10 STEPS TO A SUCCESSFUL FUNDRAISER

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2 10 STEPS TO A SUCCESSFUL FUNDRAISER Produced By: S cool Services Fundraising

3 Table of Contents The Best Time to Run a Fundraiser... 4 What to Expect Once You Decide When to Start Your Fundraiser The Day of Delivery Prizes, Premiums, and Profit Getting parents on board Prepare staff and teachers Getting the Kids Excited Picking the Right Products Partner With a Fundraising Service Company Keep up the Momentum... 21

4 The Best Time to Run a Fundraiser We start by talking about the timing of your fundraiser because it can be the single most important factor in the success of your next fundraiser. The key to successful timing is to plan ahead. For example, if you are fundraising for a band, choir, or sports team that has annual or semiannual meets and competitions it would be a good idea to start fundraising three to six months in advance. If you wait until the last minute things never go as smoothly as you would like when everyone fills rushed and pressured. It is also important to remember that there are certain times of the year when fundraising works best. We talk about these times in greater detail below, but the point is that you need to plan ahead so that you can be ready to maximize your fundraising efforts. Unfortunately, most schools and organizations don t think about fundraising until the last minute. It will be important to get students and parents on board with the idea of fundraising for events six months in the future. An easy way to help insure that everyone is on the same page is to send out a letter to students and parents explaining the importance of the fundraiser and the significance of getting a head start with a well prepared and welltimed fundraiser. Many fundraising companies should be able to help by providing examples of such letters which you can cut, paste, edit and amend to customize as you wish.

5 So what is the right time? Kick-off your fall fundraiser as soon as possible in August or September, and your Spring Fundraisers should start in February or March (Don t try to run a fundraiser in January right after the holidays). The advantage to this is that no other group (or at least fewer groups) will be fundraising at this time, likely increasing your total sales. Another great idea is to plan your fundraiser around special events like concerts or time sensitive appointments for your group like dates for uniform fittings for cheerleaders, or special band or choir performances. This will offer you the opportunity to thank the students and parents for participating in the fundraiser which helped to make the moment happen. Holidays like Thanksgiving, Christmas and the New Year, offer particular advantage to your fundraising. Sales of Cookie Dough and baked goods like braided breads, pies and cinnamon rolls are very popular around this time of year. Also snacks like fudge, mixed nuts and gourmet popcorn are purchased for parties and gatherings. Super Bowl Parties provide another great opportunity for fundraising. Offering snacks and other goodies for the big game can be a profitable strategy. You would want to consider timing your fundraiser to begin in October or early November to connect with these events. Typically you would not want to have your students try fundraising over holiday breaks from school. Holiday breaks are a Dead Zone for fundraising, with good reason. Human nature and family activities will likely work against your efforts. When students are on break they want to do other things and families make a lot of plans which may not allow for the time, energy and focus need to run a successful fundraiser.

6 Once students return to school after winter break you will want to already be prepared to launch your spring fundraisers in order to take advantage of Valentine s Day, Saint Patrick s Day, and Easter. It is a lot easier create a successful and fun fundraiser experience when take the time to plan out your fundraisers in advance. The trick is to leave the stress and worry behind by preparing, planning, and scheduling your fundraisers in advance and in correlation with major holidays and other events.

7 What to Expect Once You Start Your Fundraiser Will I have to sign a contract? Subject to the protocols of your school administration, you will make the decision whether or not it is to your advantage to sign a contract with your fundraising company. The advantage to a contract is that you have settled the issue of which company you will be using for your fundraiser during the term of the contract. Prices, product, prizes, and profit ratios are locked in. The advantage to working without a contract is that in the event you are dissatisfied with the outcome of the fundraiser and would prefer to change your approach, you could make changes without violating the terms of your contract. With no contract you are allowed to change or improve the terms or conditions of how your fundraiser works. The decision comes down balancing the fixed certainty of a contract versus the flexibility of picking and choosing a fundraiser based on yearly performance results. Must my students sell a certain minimum number of items? Under a contract a minimum sales quota may be required. In that event your students would be required to attain a certain level of sales before the

8 fundraising company would be obligated to ship products to your school or organization. You may find that even though your students have engaged in selling to family and friends of theirs, you will not be allowed to place your order. Will I have to pay up front for the items my students order? You should not be required to pay up front the products your students will sell during your fundraiser. If your students will be selling from one or more brochures, they are essentially taking orders for the products and collecting the money for those items sold. You would collect and tally the orders and the funds received and send the order forms to the fundraising company who then process your order for shipment. Will my students have to sell door to door? Students should be instructed that they do not sell door to door. They may safely sell to their parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, older brothers and sisters and church and charitable organizations to which they or their family belong. Also, if their parents are allowed to do so, students may give their parents a brochure to take to work. Adults will purchase items from other adults all day long in the comfort and convenience of the work place. Students must never go anywhere or sell to anyone if there is the slightest concern for their safety or potential for danger. It is a good idea to encourage parents to have a conversation with their students about who, where, and when their students can go fundraising. Will I have to sort through boxes of bulk items and separate them to give my students their orders? This answer will vary from one company to another; at the outset this is an important question you must ask the fund raising company you wish to work with.

