Fundraising Tips for Champion and Community Engagement!

Thanks for being a current or future FarmRaiser organizer! While dreaming up healthy fundraising ideas and perfecting your online market by selecting the right mix of local products is fun, we know from experience that student and community engagement is the secret to a successful school product fundraiser. To help your FarmRaiser succeed, here are some tips from our top performing campaign organizers to help you mobilize students and supporters. Also, don’t forget to share our Champ Tips with your kiddos! 

Fundraising Tip #1: Host a kickoff for your FarmRaiser. Talk with students about the importance of healthy products, make sure they know what the money will support, and share the incentives the school is offering. Ask your Cultivator about getting samples of products to share with students.

Fundraising Tip #2: Offer Incentives. Encourage competition among students by offering incentives to top performers. You can do this by grade, class, or individual. Some examples of great incentives (that are NOT pizza or ice cream parties) include:

1. 10 minutes extra recess for the class or grade who sells the most

2. Free homework pass, extra credit, etc. to the highest seller in each class or grade

3. Gift certificates to a local toy store, movie tickets, etc. to the top three sellers

4. Classroom dance party!

5. A beloved teacher or staff member dyes or shaves their hair

6. Let students throw water balloons, silly string, etc. at a staff member they choose

7. Show a movie to the class or grade that sells the most

Remember, an incentive doesn’t have to cost a lot of money, or take a lot of time, but needs to recognize and celebrate the students, staff, and parent volunteers for their energy and efforts. If you’ve got other ideas, add them in the comments section below.

Fundraising Tip #3. Make sure students use our mobile fundraising app! Make sure students download the (FREE) FarmRaiser app on their iPhone or Droid, and use it to make face-to-face sales. The app also includes fun facts about where products come from, and the local farmers or artisans who produce them.

Fundraising Tip #4. Kids aren’t the only ones who can sell! Encourage teachers, staff, and parents to register and sell with the app! They’ll already be sharing the link to your online market, and extra app sales can help blow your sale out of the water. This is also an easy way to encourage friendly competition and motivate students to sell more–after all, who wants their principal, history teacher, etc. to beat them in sales?!

Fundraising Tip #5. Share the link to your online market everywhere: email, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, blogs, etc. See our social media suggestions  for ideas about what and when to to post.Download  and print this sheet to remind you. Encourage students and parents to share the link to the fundraising market on their social media as well, and don’t forget to encourage students (and parents) to write a personal email to potential supporters.

Fundraising Tip #6. Don’t forget about email. A personal email appeal that introduces the campaign, the goals, and the products can be a very fundraising tool. Use this example as a template, and customize it for your specific campaign, add personal notes to the recipients, and let them know how passionate you are about the cause.

Are you an organizer who wants your FarmRaiser champs to blow their fundraiser out of the water? This is a must-read.