Why You Need an Awesome Fundraising Tracker

When you’re running a school fundraiser, you need a tracker. Fundraising trackers are an essential tool for measuring the progress of your campaign goals. 

In this blog, you’ll learn more about: 

• What a Fundraising Tracker Is
• How Fundraising Trackers Can Help
• Ways Booster Can Assist with Your Fundraiser

They help you stay organized, communicate with your team, and motivate your school community. With the right fundraising tracker, you can stay on top of your fundraiser and lead it to great success.

But what is a fundraising tracker, and how does it work? How do you choose the best fundraising tracker for your school’s fundraising campaign? This blog will explain what a fundraiser tracker is and why you need one for your fundraiser. 

What is a fundraising tracker? 

A fundraising tracker is any tool that helps your team monitor the progress of your fundraiser. Although this could be a ledger or spreadsheet, the best fundraising trackers are visual. 

Common fundraising trackers include charts, graphs, or the popular “thermometer” graphics. Graphics are among the most popular options for fundraising trackers because they lend themselves to engaging marketing materials. 

They could depict a thermometer rising as your donations approach the fundraiser’s goal, a jar filling up, or an image of your school’s mascot filling with color as more funds are raised.

Fundraising trackers can be analog, digital or both. For example, your team could create a fundraising website with a digital version to share on social media and in email blasts to the school community.  

Then, in the school office, you could create a paper thermometer for families and students to see in person. You could even recruit students to create the thermometer and keep it colored in. If your school is raising funds for a specific goal, such as new sports equipment, the tracker could show images representing how much equipment can be purchased with the funds raised. 

Our proprietary MyBooster online fundraising technology includes up-to-the-minute fundraiser tracking, where you’ll be able to track daily pledge stats, the percentage of students that have pledged and registered, and pledges by sponsor type among other important stats. You can use this information to update the student body, PTA members and other stakeholders on the progress of the fundraising efforts. 

How fundraising trackers can help 

Most people have a stronger response to data when it’s displayed visually. A graph or chart is more likely to motivate someone to contribute to a fundraiser than numbers on a page. Fundraising trackers drive donations by creating a sense of urgency that’s hard to convey with numbers alone.

A fundraising tracker also helps your internal team. It’s a convenient way to keep your data organized and up-to-date as donations come in. 

Volunteers can take a quick glance at the tracker to see if their efforts to promote the fundraiser are paying off, and adjust their strategy accordingly. For example, if you view your admin dashboard and notice that grandparents make up the bulk of pledgers, you can encourage students to reach out to their grandparents if they haven’t already. 

Plus, a creative student-facing fundraising tracker encourages people to share on social media. This gives your fundraiser a much broader reach beyond your school’s immediate community. If the fundraising tracker includes exciting or funny visuals, it may even go viral!

Types of fundraising trackers 

All fundraising trackers share the same basic principles. They show your fundraiser’s goal, then show your progress in real-time as you strive to meet that goal. However, there are multiple types of fundraising trackers, and each type of fundraising tracker can be customized to fit the unique needs of your school’s campaign.

Popular trackers for your school’s fundraiser may include:

Donation trackers

If your fundraiser is soliciting monetary donations, a donation tracker may be the best choice for you. This is one of the most common types of trackers. It displays the goal you’re trying to raise, then the donations (in dollar amount) as they roll in and approach that goal.

Sales trackers

Let’s say your fundraiser involves selling raffle tickets, tickets to an event, or other items. You can set a goal to sell a certain number of tickets, then use that metric with your fundraising tracker. Rather than displaying the amount of money raised for your school, a sales tracker will display the progress based on how many tickets or other prizes have been sold.

Pledge trackers

You can also track pledges in a fundraising tracker. This is a great option if you’re running a dance-a-thon, Fun Run or other activities for your fundraiser where families and community members make pledges rather than monetary donations.

Our online fundraising technology can help

If you’re still not sure if a fundraising tracker is right for your campaign, let Booster help! We’ll work with your school to set up all the fundraising tools you need. 

Our MyBooster technology allows for stress-free donation collection and integrated corporate matching. Your donors, school leaders, students, and PTA members will thank you for discovering Booster Tech’s easy-to-use technology.

Harness the power of Booster Tech’s state-of-the-art fundraising technology today. Our fundraising advisors are ready to help you achieve the fundraising success you’ve dreamed of. Get started today.