FUN Fundraising Delivers Bigger Results!

Most fine arts teachers discover that planning and executing a financially successful fundraiser sets their program up for a more academically enriching and personally satisfying year. We can do so much more for our students (and communities!) when we can help generate the critical funds to transform our teaching dreams into actual creative reality.

At this point, you’re probably thinking ‘she lives in a fundraising fantasy world’ or ‘you don’t know what it’s like to fundraise with my kids’. While I don’t know your students, I can say that my middle school band program grew its annual fundraiser financial results by 15x over the course of six years. And how we went from anemic ‘barely there’ fundraising results to crushing school fundraising records year after year is something any educator can grow into and ultimately master.

Here are some practices that can help you net more cash for your program, while making sure it's an experience your students are excited to be a part of:

Personalize the 'Ask'

I get tons of bulk print and email each day. Very little to none of it excites and inspires me to take action. Why? Simple - It’s so impersonal! When someone takes the time to reach out and engage me as an individual, wow I’m hooked! Apply the same principle to your donor solicitations. Instead of a mass email blast, ask your students to individually text people who they think might want to personally support them. Or, do what I did and encourage your students to send a short, personalized video. If you’re short on time, that’s okay. Even a personalized text message is a HUGE step above a generic email blast.

For maximum impact, make sure your students understand their “personalized ask” should include:

• WHO the fundraising is for (e.g. The Johnson Middle School Band)
• WHY behind the fundraising - ideally state the 2-3 specific goals/needs (e.g. classes with professional instrumentalists and a spring trip to Nashville)
• WHAT the fundraising request is (e.g. I’m wondering if you could help me by donating $25 to our cause)
• HOW to donate/purchase (e.g. I’m about to send you a link where you can securely donate directly to my program)
• APPRECIATION (e.g. Thanks for supporting my musical journey or Thanks for helping me get to Nashville!)

Personalize the Prizes

Figure out what motivates YOUR students. Some are motivated by food, some by gift cards, some by experiences. I happen to work at what is considered an affluent school, so a prize of a $50 gift card doesn’t mean as much as getting to be a part of an ‘experience’ that can only be earned through the fundraiser itself.

If your students are raising PERSONAL funds – specifically to cover costs for let’s say their own band trip, then you don’t need as many incentive prizes. The opportunity to travel should be its own motivational reward as a big percentage of what they collect will eventually go into their student account. But if you’re raising COLLECTIVE funds “for the band” to pay for a capital expense like a new piano or upgraded storage lockers, THAT may require a little extra motivation that is, well personal. Here are some popular incentive prizes I’ve used in the past.

Possible prizes for individuals:

• Top earner – conduct at the spring concert
• Top earner – be rolled to another class by the band director in a rolly chair (“uberchair”)
• Top earner in each class/grade level – bags of candy or gift card – their choice
• Reach a specific goal of donations/sales – Everyone wins drawing for small prizes
• Reach a higher goal of donations/sales – Draw for a gift card between $10-$50
• Anyone who participates (even if they request donations and don’t receive any) – small prizes like a piece of candy or a ‘ticket’ for a chance to win items from the dollar store.

You can also give your kids one ticket each for each person they invite to donate regardless of results. No matter how many tickets you give away, you can draw the same number of prizes.

Possible prizes for groups:

• Top earning class – class party during class time with pizza (my favorite!)
• Any class that reaches the goal (even if not top class) – half class of party – no food
• Everyone who reaches the goal – breakfast with breakfast burritos/donuts/fruit
• People who exceeded their goal by a certain amount - Movie party (in the band hall with popcorn – very cost effective!)

I guarantee that you can come up with even better prize ideas, after all you know your kids better than anyone! ;)

Start Giving Away Prizes Early in the Process

Don’t wait until after your fundraiser wraps to give away prizes! I always kickoff our fundraiser on a Thursday or Friday before a 3-day weekend. That way we have 4-5 days to quickly build up momentum together. My students concentrate on making as many ‘personalized asks’ as they can and I give away a bunch of small prizes and do ticket drawings the very next Monday. This approach shows kids that I’m serious about rewarding their work and helps with the ‘hype.’ Then after we do prizes, I give them class time to send reminder texts to their donor contacts. Rinse and repeat. I continue this approach every 3-4 days throughout a two-week fundraiser event.

Hype the Program

Keep reminders about the fundraiser all over your classroom for the two weeks of your fundraising event. Use visual cues to remind and inspire positive behaviors and wins such as:

• A display on the bulletin board with pictures of the goals and prizes
• Posters on the wall tracking how close each individual class (or grade level) is to their goal.
• Reminder notes taped to doorways (entry & exit) Pro Tip - change these out every few days to draw even more attention.
• Use class time to keep kids pumped up and to have them motivate each other by sharing successes.
• Email parents a couple days before the fundraiser starts and again during the fundraiser. Give them updates such as “We’re halfway to our goal” or “We’re close to our goal but still need help.”
• Post on social media in a very positive way.

Devote Class Time to the Fundraiser

Yes, every minute of your class time is precious to a fundraiser’s overall success! However, nothing is for free my friends. You have to give up a bit of class time in order to get the real payoff on the fundraiser at the end. So, while your classroom time might need to be co opted, fundraising money you generate can bring in private lesson teachers throughout the year to work with the students and ultimately maximize their learning (and enjoyment) in your program. The extra individual help my students received from those specialists year round far surpassed the benefit of the few missed minutes per day during the two week fundraiser. Do the math and you’ll see for yourself.

How should you allocate your precious class time? I’m so glad you asked!:

Make sure your students:

• Understand the mechanics and benefits of the fundraiser (including the awesome prizes you’ve put together!)
• Personalize their ask (send texts/videos to their supporters)
• Enjoy fun prize giveaways along the way
• Check their online account to see who has donated and thank them
• Send reminder texts to those who haven’t responded
• Celebrate at the end of the fundraiser

The percentage you KEEP makes a huge difference!

This is a big one. We didn’t see the significant final increase in the fundraiser’s overall profit until we changed to a donation-based platform where we were able to retain a larger percentage of the donations we lovingly generated. Plus, our people were WAY happier to donate when they knew almost all of their financial contribution would be going directly to support our amazing program.

Benefits of a donation-based program include:

• Much higher percentage stays with your program
• SO easy for parents and students! Families can check their progress at any time (which frees me up too!)
• People who live out of town or even out of the country can easily support students
• No logistical or delivery nightmares!!
• No backordered, broken or spoiled products

So there you have it! My roadmap for greater fundraiser financial outcomes while keeping your students on their fundraising toes and enjoying the process. Take one of these practices and try it. Tweak it. Watch the success build. Then take another one and apply it to next year’s fundraising experience. Before you know it, you’ll be surpassing your goals and smiling all the way to the bank.

Meet Our Guest Expert Author

Tamarie Sayger is a band director in Texas with 25 years of teaching band, elementary music and private lessons. She has presented clinics at Midwest, TMEA, TBA, KBA and WBDI and is the creator of Crossing The Break, a podcast for teaching clarinet. In addition to teaching full time, she contributes articles to Band Directors Talk Shop and facilitates Band Directors Workshop, an intensive summer professional development workshop in Canyon, TX.