Fundraising Tips to Raise Cash for Schools

There are the tried and true ways of fundraising at school. We hold bake sales, candy sales, wrapping paper sales, and even host the yearly school bazaar. These methods are certainly effective in their own way, but there is so much more that parents can do to raise money for schools throughout the year.

Are you trying to come up with better ways to raise funds for schools during the school year? We have some powerful tips and tricks that we would like to share with you today. You’ll never have to hold a bake sale or attempt to sell magazine subscriptions again by the time we’re through!

3 Tips to Make School Fundraising Fun and Exciting Again

• Go beyond selling – Adults are immediately drawn to traditional fundraising methods and they get hung up on things that they know and understand. Now that you are an adult, you might remember selling cookies as a kid to raise money for your local Girl Scout troop. Or maybe you remember hosting a bake sale so that your girls JV basketball team could raise money for new uniforms. It’s time to start thinking of other things besides selling baked goods and other items that people won’t necessarily want or need. Stop placing limits on yourself and expand your horizons. Try to come up with off-the-wall ideas that you’ve never thought of before.
• Ask for sponsors and do so intelligently – In an effort to raise money for schools, you may contact sponsors to find out if they are willing to donate items that you can turn around and sell. The sponsor is going to want to know what he or she will get out of this transaction. If you do not have an immediate positive answer, the answer that you receive from the sponsor is often going to be no. Come up with creative approaches to work with sponsors so that everyone wins. One example is to ask local shop owners to provide your school with a portion of their sales proceeds. Host the event during specific hours on a particular day and promote the heck out of it. If you can get enough additional foot traffic into these stores, the businesses will make more money than usual and they’ll be happy to donate a portion of their proceeds to your school’s charitable event.
• Make it as easy as possible to help – let’s not forget that many of today’s parents are also working full-time jobs. They do not have too many additional hours in the day to volunteer. As full-time employees and moms and dads, it’s usually very difficult for these parents to lend a helping hand when it’s time to volunteer. That’s why it’s important to make it as easy as possible for parents who might not be able to physically volunteer during fundraising time. One excellent option is to take advantage of fundraising sites. Parents can help set up an online campaign and then use social media, email, and other resources to help spread the word. This is an easy way to get busy parents to help do their part without the need to physically show up and volunteer their time.

We’ve barely scratched the surface with potential fundraising tips to raise cash for schools. One final recommendation is to make sure that you get the students involved in the fundraising process. It will help relieve the burden from the parents’ shoulders and it will teach students a thing or two about taking responsibility for their school activities and other school related events.

Guest Author: Wendy Dessler

Super-Connector at OutreachMama

Wendy is a super-connector with OutreachMama and Youth Noise NJ who helps businesses find their audience online through outreach, partnerships, and networking. She frequently writes about the latest advancements in digital marketing and focuses her efforts on developing customized blogger outreach plans depending on the industry and competition. You can contact her on Twitter.

Website URL: http://www.outreachmama.com/

https://stritanola.org/parents-page/

http://www.ilesparentspage.org/more/fundraising/