Parents, families and students just go online to order their favorite magazines and 40% goes to the school. These magazines are all offered at discounted prices – up to 95% off newsstand prices – so it’s a great deal for everyone.

Parents or students simply enter email addresses of friends and family into the online system.  A personalized email is then automatically sent out inviting them to order magazines through your group’s customized website. The magazine company processes and sends all the orders.  Your students or parents do not have to handle money or fulfill these orders!

Just be sure to promote your fundraiser with publicity efforts, making sure all the families in the school know about the discount magazine subscription fundraiser.  Remind them several times throughout the year, especially before gift giving holidays, about the program to increase your success.

Find Out More About a Magazine Fundraiser

Here are five really good reasons to consider hosting a golf event, or partnering with another organization to plan a golf outing.

1. The Earning Potential is High

The first reason your school should have a golf outing is that these events are money makers, if they are done right. Here’s a list of eleven ways you can earn money at a golf tournament:

1. Golfer/team fee
2. Corporate sponsorship fees
3. Underwriting opportunities (meal, beverage cart, course fee, etc.)
4. Merchandise sales (your organization’s t-shirts, hats, hoodies, etc.)
5. “On the Course” contests
6. Mulligan sales
7. Raffles
8. Auctions
9. General donations
10. Separate dinner tickets for those who don’t play golf but just come for the meal
11. Revenue from an add-on of a walk-a-thon (held at the same time as golf outing and both groups come together at a shared banquet)

2. People are Familiar with Golf Tournament, So It’s a Natural Sell

Another reason that your PTO/PTA or school group should have a golf tournament is because they have become so popular. As a result of this popularity, you will have an easier time convincing people to attend. Certain incentives like an awesome course, a good crowd to network with, the ability to win some cool prizes, and the chance to escape the office for a day are all reasons people will be very open to your invitation. Of course, people will also want to support your non-profit, as well.

When it comes to fundraising, it’s best to stick to known entities. For the creative people who run non-profits, I know it’s sometimes frustrating to do what everyone else is doing. Where’s the originality? Where’s the stamp of your own unique personality? “Everybody has a golf outing. How boring!”

While the spirit of this thought may have validity, the fact of the matter is that if you want to ensure you raise money, you should stick to the events that are proven to do that very thing. Golf outings are designed to do exactly this.

3. It Offers Opportunities for Parents to Network

This reason can be a real selling point when you are trying to recruit teams to golf. Not only will your participants want to support your school, but many of them will also look forward to networking with other golfers who will be in attendance.

I realized this point very early in my nonprofit career. I would be making calls, trying to get folks to commit to playing in our outing and more than a few people would specifically ask me if certain individuals had already signed up or if it was likely they would be signing up. I came to see myself as a kind of a golf tournament match maker.

At the time, I was relatively young and working at a summer camp, and I didn’t realize it, but many of the campers’ parents were very aware of who the other parents were in the camp community. Our golf outing was the perfect vehicle for them to get to know one another and potentially create some new business connections.

Once I opened my eyes to this reality, I saw it happening over and over and came to view our golf outing not only as an excellent fundraiser, but also as a service to the parents of our campers and the camp alumni.

Once we actively started to help people make these introductions, the value of our outing increased and in the long run, greatly benefited our nonprofit.

4. It’s a Great Chance for You to Have Personal Contact with Donors

From the moment you arrive at your golf tournament (as the leader), there are literally dozens of items that need your attention. It is very easy to get pulled into handling one crisis after another. Before you know it, half the day is gone and you’re already exhausted.

On the day of the golf outing, the best thing you can do for your school is to be an incredibly gracious host. Golfers will be looking for you when they arrive. They’d like to feel welcomed by the “boss”. So, this is exactly where you should be. Greeting people when they arrive, seeing foursomes off at the tee box, milling around the cart corral – these are the hot spots for mixing and mingling for you.

Once players are off and away, a good place to visit would be one of the contest holes, like “Closest to the Pin” or “Longest Drive”. There is always a lot of fun going on at these special holes. You can encourage the players to bet high and really have a good, relaxed time with the players. They will really appreciate the time you spend with them in this way.

