click on this link and see how you can imporve your results.

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What Makes a School Fundraiser Successful?

A Word to the Wise!

Most fundraising companies are more interested these days in “getting your business” than in actually coaching you in how to run a school fundraiser to get maximum profits. Most fundraising companies will try to sell you the notion that their brochure or their product or their service is the key point in a successful fundraiser. This is far from the truth, and if you take just a little while to think about it, you know this is true. Prizes are what drive school fundraisers. If you do the same old worn out standardized prizes, you will end up with average same old tired out and fizzless results. That is the reason that schools that change up how they do their prizes have huge increases over their former sale. It is not the product or services offered or the profit percentage given that makes for a successful school fundraiser… it’s the prizes.

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