An Idea to Boost Parent Fundraising Involvement

How to get more parents involved and increase sales.

There are two steps to generating enthusiasm for your elementary school fundraiser. One is to promote it to your students. This can be done in various ways, with the kickoff being the most effective. The second is to connect with your parents. Most will agree that getting your students interested in your fundraiser is easy.

Yet even though you may feel optimistic after getting your students excited at your launch meeting, that’s only the beginning. Your sale will never reach its full potential unless you can also reach your parents. They’ll decide on whether their students participate or not. Here’s an idea that may help boost parent fundraising involvement.

Promote Your Fundraiser Using Before and After Photos

Consider using visual aids to help generate interest in your vision. People are more inclined to want to support something they can see the results of. Let’s say you want to raise money for a new school playground. The before-shot is easy. Go out and take a picture of what the playground area looks like now. However, the after shots may require some professional image design and rendering. This will probably be necessary since you’ll need design plans anyway.

The next step is to transfer your before and after images to poster boards and some information about your fundraiser and place them in critical areas around your school. Be sure also to present the poster at your back-to-school night meeting. You’ll have the attention of most, if not all, of your parents at one time.

Communicate Your Fundraising Goals and Objectives

Make sure that you describe what your intentions are on your promotional posters. Parents will want to know the details. How much money needs to be raised, and what is the purpose? Don’t just assume that the pictures of your playground will be enough. Also, develop a catchy title phrase like “The Smith Elementary Playground Project – Help Us Improve Your Student’s School Experience (in smaller font underneath)”.

And perhaps the most important thing is to include how much each student will need to sell to reach your fundraising goal. With everyone working together to reach an expected sales amount, your school will raise a lot of money.

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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.