Get Social for Better Fundraising Results
Fundraising provides a financial way for students, parents and schools to get new sporting equipment, take a field trip, get updated computers in the classrooms and more.
It teaches students from a young age that when you want something, you have to work for it.
Fundraising also teaches children how to work in a team, how to sell in a competitive environment, how to get creative with their selling and advertising tactics, and it shows them that consistency and hard work get results.
With the increasing presence of social media, fundraising can be taken to a new level.
Examples of fundraising
Schools can put on many different types of fundraisers.
Examples include providing a service or selling a good (such as cookies or fruit), having a contest or raffle, or hosting some sort of event like a school carnival. You can have a spell-a-thon, a chili cook off or an auction. You can even host a bingo tournament. The options are endless.
How social media can be used
Thanks to social media, there really is no stopping how far kids can go to promote and sell their product or advertise their fundraising event.
You can post the fundraiser on your own personal social media pages and schools can post the events on their school pages.
Morgantown High School in West Virginia, for example, reached out to alumni and thousands of other people via social media who in total contributed more than $6 million so the school could build a new sports facility. The school built a website to accept donations and utilized Facebook, Twitter and YouTube.
If you do choose to build a website for fundraising, it’s important to make sure the payment is safe and secure.
SchoolFundr uses WePay to facilitate secure financial transactions, never sends unsolicited emails and makes sure your data is safe.
On sites like Facebook and Twitter, it’s important to interact, interact and interact some more.
Why should people donate to your cause? What makes your fundraiser stand out? Get conversations going, share relevant information in the news and get your followers to develop a passion for your fundraiser, just as you have.
Also, it’s OK to be specific.
You can share how if x number of people donated x amount of dollars, you would be able to fund that trip to Ecuador to build homes. Give people warnings about when they need to donate by, that way they have time to prepare and aren’t caught off guard.
You can offer special promotions (like buy one raffle get one free) to the early birds or even to those who want to buy a last-minute ticket.
Social media has changed the way businesses and schools go about fundraising.
No longer are door-to-door sales necessary; people can be reached all over the world in a matter of seconds. Distant relatives are given the chance to donate and help out because of social media. Alumni can continue feeling like a part of their favorite school by giving back.
And students can get creative with reaching people and not just meeting, but exceeding, their fundraising goals.
Photo credit: premium.wpmudev.org
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