The most common way to raise money for an organization at school is through fundraisers. There are different types of fundraisers. One example are crazy sales such as selling mattresses like band and choir have before. Another way is by organizing events such as Mactoberfest which is organized by PALS, or the most basic fundraiser which is selling junk food such as pretzels like the band does. All of these are ways to gain money, but some fundraisers are more successful than others.
The best type of fundraisers are the big events or services. Anything that attracts a big audience at once is very effective.
Fundraising events make the most money at once. For example, the dance team organizes a car wash and according to Coach Exum (the dance teacher), they get on average $1,800 from donations. When it rains days before the car wash, people are more likely to go wash their car, so they make about $2,500. Exum refers to it as “free money” because there’s no startup cost. Everything needed for the car wash is free because they already have buckets and the dancers donate other supplies. This is such a successful way to get money so Coach Exum tries to organize 2-3 car washes per semester.
Another example is Mactoberfest. It’s organized by PALS (they donate all the money to charity), but they’re not the only ones who get money. Other school organizations who participate in the festival keep the money they make. Last year, according to Mr.Schwartz, PALS made $4,000 and the organizations collectively made about $2,500.
Money from Mactoberfest and the carwash are made in one day while other fundraisers have to wait a long period of time to get the money they want and even then, it might not be enough. One of those types of fundraisers are crazy or expensive sells. For example, Choir and Band attempted to sell mattresses. Mr. Woodward, the choir teacher, said that they only did it one time because it was a “low profit experience.” Only five people showed up and only two or three people actually bought mattresses. They made about $800.
Selling junk food is a good concept because there are always consumers for that, but the profit is not good. Coach Exum said that the dance team doesn’t sell candy or popcorn because it doesn’t make much money for the team. She went to a director workshop and they told her that if they don’t get the minimum wage per person, then it’s not even worth doing it because they’re spending a lot of time selling, but they are not getting the money back. Coach Morrison (girl’s soccer coach) also agrees that it’s not worth it. Two years ago, the girl’s soccer team sold popcorn and last year they sold coupons. Coach Morrison said they worked so hard, but they “didn’t really get anywhere.”
Having a combination of a good audience and good profit is very important when it comes to fundraising. Selling mattresses or other expensive things can make very good profit, but it doesn’t have the right audience because consumers find it odd to buy mattresses from a high school. Selling junk food has the right audience because food in school always sells, but the profits are very low. Organizing events has the perfect combination of consumers and profits.
Opposition might say that bad weather can be an obstacle for the events and that’s true, but there’s a bigger chance that an event will go well. That’s why Dance does the carwash as often as they do, and Mactoberfest takes place every year. Other fundraisers, on the other hand, are always at risk of making a very small profit.
Organizing events to raise money is more successful than other fundraisers. More organizations should be inclined to do so in order to get the most profit out of it and to build community among the school with different events.
