|
|
|
This is reprinted from a PTO Today article. Aim Fundraising is mentioned in the "Prize" section of this article. (Prizes are what Aim is know for.)
9 Tips To Increase Fundraising Sales
Fundraising representatives are great
sources for tips on how to boost your fundraising success. Here are some
of
their ideas for increasing student participation and generating more
sales.
by Evelyn Beck
1. Publicize Early and Often
Promotion before and during the sale is the key to successful
fundraising. So
in addition to the parent running the sale, identify a volunteer to act
as the
head cheerleader or spokesperson. Create a theme (such as “Reach for the
Stars”)
and a slogan (like “It only takes five!”) suggests Karen Grandinetti,
president
of Pure Profit Fundraising in Rio Rancho, N.M.
Alert parents ahead of time about the fundraiser. Montvale, N.J.,
schools do
an email blast through the PTO website telling parents when a sale is
starting
and that they should look for a packet coming home. One of Grandinetti’s
schools
puts a whiteboard promoting the sale on an easel in the school office
two months
before the kickoff. It includes prices of the products to be sold so
parents
know what to expect. Other sources of promotion are lunch menus,
newsletters,
websites, outdoor signs, PA announcements, and the local
newspaper.
Before and during the sale, emphasize the reason behind it. If you
don’t,
parents won’t feel compelled to take part. Butch Hinze has seen
firsthand how
much of a difference this can make. Hinze, the owner of Quality
Wholesale in
Carlisle, Pa., offers a cautionary tale from a cookie dough sale, “One
school of
about 400 kids had averaged $50,000 in sales for the past five years,”
he says.
“The lady in charge sent letters home, talked to parents at parents
night. She
said, ‘This is what we use the money for; this is why we need money.’
She got
sample cookie dough, baked cookies, and put a bag with two cookies in it
on
every child’s desk in the school. When she left, the new person just
passed out
brochures. Sales dropped 40 percent.”
If allowed, you could even make the sale a part of the curriculum. In
art
class, students might draw pictures of what the money is being raised
for, with
these pictures sent home to parents or displayed in a prominent place at
the
school. As a math lesson, children might calculate profits based on
sales.
During the sale, use automated calling to send recorded messages to
students’
homes; even better, get the principal to record the message so parents
know that
he supports the sale. Track schoolwide participation with a poster-size
thermometer. Grandinetti suggests building excitement with schoolwide
rewards as
a series of goals are reached, such as a crazy hat day, an extra recess,
and a
backward day. To spur individual participation, set an individual goal
for
students, such as five items sold. Whenever kids reach that goal, take
their
picture and post it on a Hall of Fame near the front office.
2. Limit the Number of Fundraisers
“Sometimes, the more products you put together, the more diluted the
sale
becomes,” says Leslie Marshall, director of fundraising for Interstate
Batteries
in Dallas. “Parents and the community feel pulled and tugged and will
say,
enough.” John Lavender, president and owner of Lavender’s, a fundraising
company
in Bolton Landing, N.Y., agrees. “Make supporters understand that you’re
doing
only one major fundraising sale,” he says. “Focus on better results with
fewer
fundraisers, and people are apt to buy more things.”
3. Promote the Product as a Gift
To get customers to buy more, emphasize a sale item as a potential
gift.
“Offer a product that not only would I use, but I’d be more than happy
to give
it to somebody as a present,” says Jim Boccia, national sales manager of
Yankee
Candle Company in South Deerfield, Mass. “Now they’re buying twice as
much.”
Plus, he says, people tend to buy more of something as gifts than they
would buy
for themselves.
4. Personalize the Product
Ask your fundraising company about the possibility of putting your
own stamp
on the product. This might be a slogan about the reason for the
fundraiser, such
as “Help us buy playground equipment,” or it might be a photo of the
school.
Holding a contest to choose the winning message or image can help pump
up the
excitement. “It engages the student sellers and gets the parents and
teachers
involved,” says Kimberly Paris, marketing manager for World’s Finest
Chocolate
in Chicago. “The product truly represents them.”
5. Try a New Product
If your fundraiser has become stale, consider selling something
different.
“Most schools don’t realize when they change up a product, that makes
the sale
fresh and new rather than old and stale,” Grandinetti says. Consider
items you
haven’t tried before or offer a variety of products. Evergreen
Elementary in
California, Md., chose a company with a catalog that included such items
as
flower bulbs, gifts for dogs, and faith-based items. “There were a lot
of
different things that would hit somebody’s interest,” says PTO president
Jennifer McKay.
6. Switch the Timing of Your Fundraiser
Rescheduling a fundraiser may also boost sales. “A lot of people go
with the
same time of year they’ve always done, but I’ve switched a lot of people
to
November for improved sales,” says Kym Carder, a Zanesville, Ohio-based
independent sales representative for Jose Madrid Salsa. And seek less
obvious
sales tie-ins beyond Christmas. Snack foods, for example, are big
sellers before
the Super Bowl, Carder says. Marshall says that batteries, which most
people
connect with Christmas, actually do better in early fall or early
spring.
