EXCELLENT FUNDRAISING JOURNALS

Return On Investment (ROI) is a fundamental business concept. Its also something that every fundraiser needs to take into consideration.

A business investment consists of working capital, physical assets, and peoples time.

ROI is the net gain that results from a business spending money and utilizing physical assets, along with the expenditure of employees’ time, in an effort to produce tangible profits.

So, the investment in a fundraiser consists of: any up-front expenditures that are required the costs associated with the assets that are utilized the value of people’s time spent fundraising

Some key points about ROI in fundraising:

1- Analyze your up-front expenditures vs. your net gain
2- Lowering costs boosts your ROI, but maybe not your net
3- Always consider the hourly value of each volunteers time

Put an ROI value on upfront expenditures
The most important point is to analyze all of your up-front spending versus the net gain from each expenditure. Obviously, don’t spend money if nothing is actually gained.

One example would be evaluating advertising expenses for a capital campaign. Before you commit to it, run a small series of test ads to determine the response rate.

If you don’t get the desired response, either revise your ad campaign or consider not spending any more money on advertising.

Look for areas where the returns are greatly magnified for every dollar spent. This generally includes effective publicity, quality communication, targeted prospect lists, and timely reminder campaigns.

Put an ROI value on cost reduction vs. net profits
Lowering costs boosts your ROI measurement, but your net can be impacted by the lack of investment. If there is an area where money spent in the past produced excellent results, then be sure that this year’s plan provides additional investment capital for that effort.

A good example involves possibly cutting the funding for your capital campaign mailing. Sure, you can cut your expenses by not mailing to anyone that didn’t respond last year.

However, the law of large numbers will catch up to you. Less people contacted means less money contributed.

Remember, it doesn’t always take money to make money, but not spending money where it is really needed can seriously impact your results.

Put an ROI value on your fundraising volunteers time Another important ROI point to remember is the value of each volunteer’s time. Each volunteer-hour worked to raise money for your fundraiser should at least be equivalent to minimum wage. Otherwise, your group is wasting their time by not working smart.

An example would be spending a total of 1,000 volunteer hours coordinating an auction event that only raised $5,000. Chances are that many groups would be happy with the $5,000 net, but the ROI on everyone’s time was marginal.

Put an ROI value on your merchant partners
In this instance, you want to maximize the value of everyones time by giving them specific tasks and full instructions. Don’t take a scattershot approach by going all the area merchants and asking for donations of merchandise.

Instead, develop rapport with those merchants by providing value for them all year long before you ask them for a large donation.

Ways to improve your fundraising ROI
Focus your efforts where you’ll get positive responses and avoid wasting your time on unproductive endeavors.

Each person who helps out in a fundraiser is offering their time in exchange for something that benefits everyone.

Give them specific assignments that focus on maximum results. Don’t waste people’s time or you will discourage future participation.

Why your fundraising ROI is important
Watch your ROI. It’s a good indicator of the health of your non-profit organization. If the number is too low, your group will be constantly recruiting people to replace those who aren’t interested anymore.

Your donors and volunteers won’t return because their time wasn’t valued, they saw their money being wasted, and they also saw penny-pinching where open purse strings would have been a better solution.

Design your organization to maximize your fundraising ROI and you’ll position your group for success for many years to come.

Fundraising with food has been a long time favorite for sports team fundraising. It is effective, provides something most people like and are willing to pay for, and the variety is vast. Whatever type of food fundraiser you choose for your team, there are three things you must do to get the most out of your efforts.

Food Fundraisers: Go For Mass Appeal
First, choose a popular product that will appeal to the greatest number of potential customers. Your choice should be appropriate to your target audience, be priced fairly, include a good profit margin, and be seasonally viable. For example, don’t sell sweets while the Girl Scouts annual cookie fundraiser is in progress!

Once you choose a product or group of products, use publicity to get the word out. Use school publications, posters, and all the usual suspects.

Take it to the next level by issuing a press release on local radio and newspapers. Most local publications offer this as a free service for non-profit organizations. This will spread your reach beyond the team, their families, neighbors, and friends.

Prepare and Execute!
Secondly, design your plan for execution. Everyone, including your team should know your group goal, your stretch goal, and their individual goal. Create a sales script for the team. Rehearse it at practice in a role playing way.

Would you rather make a purchase from an unprepared athlete who mumbles at his shoes, or from one that is prepared with what to say and looks their potential customer in the eye while conveying the appropriate message?

That message should briefly tell what product they are offering, who they are raising money for, and how the money will be used. (New uniforms, equipment, trip to the play-offs, etc.)

Offer Sales Incentives
Offer incentives for top sellers. Rewards should be quality prizes, not junk. Many fundraising suppliers include prize incentives for top sales attainment. If there is an additional charge for incentives, or if the incentives offered are not appropriate for your team, ask local businesses to donate prizes.

