Why Fundraiser Tracking Leads to More Sales

Why tracking your sales is so important.

So you’ve kicked off your fundraiser and are feeling pretty optimistic. Your students seem excited about the brochure as well as the prize program. You also believe that your students will be intrinsically motivated to sell because the money raised will be spent on a trip to an amusement park.

Yet how will you know if you’ll have a good turnout? After all, you can’t force students to sell but only hope for the best. Really? Unfortunately, this is the mentality of many sponsors. Some get lucky, and their students reach their fundraising goal, while others don’t. But are you really at the mercy of your students?

Why Fundraiser Tracking is Important

So why does fundraiser tracking lead to improved sales? To sum it up in one word, accountability. If your students know that you are following their sales progress, they’ll be more inclined to stay up with their sales. They’ll be more inclined to take your sale seriously when they know you care enough about their progress to keep track of it.

How to Track Your Sale

First of all, this process works best with smaller groups. At your fundraiser kickoff, announce to your students that you’ll check their sales progress every three days throughout the sale. We recommend inspecting their order forms and money envelopes the day after the kickoff, at the halfway point, and on the last day.

1. Set Your Fundraising Goals

What will you expect out of your students in terms of reaching each day’s sale quota? It will be essential to set 3 different item goals. For example, if you’d like each student to sell at least ten items, your check-in goals may look like this:

• First day: 3 items
• Midway Point: 7 items
• Last day: 10 items

Providing your students with specific goals will help make your expectations apparent.

2. Check Order Forms & Money Envelopes

Tracking your fundraiser involves bookkeeping, but it’s worth the extra work. On your three check-in days, you’ll want everyone to have their order forms and money envelopes ready.

The money envelopes are the most critical indicator because you’ll know that your students are collecting the money. They may not have all of the money collected for every order, but they should have a significant portion. And, of course, on the last day, they’ll need to have 100% collected because they’re turning everything in any way.

3. Use a Fundraiser Tracking Sheet

Record the number of items sold on each check-in day on a spreadsheet. You can always make your own. We provide one to each small group sponsor that we work with. This gives you a good indicator of how well your sale is going, which should help eliminate any unwanted surprises.

You should also consider rewarding your students during your check-in days as well. See our money incentive game.

Adjusting Your Mind-Set

When tracking your fundraiser, are you forcing your students to sell? No, but you’re expecting them to. There’s a big difference. If you expect your students to reach or exceed reasonably set goals, they may reward you.

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.