As far as %'s... we just finished our fall fundraiser which was a Spell-A-Thon and we had about 48% participation. We have 156 students and only 73 students participated... I think that is sad... I know that times are tough and sometimes my own family is scraping pennies to make ends meet but would it have hurt a family to turn in $5... I just don't understand... We have parents that in the last 6 years have NEVER participated in anything...
When we did catalog fundrasiers, our participation was usually about 45%. Two years ago we switched to a fun run and had about 90% participation. Granted, the kids could bring in $1 and it counted as participation, but all in all, we made about 2x the net profit because we kept all the $. We had about the same level of support this year for our second fun run. Maybe it will tail off over the next few years if people start wanting something tangible for their $$, but for now the fun run has worked great.
About 10 years ago, our PTO tried a direct appeal "no fuss fundrasier". It failed to hit projections. I don't have participation % but from what I've heard, it was nearly a flop. The difference between a no-fuss and a fun run is basically just marketing since neither program gives the donor anything tangible. Next year, why not try wrapping your appeal in some sort of "a-thon" program that gets the students involved. It worked for us.
We just recently completed our Fall fundraiser with 52% of the families in our school donating. The fundraiser was a direct appeal, no selling, no catalogs, just asking for donations. The committee that ran the fundraiser thinks this was poor participation. We did not make our goal. We were hoping for $8000 but we only needed $6600 for our budget. We raised $5550.
Could anyone share about participation from your school,either from a fundraising perspective or parent involvement?
I thought 52% was a good amount. On average about 50% of our families belong to our organization.
Comments welcome!