Have a recognition party announcing the top sellers. Everyone likes to be recognized for a job well done in the presence of their peers. If you tally your numbers daily, the top selling player has to run five less laps than the rest of the team.

Go Where The Money Is
As part of your execution plan, consider boosting your reach by selling your products from a table at a shopping center. These are customers that you may not reach otherwise, and can more than double your sales.

Approach the management of a shopping center for permission first. Then organize your volunteers in teams to cover the sales tables in shifts.

Advertise clearly at each sales table. In large print on posters, tell who is selling, what they are selling, and how the money will be used. Use not only multiple locations, but multiple tables at each location.

Give Extra Options
Third and finally, provide several ways the community can help your cause. Offering a variety of products helps ensure there is something that will appeal to everyone.

Or offer an overlay fundraising item. Not every customer will want the food products you have chosen to sell.

Offer a fundraising discount card in addition to your primary offering. Whether it is a two for one discount pizza card, or a fast food discount card, these can add substantial profit to your bottom line.

By offering your primary product and an overlay item, you could double the likelihood that a purchase will be made.

Don’t forget the most obvious overlay: a donation.

If a customer does not want to make a purchase, always ask if they would prefer to make a donation to help your cause.

Entertainment Book is one of the most popular fundraising tools and benefits all types of organizations. During the last year, more than five million books were sold by over 10,000 organizations all over the world.

An entertainment book contains hundreds of valuable offers fro the best restaurants, theaters, attractions and sports events in the area. The organizations who provide these offers introduce new customers as well as supporting community fund raising.

There are number of coupons that provide you with 50% discount or offers such as buy one and get one. Therefore you can find everything you want at the most discounted prices with such discount coupon book. At the same time it helps a family on a budget with $5 off each month at the local grocery store.  Because it works both as a consumer and a fundraiser, it is really a worth to have.

Entertainment Book is a great fundraiser because of the following reasons:

<b> 1. </b> There is no upfront cost involved that means you pay only for what you sell.

<b> 2. </b> You can use these books and can offer them to your out of town family and friends.

<b> 3. </b> The local representative shall help you in making the most money with minimum efforts.

<b> 4. </b> You can also go from kick off to wrap up in weeks.

<b> 5. </b> There are many planning and promotional materials in this book.

<b> 6. </b> It also includes free reward programs to motivate the sellers.

<b> 7.</b> It provides money saving services to your supporters.

<b> 8. </b> You can get these books on consignment and can pay only for the books actually sold.

Most commonly these books are sold as fundraisers in the months between September and January. Most of the times, people already reserve the edition of each year for themselves in advance because there is a huge demand for it when it is published.

Looking for ideas for fundraisers? You’re not the only one. Every group is searching for easy fundraisers that produce big results. Well, selling fundraising discount cards is one of the best fundraisers around.

Discount cards deliver considerable revenue for your group at $10 each. They usually produce average sales of 10 units per seller. Coupled with their 80%-90% profit margins, they also generate considerably more profit than most other fundraising products.

These are simple immediate-sale fundraiser products that your group can offer. Discount cards provide these benefits:

-They are easy to sell
-They offer good value
-They produce excellent results

Three types of fundraising discount cards:

-Shopping cards
-Pizza cards
-Fast food cards

Each of these fundraisers has benefits that are easy to explain to your supporters. They have widespread appeal and each can be offered for immediate sale or sold via a simple brochure.

Discount Shopping Card
What exactly is a discount shopping card?

It is a wallet-sized card packed with a selection of prearranged discounts at local and national merchants in your area. Most usually contain a dozen special offers that save the bearer either a fixed amount or a percentage discount.

Each card usually retails for $10 and provides for almost unlimited usage of the special offers. The only exception is when you custom design a card to feature a special one-time only discount from a sponsoring merchant.

This type of premium offering is often worth half the $10 purchase price all by itself, such as $5 off from a national oil change company.

Other money saving examples include free drinks with a fast food order, $1 or more off on a submarine sandwich, savings on video rentals, haircut discounts, free ice cream, and other special offers.

Because of their high perceived value (what family doesn’t want to save money these days?), these cards are excellent fundraisers.

Discount cards can often produce impressive unit sales per participant. It’s not unusual for each seller to make ten or more sales.

Another interesting benefit is the unique customization of the card. Many suppliers can place your schools’ name and logo on the front side of each card. This firmly affixes your group’s value proposition in their minds for your next fundraiser.

Cards are usually good for a one year period and bear an expiration date on the front. This creates a built-in market for repeat sales.

In my book, Fundraising Success! you can find a supplier cross-reference section where I list 27 suppliers for these types of cards.

