How to Raise Parent School Fundraising Involvement

How to improve parent involvement in your fundraiser.

Are your parents tired or even frustrated with the fundraisers that your school is involved with? Ignoring a few complaints may not be a good idea because this may be a small indication that there is a more significant problem.

Besides a few grumbles, looking at your student participation is one way to tell if you have an issue. Out of all of your students, how many end up selling?

Most school fundraising companies provide comprehensive sales reports to sponsors, and a correlation can probably be made between parent frustration and involvement. Worse, this ends up harming your sales results. To raise parent involvement, perhaps looking at some of the problems would be wise. Here are 3:

1. Too Many Fundraisers

We’re constantly getting approached by someone trying to sell something. Communities are saturated with fundraisers. It’s bad enough that everyone else seems to be having multiple sales, so why should your group also contribute to the problem? Instead, commit to only allowing one or at least two campaigns annually. Then promise your parents at the beginning of the school year that this is all they’ll see, regardless. However, don’t be surprised if it takes a little time to build up some trust first. Eventually, you can conduct fewer but more successful fundraising projects with proper planning.

2. Low-Quality Brochure Items

Another way to improve parent-school fundraising involvement is to improve the quality of the products you present to your community. Many parents are tired of the cheap and overpriced merchandise being offered. Additionally, offering better quality items may be refreshing not just to your parents but also to your customers.

3. Cheap Prize Programs

Who’s more frustrated with the cheap junky prizes offered by most fundraiser companies, the parents or the students? This may be a million-dollar question because many people would say both. Parents can easily purchase many prizes found in the typical prize brochure at the dollar store, so what motivation do they have to sell in the first place?

If you can address these concerns, you may be well on your way toward raising parent-school fundraising involvement while achieving better sales results.

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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.