Put the FUN back in school fundraising!

This blog is an outgrowth of my new book, FUNdraising: 50 Proven Strategies for Successful School Fundraisers. My goal with both the book and blog is to help schools and their supporters inject more fun into educational fundraising efforts.

Because here's the thing...

If you treat school fundraising as drudgery, the community will agree with you. But if you get excited about FUNdraising and maximize each event’s potential for education, outreach, and plain old good times, the buzz likely will prove infectious—while participation levels and receipts soar to new heights.

We’ve seen a backlash in recent years against the old-fashioned product sales that force parents to twist arms at the office until colleagues buy items they don’t want or need in hopes that others will return the favor when their children’s fundraisers roll around. Of course, some school sales drives remain welcome traditions in their communities—and more power to those exceptional exceptions, I say.

But where that backlash exists, it isn’t against schools, or even fundraisers. Some communities, shell-shocked by a never-ending stream of sales, have adopted an annual cash-contribution model instead. This shows that participating school families are still willing to support education; they just don’t want to be harassed in the process.

Wouldn’t it be better, though, if schools entertained and delighted those communities with their fundraisers instead of trading annoying sales for obligatory pledges?

There’s a lot of goodwill out there for schools, and they still have an important cultural-enrichment role to play in their communities. My book, and this blog, will pass along fundraising ideas everyone can get excited about.

In addition to reading along and trying out some of these ideas, you have another role here: Sharing your own school fundraising success stories, and lessons learned. Please add them into the comments section so that others in the educational community can benefit from your experiences.

Learn more about FUNdraising.

Book me as a speaker at your school or educational group.