The reference section can be found on my website at www.fundraiserhelp.com

As with any type of fund raising product it pays to do more than a little supplier research.

Costs for 1,000 unit batches begin at $5 with many suppliers and drop as low as $1.00 from the best companies.

Among ideas for fundraisers, discount shopping cards are a perennial favorite. They also make a good overlay or add-on item for candy fundraising or a catalog fundraiser.

Pizza Discount Card
What is a pizza card and how is it different?

A pizza card is a discount card with an offer tied to a single merchant, usually a national chain. It often provides a two- for-one offer on every order and is tends to be priced at $10 for a card good for a one-year period.

Offers vary with most being tied to either a single location or a small group of outlets for a national chain. Pizza Hut cards are good for eat-in dining while most others are aimed at the take-out or delivery market.

Given how popular pizza is with younger children as well as teenagers, pizza cards are excellent school fundraising ideas.

The cards for Pizza Hut and those for some of the other chains place a limit on the number of times you can use the card, often 21 times. That is a lot of free pizza for $10. Usage is tracked via holes punched in marked spots on the card.

Some of the offers also specify that your initial order must be for a large pizza while your free pizza is a medium size. When you think about it, that works well for most adults because they usually want a different set of toppings than what their children enjoy.

Pizza cards can be obtained from many suppliers. Most offer the same set of national chains and prices can vary widely, so it pays to shop around.

All in all, pizza cards are among the best easy fundraisers based on profitability and ease of sale.

Fast Food Discount Card
What do I need to know about fast food discount cards? Well, they are usually specific to just one fast food chain and often are limited to just one or two locations of that particular chain. They retail for $10 and usually cost less than $2, so they’re a great moneymaker. Offers vary by company, but they usually provide a matching main item with purchase of the same. For example, at Burger king, you might get a free hamburger. At Subway, you usually get a free soda, chips, or cookie with each sandwich purchase.

The cards are limited in duration and number of uses. Usually, they are good for up to one year and restricted to roughly ten uses. Again, the offers vary by chain, so check the details closely.

Participating national chains are:

McDonalds
Burger King
Subway
Dairy Queen
Pizza Hut
Dominos Pizza
Papa Johns Pizza

Fundraising Discount Cards Recap
So, what’s the bottom line on discount card sales?

The excellent consumer value of all these cards makes them an easy sale. Their $10 price point makes a cash purchase a simple transaction yet a higher amount than most fundraising items.

Their great value, small size, light weight, and easy handling requirements make selling these cards a breeze.

Most suppliers will provide the discount cards and pizza cards to your group on easy credit terms. That makes them great school fundraisers because you can offer them to your supporters as an immediate sale item, thus simplifying the delivery process tremendously.

Instead of relying on your supporters’ discretionary purchasing power in these tough economic times, why not tap into your supporters’ everyday spending on fast food meals?

They’re not quite necessities, but they are an ingrained spending habit with many families.

Selling fundraising discount cards positions you for a better chance at a larger portion of your supporters’ spending. And, because of their high unit volumes, healthy profit margins, and ease of sale, they are excellent school fundraisers because they’ll produce exceptional profits.

Make sure your group gets your share!

The key to continued fundraising success is to follow-up afterwards: Supporters and participants need to be thanked.

Merchant contributors need to be debriefed on their results from participating. Records need to be gathered, copied, and stored.

Communicate the results to everyone involved.

Informing everyone who took part in your most recent fundraising is of utmost importance. Nothing charges up your organization for the future better than a group celebration.

Give recognition to your volunteers.

Enjoy the sound of “We did it!”

Conduct a post-mortem analysis of the fundraiser just completed.

Gather information and record impressions while everything is still fresh. Make notes about supplier relationships, any process problems, and what aspects need fine-tuning for the next time around.

Gather those recommendations for future fundraisers.

Brainstorm with your team and write down all the possible ways to improve. Circulate a written evaluation form to gather multiple viewpoints for the permanent file.

Make plans while everyone is still excited from this success.

Strategize how to increase the number of volunteers. Plan to promote those who excelled this time around to positions with more authority.

Ask your merchant supporters what you could do better.

In the long run, it’s important to help them even more. Now is a good time to ask them for increased participation during your next big drive.

Review all records for completeness.

Work up the statistical analysis covered in the section on Goal Setting (in my book Fundraising Success!). That will save time in the future when you want to set your benchmarks.

Post the results on your website.

Let everyone see how ell you did along with multiple pictures of your team in action. When describing your success, be a shameless namedropper. Everyone likes to be thanked publicly.

Most importantly, put the funds you’ve raised to good use.

Your fundraising follow-up is the foundation for your future success. Don’t give this area short shrift. Pave the way for even better results next time.