Increase Fundraising Sales One Student at a Time

Personalize the fundraiser experience by individual sellers.

Most of the time, sponsors concentrate on increasing overall sales but are not as focused on individual seller performance. However, to be successful, you need to think about both your group as a whole and each seller independently.

So how can you increase school fundraising sales made by individual students? First, it is essential to get your students thinking about their sales goals as quickly as possible. Do they want to be the top seller or reach your individual seller goal? After reviewing the prize brochure, we encourage you to advise them to discuss their goal with their parents. They can set their goal based on which prize they want to win and are willing to work for. Many students may not reach their goal; however, they will probably sell more than they would have, even if they fall short. Remind them during your daily announcements about their own goals so they can remain focused on them. Here are still more ways that you can increase seller productivity:

Set Smaller Short-Term Sales Goals

If a student needs to sell 60 items to win their prize, that number can initially seem overwhelming. However, if they can break that number down into smaller daily goals, 60 items become very obtainable. Since most sales will last for two weeks, if they can commit to selling at least 4-5 items a day, they will reach and even exceed their end goal.

Get Others Involved in Fundraising

The most successful sellers can recruit other people to help them sell. At your kickoff, you'll want to ask for a show of hands from those who plan to go home tonight and talk to Mom and Dad about taking their brochure to work. By raising their hands, they are pledging to attempt to get other family members involved. Students can also ask aunts, uncles, grandparents, and older siblings to help. Perhaps Mom could take the brochure one day, Dad the next, and Grandma afterward. This way, the work is being shared.

Provide Additional Selling Incentives

Rewarding sellers with prizes for selling after the sale is one thing. In this case, nothing can be done to increase fundraising sales after the fact further. However, what if you rewarded sellers during the sale using additional incentives? For example, you can use prize drawing coupons to announce multiple winners daily. This will inspire more students to continue to work harder.

What ideas have you found that increase individual student sales?

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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.