2 School Brochure Fundraiser Myths You Can Avoid

Popular mistakes about fundraising you don't have to make.

When choosing a school brochure fundraiser, you may want to stand out by selling unique items. Or, perhaps you're looking for a similar brochure to one that's already been working well in your area that has comparable, but perhaps lower-priced items. When deciding between brochures, the possibilities are endless.

Other factors, like item selection and group profit, further complicate the selection process. One tactic that school fundraising companies commonly exploit to draw people in is offering a higher percentage of sales profit. Companies know this is a hot button as many sponsors consider profit percentage essential.

But some may already know the pitfalls of selecting based solely on profit percentage. We want to dispel this and another brochure fundraiser myth you can avoid before signing up with a company.

1. Higher Profit Fundraisers Make More Money

You see it all over the web. Makeup to 80, 90, or even 100% profit. Doesn't this sound great? Shouldn't making more profit off of each item you sell be your primary objective? After all, the average profit on the typical school brochure fundraiser is only 40%. Think about how much more money you can make.

However, you know the old saying, "If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is". Many inexperienced sponsors consider higher profit an easy way to squeeze a few more dollars. Companies know this is a big motivator when choosing a fundraising program.

Instead, groups should look at improving sales by getting additional students to sell more items. Finding ways to increase student performance by offering better incentives and tracking sales progress are far more critical.

See our additional fundraising incentive ideas.

Potential gross sales are a far more critical indicator for projecting fundraiser success. Why? You can have all of the profit in the world, but if your brochure doesn't sell, you won't make much money anyway. We've seen many groups make less money when the profit was increased because they didn't work to advance the quality of their sales campaign.

2. Less Expensive Fundraising Items Sell Better

Even if you can sell more items from a less expensive brochure, you may bring in less money. We reviewed the results of one of our schools that used a less expensive brochure the first year; then followed up the next year with a more expensive brochure. It turns out they made more money selling the more expensive brochure.

At first glance, this may seem surprising, but there were two logical reasons for it:

1. More money was made per item on the higher-priced items.
2. The more expensive brochure offered a more extensive selection of items. Even though this wasn't directly related to price, it showed that offering an enormous variety may appeal to more buyers.

So, before selecting your school brochure fundraiser, consider how well the brochure will sell in your community and proceed.

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.