When You Should Plan, Prep, Progress, & Party!
It’s never too early to start researching and exploring new opportunities for your school fundraiser. But there comes a point where admin approval needs to be granted, decisions need to be made, and planning needs to start happening in full swing. We recommend kicking off your fundraiser planning at least 3 months before your preferred event date.
Setting Your Event Date
When planning the date of your event, consider other activities happening at your school. You want your event to be the only fundraiser in that season—parents will only support one! Many of our PECs (Personal Event Coaches) suggest starting with your ideal event date and working backward to craft your timeline. For example, if you want your Fun Run to happen in the first week of November, you should start the planning process at the beginning of August. Adjust this timeline according to the scale and aim of your fundraiser. Planning a huge celebration on the event day? You may want to start earlier to accommodate all the details.
While the best way to create your fundraiser timeline is to team up with a Get Movin’ coach and work with your own PEC, this blog post provides a general guideline of tasks for each step of the way!
It’s never too early to start exploring possibilities for your next fundraiser. We urge new schools and interested clients to take our online tour to get an understanding of what we offer, how our services work, and what our online database, called FundHub, can mean for their school.
Research:
- Types of fundraisers
- Best practices
- Potential services and outside companies
- Creative incentives
- Unique ways to promote your fundraiser
- Top methods for getting the most involvement from students, parents, and faculty
Once you’ve compiled your research, pitch your ideas to your Parent Group/fundraising board. Share what you’ve learned from our online tour or schedule a group tour so they can see firsthand our online database and other fundraising services.
After pitching your idea, you need to get principal/administrative approval. To gain this approval, you will likely need a rough outline of your fundraiser, including general dates for the kickoff, donation period, and event day.
Now that your fundraiser is approved, it’s time to plan everything from your goals to your incentives. During this period, we suggest organizing the following:
- Sign up with your outside fundraising company of choice
- Communicate with your PEC or other point-person and get trained on using their database/services
- Organize a chairperson and/or committee
- Schedule committee meetings for the duration of the fundraiser
- Establish fundraiser theme
- Brainstorm creative ideas to incorporate
- Set school, classroom, grade, and student goals
- Create incentives for reaching your overall and individual goals. If creating tangible rewards, order these asap.
Sponsorship:
Figure out if you will try to get local sponsors for your fundraiser. Use this time to send Sponsorship Letters to businesses in the community. It’s best to plan ahead as sponsor decisions usually go through several levels of approval.
Once the blueprint for your fundraiser is established, it’s time to reveal it to the school. This period is crucial for success as you want to get the most students and parents involved, maintain excitement throughout your donation period, and ensure your fundraising goals are being met.
- Announce your fundraiser to students (plan and prep for this with flair, announcement scripts, giveaways, and info to send home)
- Send home info for parents with steps on how to be involved
- Publish the details of your fundraiser goals and donation incentives to motivate
Decide if you are doing t-shirts for your fundraiser. If so, gather sizes from students and teachers, order t-shirts, and schedule distribution before the event. Keep track of your fundraising progress and share updates with students and parents through a creative bulletin board displayed in the school.
On the day of your fundraiser, set up, facilitate the event, keep volunteers organized, and enjoy the party! This is typically a day of celebration as well as work, but remember that your donation period doesn’t end on the event day.
Continue to promote your fundraiser if donations can still be collected afterward. Use event day to communicate progress and any news on a celebration assembly to follow.
Post-Event: Wrap Up & Take a Bow
Celebrate:
After your fundraiser and donation period are complete, calculate how much you’ve earned and celebrate your hard work! Share this good news with students, staff/faculty, parents, sponsors, and pledgers to build trust and gain support for next year’s fundraiser.
Gratitude:
Thank those who helped you reach your fundraising goals. Show gratitude to local sponsors for their donations, expressing what their support has done for the school and community. Follow through on any sponsorship incentives you have in place.
Schedule Again for Next Year:
Consider next year’s fundraiser right after the current one ends. This way, you can promote early, plan with local sponsors, and take advantage of Get Movin’s incentives for early booking.
While this guide provides a general overview, working with a Get Movin’ coach will help you create a personalized timeline and budget goal breakdown tailored to your school’s needs. Get in touch with us to start planning your most successful fundraiser yet!