Why School Fundraising Sales Tracking is Essential

How to monitor your sale and experience success.

Is fundraising a sprint or a marathon? This is a trick question. It's a combination of both. Think about a long-distance runner who's training for a 10k race. If they want to improve their time, they do interval training. Otherwise known as speed work. The idea is to make several short sprints with slower recovery intervals. This ultimately makes you a faster runner.

But how do you know you're getting the maximum benefit? The key is how much rest you give yourself between sprints. This requires a stopwatch. In other words, you need accountability. If you rest too long, your benefit will be lower.

Long-distance runners usually know what their 10k pace is. Experts say 400-meter intervals should be run 10% faster with speed work. Two hundred meters should be 12% faster, and 100-meter sprints 15% quicker. This requires knowing your numbers and keeping track of your progress.

Tracking school fundraising progress is no different. A 2-week sale can seem like a marathon. But it must be broken down into shorter sprint intervals to make it effective. For example, you need each group member to sell 25 items. If you tell them to return the money in 2 weeks, you'll get a mixture of reactions.

Some might say 25 items is a lot, and they will feel intimidated. They may not even get out of the starting gate. Others may begin at a sprint and burn out. The best approach is to give your students periodic measuring sticks. Otherwise known as sales progress markers.

How is this accomplished? Brochure fundraisers require regular follow-up meetings with your students. Specific target goals should be communicated upfront at your kickoff meeting. For example, if after two weeks, your students need to sell 25 items, consider the following short-term goals:

• Sell five items after day 1
• Be at 12 items after day 5
• Total 18 items after day 10
• Achieve your end goal of 25 items after day 14

This example provides a spelled-out path for your students to follow.

Overcome Brochure Fundraiser Limitations

But how can you know if your students are selling? This is the disadvantage of having a brochure sale. Here's a typical scenario that happens a lot. You meet with your students and feel they understand the process and are eager to start. You remind them to turn in their order forms and money envelopes at the end of the sale.

Then it hits. You discover that only about 15% of your students turn in their order forms. And worse, most of those only had a couple of items sold. What happened? Your initial optimism quickly morphs into a feeling of frustration and disappointment. Your euphoric high is a distant memory.

Could you have prevented this from happening? If only you had known sooner that most of your students were off to a slow start. You might have been able to turn things around before it was too late. A lot can happen between the kickoff and the end of the sale.

Larger groups, like elementary schools, are somewhat limited. But there are still things they can do. If you happen to sponsor a smaller group, you have even more latitude.

Once students know their short-term goals, arrange actual check-in meetings. Explain at your kickoff meeting that sellers must bring their order forms. Ask them to have their money envelopes to prevent them from just writing down names.

Once you've documented each order form, put the information in a tracking sheet. This way, both you and your students know where they stand. Tracking your fundraiser in this way creates accountability while building confidence. Students receive feedback on their progress as they chip away at the end goal.

Why Track Your School Fundraising Progress?

It's a little more work for you, but there are considerable benefits to tracking the progress of your sale. Here are just a few:

• Students are held accountable to keep up with their sales.
• Early detection of a slow start allows you to adjust before it's too late.
• Students know you're serious about helping them reach their goals.
• Tracking orders can be motivational and make selling competitive.
• You can use fun school fundraising incentives that coincide with your check-in days.

The Advantage of Online Fundraisers

School fundraising during the pandemic has created some interesting challenges. Virtual roadblocks, such as being unable to meet in person as a group, have been complex for some. But with no order forms or money to collect, we've seen a 3-fold increase in virtual sales.

There are pros and cons. One advantage is the ease of use of the sales platform and the increase in potential customer reach.

A disadvantage is getting students to use it. Virtual fundraising can be very impersonal. This makes it especially important to stay in touch and check your student's progress, even over Zoom.

And another plus to online fundraisers is everyone can see sales progress immediately. Because transactions update in real-time, you and your students receive immediate feedback.

Time is a priceless resource. Why not put everything into making your next school fundraiser a success? After all, there's no turning back the clock once it's over.

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.