Valuable Tips To Help You Select The Ideal Fundraising Program

There are many things to consider when selecting the best fundraising program for your team. Answer the following questions to help you determine what type of fund raising program will work best for your team.

• How much do you need to raise for your team?
• How soon do you need the money?
• When do you want to begin the fundraising program?
• How many people will be participating in the fund raising program?
• Do you have a group of volunteers to help with organizing things and running the fundraising event? And if not, do you have ideas about how to get volunteers? Do you expect it to be relatively easy to get people to volunteer or do you expect you’ll have to run things mostly on your own?
• How successful have your past fundraisers been?
• How much time and work can you put into a fundraiser? Do you need something simple or do you have the time and skills to do something more complex?

With these answers in hand, you can pick the best fundraising program for your team.

There is no “one size fits all” fund raising program that will work well for everyone. Here are a few of the most popular programs used these days.

Candy Sales

Candy sales remain one of the most popular fundraisers for basketball teams because everyone loves candy. Some teams choose to sell individual candy bars, which customers do not need to order in advance, making it a very simple fundraising program to operate. You can elect to sell popular name brand candy bars so customers can choose their favorites and you don’t need to charge a lot for a candy bar, making the items affordable for everyone. On the other hand, some teams choose to sell gift boxes of candy or tins of fancy chocolates or the like, which bring in higher amounts but require customers to order in advance, requiring more management work.

Magazine Sales

Magazine sales are another popular fund raising program. Companies allow your team to sell subscriptions to numerous popular magazines and your team earns money for each subscription sold. Many people read magazines anyway so they’ll be happy to buy subscriptions to help support your team, and this is nice change to the more common fundraisers involving the sale of candy and other “junk foods.” Customers will receive their magazines by mail so while your team members will have to take orders and collect payments, you won’t have to worry about delivering products.

Scratch Off Cards

Like a candy bar sale fundraising program, scratch off cards require little administrative work and are easy to sell. They resemble those lottery tickets that are so popular these days and you can have them printed up with any design you like on them. Printing them is not very expensive and they sell easily so your team can make plenty of money. If you know someone that can design the cards for you, that’s great, but if not the company that prints them up for you can help you with the design.

Gift Brochures

You can use gift brochures, offering a variety of different kinds of gifts, for a successful fund raising campaign. You can get gift brochures offering candles, Christmas ornaments and gift wrap, food baskets, frozen cookie dough and all sorts of other items. When doing a fundraiser with gift brochures, people place their orders and pay in advance so you don’t have to worry about ordering more product than you’ll actually sell. Your team can earn a significant amount of money with gift brochures but they also require a fair amount of work since you must take orders and collect payment in advance, then distribute the products at a later date.

For more information and ideas, be sure to visit Amazon.com. They have several excellent books on fundraising ideas and tips.