Often schools and parents/teacher organizations try a fundraiser once and if they don’t make what they thought they should, the blame goes on the event or program. While that can certainly be the case, a lot of the success depends on how it’s marketed and presented to the community. Here are a few tips on how you can take a good fundraising idea and make it the best you’ve ever had.
Tell People on Every Medium Possible
Posters aren’t enough. E-mails aren’t enough. Principal messages aren’t enough. Not even social media is enough. You need to use every avenue available to communicate the details of your fundraising program. School staff can even use email signature lines to inform about the fundraiser.
Some people communicate digitally, some are still addicted to paper, others need reminders placed around your school because front-and-center is how they remember. Don’t try and guess what’s best for your audience, do it all.
Don’t Rule Out the Community
A lot of schools stop selling at the school yard but there are many people who would buy in the community. Why do you think the Girl Scouts have cut back on door-to-door and started selling in front of grocery stores? Part of that is safety but another part is traffic. A busy store gets a lot more traffic than the number of houses you can hit after school.
Work with local merchants to see if you can “sell” your program with them. In the case of Community Scrip fundraising, the merchants are directly benefiting so they’ll probably agree.
Use Psychology
Three main drivers to sales are fear of missing out (FOMO), scarcity, and short deadlines. Use each of these as an incentive to take part in your fundraiser. Scarcity can easily play into FOMO as you limit the number of items available for sale. Deadlines to buy should always be short. You can extend them, if needed, but it’s a great way to drive action. Give a very small window and send out plenty of reminders. When people hear they have a short time to decide, often the fear of missing out will drive them to act.
Here are some additional ideas to jump start your fundraising efforts.
If you’re looking for a great school fundraiser that helps your organization and your local businesses, and doesn’t involve selling things people don’t need, check out Community Scrip.
