Fundraising Tips: What Every Educator Must Know

Organizing extra-curricular student activities requires dedication, time and money. While the dedication and time are more or less up to the educator involved, obtaining the latter is slightly more difficult. Growing government cutbacks in the education sector has resulted in an increase in the number of schools relying on traditional fundraising campaigns to help offset the lack of funding. The increase in the sheer number of fundraising campaigns across the country has made proper planning and organization the essential aspects of any successful fundraiser.

The following tips, provided by eFundraising.com, are intended to help guide the planning of your group’s next fundraiser. For more detailed information, feel free to contact eFundraising.com’s professional fundraising consultants at 1-800-561-8388.

• The first thing every fundraiser must have is a clear goal stating how much money needs to be raised, and how these funds will be spent.
• Every campaign needs a leader. Make sure your leader is organized, enthusiastic and most importantly, available.
• The next important point to consider is the time span of the fundraiser. This should be anywhere from a few days, up to two weeks in length.
• Also, consider whether you will need space to store inventory, and whether allowance for lost or damaged items will be needed.
• You must also decide whether a door to door sales campaign is desirable given the weather and the age of the participants, and what the possible alternatives are.

With this in mind, determine how many of your students will be participating in your fundraiser. This is also the time to decide the appropriate fundraiser for your group, one which will generate the most profitable results given your group's particular goals and constraints.

If this is your first time organizing a fundraiser on your own, ask be sure to contact other teachers, coaches or PTA members at your school regarding your fundraising initiative. Although tips such as those found here are useful and essential, nothing helps quite like hearing about the past experiences of your colleagues.

Your Fundraising checklist

• How much do I need to raise?
• When are you planning on starting your fundraiser?
• How much time are you willing to spend on your fundraiser?
• How many of your students do you estimate will be participating in your fundraiser?
• Do you have experience organizing fundraisers?
• If not, do you anyone who could give you feedback?

Below is an evaluation of some of the most popular school fundraisers. This will help you get an idea of which one would be best for your students:

For help with your next fundraiser, or for any general fundraising questions, contact our fundraising consultant team at 1-800-561-8388 or visit www.eFundraising.com for more information.