Get Everyone Involved in Your School Fundraiser

For your school fundraiser to be a success, you want everyone to participate. That includes teachers, administrators, principals, students, parents and even the community.

You've got to build anticipation and excitement around your fundraiser. But, how do you do that? With motivation! And, motivating parents is the key to getting everyone excited, and the fastest way to having a better school fundraiser.

Follow these tips and you will have more success and have to do less fundraising.
Inform
In order for parents to participate, they have to know why the fundraiser is a necessity for the school. Before anyone can help solve a problem they must know what the problem is. Let parents know why the fundraiser is important to their school. Hold a meeting and address the budgetary needs of the school for the year and clearly explain how the money raised from the fundraiser will go towards helping meet those needs. Send out informative emails detailing the areas in school that the official budget won't cover. Show videos explaining the need for the school fundraiser. Whatever you do, make sure to emphasize the necessity for the fundraiser. Parents need to know that their money is being used for essential educational needs.

Encourage
For the fundraiser to be as successful as possible, you need to encourage everyone to participate. And, I don't mean just at the beginning of the fundraiser. You need to keep encouraging participation throughout the entire fundraising process. Teachers, parents and administrators need to all lend a hand in making the fundraiser a success. Encourage teachers to do daily announcements to keep their students informed about the fundraiser. Ask principals to send emails to parents asking for support. A principal's email list can generate thousands of dollars in a matter of minutes.Ask teachers and administrators to use promotions to get the kids excited. For example, daily rewards to students who are on top of their fundraising efforts. Also, reach out to parents and encourage them to register online with the fundraiser and send emails to family and friends asking for support. A few emails to out-of-town relatives can generate a lot more money for your school. Teaming up will take your fundraiser over the top!

Incentivize
Everyone loves prizes.No matter how big or small, kids love walking away from something with a concrete item. Offer one big grand prize that every child will want to get. Then, make all the prizes great. If there is more than just one prize that interests them, they will try to keep selling to reach the desired items. Use a variety of long and short term incentives. Offer an ice cream party, limo ride, or extra recess time to the class or grade level that sells the most. Hold daily raffle drawings. Use principal incentives. If the school meets their fundraising goal, the principal can get duct taped to a wall, have to spend the day on the roof or as a student. Incentives don't have to just be for the kids either. You can have teacher and administrator incentives as well. Offer gift certificates to teachers whose classrooms meet their goals, or limo rides to the administrators if their school meets its goal. It's also important to offer family incentives. Have great prizes like a family night out, or tickets to a local amusement or water park for families that go above and beyond and really get into the fundraiser. Just remember, great incentives will always keep everyone motivated!