(If it makes you feel better, you can take a walkie-talkie or cell phone with you so that you can be reached by your staff in case of a planning emergency.)

I’ve always found that golf tournaments provide an excellent opportunity to share a few quality minutes with my important (read: bigger) donors. I can run new ideas by them, ask them for advice on a particular project and just make myself exclusively available to them for a few minutes. This has always been well received.

It’s also a chance to build better relationships with those who could become bigger contributors. A few laughs and some sincere camaraderie can go a long way toward developing your donor base.

However, if you’re back at the club house, working on organizational details, you’ll miss these incredible opportunities and in the long run hurt your cause.

5. It’s a Great chance to Honor People at the Banquet Afterwards

Since golf tournaments usually attract a large number of people from your community, it is a fantastic time to use the banquet after a day of golfing as a time to hand out some of your organization’s most prestigious awards. In fact, if you establish the post golf-outing banquet as your organization’s premier ceremony, you could draw people just to this event itself.

The mood is perfect for it. Everyone is gathered, they’ve spent a day in the great outdoors, having fun, and enjoying each other’s company. At the banquet, all the participants come together to share a meal and swap stories from the day of golfing.

As the leader, you can first hand out all the golf-related awards from the contests like “Closest to the Pin”, “Longest Drive”, and of course, all the teams who won the different divisions. This will be a good segue into the more serious recognitions.

When I worked for the summer camp, this is when we passed out our “Thomas Bean” award, which went to the person who best exemplified the ideals of a servant leader for the year. We would always have some wives and even mothers who would come to the banquet just to see the “Bean” award passed out. It became a great tradition.

I would recommend that you have a volunteer whose sole job it is to take pictures all day long. Of course, many pictures should be taken during you award ceremony.

Conclusion

If a school golf tournament is planned and run correctly, it can be a day filled with joy, excitement, humor, good will, and generosity. You can improve existing relationships with donors and develop new friendships that could lead to future support. You can also help develop the bonds that exist between people inside your community, and at the end of the day, you can raise thousands of dollars for your non-profit.

If you’re not running an annual golf outing, I would strongly urge you to get in touch with some local golf pros and leaders of other non-profits to inquire about their experiences and suggestions.

For more information on planning a school golf tournament see: Three Important Steps to Planning a Charity Golf Outing

Many times each grade or class will have their own game booth. The game idea that your group picks should be age appropriate. There are a wide variety of game ideas that are good for each age level.

There are some games that students will expect to see each year, such as the bean bag toss. Be sure to include the most popular games that your school carnival had last year. Students also like to find something new and different. So finding a few unique, fun Halloween carnival games will bring some new excitement to your event.

Traditional Games

Just about every carnival should include the traditional, tried and true games that everyone enjoys. Some of these are kids games and others can be for older siblings and adults.

Dunking Booth – Who can resist dunking their teacher, classmate or school principal. You just need to prepare for the logistics of hosting the booth, making sure it works properly and is safe. If you don’t want to build one, check with local rental companies.

Duck pond – This is great for toddlers to grade 1. Fill a galvanized tub with water and colorful plastic ducks. Each duck has a number on the bottom that corresponds to a prize with that same number. The child picks up a duck from the pond and the person working the booth awards the prize. Easy and fun for little ones.

Darts – You cannot have a carnival without the traditional balloon dart game!

High Tech Games

Why not incorporate technology into your Halloween carnival?

Wii games – Have a Wii set up to play one of the sports like bowling. Have a time limit!

Wii tournament – Even better have a Wii tournament.  Each player signs up for a time slot ahead of time, paying an entry fee.  Players come back to play one another in the tournament rounds to determine who the best player is.

Guitar Hero or Garage Band – These are other very popular games that kids enjoy.

Jeopardy – This long standing TV show is available as an interactive game.  Classroom Jeopardy is customizable with your own questions or you can just use one of the Jeopardy software programs for your game system.

Big Event Games

Draw a crowd — plus media attention and publicity ahead of time — with an unusual game.

Super-sized board games – Take your regular, old fashioned board game and make it BIG.  How about putting together lots of Twister sheets for the “world’s largest Twister game?”  One group found success with a life size checkers game.

