How to Avoid Elementary School Fundraising Burnout

How to keep elementary school fundraising simple.

Elementary school fundraising is hard work, to begin with, and to make matters worse, nobody wants to do them. Every year the same few reluctant yet sacrificial people volunteer because no one else will help. After all, someone has to do it.

If the same people take the reins every year, don't they ever get tired? Of course, they do it anyway because their central focus is on the students and their best interests.

With that said, there are specific things that you can do to make the fundraiser process a whole lot simpler, which can even make running the sale somewhat fun and rewarding. Here are some things that you can do to help prevent burnout.

Plan for Fewer Elementary School Fundraisers

We recommend doing one, or at most, two larger sales instead of having several smaller ones. Saturating your community with lots of campaigns not only frustrates your supporters, but your parents will also grow weary of the persistent selling. Therefore, put as much effort into making one sale as productive as possible by:

• Committing to your community to do 1 or 2 big fundraisers over the school year.
• Sticking to it, no matter what.
• Putting the burden on your sellers to produce because they'll do without if they don't.
• Heavily promoting your sale.
• Fundraising is like a race. You plan, which is the training. Then once the race begins, you go all out. Once it's over, you rest and look back with no regrets.

Have an Elementary School Fundraising Plan

Planning your campaign takes work, but it must run efficiently. This is why we provide our elementary schools with a school fundraising guidebook. The guidebook helps with planning and implementation. Make sure you also:

• Develop a successful marketing strategy.
• What role each of your team members will play.
• Determine the best possible additional incentives ideas above and beyond the basic prize program
• Use the following letters:
  • Reminder to sell notice
  • Reminder to turn in order forms and money envelopes
  • Delivery notice

Stay Consistent as a Sponsor

Once you've developed your plan, believe in it and stay with it, no matter what. Try not to make exceptions for some people. Then you'll have to remember what you did for them but didn't do for others. If you're consistent with everyone, you won't have to keep remembering what you said or did.

New Elementary School Fundraisers Are Refreshing

If everyone is tired of the same type of sale every year, perhaps it's time to change things. If you've been selling out of a large variety brochure, perhaps you'll want to instead focus on selling just one type of product, like a candy bar fundraiser or a popcorn fundraiser, for example. Or, you can do something completely different, like a carnival or auction.

Avoiding burnout can be as simple as committing to making one campaign count. And the best part? Successful sponsors always seem to find elementary school fundraising ideas that work are usually done after one sale.

Download our free fundraising tips eBook from our school fundraising tips for planning ideas for your next campaign.

Author Bio

Clay Boggess has been designing fundraising programs for schools and various nonprofit organizations throughout the US since 1999. He’s helped administrators, teachers, and outside support entities such as PTAs and PTOs raise millions of dollars. Clay is an owner and partner at Big Fundraising Ideas.