9 Bulk shipment and delivery may be the method a company uses to lower its cost of doing business. That in and of itself is fine if they disclose that fact to you and are willing to pass some of that savings on to you in the form of retained profit. It may be worth it to you to spend the time and effort of sorting the items for distribution to your students. You must take into account that you will need a lot of willing helpers to open, sort and distribute bulk items to your students for them to deliver to the purchasers. Alternatively, some fundraising companies will sort, separate and label all sold items in a bag or box with each student s name and copy of their order form. This reduces the amount of time and effort required by you to distribute your students order for delivery. How will my order be delivered? Your fundraising company may use hired carriers for delivery of your order. In this case a commercial over the road cartage company will pick up your order at a location that is most likely a long distance from you. The driver will be making scheduled stops along his delivery route and your delivery will be one of those scheduled stops. In the event the drivers schedule is altered along his route your delivery time may be affected. This may require you to make arrangements with the driver to take delivery at a time or a date when you are not normally scheduled to be at your school or organization, (i.e., after hours or on a day when your facility is normally closed). You may want to ask your fundraising company if they have the capacity to deliver your items on a date and at a time that is convenient for you or for the people helping you with the fundraiser. This would most likely require that the fundraising company maintains items in inventory and that the company has its own trucks and drivers to schedule deliveries for you on your schedule.

10 How will returns or re-orders be processed? This is largely a function of the distance between you and the fundraising company you chose. If your fundraising company is located a long distance from you, returns and reorders will take longer and require contracting with independent package delivery companies like FedEx and UPS. The closer you are to the company you do business with the easier it will be to return, exchange or re-order items.

11 The Day of Delivery Your fundraising partner should arrange with you, at the start of the fundraising process, a set date, time, and place for delivery of the items your students have sold. Your items will be carried or wheeled into your school by the driver. It is wise to schedule the delivery so that the coming and going of the truck and driver does not present any risk to your students. For example, if the driver will have to walk down the hallways to get to the drop off zone, be sure to schedule delivery when you know that the students will be in class and the hallways will be clear and easy to maneuver around. It is a really good idea to recruit parents or teachers (or both) to assist you on delivery day to help sort through the boxes and hand out the products to the students. Even the best laid plans need people to work them out. You will never regret having a few extra hands on deck. If your fundraiser includes frozen items like cookie dough or baked goods, those items will be delivered in a refrigerated truck or trailer. Frozen items must be distributed to students on the day of delivery. It is a good idea to have easy access to the contact information of the students, teachers, parents or PTO/PTA representatives in case some items are left unclaimed. It is also important to note that in many cases you can negotiate with the fundraising company to separate and deliver your Student s order by: Grade Classroom Teacher

12 Recycling There will inevitably be a lot of empty cardboard boxes on the day of delivery. You may want to ask if your fundraising partner will make certain that all boxes are properly broken down, flattened and stacked for recycling purposes at your school or organization; or if you prefer taken away by them. Recycling of unused or extra brochures and plastic bags remaining at your school after the fundraiser should also be addressed with your fundraising partner. A responsible fundraising partner should understand and maintain policies and Best Management Practices to promote and protect our environment, especially in light of our responsibility to model these practices to school children.

13 Prizes Premiums & Profit Your fundraising partner should be willing to work with you to design your fundraiser to fit your plans and purposes; this includes offering your students prizes and premiums based on their sales. It is important to find the right prizes to motivate your students based on their age, your fundraising history, and the type of class or group (i.e. cheer, sports, music, or academic). You should insure that the fundraising company you partner with offers a broad range of prizes and premiums. We have found that some of the best incentives for Elementary students are scooters, and remote control toys. Middle School students like the remote control prizes but often prefer Gift Cards for I-tunes, Wal-Mart, Target or Best Buy another great idea is to offer a limousine ride to a pizzeria for lunch to the top sellers. High School students really just want gift cards or cash. Of course these are just a few suggestions. Ultimately you will need to find and combine the best prize offerings that work for you and your students. One mistake that we often see is that prizes are only offered for reaching almost impossible sales goals. This can demotivate students because they will quickly realize that the prizes are unattainable and will simply give up. Some of the most successful fundraisers are produced by motivating everyone to sale a

14 reasonable about as opposed to simply focusing on trying to get one or two students to reach really high goals. We recommend that on top of one or two small prizes you also offer smaller give-away prizes, like candy or inexpensive toys that can be handed out immediately as students reach relatively low sales goal, such as 5 item sold. This type of positive recognition can be a great incentive for students to boost sales. The best part about is that some fundraiser companies offer these small give-away items at no cost to you and therefore would not have a direct effect on your bottom line profit.

