3 Steps to Successful College Fundraising

Simple ways to get the most out of your college fundraiser.

Successful college fundraising happens the same way it does with any other group. You must develop a purpose that everyone in your group can rally around and then establish a goal that your students can aim for.

It's also essential to meet with your group to discuss your goals and objectives, generate momentum for your fundraiser, and, finally, you should track your progress along the way.

This will require periodically meeting with everyone in the group throughout your sale to help keep people accountable and focused.

Here are three steps you'll want to implement to help you meet your fundraiser goals.

1. Establish a Fundraising Goal

To succeed, you must have a goal your group will understand and embrace. Groups usually have several needs, so raising money for the 'general fund simply' is tempting. This is not specific enough. You'll wind up having endless fundraisers that feed a bottomless pit.

Instead, each sale needs a specific purpose. For example, you may need to raise money to cover expenses for an upcoming party or celebration. This is something that most people in your group could probably relate to. Once you know how much it will cost, you can determine how much each group member will need to sell to reach your goal. This would then be discussed at your kickoff meeting.

Calculate your fundraising goal

2. Have a Fundraiser Kickoff Meeting

Once you've established your purpose, you'll want to share it with your group. The kickoff allows you to do three things:

1. Establish a launch point
2. Explain your objectives
3. Unite your group

Fundraising is like a race. You need a starting line to run at a good pace and then finish strong.

3. Track Your Sales Progress

How will you know if people are selling or not? You'll know exactly how well you're doing by tracking your fundraising progress. And you'll be holding people accountable to the goal.

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.