Looking for an honest school fundraising idea? You’re not the sole one. the great news is that there are other school fundraising ideas besides coordinating a special event or conducting a catalog-based fundraiser.
You often find yourself overwhelming your supporters with multiple fundraising products that are not everyday items for many people.
In this series, we’ll take a glance at three school fundraising ideas. Part One looks at Discount Shopping Cards.
These are simple products that your group offers that provide these benefits:
1) they’re easy to sell
2) they provide good value
3) They produce excellent results
Using Discount Shopping Cards for your school fundraiser has benefits that are easy to elucidate to your supporters, they need widespread appeal, and everyone is often offered for immediate sale or sold via an easy brochure.
School Fundraising Ideas: Discount Shopping Card
What exactly may be a discount shopping card?
It is a wallet-sized card full of a variety of prearranged discounts at local and national merchants in your area. most typically contain a dozen special offers that save the bearer either a hard and fast amount or a percentage discount.
Each card usually retails for $10 and provides for nearly unlimited usage of the special offers. the sole exception is once you custom design a card to feature a special one-time-only discount from a sponsoring merchant.
This type of premium offering is usually worth half the acquisition price all by itself, like a $5 discount from a national car care company.
Other money-saving examples include free drinks with a quick food order, $1 or more off on a bomber, savings on video rentals, haircut discounts, free frozen desserts, and other special offers.
Because of their high perceived value (what family doesn’t want to save lots of money these days?), these are excellent fundraisers.
Discount cards can often produce impressive unit sales per participant. it isn’t unusual for every seller to form ten or more sales.
Another interesting benefit is that the unique customization of the discount card. Many suppliers can place your schools’ name and logo on the front side of every card. This firmly affixes your group’s value proposition in their minds for a subsequent time around.
Cards are usually good for a 1 year period and bear an expiration date on the front. This creates a built-in marketplace for repeat sales.
In the supplier cross-reference section of my book, Fundraising Success, I list 26 suppliers for these discount cards.
As with any sort of fundraising product it pays to try to quite a touch supplier research.
Costs for 11,000 unit batches begin at $5 with many of them and drop as low as $1.00 from the simplest suppliers.
Among school fundraising ideas, discount shopping cards are a perennial favorite. They also make an honest overlay or add-on item for a catalog fundraiser.
Using Discount Shopping Cards for your school offers an excellent profit for the varsity and an excellent value for your customers.
School Fundraiser Organization Tips
Hopefully, you’ve already read Part one among the following pointers for organizing your school fundraiser. a sensible plan can make your school fundraiser much easier. Here are other considerations:
Using a consultant
Consider using a fundraising consultant to help your organization with larger fundraisers, first-time events, or mission-critical efforts. Among the advantages of using professional help are the following: increased penetration, increased sales per client, higher average sales volume per participant, and smoother logistical flow.
Use a fundraising consultant to require the effort out of organizing your event and put the fun back in fundraising again.
Protect your reputation
Offer only top-quality products. Remember that nobody feels good about overpaying for something or getting shoddy merchandise reciprocally for a contribution. Take the high road and build loyalty within your customer base.
Profit percentage
Placeless emphasis on the share profit offered by the supplier and focus more on the entire net income generated. Higher unit prices will mean higher total sales revenue and sometimes, higher profits per customer.
That©s to not say that percentage isn©t important, but consider other factors also. check out whether sales incentives are included, hidden costs that will arise, sales brochures that cost extra, poor quality merchandise which will hurt future sales, and so on.
Incentives
Rewards will increase participation which can positively affect internet proceeds from your efforts. the standard of the incentives is a crucial motivator. If appropriate, consider rewards from among the products you are offering. Look to local merchants for supplemental prizes.
Insist on best value
People are going to be more inclined to shop for if you©re offering quality goods at the proper price. Higher-priced goods will actually generate more net from each sales transaction to your organization than budget stuff that gives a better percentage profit to your group.
Price points
Many times, different organizations conduct similar fundraisers at coincidental times. confirm that the costs asked are like other fundraisers in your community. Check prices ranges via the web and with other nearby organizations. check out other catalogs, retailer pricing for similar goods, and trust your gut instincts.
Beware of perfuming the pig
There’s is an old saying about making a silk purse out of a sow’s ear. It means someone is trying to assign a better value to an item than it’s worth. Another phrase often wont to reference the deceptive selling of overpriced goods is perfuming the pig.
If you overcharge your customers for common items, they will resent it, consciously or subconsciously. Compare results with records from past fundraisers to see what price points were offered before on similar items. be sure to offer a fair market price for the things your group is offering. you would like those customers back subsequent time, don’t you?
Setup calling trees
Once your fundraiser has begun, don©t forget to utilize your calling tree for immediate feedback. Ask if there are any problems, check on the initial reaction from participants and their families, keep the keenness level high, and don’t let your initial positive momentum slip away. Regular polling of team leaders and participants will keep you informed.
Doubling Up
Double-check all order forms and check payments to make certain they©re correctly filled out. Double-team all money-handling facets of the fundraising process. Have double dates (makeup days) planned beforehand just in case of inclement weather or other unforeseen delays on delivery day?
Use co-chairs for every mission-critical function. Cross-train on all tasks. Keep duplicate records of important details during a different location as a part of your backup plan. within the world of technology, this is often called disaster recovery or disaster prevention. Double count all deliveries coming in and going out.
Record Keeping
Accurate records are a lifesaver and a source of data for future fundraisers. Follow audit guidelines even as if you were a little business. As a non-profit organization, you’ve got to be ready to document the source of your funding also as how those funds were spent.
Setting goals and deadlines
Do this well beforehand, mapping out campaign timelines and methods before the varsity or financial year starts if possible. Your goals should be realistic and based upon solid data from previous results. Take a while to think about what extra offerings you’ll add that might double internet proceeds from each customer.
Always have a tough deadline for the sales period to finish, nothing quite 17 days. Seventeen days is 2 weeks plus an additional weekend, the prime selling time.
Don’t forget to smell the roses
A well-planned and well-executed fundraiser will leave you time to enjoys the glory of your success. Remember to possess fun and good luck!
