The ABC’s of Effective School Fundraising Promotion

How to implement a successful promotional fundraiser strategy.

Learning how to promote your school fundraiser effectively can mean the difference between a below-average sale and a very profitable one. Thousands of dollars could be at stake, so your primary goal should be to come up with an effective plan that will engage as many students in the selling process as possible.

Your students are your biggest fundraising asset. You should ask yourself two questions: 1) How will you get more of them involved in your campaign? The goal of any fundraiser should be to find ways to increase participation. And 2) what are the best ways to get previous sellers to raise even more money? You can also improve sales by getting those participating in previous fundraisers to sell more.

What follows are our three promotional ABCs that will help you to maximize your student participation so you can reach and exceed your group's financial goals:

A. Keep Students Accountable to a Sales Goal

Before you can hold your students accountable to a sales goal, you need to know your financial objective. Have you calculated your school fundraising goal? This is not a trick question.

Believe it or not, the majority of groups fundraise because they know they'll need some money at some point during the school year. There's no purpose and no goal. Students are told to "sell as much as you can!" or "every little bit helps!" The problem with this philosophy is most won't sell at all. The reason is no accountability. This is not the way to conduct a fundraiser.

Everyone needs to know the finish line if groups genuinely want to experience successful school fundraising. To do that, you'll first need to answer three questions:

1. How much money does your entire group need to raise?
2. What is the number of students in your group?
3. How many items must each student sell to reach the combined group's sales goal?

Once you have established your goals, you'll need to regularly check in with your students on their selling progress. If you only tell them their goal at the fundraiser kickoff meeting, some will take it to heart right away, but others won't.

If you're dealing with elementary school students, the next day after the kickoff, ask them to raise their hands if they've already sold three or more items. Then continue to do this throughout your fundraiser. Even if some students aren't honest, this exercise communicates a powerful message. My peers are selling; maybe I need to do the same.

Also, be sure to ask your teachers to check in with their students directly. This may require meeting with your teachers before your kickoff to explain your goals and how they will also benefit from the sale. Everyone in the school must understand that they play an essential role as fundraising ambassadors.

On the other hand, if you are sponsoring a smaller group, like a high school band or sports team, talk about the fundraiser during class or gym. Some sponsors even check order forms. This is a perfect opportunity to get your student's attention by adding incentives during your sale.

Why you should incentivize your students during the fundraiser

B. Plan to Broadcast Your Fundraiser Daily

Make sure you're at least announcing your sale every day so everyone's reminded to sell. However, students already expect an essential reminder. You should go a step further. Be creative by asking, "Which students have already reached their fundraiser goal?" or "Who thinks they're going to be the top seller?" Incorporating these things into your announcements is going to take some advanced planning. But it should be worth the extra time and effort.

Consider conducting prize drawings to give the students who are selling a chance to win extra prizes or special privileges. Your sellers can turn in prize coupons and be in a drawing. By using this approach, other students will want to jump in so they can also be a part of the drawing.

It also doesn't hurt to use this time to announce any additional surprise incentives that the students didn't previously know about. This communicates a powerful message to the students to keep selling because there may be even more surprises to follow. So be ready.

Discover how to offer exciting prizes when you're fundraising budget is tight

C. Be a Cheerleader to the Finish Line

Good sponsors see themselves as cheerleaders. Remember to always be in inspiration mode throughout your sale. This way, your students will want to keep selling. Making sales isn't always easy, so positive encouragement should be a top priority. Always keep the end goal in mind and how everyone will benefit from the money raised.

You will always reap a good harvest if you're willing to design and implement an effective school fundraising promotional plan.

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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.