How Effective is Your Prize Program?

Is your prize program holding you back?

Are you offering a similar prize program year after year with your fundraiser? Most schools focus on what's in the brochure and what they offer their customers. While it's essential to understand what your customers want, sponsors must also carefully consider their motivational strategy to get more students to participate in selling.

The best way to positively affect brochure sales is by increasing participation. Therefore if your students are excited about your incentives, they'll be more likely to push your sale. Parents usually end up selling because they've been persuaded by students who are enthusiastic about winning the prizes. Here are some other things to consider when selecting your prize plan.

How Effective was your Prize Program?

When you look back at previous sales, did your students like the prizes, or did they initially appear enthusiastic because everyone else was? Most sponsors don't give this a second thought. They see how thrilled their students get at the kickoff and assume everyone's excited to sell. Some don't even bother to check in again with their students until the end of the sale. By then, it's too late. This mindset continues from one sale to the next, which is why many schools seem to be content with the same sales results over time. How will you know if your sales can improve unless you want to look at this more closely?

The Effects on Your Sellers

Perhaps your students aren't selling as much because they're tired of the types of prizes offered. Most school fundraising companies offer prizes that are cheap at the lower levels and improve at the higher levels. Unfortunately, you need to entice students to want to jump in and sell; the same junky prizes may not be cutting. Plus, most students only sell enough to win the lower-level prizes because it's too hard to reach the higher levels.

Also, older students are less apt to sell because they're already familiar with previous incentive plans and how unrealistic it is to win higher-level prizes. This can profoundly affect your sales because fewer students end up participating.

Is a New Prize Program in Order?

So why do your sales continue to be stagnant? There are several possible factors to consider. You cannot control some things, like the economy's effects on consumer confidence and discretionary spending. However, one of the more powerful ways to positively affect your results is by changing your incentive plan. Even though you're offering different prizes yearly, you're still offering the same type of prize program. Since students already know what to expect, perhaps they're bored with the status quo.

By offering something new and exciting, perhaps you'll rekindle the curiosity and enthusiasm in your students that they used to have.

See our prize programs.

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.