The following represents a number of fundraising tips, tricks and strategies to help you with an upcoming fundraiser.
Present a goal
Present a clear goal to everyone involved. Many times, being clear about goals will help accomplish them. Behind the scenes, letting people know what the expectations are will encourage people to act and succeed! The more people that agree on the goal, the higher the success rate of the fundraiser.
Select a Fundraiser
Of course, you will want to select Believe as your fundraising company. Of course, we would appreciate your business but in reality, as long as you are selecting a company that suits your needs and will follow up with appropriate customer service you should be fine.
Fundraisers available to you may change over time, but there are classifications of fundraisers that seem to remain consistent throughout the years. For instance, our holiday catalog has been our most profitable and popular fundraiser since our inception. Other fundraisers, such as lollipop sales may generate sales but not significant profits. When it comes to your profit potential, the company you select and the fundraiser you select all come into play. For more information make sure to read more on this website. We have a good explanation on the home page.
Organize your campaign
Follow up with volunteers to see what their level of cooperation will be. Make a plan with timelines so everyone can be in the know! Great things come from good communication so make sure to notify people as much as possible about timelines, rules and requirements and incentives.
Remember to highlight safety rules
When children are involved in a fundraiser, it is critical that rules be in place to ensure their safety. Please read our fundraiser safety information by clicking on the fundraiser safety image here.
Promote the Fundraiser
Allow your fundraising company to provide letters and other materials that can help with the promotion of your fundraiser. Clearly asking for parents support at this stage is a valuable tool!
Incentivise the fundraiser
Use incentives provided by your fundraising company or come up with your own. As many things as you can throw out there the better. Here is a photo of a limo ride offered for an elementary school. They were totally thrilled and many of them waited all year to do it again!
Top-seller prizes and other products such as Apple Ipods, Zune audio/video players and portable DVD players seem to be very popular for participation prizes and top-seller prizes.
The cooler the stuff you give away, the better but remember this: Elementary children are just as happy many times with an eraser or piece of candy. The younger the children, the less they really understand the value of money.
Young children are excited by the actual excitement and being in the moment and not necessarily the products or the value of the products.
Keep this in mind because you may find that your younger children respond better to smaller prizes rather than large ones they may not win.
A perfect example is the Believe Tag promotion which makes available extra very hot items that increase participation.
Here is an article that we thought was cool. It's from thefundraisingdirectory.com and is titled 6 ways to motivate your fundraising group.
Hold a 'kick-off'
An assembly 'kick-off' can help motivate the students or group to sell, sell, sell. Use the incentives available to excite the kids. Make this as exciting as possible by playing music and having a good time. As long as the children know the basics of how to sell and what the incentives are they will succeed!
Sample script
Hi, I am (first name) from (school). We are raising money for (need) and are offering a (insert fundraiser type and hand over catalog). Please take a look and let me know what you would like to order today. It will really help our (school or need).
Other ways to ask for business would sound like 'Would you help our cheerleading squad out and buy something today? It would really help! Remember to always say thank you and not be disapointed when hearing no.
Make the sale
Sales don't just happen, people make sales happen. There are a number of ways to ask for business but the only way to ensure a sale is to ask somone to purchase! Without asking upfront and beating around the bush, sales figures will dwindle. Many times, very young children are orchestrating the sale. Having them really understand any sales philosophies is not likely but if they have a written script or some one-on-one input as to their sales pitch, they will benefit greatly.
Remember that conceptually, 'hoping you will buy' and 'really need you to buy' is a big difference. Encourage participants to be outgoing and positive and stress that there is a great need for raising funds. SMILE!
Overcoming objections
I have no money - if you are just taking orders let them know that no money is required at the time of the order so it's ok! Also, let them know that there are inexpensive items too!
I don't need anything - remind people that catalog items will be very valuable gifts for relatives, friends or coworkers and that there are a number of holidays that the items can come in handy for.
Monitor your progress
Take some time to make sure the fundraiser is going as expected. By knowing where you stand, you will know if you need to ask for additional help or sales or further incentives. Basically, by not knowing where you stand, if sales are not brisk, you will not get the news in time to do anyting about it. By keeping up with the sales progress, you will know what to impliment (if anything) in order to reach your sales goals.
Collect all money
Make sure to regularly collect orders and money. Late orders can become an unpleasant issue if in fact they are so late that they won't be processed before important deadlines. An example would be placing an order for wrapping paper late and then not getting it in before christmas. Another aspect is that people will place orders and the fundraising participant will not get the money from them in a reasonable amount of time. This causes less orders which means less profit. Just get those orders and money in on time as often as possible.
Follow Tax laws
The fundraising industry raises an estimated 2 Billion every year! The multistate Tax Commission and AFRDS teamed up to sponsor a website that provides important tax information by state in order to determine if they have any tax liabilities. Visit fundraisetaxlaw.org for more.
Here is a good list of links. Note that many of the links are related to philanthropic or foundation fundraising but this has a lot of good info. Click here to view the About.com link results.
Believe fundraisers are designed to be easy on you, your school or group and especially your customers! more information is available at www.believekids.com:
Choose the right fundraiser for the time of year your sale occurs. For instance, below are spring and fall funraiser catalogs. Take a closer look at them and you will notice a big difference in the feel of the catalog and the items included for sale:
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Wonders of Spring
Gift Catalog
Easy to sell products
with spring flair!
More info at believekids.com |
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Magical Holidays
Holiday Gift Catalog
175 Holiday Gift Ideas
Fundraiser of the year!
More info at believekids.com |
