For the good part of my life, I have been involved with numerous school fundraisers and have seen all of the school fundraising ideas available today. I like to think of myself as a person who understands the needs of a school and what fundraiser will work depending on the types of individuals that will be fundraising. Some fundraisers work for some, and some do not work. It’s finding the right one for your particular school that will benefit you the most and save you countless hours of PTO fundraising idea over the year.
Selecting the wrong fundraiser can cost you a lot of time over the course of a school year. Your time will be spent trying to raise more money if the fundraiser turns out to be a flop. However, should you choose the correct one for your school, you will spend less time fundraising and more time on the many other important things that you have going on.
When searching for the perfect school fundraiser out of all the school fundraising ideas out there, there are many things to take in to consideration. Who will be selling? How much time? How much needs to be raised? All of these are things you need to look at when picking out a fundraiser. Every school is different and fundraisers that work for one school, may not work for another.
The most crucial aspect when looking at school fundraising ideas, is how much will the supporters like the fundraiser? If supporters do not like what you are selling, or think the price is too high, you can forget about running an efficient school fundraiser. The more supporters like your product, the easier it’s going to be to sell. The easier it is to sell, the faster the money comes in. Win-Win situation all the way around. Supporters are happy because they were able to support your school and received a quality product for doing so and your group wins because you all ran a fundraiser that maximized everyone’s time.
Now, what fundraisers should you start looking at first. In my experience, and I have plenty, you want to avoid your typical past-time school fundraisers like selling candy, candles, popcorn, cookie dough, lollipops and other similar products. Do you really need a $5 candy bar? Or a $20 tub of cookie dough clogging up your refrigerator? Most supporters do not like buying these and will only do so because they feel the need to support. Fundraising ideas for schools that you should stay away from at all costs, are any that involve a straight donation.
The top School fundraising ideas that I have seen to work the best, and for all groups is a good quality discount card fundraiser. One that has a ton of discounts and a nice variety of them. The more discounts the better. Fundraising discounts cards tend to sell the best because supporters really seem to enjoy saving money rather than spending money of stuff they really do not want or need.