Sports tournaments – Hold a tournament at the same location of your school Halloween carnival.  Great for teens who are “too old” for kiddie games and costumes.  You could have several age brackets to make it fair.  Start filling up the entry level brackets and times before the day of the carnival so people know when to be there.

Inflatables – There’s so much more to inflatables than just a simple bounce house!  Now there are activities like obstacle courses, bungee competitions, and slides.  Check with your local party rental place to see what’s available near you.

More Game Ideas

Here are several great websites that have more ideas to help you create fun carnival games:

A to Z Carnival Game List – Long list of many popular carnival games & variations

Muscular Dystrophy Association Carnival Game Ideas – Carnivals are held for MDA fundraisers. They offer some ideas that may be good for your Halloween carnival too.

Carnival Savers – Has a lot of ideas for Halloween carnivals – fast & easy games, build it yourself game booths, popular foods, petting zoos and other fun activities

These school Halloween game ideas should get you started on the right path. With some creativity you can probably come up with many other activities that your kids will love!   Is there an unusual game that’s worked for your school in the past?  Let us know in the comment box below:

All you have to do is go to the website www.catalogs.com/teachers and answer the question: “Why does your class deserve to win a gift certificate from eNasco.com and how will you put the school supplies to good use?”

This contest runs through runs through Wednesday, September 30, 2009.  Tell all the teachers you know to sign up for this contest.  They could win some great materials to outfit the class for the school year!

Some common examples of items used in product sales are: cookie dough, chocolate, wrapping paper, magazines, and popcorn, although virtually anything, as long as it’s sellable, can be used to make a profit for the school.

Product sales are popular for four main reasons:

1. They are simple to plan and execute. The companies have really made these things fool-proof for both the school administration and the parents.
2. Over the years, people have grown to develop an expectation that they will have to sell something to raise money for their kid’s school, so they are already pre-disposed to participate.
3. School administrators generally don’t like to spend too much time thinking about creative fundraising ideas, so product sales have become “no-brainers”.
4. Product sales are very reliable financially. You can take the number of students participating in the sale and get a fairly accurate estimate of what you can expect to bring in.

Even though the actual planning and executing of a product sale are relatively easy to navigate, there are still a number of questions that you should ask either yourself, your product sale representative, or the people in your community before making a commitment to one particular product or company. Failure to ask these questions or questions like these put you at risk of having a substandard fundraising event.

1. Is a product sale the right course of action at this time?
The first series of questions I would recommend you ask yourself or those close to you in the school administration is “Have you already relied too heavily on product sales for your fundraisers?” Also, “Are we risking alienating parents, because they have too many product sales in their lives?” Remember that you are not the only organization that is attempting to raise money in your area. Many other groups are competing for donations with you, and you can only hit up Grandma and Uncle Louie so many times.

The real downside to product sales is the “eye roll” factor. When students bring home the paperwork, are parents rolling their eyes and saying “Oh no, not another one…”

I’m not saying that you shouldn’t pursue a product sale. As I mentioned above, they can be very helpful. But, you can’t just whip one out every time you need to raise some cash. You’re going to lose a lot of potential support if you do.

2. Do you have an opt-out option?
In recent years, many schools have begun to offer an opt-out option for their fundraisers. This is a great idea. Basically, you advertise to parents that if they do not want to participate in the product sale but still wish to help the school, they can simply write a check. You can suggest a dollar figure that is close to what you hope each student will actually sell.

The greatest advantage to an opt-out option is that you are offering an avenue of giving that didn’t exist before. In the past, a family who was really turned off by product sales would just pitch the information you sent home into the trash. Zero donation. However, by really playing up this opt-out option, you are offering to remove the perceived headache from people’s lives. Some parents may actually feel so thankful that they will write a check and skip all the things associated to selling products.

For a much more in-depth discussion of the increasingly popular opt-out option, please click here.

