School fundraising: No matter what program you decide on, it all comes down to student participation — and student participation is largely driven by what? The involvement and follow-through of parents. Here are five bright ideas to get your students’ parents excited about your school’s upcoming fundraiser.
Keep it manageable: There’s no bones about it: Fundraising takes effort. To ensure parents have ample time and energy for it, consider rolling out one or two larger-scale fundraisers per year that will yield higher profits instead of multiple, smaller campaigns. This will help to counter ‘fundraising burnout.’
Keep it inclusive: On the same note of ‘fundraising burnout,’ why not relieve your parents and instead look to grandparents? Many may already be retired, so it’s likely that they’ll have much more free time and be far more receptive to helping out.
Keep it well connected: Parents go off to some pretty awesome jobs once they drop their kids off at the doors of your school. Talk to them about what they do — not just professionally but in their spare time, too — and keep that on file. You’ll be amazed at how deep your pool of internal talent runs!
Keep it useful: When planning your fundraiser, try to think of offering items people can use or are in the habit of buying already. This makes a parent’s job of selling simple. Smencils gourmet-scented pencils, t-shirts and magazine fundraisers could all be good options here.
Keep it high priority: Nobody out there utterly adores the fundraising process — but absolutely everyone feels thankful and gratified by the extra funds once they’re raised! Be sure to provide clear, accessible channels of support to your parents; regularly update them on your fundraiser’s progress, and communicate your thanks generously along the way. As with your students, a little motivation goes a long, long way.
Got another bright idea to add to the list? Share it in the comments below.