To increase student participation, offer more prizes at lower sales
levels,
such as for selling one item, five items, and 10 items. If participation
is
already high but you want to generate more sales per student, then
increase the
number or quality of the prizes at the higher end, offering items like a
bike,
an iPod Shuffle, or a Nintendo DS Lite. To encourage timely submission
of
orders, you might allow students to grab for candy when they turn in
their
orders on time.
Offer additional prizes for certain milestones. For example, in
addition to
the regular prizes, everybody who sells five items might be eligible to
draw for
a cash prize ranging from $1 to $100 (with the PTO splitting the cost of
these
prizes with the fundraising company). “That motivates a lot of kids,”
says Juan
Franco, president of AIM Fundraising in Houston. “Everybody gets at
least a
dollar.” One variation is a money jump, in which the winner of a daily
drawing
gets to leap over a line of $5 bills to collect as many as
possible.
In addition to prizes, top sellers might get special privileges, such
as
front-of-the-line passes, the role of principal for a day, or an
invitation to a
fancy lunch in the principal’s office. Some schools motivate students
with the
promise of a special event for the top-selling class, such as a pizza
party,
before-school breakfast, ice-cream social, or limousine ride. “Make kids
feel
special, that they did this for a reason,” Grandinetti says.
8. Involve Parents and Teachers
It’s not just students who are motivated by incentives. A PTO might
reward
the parent who helped the most with the sale with a special parking spot
or
front-row seats at a school program. For teachers, you might collect
wish lists
at the beginning of the school year and then award the teacher with the
highest
class participation the first item on his list. Or get the principal to
offer
teachers something of value. For example, teachers with 50 percent
classroom
participation could get a free blue jeans day, with additional rewards
for 75
percent and 100 percent participation. At many schools, principals agree
to do
something wacky if a fundraising goal is met. Principals have dyed their
hair
the school colors, shaved their heads, and worn pajamas to school, for
instance.
9. Rethink Your Sales Approach and Sales Territory
Don’t underestimate the power of young sellers. “Parents will take an
order
form to work and it just sits there; there’s not an immediate call to
action,”
says Marshall of Interstate Batteries. “It’s not nearly as effective as
if the
parent’s child came after school and walked around and asked people if
they’d
like to buy something. My dad was a postman, and when I was a kid I went
to the
post office and asked for sales from the mail carriers and the guys
working the
counter. They felt an obligation to support me.” Marshall also suggests
expanding your sales territory to places likes churches and the
courthouse.
“Call on different leaders; go to the mayor’s office,” she says. Carol
Rampey,
president of UnitedScrip in Seneca, S.C., works with a group that sells
$40,000
of scrip to a local nursing home, which buys it as Christmas gifts for
employees.
Get Kids Motivated
To motivate students, use your imagination to come up with creative
incentives. Here are a few ideas.
At Evergreen Elementary in California, Md., the class with the best
sales in
the PTO fundraiser was chosen to “adopt” a giant panda from the National
Zoo in
Washington, D.C. This adoption is actually a $65 donation to the zoo to
fund
exhibit improvement, new equipment, and medical care for the zoo’s
animals. In
return, the class receives a package that includes a stuffed panda, a
photo of
the zoo’s pandas, a certificate, and other items. “The students feel
like they
have a piece of an animal, and the teacher was incredibly excited,” says
PTO
president Jennifer McKay.
Also effective at Evergreen was the use of a mystery prize for each
student
who sold at least one item. Kids were curious to discover what they got,
ranging
from a really big eraser to a spinning game to a handheld plastic
pinball
machine. The top two sellers got $25 Toys R Us gift certificates in
addition to
the other prizes, no matter how many items they had sold.
Some PTOs tie incentives to the reason for the fundraiser. Carol
Rampey,
president of UnitedScrip in Seneca, S.C., says that one of her schools
was
raising money to build a library. So every time a child raised $15, he
got to
choose a library book and have his name printed in the front.
Make the sale itself fun. At Memorial Elementary in Montvale, N.J.,
4th
graders sold scented pencils to raise money for an art project. One
thing that
made the sale appealing was the funkiness of the product: The pencils
came in
varieties such as cotton candy and root beer. Another was that the 4th
graders
“felt like salespeople” as they circulated in the lunchroom among eager
customers (other students), says Judi Catherwood, PTO president for
Montvale
schools.
A third reason was that the art teacher had kids excited about
raising funds
for an art project. Each child did a self-portrait that was transferred
to a
tile, which was then hung in a hallway of the school. The sale, which
raised
several thousand dollars, was so popular that the pencils had to be
reordered
several times, and the nearby middle school decided to sell the product,
too.
|