3. Is the company reputable?
If you decide that the time and the circumstances are right for you to go ahead with a product sale, make sure you put in some research into the company you are thinking about working with. A simple search on the web will likely yield many reviews of the proposed company. It is also wise to ask the customer service folks at that company to provide you with phone numbers of past clients. When talking to these past clients, ask them about their overall experience, how the customer support was, if they were prompt in returning your calls and thorough in answering your questions. If there were problems with the order, were they helpful in resolving them? Also ask how the parents responded to the item itself? Was it high quality, was it a big seller? Or was is a flop? Would they use the same company again next year?

4. Are you getting a high percentage of the profit?
It is also very important to be extremely clear about what percentage of the profit you will receive. There are so many groups out there offering to help non-profits raise money, that it’s tough to tell who is really on your side. One way you can tell is how generous they are with their percentage split.

Granted, they are providing the item(s) for sale and they do have expenses of their own to cover, but you are asking people in your community to spend their own time, money, and connections to help your school. That counts for a lot. Therefore, you shouldn’t be taken advantage of.

I believe that the absolute minimum you should accept is 40% of the overall profit. And that would only be if it were a truly great product that was sure to make a lot of money for you and the amount of effort you had to put in on your side was very low. Otherwise, it is just not worth your group’s time and effort.

There are plenty of great fundraisers out there that will split the profit with you at 50-50 or even 60-40 in favor of the school. Find those groups instead.

5. Will your group actually buy the product?
The next question you should ask yourself and the people in your community is “Will they actually buy the product?” It’s very easy to make decisions on your own, but that is not always the best thing to do. Something that might sound wonderful to you could be a real disaster to everyone else. Then, you’d be stuck with a product no one wanted to buy or sell. Your fundraiser would be ruined.

Talk to the company, as well, to find out how well a particular item you are interested in sells.

6. Is the item good quality?
Along this same line, you need to make sure that the item you will be selling is high quality. If you go with a product that is cheaply made or of low-quality, that will reflect badly upon you and the school. While you may reach your sales goal this time, people may not trust your judgment again and not participate.

Ask the company for a sample of the product first, before you commit.

7. Is the product in keeping with a focus on good health or environmental awareness?
While not everything we do in life has to be good for us or good for the environment, it is important to show that you are concerned about our kids’ well-being and the well-being of our planet. So, if you do elect to have a product sale fundraiser that is based around sweets, like chocolate or cookie dough, you should balance that out later with an active event like a walk-a-thon or a recycling drive.

If you don’t strike this kind of balance, parents will start to wonder about who’s making the decisions.

8. Is anyone else in your town selling that particular product?
As I mentioned earlier, your school is not the only organization in town raising money through product sales. Just this past fall, I was asked to do the exact same fundraiser for my daughters’ elementary school and her cheerleading team, back to back. I couldn’t believe it. I loved my daughters’ cheerleading class, but there was no way I was going to go BACK to my friends and family with the SAME fundraising scheme.

Groups in a small town need to work together so this kind of fiasco doesn’t happen.

Conclusion
Product sales can be excellent way to make money for your school. In the perfect situation, the school gets a terrific product that will sell wildly and provide them with a big percentage of the profit. However, that kind of scenario can only happen when you, as the fundraising leader, do your homework. It is very easy to skip the research and just trust that a company will have your best interests at heart. Sadly, that isn’t always the case, and many schools have experienced the downside to product sales. Don’t let that be you.

Photo By: Caroline Middlebrook

But, a football program is expensive to operate, and especially at the high school level, a significant fundraising effort is needed to provide essentials like uniforms, travel expenses, practice equipment, and assessment tools like video cameras and computers.

To address these specific needs, most schools have developed an active “Boosters” club, which is made up of people who have a strong love of football and school and who have committed themselves to making sure their team has what it needs to keep winning.

Last year WCVD Newschannel 5 in Boston published a report entitled “Student Athletes Forced To Pay To Play”, in which they highlighted a difficult situation at Hamilton Wenham Regional High School. Due to a serious budget shortfall in this district, they have been forced to adopt a “pay for play” policy, in which individual players and their families have to come up with the money to pay for all the season’s expenses.

According to the report, “It costs $282 per student for cross-country, $398 for golf, $409 for girl’s soccer, $508 for field hockey and $969 for football.

