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Planning a fundraising campaign can be pretty frustrating. Here are seven helpful tips that will help make planning your fundraiser go smoothly and make it more profitable.

1.) Plan for Success

Efficient planning is a major part of the success of not only your fundraising campaign but any project you have looming before you. Without a concise and well thought out plan of attack, chaos will reign and your project will be doomed to suffer. In fact, you should have a primary plan as well as a secondary plan in place.

2.) There can be Only One Chief!

It might seem obvious, but, too many chiefs and not enough Indians is a recipe for failure. There really should be only one person is coordinates all the different parts of the planning process for things to gell correctly.

3.) Delegate, Delegate, Delegate

Assign specific tasks to people in whom you have confidence and trust. In your planning create a list of tasks that must be accomplished and choose personnel for each task. Ensure that each of your chosen staff understands that accountability for their assigned task falls squarely on their shoulders.

4.) Promotion is the Key

Get the word out about your fundraiser. Proper promotion of your event will ensure that you reach your goal. Send out notices to local newspaper and radio stations. Don’t forget your own school web page is a great way to post your fundraiser and get the word out about it. The type of fundraiser you are planning will dictate if making flyers and asking local business to put them in their store windows would be helpful. There are a variety of ways to promote your fundraiser and you should take advantage of as many as possible.

5.) Pre-Sell for a Successful Fundraiser

This will work for any type of fundraiser you are planning. If your fundraiser is a dance, dinner, guest speaker, or other ticketed type of event you should pre-sell your tickets. Start doing this long before the actual fundraising event. When items such as cookie dough are your what you will be selling, start mentioning it to co-workers, friends and family ahead of time.

6.) Multiple Income Streams

Do not put all of your eggs in one basket. Multiple income streams have been a recipe for success in business for many years and you should be running your fundraiser just like a business. If all of your efforts are concentrated in only one program, then your market may become saturated. You might even have another nearby school start the same thing your were planning to do the week before your kick your fundraiser off. If you are located in a small town, this can be a huge blow to your school fundraising success. Try using multiple events to your advantage. This is an excellent way to reach your goal as quickly as possible and spread out some of the risk.

7.) Analysis After the Fundraiser

This is not part of the actual fundraiser, but this is something that you should not overlook. Analyze how each of your school fundraising efforts performed when it is finished. Which one raised your school the most money? Which one was the easiest to do? You can use your analysis of your current campaign to enhance future fundraising efforts. It is also helpful to make notes in a journal for the next board to view in case all the faces on the board change next year. This way they don’t have to re-invent the wheel like you did.

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