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The "One Thing" That Makes School Fundraisers Successful

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Published: 17Dec2008
Word count: 542
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I hear this at the end of every Fall fundraising season... "I wish we had done better." Or, "I don't know what happened, but we didn't do as well as I thought we should have."

Being on the receiving end of this because we run hundreds of school fundraisers every semester, I can tell you my take on "WHY" most of these groups didn't meet their expectations. The only problem with me saying it is that most people seem to nod their head in agreement (just being nice) and then go on their way forgetting the piece of gold they are hearing simply because it sounds to easy to fix or it goes against their own idea of what works and what doesn't.

I can say that without a doubt I can tell you that as long as a school does a main stream product line in their school fundraisers, they can and do have above average sales IF they do one thing. One simple thing, that's it. The answer to a great fundraising program can be summarized in three words... Do Great Prizes!

That's it! If you do average prizes you will have an average school fundraiser. If you skimp on prizes, you will have a poor sale. If you partner with your fundraising company and go whole hog into giving premium prizes you will make more money than you thought possible. Period.

The facts don't lie. This is not my opinion or bias, it's just a plain and simple fact. This is based on the results that even you could take a look at on our website. If you "Wow" the students and their parents with the prize incentives you offer with your fundraiser, they will "Wow" you with results that you did not expect. In short, if you make it worth their while to participate in your school fundraising drive, they more than likely will do just that... participate! And participation is where you make your money.

It's not getting more students to sell 50-100 items, it's getting 50-100 students that didn't sell anything last time to sell 5-10 things this time. Think about it, which would you rather have, 3 students selling 50 things or 50 students selling 5 things?

The method of going about how you put the "Wow" in your incentive program is a little more involved that adding a drawing for a 40 gig IPod, but it is pretty simple. In fact, if all you do is add a $200 IPod or Xbox game as your top seller prize, the only thing that will happen is you'll waste $200. But, there is a way to structure your "Wow" factor that will increase your participation and the level of that participation. In most cases, the first time you set up your school fundraiser incentive program in a "Wow" way, you'll more than likely see anywhere from a 40% - 200% increase in your previous sales.

Well, like I said earlier, this is too simple and the claim just a little too far fetched for many people to actually believe it. It's simplicity and outlandish nature however, does not change the fact that it works for school fundraisers almost every time it is tried. Period.

One thing that we at AIM Fundraising have done over the past 20 years is watch, listen and learn from the tens of thousands of school fundraisers we have run. Why do some school fundraisers do better than others even when all other factors are the same? Visit our site to see what we've learned about maximizing your school fundraiser.

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