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I talk with people everyday who have had their school fundraising program thrust upon
them. Many times they have taken on the job because there was no one else who would
do it. I've found that their main concern is that they do a better job on the school
fundraising campaign than the they did the year before. Imagine the pressure of
following a great fundraising chairperson and then having the school make less than they
did last year. Now that is pressure!

To make your life a bit easier here is a simple guide to ensuring that your school
fundraising events achieve their goals and operate smoothly. Namely, that they are both
profitable and trouble free.

1. Setting a Goal

The very first thing that you must do is determine how much money you need to raise.
Take into account all expenses that you expect to incur. However, determining how much
you need to raise can be quite a job. It is also important to have specific goals to go for.

Running a school fundraising campaign with the intended goal to "raise as much as we
can" is very hard to communicate to parents of your students and will likely not get a lot
of support. If you find that you really don't have anything pressing that you need to raise
money for, it is better to give the parents a break and simply choose to not do a
fundraiser.

2. Determine Your Timeline.

When conducting a fundraiser you must set a timeline. It is wise to consult a professional
fundraiser if you are planning to do any type of product sale. They can help you
determine a timeline that will allow you plenty of time to conduct your fundraising
activities. They can even help you plan events around your calendar so that the Fall
Carnival won't interfere with your product sale, and your product sale won't interrupt
your Book Day's and so forth.

3. What is Your Target Audience?

Determine who you will be targeting in your fundraising. For instance, do you want to
make your school fundraiser a family event like an auction, carnival, spaghetti dinner or
chili cook-off. Or, do you need to try to raise more money by doing a product sale like
cookie dough or Christmas wrap. Each one of these type fundraisers have it's own
application in different schools. There are some schools that do a spaghetti dinner and
make ten's of thousands on them, while others will barely break even.

4. Incentives.

I have found that the prizes that are given in a particular school fundraising program has
more to do with it's success than any other single factor. A school could almost sell five
dollar bills for ten dollars and do very well if you motivate the students and parents
correctly.

One misconception about prize incentives is that many believe that the bigger the prize
the better the sale. If one of the prizes for the top seller is an item that is the latest craze
that year, then you will have a better sale. Do not fall into that trap.

The power of school fundraising is in the size of the group, not in who sells $1,000 worth
of "stuff." Think about it, would you rather have 2 students sell over $1,000 and 25%
participation in your sale? Or would you make much more profit if you had 40%
participation and no one sells more than $80.00?

When you think about it, the prize that gets the most kids to sell $80 is much more
important than the big prize that gets 2 kids to sell $1,000! And what is really sad about
that is most professional fundraiser don't get that let alone the average PTA Fundraising
Chairperson!

5. Promotion

How will you promote your fundraiser? The easiest way to promote a fundraiser is
through ample communication. When it is time for the school fundraiser, be sure to send
a letter or an e-mail to parents long before the sale starts. Send another informational
letter home with your sales brochure. Parents can be busy people and sometimes things
slip their mind.

Though this guide is geared toward school or groups in the education system these are
the basic steps involved in any form of fundraising. Use these steps to plan your events. If
you spend some time in planning and making sure that you are sticking to the plan, you'll
find that your school fundraiser will go as planned.

About the Author

With all the things to consider in planning your next school fundraising event, don't feel
like you have to come up with all the answers yourself. Go to http://aimfundraising.com
to find more great ideas that will help make your next school fundraising campaign the
best that it can possibly be.

Copyright (c) 2008 AIM Fundraising
Key Elements for Planning Successful School Fundraising Events
                                                                            by Juan Franco
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