Benefits of Having a Well-Rounded Fundraising Event Schedule

When planned properly, there are numerous fundraising opportunities throughout a school year that can help your school raise big funds. The key is the planning part! Without a well thought out calendar, you are sure to miss out on opportunities to bring in additional funds and exceed your goals. That’s why kicking off the year with a fundraising event schedule already in place is crucial. Read on to learn more about all the benefits to planning out your year in advance. Plus—tips on how to get started on your own fundraising calendar!

In this blog you will learn:

• The benefits to starting the school year with a planned fundraising event schedule.
• Tips to start planning your calendar.
• How to fill your calendar with a variety of fundraisers.

Key Benefits to Planning Out Your Calendar

Building a calendar and planning out your fundraising event schedule in advance of the school year will keep you organized and moving towards your fundraising goals. This proactive planning also brings additional benefits that will help you meet—or more likely exceed!—your fundraising goals, while setting you up for future success.

Save valuable time.

Getting organized before the school year begins will actually save you tons of time in the long run! Having your entire fundraising event schedule mapped out means you can also start planning the resources you need such as materials and volunteer time. This will avoid last minute scrambling that can actually eat up more of your time. Plus—you may also be able to identify overlapping resources with more than one fundraiser that can result in a big time saver!

Increase fundraising opportunities.

Planning ahead will give you a clear overview of the entire year so you can identify key dates, events and holidays that may otherwise be overlooked as potential fundraising opportunities. This will give you a big picture look at the year for a well rounded strategy filled with different types of fundraisers, so you don’t exhaust your donors, students and families. It can feel overwhelming to brainstorm and run so many different types of fundraisers, which is why partnering with Booster can be a game changer. From DIY to full service, Booster offers a huge variety of fundraising solutions, making it truly a one-stop-shop for school fundraising.

Raise more funds.

Because you are strategically planning out your fundraising event schedule and identifying more opportunities, you are more likely to raise more funds! Again, remember to diversify your offerings such as hosting a fitness fundraiser followed by a gear sale so that your donors have different types of opportunities to give to your school.

Start planning for larger goals and projects.

When you are raising more annually, you can then begin to look beyond just meeting your goals for the year to fund things such as field trips or school supplies. Add on larger goals such as technology or major school improvements that often take multiple years to fund.

Steps to Build Your Fundraising Calendar

1. Set your fundraising goals for the school year —and beyond! Before you start filling in your calendar, begin by setting your fundraising goals. What do you want to raise money for this year? How about future years? Once you have set goals, you can determine the types and number of fundraisers you will need to host in order to meet them.
2. Identify key dates, events and holidays. These may be great opportunities to host a fundraiser. For example, turn your fitness fundraiser into a friendship building event and host it on Valentine’s Day or create custom tumblers to sell as gifts around Mother’s or Father’s Day. For more creative ideas on how to sync up your fundraiser with seasons, holidays and more visit here.
3. Plan and allocate resources. When planning a fundraising event schedule you must be realistic about the resources and volunteers you will need to make each fundraiser a success. For each fundraiser make a list of what you will need. This can also help you space out the more laborious fundraisers so as not to burn out your volunteers, students and families.
4. Diversify your offerings. By hosting a variety of different types of fundraisers, you are offering your donors more opportunities to give to your school. For example, get parents excited for back to school with a custom gear sale, offer a product sale to buy gifts during the holiday season and host a restaurant night to take dinner responsibilities off the table one evening. All of these fundraisers provide a different service or product, making it more likely for donors to give more than once!
5. Analyze previous fundraisers and strategies. As you wrap up a year of fundraising, make sure to evaluate what was successful and what did not work well. This will help you to perfect your process as you begin to look towards the next school year.

Creating a plan for your fundraising at the beginning of the school year is key to successfully reaching your goals. Building a fundraising event schedule can also help you get a clear overview of your plans so you can reach more donors, save valuable time—and of course raise maximum funds!