15 Getting parents on board Elementary Schools have the distinct benefit of PTO or PTA organizations on their campus. These organizations can be a tremendous asset during a fundraiser. This is particularly true if your president has more than one year of experience fundraising. If you have such talented people available to you, use them! If you are not so endowed with help or parental involvement you, would be wise to recruit some mom and dad teams to pitch in with you. A flyer sent home with students a month or two in advance of the fundraiser requesting ideas and volunteers, plus laying out the importance and purpose of the fundraiser is a good way to begin soliciting much needed help. Be sure to acknowledge your volunteers, even consider a small gift of appreciation like Starbucks or restaurant gift cards.

16 Prepare staff & teachers For a school wide fundraising campaign teachers and staff may feel a bit imposed upon. Meetings, flyers, collections, prizes, and delivery are all extra work for you as well as the teachers and staff who get involved to help with the fundraiser. It is important to start out realizing that not everyone will have the same enthusiasm for the fundraiser. The best way to get everyone excited and willing to help is to be open and direct with your communication about the fundraiser. Let everyone know what the money will be used for and what the consequences of not meeting your fundraising goals would be. Encourage everyone to keep their eyes on the end goal and the benefit to the children. There is no substitute for the involvement, support and encouragement of your principal to help you with getting other teachers and staff involved. Schools with strong support from the principal will outperform two to three times the results of a fundraiser under the leadership of a disinterested principal and main office.

17 Getting the Kids Excited A couple chapters ago we talked about motivating the students with prizes but this is not the only way to get your students excited about the fundraiser. The biggest motivator for the students is going to be the end result. The money is obviously needed for an exciting event, competition, field trip, or school expansion. Keep this end goal at the forefront of your students mind. Share with them how the money that they raise will be used and then keep reminding them to keep them engaged throughout the fundraising process. Show the progress that they are making, and help them see that their efforts are paying off. You may want to plan a Kick-off event for your fundraiser. Many fundraising companies are experienced and prepared to come to your school or organization to conduct such an event. These events are a great way to get everyone excited not only about the end goal but also about the products that they will be selling. These events will include an explanation of the type and value of the products being sold, as well some helpful tips on sales methodology, safety, and of course, the opportunity to win prizes. Kick-off events which incorporate your principal and parents are a great way to create enthusiasm for your fundraiser.

18 Kick Off events are a great way to jumpstart your fundraiser. After all, most sales during your fundraiser will occur right at the beginning of the fundraiser, the law of primacy, that which is fresh and exciting will get done. A fun and exciting Kick Off, content reminders, and one last push towards the end will probably double the amount your fundraiser collects.

19 Picking the Right Products The type of products you sell during your fundraiser, combined with the age and experience of your students and the time of year you chose to run your campaign, all have quite an effect on the amount of sales you generate. Here are just a few tips to selecting the best products for your fundraiser: Holidays are a great time for sales of cookie dough and baked goods like pies, braided breads and cinnamon rolls. High quality snacks such as fudge, chocolate, fancy nuts, gummy bears and sour worms sell well year round. Super Bowl parties have evolved into major events. Gourmet popcorn, beef jerky and sausage sticks sell well at this time. World s Finest Chocolate Bars have been a consistent reliable and trusted feature of fundraisers for 60 years and offer a very high return. Any age and group can always sell World s Finest Chocolate Bars.

20 Partner With a Fundraising Service Company There are many ways to raise funds; car washes, walk-a-thons, bake sales, raffles, pet washes, face painting, and carnivals just to name a few. The options for fundraising are only limited by your imagination and ability to pull a plan together. Depending on the size of your group or organization, available talent and financial needs, you may want to conduct more than one fundraiser a year. Partnering with a fundraising service company is often the simplest way to raise money. Fundraising service companies know what to sell, when to offer it, how to conduct and manage all aspects of the campaign and are financially accountable to you as their client. The experience, business systems, and coaching they offer can take a lot of busy work and time constraints off your plate.

21 Keep up the Momentum One of the best ways to help insure current and future fundraising success is to keep your school or organization visible in the community. People want to support the organizations that they know and love. You can help keep your organization visible by having clean up days in local parks, scenic areas, or along water ways, by creating and promoting a food drive around the holidays, or by finding other ways to serve and volunteer in your community. You should also find as many opportunities as possible to showcase your schools or organizations skills and abilities. For example, your band or choral group can offer to present a Christmas program at a local business, shopping mall, or retirement home. The exposure you receive from these types of activities will yield long term benefits the next time you need to plan your fundraising campaign.

22 MAXIMUM PROFITS minimum hassle!