Boosting Your Club & School Fundraiser
Booster Club Fundraising Help & School Fundraiser by F&EG Staff -6/2007
In this day and age, it’s not enough to plan a couple of fundraisers for the year. High school clubs, booster clubs and after school programs need assistance simply to exist. And, almost 94% of K-8 principals say they rely on fundraisers to supplement moneys received from district, state, and federal sources (as reported by National Association of Elementary School Principals, Spring 2007).
To meet the needs of your school or club, and to ensure the continuation of extracurricular activities and enrichment programs, such as sports, band, cheerleading, academic and art clubs, it is necessary to implement a successful fundraising campaign. It is also important to boost up your motivation, communication, organizational and business skills.
For some tried and true ideas on how you can boost your fundraiser in more ways than one, we interviewed Steve Beden, President & CEO of North American Booster Club Association, (NABCA).
Who is NABCA and How Can it Help with School and Club Fundraising?
NABCA is the Governing Body for Booster Clubs in North America. They provide guidance, education, training and support to all booster clubs and extracurricular programs throughout the United States and Canada.” As a governing organization for booster clubs, NABCA is committed to helping all booster clubs – not just school based or sports clubs, but all booster clubs – school, non-school affiliated sports, band, arts, dance and the many smaller youth supported extracurricular programs, throughout North America,” says Beden.
NABCA provides guidance, education, training and support to booster clubs and extracurricular programs throughout the United States and Canada. Booster Clubs are a key component to a successful extracurricular program as they provide funding, volunteer support, upkeep for facilities, fields and equipment, transportation, and scholarships.
Finding Solid Leaders and Strong Team Members
A successful fundraising campaign requires good planning from the outset and strong team players to execute the plans.
Even the best-laid plans will fail, if the planning committee has all of the wrong people in place. While local business leaders have solid connections and wealthy friends, they may not always be the best people to play the role of a planning “team member.” The big shots are often used to giving orders that people follow and simply cannot work well within the group dynamic, unless they have the final say on all decisions. Fundraising campaign committee members should be selected for the individual’s level of enthusiasm and motivation, rather than on the basis of their resume. In fact, it may be that the CEO’s spouse will make a better team leader or member than the CEO. The top players in the fundraising committees should also be considered based on their organization skills.
“The majority of individuals who take on booster club committee or leadership roles have no real idea of what they need to do and how to correctly fill the role they have been assigned,” says Beden.
Booster University
NABCA helps answer the questions and provide the guidance and training to ensure success for the leader and the booster club. They also created The NABCA Booster University aka Booster U. “It is the perfect event for any booster club official who is looking to gain a better understanding on how to help provide stronger leadership or to find new club building ideas,” says Beden.
Boost Your Motivation with Organization
From the world of academia, many find the commercial element of fundraising to be a real challenge and a chore to carry out. No matter who you are, it is hard to get excited about something that seems like hard work.
Getting organized, setting goals and running successful meetings can actually contribute to boosting your motivation while steering you in the right direction. When you know what your plan is and can find what you are looking for, you’ll be more relaxed, less stressed and ready to tackle the next goal.
Bob Lowell, a manager at Pepsi Cola, once said that “work” is a four-letter word, only because it entails “resistance.” He said the best kind of job to have is one that is enjoyed, because there is no resistance when one is looking forward to his or her scheduled activities.
When performing a task, you can choose to enjoy the task, or you can choose to hate it. If you choose to enjoy your task, the time will go by quickly. If you choose to be contrary and hate the task, time will seem as if it drags forever. If you cannot be excited about fundraising activities, neither will your children or their parents. But, if you can bubble with enthusiasm, it may be contagious.
You don’t need to have a bubbly personality, in order to bubble with enthusiasm. If you enjoy what you are doing and are excited about an activity, people will notice and pay attention.
Planning Ahead and Allocating Responsibilities
When the new school year starts, the planning committee should have their basic organization in place and their basic game plan set.
There is still hope if you don’t have everything set. During those first few weeks of the school year, the committee members can seek to recruit additional help from the parents. The ability to recruit additional help at the beginning of the school year, and the ability to prepare parents for the fundraising schedule, can lead to a more successful fundraising cycle.
