3 Ways to a Successful High School Fundraiser

A short guide to raising more money for your high school group.

Who doesn't want a successful high school fundraiser? The answer seems obvious, yet countless groups will fall short of their sales goals. Why is that?

Perhaps these groups are picking the wrong brochure to sell out. Or maybe they aren't doing enough to motivate their students to sell. Still, another reason could be that many communities have limited resources, and competition for money can be fierce with so many groups out raising money.

These things can all contribute; however, groups unprepared to sell will almost certainly fail. Here are three essential selling enhancement strategies that will help ensure your success.

1. Have a Fundraising Purpose

Hopefully, you're not selling just because it's the time of year you always have a sale. Groups that fundraise without a purpose decide how to spend the money only after they know how much they made. This backward approach will almost ensure that your sellers will underperform. Instead, your group needs to know why they're selling and how they will benefit. If they are not convinced of this, your sale will probably not succeed. Your purpose is the foundation of your sales campaign and needs to be constantly promoted to your students throughout.

2. Track Your Fundraiser Progress

Waiting until the end of your sale to find out how much money you make is like playing Russian roulette blindfolded. Many sponsors merely hand each seller a student packet, tell them to sell, and hope for the best. Is it possible to be able to control your results better? Yes, but it requires some follow-through and bookkeeping on your part. The old saying that you get out what you put in is always true. Therefore, tracking each seller's progress is the way to go unless you want to do a bunch of smaller, unproductive fundraisers.

To effectively track student selling, you must first know how much money you need. Then, you can establish an individual sales goal for each of your sellers. Finally, based on each seller's goal, you can keep track of their progress by checking in with them regularly. This will help raise the level of accountability. Seller performance can also be enhanced by incorporating motivational incentives on check-in days. Tell them upfront that you will check their order forms and money envelopes and how much you expect them to sell at each checkpoint.

3. Reward High School Seller Success

Most school fundraising companies provide a basic prize program as part of their program. Unfortunately, many sponsors think this is enough to motivate their group to reach their sales goals. Yet, if you want to reach and even exceed your sales expectations, you need to do more. We recommend that groups use additional incentives to reward students who work hard and achieve results. You can incorporate a top seller reward, a grand prize drawing, extra prizes, or special privileges that can be rewarded during the sale. Rewarding students during the fundraiser is a great way to reinforce the tracking process and positively influence sales outcomes.

You may be pleasantly surprised with your results when you put the proper additional work into your fundraiser.

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.