Is Your High School Fundraising Purpose Enough?

What it takes to have a successful high school sale.

There are many reasons why groups raise money. For example, an elementary school may need new library books or learning software. A travel soccer team has to pay for travel expenses, tournament fees, and uniforms. Every organization has its own unique needs. However, is your high school fundraising purpose enough to make your sale successful?

In general, smaller groups average higher units sold per seller because they're easier to unite, manage and motivate. For example, not every elementary school student will want to participate in a sales campaign that will pay for academic awards. On the other hand, a high school band raising money for a Florida trip will probably have a much higher student participation rate.

External vs. Internal Seller Motivation

As a result, most elementary schools understand the need to provide prizes to get their students to sell. On the other hand, many high school sponsors think incentives are unnecessary because they feel students should already be motivated to sell. Here are some of their reasons for not offering incentives:

• Students should automatically see the intrinsic value and needs of the group. In other words, they should want to sell because of what they experience as a group.
• They may see selling as mandatory for everyone anyway.
• They see incentives as a tradeoff for a lower profit percentage.

Why Fundraising Incentives Work

Contrary to what people might think, providing prizes increases the items sold per seller and the number of high school students who participate. This is true, regardless of the purpose. Here's why:

• Some students may need external motivation to sell, like a prize program.
• Prize programs are designed to get students to sell more than they ordinarily would. For example, if each seller needs to sell ten items, some will try to obtain a better prize at the next level, which may only be a few items away.
• Student-athletes may be more motivated to sell if they can win team-related sportswear. For example, the coach may tell their players to sell a certain number of items so everyone can get a travel sports bag.
• The organization can provide additional incentives to motivate its students to sell more. This does not have to cut into their profit if they're creative. For instance, for every five items sold, their name can go into a grand prize drawing to win a special privilege or perhaps even a donated prize from a local business.

Why not supplement a vital purpose with prizes and incentives? If you plan carefully, your return on investment may be worth it.

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.