NABCA suggests outlining job descriptions and areas of responsibility in order to have a clear understanding of what the tasks will be for each position including sub-committee or co-chair positions.
A clear definition will also increase the likelihood of a new volunteer stepping into the position come elections as well as helping to better organize the group throughout the year.
Selecting the Right Products
Choosing products appropriate to local consumers is just as important as choosing quality products. We have all heard the adage about “selling iceboxes to Eskimos.” We should not expect to sell snow boots in Florida either. “NABCA has formed strong relationships with many of the industry leaders, from fundraising to equipment,” says Beden. “We now provide a booster club with the ability to secure the highest quality products and programs at the best possible prices and commissions on the market.”
Setting Realistic Goals
The planning committee should start by setting financial goals that are within reach. If goals are set too high, people tend to give up much more quickly. In order to avoid desertion by the volunteers who are giving their time to help the cause, no goal should be set too high.
As a general rule, a committee should never set their goals more than a low double-digit percentage increase over the previous year. Most organizations tend to aim for a ten percent increase. However, if they have been watching the actual numbers decrease for a number of years, a lower goal may be in order. When the collection numbers are dropping, it is important to turn the negative tide positive, before setting a higher goal. If the school has consistently been hitting negative percentages in the donation arena, the committee should set their current goal to stop the loss of ground, before aiming for an increase.
Stay Focused on Clear Goals
All goals should be set according to recognizable numbers. A ten percent increase over last year is a worthy goal to aim for, but the fundraising leadership should explain to their volunteers what that percentage actually means in real numbers.
The leadership should break all numbers down so that everyone can see clear goals for their own activities. For example, a ten percent increase over last year actually means that fundraising will generate X amount of dollars this year, against X number of dollars from last year. The volunteers should also be told that the average student raised X number of dollars in the previous year, and that to reach this year’s goal, each student should generate X number of dollars in revenue.
Volunteers need to understand in real numbers what they are being asked to do. And the volunteers should be shown how those numbers compare to previous years, so they will understand that the new numbers are easily within reach.
NABCA suggests to its members that the leadership needs to take every opportunity to share numbers with their volunteers and the student body, so that everyone can communicate well with those who are responsible for meeting the goals set forth.
Good Communication at Every Level Is a Requirement for Success
The committee leadership needs to communicate well with all of the committee team members. Team members need to communicate well with the extended volunteer network of parents. Teachers need to communicate well with children and parents about any goals that may have been set. The fundraising committee should not expect all parents to be available through a single means of communication.
When the school year is fresh and new, flyers in the child’s backpack are read often. Once the winter months set in, parents are less likely to read every flyer sent out by the school. Often, the reduced read-rate on flyers has to do with the large number of flyers that seemed unimportant to parents during the first semester of the school year. So, it is essential for teachers to establish multiple channels of communication early in the school year and to not abuse the attention span of the parents who read the flyers religiously at the beginning of the year.
Many parents these days have a home phone, a work phone, a cell phone, and an email address. With the right level of attention, the child’s teacher can establish all of these channels of communication as viable methods to communicate messages to the parents. “Communication is a key component to helping build successful teams and programs,” says Beden. A coaching staff that cannot communicate will lose the game even with the best players. The same applies to a booster club who has not established multiple levels of communication techniques for keeping their events, activities and opportunities in front of parents, administrators, alumni and the community.
Develop a monthly newsletter and send it to current and past supporters. Provide ample opportunities to continually gather new and updated contact information. Include an online link from your club website where supporters can update their contact information.
Good Training
According to Beden, “All booster clubs face the same basic challenges – how to increase membership, gain the active support from parents, and how to raise funds to ensure the success of their programs.”
Students, parents and sometimes teachers lack the specialized training to make fundraising campaigns successful. The group leadership should plan basic training classes with teachers, parents and students.
Beden suggests, “The NABCA Booster University or Booster U, is the perfect event for any booster club official who is looking to gain a better understanding of how to help provide stronger leadership or to find new club building ideas.”
What many groups fail to realize is that there is a lot of help out there for them to utilize. Steve Beden’s NABCA organization is one such example. Another under-utilized resource is the product-supplier, who specializes in the fundraising industry.
