Every year, I am overwhelmed with friends calling selling cheesecakes, pizza kits, cookie dough, candy bars, fruit, etc. for their kids. Most of the time, the product is outrageously priced and although I feel obligated to purchase, I would much rather offer a small donation.
While I understand that there are limitations in variety when it comes to school fundraisers, purchasing pizza kits four times a year can get redundant. One popular fundraiser is school calendars. The calendar shows school events for the year, including sports games, plays, dances, fundraisers, etc. Purchasers can also choose to pay a certain price to have birthdays, anniversaries, or “in memory of” tributes placed on the calendar. Many times the purchaser ends up paying $10 or $15 for a calendar that will hang on their wall and offer the occasional birthday or event reminder.
However, at the end of the year, that calendar gets thrown away and it is time to purchase a new one. How effective is this fundraiser? While your school or organization may sell a great deal of calendars, is it because donators are actually using the calendar? Or, is it because they are simply contributing to the cause and in exchange, receiving an item that they may use occasionally?
Rather than offering a print calendar that will just hang forgotten on some wall, consider offering a digital format of your calendar. Perhaps you could do a flash drive fundraiser. On that flash drive you could have your school calendar preloaded. Using CFgear’s interface technology, you could provide a tab for each particular calendar of events. Perhaps you would designate one tab for sports, school events, lunch menus, school schedule, and extracurricular activities. The user could simply click on the desired tab and find out exactly when the soccer game is or exactly what their kid is having for lunch that day.
Using INSTARUN technology, your school could create a personalized message that will appear as soon as the flash drive is inserted into a USB drive. You could be creative and record a short, fun video clip that could be played. Perhaps the group could offer a short “thank you” message. Or, you could offer a group picture, complete with the school’s name and logo.
You may want to include a slideshow of pictures for the donator to see. They will be glad to see that their contribution helped send the chorus to Disney World or contributed to a class trip to Washington D.C. The slideshow is a fun reminder of what their purchase helped pay for.
You may be wondering what happens when a new year starts and the calendar is outdated. Well, you could offer a link to the school’s website where donators could purchase an updated calendar to be uploaded onto their flash drive.
The best part about the flash drive fundraiser is that it offers the calendar that so many want, but also serves a number of other functions. It can be used to add, edit, and store Word documents, PDF files, audio or video files, and pictures. They can use it for work, home, or school.
Be sure to customize the exterior of the flash drive to boast school spirit. Include the school’s name and mascot in up to 4 Pantone colors. You may even consider offering a customized lanyard that also displays your school’s name.
Give your contributors a trendy option this year. Forget the candy bars or pizza kits. Instead, offer a flash drive that they can use on a daily basis that still offers the school calendars. Each time they use it, they are sure to remember your school.
Leave a Reply