If you have volunteered or been appointed to work on a fundraiser committee for a team, school, band, charity or any other type of group or organization, there are a lot of very important decision to make.
Often these planning committees will simply choose the same fundraising company and the same fundraising products that have been used in the past. This can be a good idea if the fundraisers were successful and the objectives and goals were met. However, it is very likely that using the same type of fundraiser and items year after year will eventually limit the sales.
This is usually because people have purchased all the items of interest from the fundraiser or because of the boredom factor. Trying something new and different will appeal to your target group of purchasers, but it can also be a great way to bring in new people as well.
Make A List
A helpful plan is to make a list of the last few years of fundraisers for the school, team or organization. Find records, if available, about the level of sales and the profit that was actually earned.
It can also be helpful to make a list of the last few fundraisers from all organizations that have been held in your community. This is a good option to prevent repeating a fundraiser theme within a short period of time.
Surveys
Most schools, teams and organizations now have pre-set email lists. There are also free online survey design tools that are very easy to create and will also do all the tracking and recording of results.
You could generate a list of themes or fundraising products and options for fundraisers in general terms on a survey and send this out to those on the email list. This would allow those on the list to check which types of fundraising products they would like to see. Not everyone will respond, but it can be helpful to the committee to weed out products and ideas that have little appeal.
Research
Spend time online looking through the selections offered by the various fundraising companies. Look specifically at the way they structure the fundraiser and, of course, the details of the cost of products and the way the profits your group will earn will be calculated.
Another consideration is the level of support the fundraiser is able to offer. Some are very much just the suppliers of the products while others offer time-saving options and even arrange direct shipping on orders to save you all the energy and organization of that task.
