I often hear this at the end of every Fall fundraising season... "I expected us to have done better." Or, "I can't imagine what happened, but we didn't do as well as I thought we were going to do." There is a cure for this and it's a simple fix... but I'm warning you, you must have an open mind.
Copyright (c) 2008 AIM Fundraising
At the end of every Fall fundraising season I get lots of calls saying something like... "I expected us to have done better." Or, "I can't imagine what happened, but we didn't do as well as I thought we were going to do."
We hear this alot because we run hundreds of school fundraisers every year. One thing I can tell you is my take on "WHY" most of these groups didn't meet their fundraising goals. The only problem with me saying it is that most people seem to simply choose not to believe it and then go on their way forgetting the piece of gold they are hearing simply because it sounds to simple or basic to fix or it goes against their own idea of what really happened.
I can tell you this, that as long as a school does atop line and quality product for their school fundraiser, they can and will have above average sales IF they do one thing. One simple thing, that's it. The way to have a great fundraising program can be summarized in three words... Do Awesome Prizes!
That's all there is to it! If you do average incentives you will have an ordinary sale. If you skimp on prizes, you will have a poor sale. If you partner up with your fundraising company and dive into giving premium prizes you will make more money than you thought possible. Period. The facts and the figures do not lie.
This is not my opinion. This is based on the results that even you could take a look at on our website. If you "Wow" the students and families with the prizes and incentives you offer with your fundraiser, they will "Wow" you with results that you did not expect. The idea here is, if you make it worth their while to participate in your school fundraising drive, they more than likely will do just that... participate! It is participation in your sale that makes your school more profit.
The method of going about putting the "Wow" in your incentive program is a little more involved than 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.
However, you can structure your "Wow" factor in such a way that it will increase your participation in your sale. Most of the time when you set up your prize program in a "Wow" way, you'll more than likely see anywhere from a 40% - 200% increase in your previous sales.
Like I mentioned 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.
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