2 Ways to Properly Reward Your Top Fundraiser Prizes

How to make your students remember your prize ceremony.

Let’s face it; you want to bring in as many sales as possible. Unfortunately, most school groups don’t have access to a large prize budget that they can use to entice their students. As a result, you have to be vigilant with your big prize purchase.

After careful consideration, you make your selection and feel confident students will be excited about it. Once your sale is underway, you’ve even discovered that it’s what everyone’s been talking about anyway. Your investment pays off, and you end up experiencing a highly successful fundraiser. Is your work done?

Well, the first part is. You did great at selecting your big fundraising prize; now comes the second part. How will you give it away? Should you incorporate a grand prize drawing or give it to the top seller? As it turns out, how you give away your top-seller prize is as critical as the prize itself. The goal is to create a lasting memory in the minds of as many students as possible. Why? Because you want your next fundraiser to be just as successful or even more so.

The students that don’t win are even more important than those who do. Your job is to make them want to be a winner next year. Successful school fundraisers happen when you can motivate many students to try for your top-seller prize. Only then will you break sales records? Let’s look at the pros and cons of two popular ways.

1. Have a Grand Prize Fundraiser Drawing

PROS:

• Everyone who reaches a predetermined sales amount minimum amount has a chance to win the grand prize.
• Seller participation increases because more people will have a chance to win by reaching the minimum requirement.
• You can still entice the more significant sellers by putting their names in additional times for more items sold.

CONS:

• Students who sell the most aren’t guaranteed to win, even though they have the best chance.
• Some may stop selling once they reach the minimum because they still have a chance to win.

2. Reward the Overall Top Seller

PROS:

• Everyone knows the person who sells the most will win the big prize.
• More students will work harder by selling additional items because they know only the person who sells the most will win.

CONS:

• This may turn off some students who may not think they can sell enough to compete to win the big fundraising prize.
• A select few students may have a reputation for repeatedly winning this award, so many students ignore the top seller prize incentive.

We recommend consulting with several people before deciding which approach to use. You may choose the opposite way you did the previous year to keep it interesting.

Now, how would you reward your big fundraising prize?

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.