Elementary and Middle Schools have various reasons to conduct a school fundraiser. The reasons go from filling in for shortfalls in the school budget to providing extracurricular activities for the students. Regardless of the reasons for the school fundraiser, there are particular challenges that become evident when trying to run one.
One important factor that might get overlooked while planning a school fundraiser is communication with the parents of the students. Many times it is assumed that the students will fill the parents in on all that is going on at school, especially when it concerns the school fundraiser. After all, the students are usually super excited about it after they have seen all the incentives for selling that they could earn. But parents are busy and children don’t always communicate in the way that the parents need to hear.
It is not only important to increase the participation of the students in your school fundraiser, but it is probably even more important to secure the support and participation of the parents of your students as well. To do that, you must plan ways to keep your parents informed about the upcoming and ongoing events.
Here are 4 tips that will help you get the most out of your school fundraiser.
1.) Beginning of School Year Correspondence
When school begins each year you should send a memo or letter to parents which outlines your plans for school fundraiser events that are planned throughout the year. Only in this way can you ensure that there are no surprises that catch the parents off guard.
2.) Secondary Correspondence
As we have said parents are just as busy as we are and sometimes an upcoming event may slip their mind. Send a letter home with the students take home pack a short time before the beginning of each school fundraiser throughout the year.
These first two tips are helpful in keeping parents informed of what you are planning but if you really want to keep them in the loop read on.
3.) Publish a Newsletter Edition or Ezine Article about your school fundraiser.
Use your ezine or newsletter to keep parents informed of happenings at the school and to promote upcoming school fundraiser campaigns. Encourage parents to sign up for the newsletter in any correspondence that is sent home.
Most public schools will have a newsletter that is published on a regular basis. A simple form could be placed on the school’s website to help them find or read up on current happenings at the school. If this is the case, it will make it easy and painless for parents to sign up for the newsletter.
4.) Collect Email Addresses of your parents.
When correspondence goes home that needs to be completed by parents and returned be sure that there is a space to put an e-mail address right by the signature line.
Build a list of all these email addresses and when it is time for the school fundraiser, send out a friendly reminder message. You would be surprised at how effective this tactic is in making your school fundraiser a huge success.
These 4 tips will help you increase participation in your next school fundraiser.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.