Fundraising Myths »

Fundraising Myths

Now, you may be thinking that school fundraising revenues are dropping, and you’d be right. You may also be thinking that school’s need fundraising now more than ever to support basic educational needs, and you’d also be right. But what you may not know, is that it is not the economy’s fault entirely.The main cause in the revenue downturn is multiple fundraisers. Yes, the bad economy effects how much people can donate, but the truth is, if parents want to support their child’s school they will. Schools have added fundraisers and put less importance on each one causing a drop in participation. Parents do not want to be hit up for money constantly. If your PTA has a reputation of holding one fundraiser after another, then this post is for you!

A horrible mistake that many parent groups make is overloading parents with demands for money all year long. Do not make this mistake. Eliminate all fundraisers that raise less than $1,000 a year. Plan on hosting only one main fundraiser, and you will make enough money to meet your goal. Here’s how.

Parents have been experiencing ‘fundraising fatigue’ in the last couple of years. Because of school budget cuts, parent groups have been hosting one fundriaser after another all year long. This is an extremely dangerous situation to put your parent group in because it decreases participation in almost every fundraiser that you host. Parents will get the mentality of “oh, I’ll support the next fundraiser because I like that stuff better,” and so on.

If you make it clear that there will only be one fundraiser, one chance for students to sell items, and one chance for parents to participate, you will increase participation in the fundraiser. Tell parents what your goal is, and let them know that in order to reach that goal each family should sell x amount of items. And that’s it, one fundraiser for the whole year. One time asking for money. Just one. The closer you get to parents thinking their support is mandatory, the better your participation and in turn, your fundraising revenue.