When the fundraising committee selects a particular product to utilize in their fundraiser, the company who supplies that product also has a vested interest in the sales success of the fundraiser. When asked, the supplier may send out consultants who specialize in training the group leadership, teachers, parents and students.
The All-Important “Why”
Fundraisers should understand a few basic concepts of why people buy stuff, and these concepts should be communicated to all groups during the training sessions.
The question on the mind of most consumers is: “What is the school going to do with all of this money?”
Fundraisers typically sell products at a larger markup than stores, so with many fundraisers, the products could be purchased at regular retail outlets at a lower price. So, it is important for everyone to know the reason “why” they would want to pay this extra cost.
According to a survey conducted in the 2005-2006 school year by the Association of Fund-Raising Distributors and Suppliers (AFRDS), 77% of the parents who supported fundraisers that year said they did so after being told the goal of the fundraiser.
Parents, grandparents, friends and neighbors need to understand how the proceeds from the sale will benefit the students. Be as specific as possible in detailing this information.
A generation ago, a local grade school collected cereal box tops to pay for new schoolyard equipment. Towards the beginning of the following school year, the school ran a story in the local newspaper thanking all who contributed to the cause. In the story, the school provided a photograph of the installation of the new monkey bars that were the direct result of the cereal box tops campaign, from the previous year.
The “Why” is established by addressing two very important questions: 1) it tells people what they should expect the money to be used for this year, and 2) it tells people what last year’s money was used to purchase. People like seeing results more than they like hearing promises. When children are able to share with potential buyers that the school had received a new set of monkey bars at the beginning of the school year, resulting from the previous yearÕs fundraising activities, the potential buyers feel more generous in the current year because they can see tangible results from the past year.
Understanding the Sales Concept of Advantages Versus Benefits
Many advertisers don’t fully comprehend the sales method that will be the difference between success and failure of their business.
For example, an advantage is a “new monkey bar set.” The corresponding benefit is that “more children will be able to play on the monkey bars at the same time.”
In the simplest terms, the advantage is what someone will get out of a deal. And the benefit is how people’s lives will be improved.
An advantage is “more books in the classroom.” The benefit is that “children will not have to share books, during reading time.”
The funny thing about human nature is that the benefits sell the buyer and the advantages will be used later, to justify the buyer’s emotional decision to buy.
The Role of Emotion in the Buying Process
People buy goods and services based on their emotional desire to do such things. Later, buyers will justify their buying decision to themselves and others based on the logic of having such things.
When family, friends and neighbors buy products from school-age kids with the express understanding that the purchase is made for a good cause, the cause will help sway their decision to buy.
If the potential customer likes the cause and desires to support it, then they will permit their personal feelings to influence their buying decisions. If the cause is deemed to be important by the shopper, then the cause will be supported.
When you understand the emotional reasons why people buy products during a fundraiser, you will understand how to sell more products.
Something Everyone Can Afford
Some schools are figuring out that there is an advantage in utilizing more than one fundraiser during the school year. By using a combination of expensive and inexpensive products, schools can maximize their return by offering different items that anyone can afford. While not all parents can afford to spend $30 in a shot, most can afford to spend $5 or $10. So, to take advantage of this range of affluence, school fundraisers are generally running the higher priced food sales near Christmas and the novelty items near Halloween and Spring Break.
Take Advantage of All Resources Available
With a strong planning committee and good organizational skills within the committee, schools can find a much larger pool of financial resources being made available to them.
Industry associations and suppliers have come forward to help schools across the country realize their financial goals. Teachers, parents and students also have new resources available to them to ensure that they too can make a significant impact in their school’s ability to raise dollars.
Beden reemphasized, “If a booster club is not a member of NABCA they are missing out on gaining the support and guidance from the industry’s only booster club association, which is dedicated to providing the support needed to ensure the ongoing success of booster clubs and their programs.”
The only thing school fundraisers can actually do wrong is to not take advantage of all of the good advice and help that is currently available to them.
Boosting your club or school fundraiser revenues is as easy as 1-2-3, when you have the heads up on how to make the most of your opportunities.
We Wish You The Best of Success in Your Fundraising Activities
You can learn more about NABCA at: www.boosterclubs.org or for more fundraising articles visit www.fundandedutain.com
