5 Fundraising Strategies You Should Use that Spread the Word

How to effectively market your fundraiser.

Communication with others is essential consistently. Suppose you've had any experience as an elementary school fundraising sponsor. In that case, you've probably already formed your own opinions on how to best stay in contact with your group during your sale. Most sponsors will agree that communication is crucial and that having well-informed students and parents is essential in ensuring their group's financial success.

Organizations that run effective school fundraisers are very good at using several techniques that bridge the communication barrier and get needed information out to their sellers at various points of the sale. The flip side of this is plenty of unpleasant surprises and most likely not-so-good sales results.

How to Share Fundraising Information

Here are five things that we recommend that you use to help get the word out about your school fundraiser:

1. Incorporate 'need to know' information into your daily announcements to your students. For example, regularly remind students about collecting money with their orders and who checks should be written out. It also can't be repeated enough that they are always with an adult anytime they sell to others.
2. Let students know about key notices going home and why they're important. Don't just hand out your in-sales notices; tell your students why they're important.
3. If available, ask if you can use your district voicemail system to send messages to your parent's phone.
4. If possible, parents can choose to receive email updates that are posted on your website.
5. Use social media forums like Facebook and Twitter to get important messages out.

Types of Fundraiser Notices

The following notices are provided inside the fundraiser guidebook that we provide to everyone who sponsors a school-wide sale:

• Mid-Sale Notice: Since you're already reminding your students to sell at school, this notice is more for your parents. Some parents may forget about the sale, so a reminder halfway through might help bring in more sales.
• Money Turn-in Notice: To respond effectively on money turn-in day, sending notices home reminding parents ahead of time is important. If you've been promoting your sale to your students, chances are they've also been talking to their parents.
• Delivery Notice: It is important to inform your parents about your delivery. They need to know when and where they will need to pick orders up. You can also include additional information like, "Order must be picked up after school between 3:15 and 5:30 p.m. on the cafeteria stage".
• Product Replacement Notice: If necessary, informing parents about how to replace any damaged or missing merchandise is important. Some school fundraising companies provide this information inside each student's box.

Effectively communicating your school fundraising information to your students and parents will save you time, possibly prevent phone calls from parents, and increase sales.

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.