“Football started at $1,400 per student, but was reduced through private fundraising and gate receipts to about $969 per student,” Athletic Director Don Doucette said.

Obviously, this is a situation that most schools would like to avoid. But, that means a serious effort at raising large amounts of money must be made. And, it must be more than a few individual and separate fundraisers throughout the season. Football fundraising should be a sustained, coordinated, and multi-pronged attack that is carried out year round. The alternative to this aggressive approach is unfortunately seen in the fee structure above.

So, here are a few ideas on how to launch your football booster club.
Contests
Perhaps the most exciting and enjoyable way to raise additional money at football games is to hold contests for the fans in the crowd. Contests can be done at half time or before the game begins in an effort to increase attendance and raise funds at the same time. For instance, a numbered ticket can be issued to fans as they enter the gate if this is an effort just to increase attendance, or chances sold if this is a fundraiser. If used as a fundraiser, then sell tickets for several weeks before the event.

A grand prize and secondary prizes are donated by local businesses. Advertisements including newspaper ads promote the event and the sponsors. Tickets are drawn at random and 1-6 contestants will get the chance to win the prizes. Contests are a fun and memorable high school football fundraiser.

With an excited announcer, the crowd could really get into such a contest. I would even suggest trying to get the cheerleaders to generate some enthusiasm. Here are a few examples of contest that have worked well for many schools.

Field Goals and Football Kicks
Contestants have a chance to kick a field goal for the grand prize (donated by a local business). It can be a natural field goal, through the uprights or through a two-foot target hole in a sign.

Football Tosses
Contestants try to throw a football through a target hole in a sign from various yardages for a prizes. When it comes to high school football fundraising, with some creativity you can easily come up with a great event. Anything that relates to the sport, will likely be a fun and profitable event.

Scratchcards
Scratchcards are an unusual school fundraiser that can earn your school group up to 90% profit. A scratchcard is a small tri-fold booklet that contains a card of 60 colored “scratch-off” circles. Supporters are invited to “scratch” off one or more of the circles on the card to reveal how much they will donate, ranging from FREE to $2.50.

Scratchcards make it easy to ask people to donate to your school related group. First, the highest donation amount is only $2.50, which is a very small amount to request. It is easy to ask someone to donate something that amounts to pocket change.

No matter what the amount revealed, every person who donates gets a coupon with $75 in savings at national retailers, fast food and other merchants. So everyone gets a valuable thank you gift in return for their donation.

One of the advantages of scratchcards is that they can be completed in a very short time frame. Most participants can return a completed card to their organization in about a week.

Another advantage of scratchcards is that up to 90% of the money brought in is pure profit. This has several advantages. First, those who donate to your cause can feel confident knowing that almost all of the money they give goes directly to help your cause. It shows that you appreciate their support and respect their decision to donate.

Since there is very little overhead, a portion of the funds available could be used to provide prizes. Another option would be to request prize donations from area businesses, putting more money raised directly to the cause. The prizes could be something as simple as a coupon for a free round of miniature golf or a pizza party.

Consider offering a lot of small prizes to award those who get the cards done the quickest. It’s always better to reward many of your group members, rather than just a select few. That way they will be more open to take part in your next fundraiser.

Meat sales
From the website of the Vancouver Island High School Football team in British Columbia, Canada, I found a rather interesting fundraising idea- having a series of frozen meat sales! Here is what these folks have to say about this intriguing idea:

This (a meat sale) is a year-long activity. All you have to do is find a local restaurant or other supplier from whom you can buy the meat. They may want to make a small profit for their trouble or they may forgo that as a way of helping to sponsor the team. Nevertheless, you need to be sure they will be reliable and that you can get good pricing.

Be sure not to mark it up too much once you get it so as not to price yourself out of the market. Remember, aside from helping out your team people generally are attracted to meat sales because they are convenient and economical. Somewhere between 5% and 15% is probably workable. Remember too if you do this year-round it is continual revenue and not a “get rich quick” vehicle. It is not important to beat Costco or the supermarket pricing in every event. As long as you are priced comparably or lower than their everyday pricing you will do fine. When someone points out that a local store was selling its chicken for “a lot less” than yours it was probably a sale and you can point out that yours is “everyday” pricing.

