1.) Prizes / Incentives with Value
Your
incentive program is the single most important factor when determining
the success or failure of your fundraising campaign. It almost could be
said that you could sell the most horrible product in the world and do
real well if you motivate your students correctly. Of course no one is
going to do that, but I'm trying to make my point by being absurd.
In
order for your prize program to be successful in motivating more of
your students to participate, you must target your prizes for the
specific demographic that makes up your school. To summarize, the
prizes need to be appropriate for the student's age and something that
the parents can get excited about as well. Especially the parents of
the younger students. Most school sponsored fundraisers don't target
the parents with the incentive plan. But, if you include a "Wow" factor
as part of the prize program, you will definitely get their attention.
Simply
put, if your school is filled with 5 - 12 year olds, then your
incentive plan should include items that would appeal to that group of
students that would also impress their parents. While trinket type
prizes might go over well with the kids, moms will look at them and
simply trash the brochure
Choosing the wrong type of incentive for your target group can have a huge negative impact on your school fundraising campaign.
2.) Make Sure The Word Makes It Home
It
is not enough to simply have a great incentive package for the
students. Remember, many of your students are so young that they will
have a hard time getting it across to their parents just what is being
offered for certain sales levels. As a matter of fact, you might just
say that your prize brochure and parent letter are the things that
"sell" your parents on the incentive program.
One of the best
things you can do to get the message home about your fundraiser and
prize program is to show the prizes at school on the same day that the
sales brochures go home. Also, have a parent letter or prize brochure
that pictures the prizes so the students can show them to their
parents. Dong both of these things will pretty much guarantee that the
moms will get the idea that this is not your ordinary fundraising prize
program."
3.) Sales and Safety Coaching
Most fundraising
salespeople are little kids who are either going to have to sell
Grandma and family friends some of the products that they have in their
sales brochure, or they are going to have to convince Mom to do it for
them. If you have a worthwhile incentive program, your students will
turn on those big brown eyes and get it done! One of the best ways is
to coach your students to ask mom and dad and mom's best friend and an
aunt or two to take turns taking the sales brochure to work with them.
If you coach your students to do this, you will go a long way on
heading off safety issues in your school fundraising efforts.
4.) Safety
Personally,
I favor structuring the prizes to motivate every student in the school
to sale to 20 items max. Higher sales than that are likely go to
require going beyond the safety net of family and friends. That to me
is a child safety issue.
We have been structuring incentive
programs for years that are geared toward rewarding students heavily
for just selling 5 - 15 things. For a school with over 250 students,
especially if they have been plagued by low participation in past
school fundraising efforts, this approach to the prize program will
usually double your previous sales. Simple as that!
In fact if
you have been having 25% participation in past fundraisers, a 15%
increase in your participation will double your sale. I know this
sounds odd, but that is the power of the numbers in large groups.
Safety
is important no matter what age group your students are, but even more
so if they are small children. I personally prefer to give prizes that
are worthwhile for simply selling a few items to family, friends and
people they know. Then mom or dad can carry the brochure to work to
help out too.
Use these simple fundraising tips to make your next school fundraising event a complete success.
