Susan's top 5 tips:
1) Limit the number of fundraisers:
- Typically there are at least 12 fundraisers per year (1-2 per month)
- Limit it to about 4-5 per year
- Publicize the ones you do have really well. Build up some buzz. Be a savvy business-person here - don't over-saturate the market
2) Make it easy/minimum effort:
- Take minutes not hours
- Make something you do everyday help - like eScrip and grocery shopping. For information go to escrip.com Basically you just do your normal shopping (grocery and so on) and you raise money at the same time
- Remember, minutes, not hours
3) Healthy:
- With childhood obesity reaching epidemic levels - let's focus more on walk-a-thon and jog-a-thon type fundraisers
- Something you feel good about contributing towards, because you're doing something for their health
4) More benefits other than fundraising alone:
- Along the same lines of doing something healthy - do something good for their brains
- Read-a-thon, fundraisers that are educational
- Kids are proud of themselves for reading and it's something you can to together
- When you do something you like and your kids like - instead of one more thing you all have to do - it makes it more successful too
5) Spend on things you'd buy anyway:
- Every school has a parent who loves taking pictures and is really good at it -
- In just one day, most schools make at least half of what they need with this one fund-raiser alone - anywhere from 5-10k - and more for the bigger schools
- The money comes from parents buying pictures online - again, pictures they buy anyway
- The quality is better when children have someone they know, who takes the time and energy to get the photos just right
For more information, visit www.picateers.com.