The Whalers Booster Club has secured a “top quality” meat deal so it has the added benefit of pointing out the grade of meat one is getting. Make up a price list of what you’re offering and be sure to include how you can be contacted and any other ordering particulars. This is a really easy fundraiser to do and makes for continuing revenue once you get ‘em hooked.

Concessions
While I’m sure that every single football team in the country has a concession stand at their games, the real question is whether the stand is making as much money as it can or should. It is very easy to throw some dogs and burgers on the grill and maybe heat up some nachos and cheese, and think that’s good enough.

I contend that people go to high school football games in a good mood and are generally open to spending a little money. It is the job of the booster club or whatever group is organizing the event to make sure that they get as much money as possible from the fans in attendance.

Therefore, I would definitely suggest trying to find food items that will generate some buzz in the stands. When a person looks at other folks enjoying a deep friend pickle, an Oreo cookie freid in packake batter, frozen chocolate dipped cheesecake on a stick, or a walking taco, he is going to feel compelled to make a bee line for the concession stand himself. While nutritionists will cringe at these suggestions, if you want your concession stand to overflow with happy customers and money, I would strongly urge you to spice up your menu.

In fact, if you really come up with an interesting idea or even a special themed food night, you might want to start spreading the word ahead of time. A special indulgent treat is surely enough to lure people who may be wavering about whether to attend the game or not. A concession stand with an excellent reputation would be a terrific asset for a football program trying to raise much-needed revenue.

Online Magazine Fundraiser
An online magazine fundraiser uses a no-hassle email campaign to request that your supporters purchase magazines in support of your team.

The magazine sales fundraiser company processes all the orders so there’s no money to collect and nothing to deliver. Since there’s no upfront money required, there’s no risk. This fundraiser is one of the easiest wasy to raise funds available.

Spirit raisers
Your team members, families and/or booster club can sell t-shirts, spirit sticks, plush mascots and many other great spirit raising items. These are fun spirit accessories that your fans will love to have. Find out more about School Spirit Fundraisers

Conclusion
Football is one of those community building experiences. There are so many opportunities within the course of a game to raise the money that is needed to pay for the very high expenses.  Use a little marketing and creativity and your team will continue to find success, both on the field and off.

One of the first things your prom committee will do is to create a prom budget.  This will help you know how much everything will cost and how much money will need to come in to pay for the event.

Many schools also charge a entry ticket for students who go to prom, but that is usually not enough to cover the costs of putting on the event.  So of course that leaves us with fundraisers for prom. Most of the time the students have fundraisers for prom starting a year or more in advance.

There are a lot of ways that high schools raise the money needed.  Usually the prom committee is in charge of planning the event and the fundraisers.  Sometimes parents help with raising money too.

List of Prom Fundraising Ideas

1. Have a prom dress sale to get rid of your old dresses and make some big bucks at the same time!  You can accept any kind of formal wear, weddings too, to attract even more buyers.

2. Speaking of fashion, how about a fashion show fundraiser?

3. Parents could have a night of fun all to themselves with a wine tasting fundraiser.

4. For a more elaborate adult-only fundraiser, a second chance prom could be a lot of fun.

5. Have a talent show at the school carnival (even if your high school doesn’t have a carnival, see if you can do this at a local elementary school!)

6. You can have a sale to raise funds for prom such as a candle fundraiser or cookie dough sale.

7. One school held a volleyball tournamet to raise fund for prom.

8. Have a dress up day at school or a sporting event in dress up – one high school rugby team played a game in prom dresses to raise funds!

9. Another great competition would be a video game tournament like Wii sports
or DDR.

10. Work with a local restaurant which will donate part of the proceeds to your group. Chik-fil-A, Pizza Hut, Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream, Marble Slab, Ci Ci’s Pizza and Sonic are just a few of the ones that offer this.

We were able to catch up with a participant in the program to get some feedback. Sue, a member of the West Corner Campus Parent Teacher Association (PTA) in Endicott, New York, has raised over $100 since she signed up with Funding Factory, recently. She provided some great feedback on how to use this fundraiser in your organization.

