How to Prepare for a Quick School Fundraiser Finish

How to keep your sale from dragging on at the end.

You can feel it. The end is almost here. Your shipment and your students' boxes have been sent home, and customers should receive their items shortly. What happens after all of the boxes have been cleared out?

You're just about done but believe it or not, there are still a few things that can come up that you may still need to address before your sale is finally complete.

Since there are some other things left to do before your sale wraps up, make sure to have a plan to deal with them. Here's how you can prepare for a quick school fundraiser finish to prevent things from dragging any more than they have to.

Verify Late Fundraising Orders

If you faxed in any late orders after you mailed in your initial order, you'd want to verify that these orders were delivered. You can do this by cross-referencing your copies of the late order forms with your sales report provided by the fundraiser company. If the late orders don't appear in the report, then you should expect to receive an additional shipment. Make sure to verify this with the company. Another scenario is if late orders were entered in your report, but you didn't receive an actual order. The order is missing in this case, and you should report it to the company. This usually means the company didn't receive the order form. It will be up to you to determine whether you still want to submit the order for processing.

Report Replacement Items

Ensuring a quick school fundraiser wrap-up also means having a way to deal with replacement items. If your company provided your parents with a toll-free phone number to call to deal with any missing or damaged items, then there is nothing you have to do on your end. This information is provided inside each seller's box. Sometimes, you'll still get approached by parents anyway. If you do, refer them to the toll-free number. Many companies deal directly with the parents and ship replacement items to them instead of the school.

On the other hand, if a toll-free phone service is not offered, you'll want to give your parents a specific time limit to report any item issues. We recommend no longer than seven days. Send a note informing parents that missing or damaged merchandise will not be replaced after your deadline. Once the date passes, you can submit an item replacement form to the company.

Pay Your Fundraiser Invoice

Your company will provide an invoice and inform you when it must be paid. Some companies expect payment once issues have been addressed, while others require payment at delivery. In some cases, companies may require receipt of payment before shipment. You'll want to make sure you have an understanding of your company's payment policy upfront. Most companies charge an additional fee for late payments.

If you ultimately want to ensure an easy process, and a quick school fundraiser conclusion at the end, make sure you plan for any possible hiccups that are bound to happen.

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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.