Why Brochure Fundraisers Make Schools More Money

Why big event fundraisers are much more than a school carnival.

When we bring our super party or super splash party inflatable games to a school, we refer to them as our big event fundraisers. And because of this, we occasionally receive a call from a school that wants to bring in one of these big events and use it as their money maker. In other words, they see it as a carnival event rather than an incentive to get students to sell items out of their brochure. They mistakenly think that our events are designed so that they can charge admission to the event to make money.

However, how can you blame them? Preparing and setting up for a school carnival is a lot of hard work. When we bring in all the games, we set everything up, which means no work for the school. Although this appears to be a good idea, the goal for our events is for schools to raise far more money than they could ever make by charging admission to an event. In other words, selling from a brochure is the fundraiser, while our big events are the reward that the students have already earned for selling. So admission is free.

Now, we've had schools charge admission for students who didn't meet the sales goal so they could make even more money; however, we attempt to discourage this. Why? For more information on this, see an article called, 'Should Non-Sellers Be Admitted to Your Reptile Show?'

Selecting the Brochure is a Priority

Our main goal is to help schools find the right brochure to sell to neighbors, family, and friends. When your entire student body is excited about showing their brochure to people they know, this is where a lot more money can be made for your school. So finding the best possible brochure that will motivate more people to buy should be most important to a school sponsor.

Choosing a Prize Incentive is Secondary

Next, the school needs to decide how to motivate its students to want to sell out their brochures. Our big events are prize programs designed to get students to sell more items and thus make additional money for the organization.

Our big event incentive programs make us unique from other school fundraising companies. Instead of students winning cheap, junky prizes for making sales, they attend an exciting event at their school. In addition, students who reach higher levels on the prize brochure can still win more prizes. For example, we've incorporated special privileges into our show events, such as becoming an assistant magician or reptile trainer. Students get to participate in the event.

The Sales Results Speak for Themselves

As a result of our big event fundraising prize programs, schools have been experiencing much higher than expected sales results. It's not uncommon for a school brochure fundraiser to exceed $20,000 or more with a big event incentive. We believe the reason for this is the increase in student participation. Any time you offer students a prize program that's both exciting and achievable, more will become motivated to get involved. Check out the results from these schools:

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.