Signup

To sign up for the service, just go to the Funding Factory website. There, you will fill out a simple form to get started. They then send you a starter kit for collection of ink cartridges and cell phone batteries. “The signup process was very easy, and if you ever have questions, you just email your representative,” Sue says. “They get back to you ASAP!”

Getting Participation

Sue says she has a hard time getting people to participate initially, but once they do cartridges come in on a regular basis. Right now, they have about a 10 percent participation rate from the PTA members.

To increase participation, Sue has advertised in the PTA newsletter, and reminders go home with students on a regular basis. She also sends reminders to the teachers and staff at the school to bring their cartridges.

The struggle for participation among so many other activities and fundraisers can be hard, but Sue says you must be persistent. She recommends consistent advertising at meetings, frequent reminder notices and hanging posters.

“Also, ask parents to ask their places of employment for cell phones, laser cartridges and ink cartridges,” Sue says. “I am getting the word out for that, too, and am having success!”
Other Advice

Have a support group. “I have a great group of PTA members who help me when I need it,” she says. “Keep track of donations on a spreadsheet [for simplicity].”

“I will continue to do Funding Factory,” Sue says. “What money I raise for our PTA may not be a lot, but every little bit helps. These cartridges are trash, and to see it turn into cash amazes me! It’s a lot of work, sometimes, but the kids are worth it.”

Keep these ideas in mind to get parents involved and energized while working on your school project.

1. Clear Goals - When working on a school fundraiser, make sure that parents understand why you are doing this project. Do they know that the band needs new uniforms and funds to attend a special competition? Do they know your school needs new computers? Whatever the need is, make is specific and clear so that parents see a deadline and parents see a specific goal. Giving parents (or anyone), a specific goal makes it feel more achievable. Making your message clear helps them to fully understand the need for the fundraiser.

2. Make It Easy – Some parents may feel confident stepping into a fundraising assignment, but others may not have any experience. If you break down tasks into measurable goals, they may realize that this is something that they can achieve. Sometimes they may also realize that they have done something similar to this at work or for another organization – and this will make them feel more confident going into the task. Breaking down the task also gives them the opportunity to ask questions about what they feel most challenged about.

3. Good Leaders - Every project should have a leader that is concerned with the project, but they should also be concerned with developing future fundraisers for the school. How can they help new parents get involved and do their best for the school? By listening, by being available and by responding to questions. Sometimes simply knowing that someone is there to answer your questions and to listen to you gives you the confidence to go forward with your project.  So choose leaders carefully.

4. Do Less Fundraising - According to the Association of Fund-Raising Distributors & Suppliers doing less fundraising is truly “less is more” in many ways for your fundraising efforts. If you make many fundraising “pleas” during the year, parents will grow weary of the drives and working on them. Those that donate will also grow tired of giving, or will be unable to give as often as you’d like. Having one or two fundraising efforts a year could be far more successful than many, smaller efforts.

5. Keep the Energy Up – Make your project seem exciting and stay positive about it. No one wants to work on something that is a real drag. Make meetings seem inviting by offering refreshments (coffee and cookies are quite inexpensive). Even if there are parts of your project that are challenging, keep a positive attitude about your fundraising project for your school and remind people that making an effort will have an impact.

6. Listen – Sometimes new volunteers come onto a project and they have ideas that could make a difference. They may be ideas that are a little off-the-beaten path, or they are not from the “tried and true” members of the Committee. Change is often necessary to be successful, and a good school fundraising project is open to change. Simply by listening to your volunteers you can be aware if changes need to be made. This will help you raise more funds and will most importantly, help you have strong relationships with your volunteers. This will keep them quite motivated.

7. Say “Thank You” – Thank volunteers early and often. What would you feel like if you gave your time to a project and people did not even say thank you when you completed it? Probably you would think twice about volunteering for them. Saying “Thank You” is a critical step in motivating volunteers each step of the way. At the end of a project it would be nice to send thank you notes, too. Parents who feel appreciated are more likely to volunteer for the next project.

Keeping volunteers motivated for your school fundraising project can take a little time and a little effort. But volunteers are valuable and our schools need terrific volunteers involved and dedicated to their success!