3 Exciting School Fundraising Ideas that Improve Sales

Improve sales using motivational incentives.

You're only halfway there if you think you have a great sales brochure. Finding ways to get your students to show it to their friends and family is the other half. You can't have one without the other. Therefore a strong prize program is imperative to your fundraising success.

There is a big difference between the prize program and the prize flyer. Many people think they're the same. By introducing a prize flyer to your students, you're simply handing them a piece of paper with some incentives.

A prize program, on the other hand, is much more encompassing. By definition, a program is a planned series of events. Therefore, a comprehensive incentive plan is interactive, dynamic, and ongoing.

A sponsor that employs a prize program offers incentives during their fundraiser to help promote the importance of continuous selling afterward. Most sponsors only reward students after they've sold. To take your sale to another level, you have to be willing to offer additional incentives. Here are three fun school fundraising ideas that will improve your sales.

1. The Free Dress Day Fundraiser Incentive

If your school allows it, the free dress day enticement is a powerful selling motivator. Although this incentive is usually more effective for schools with stricter dress codes, it can still work well for almost fundraisers. You can reward it during your sale by having students turn in prize coupons or afterward for the top 20 overall sellers. You also need to make sure and enforce appropriate dress by laying down some guidelines.

Another variation of the free dress day is to allow students to wear their favorite hats for a day.

2. Offer a Credit at the School Store

If you have a school store, why not use it to increase sales? You're getting the best of both worlds by promoting your fundraiser and store. You can allow students to accumulate store points based on sales that can go towards store credit. Think of it this way; you'll make more of each brochure item than you'll give up for a store item in exchange.

3. Bonus Recess Time

This is an example of an additional way to reward the top-selling class. You can offer this after all sales or reward it to the class who turns in the most prize coupons on given days during your sale.

There's an endless number of additional incentives that can be personalized to meet your own unique needs. Yet, to get the most out of your extra fundraiser prize ideas, you must promote them throughout your sale.

See our brochure fundraisers.

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.