Preventing Fundraising Burnout
How To Keep Your Fundraisers Fresh
Since many schools and other organizations today find themselves suffering
from a chronic state of under-funding, they are increasingly forced to hold
multiple fundraisers through the course of the year. Unfortunately, this can
lead to a complete ‘fundraiser burnout’ for many customers as well as for
fundraising salespeople.
So the critical question is: how do you maintain real interest on the part of
customers so as to keep support for your group strong, and how do you keep your
salespeople from flagging, losing energy and interest in raising money for your
organization? Although there are many potential solutions, here are just a few
examples to get started with.
In order to keep customer interest high, and as a way of maintaining goodwill,
sell different products during each fundraiser throughout the year. There’s
nothing wrong with repeating a successful fundraiser, but once a year is
probably more than enough – even an extremely popular fundraising option can
quickly lead to customer burnout if it’s repeated too frequently.
As a matter of maintaining customer goodwill, offer useful products and services
in your fundraisers – everyone loves cookies and chocolates, but there comes a
point where customers will only be buying them to support the organization; some
will just quit buying them at all. If you find a way to provide goods or
services that supporters of the organization already want, then they are able to
support your organization by buying something that they might have somewhere
else anyway – a win-win situation.
As a corollary of this, be sure not to have too many fundraisers – you’re better
off with a few wildly successful ones than a dozen mediocre fundraising programs
– customers will buy more readily when they’re asked to buy less often, and
salespeople can stay excited if they’re not asked to sell constantly.
To keep your salespeople excited, offer creative incentives to encourage them to
compete with one another. Depending on your organization, the chance to throw
pies at a principal or dunk some other authority figure could go over very well.
Also, make the connection obvious – show your salespeople the benefits that the
organization will see from fundraising and by extension the benefits that they
themselves will see.
There are many other ways to keep fundraising fun and ensure that your customers
and salespeople stay interested – just make sure to use common sense and think
positively and creatively - your organization is bound to be successful!
About The Author
Michelle Pearson is a former fundraising consultant, and
she is passionate about making the world a better place. She is also a
contributor to the internet's preeminent fundraising resource. Learn about the issues surrounding your fundraising
efforts, advertising opportunities, sponsorships, and more.
Related Pages
Fundraising FAQ - Article covering common
fundraising questions asked by those new to school fundraisers and other
nonprofit charitable activities.
Successful Fundraisers - Boost results
with organization, quality incentives, and sales preparation.
Organize School Fundraiser - Quick
tips on organizing your school efforts by planning ahead.
Organizing a School Fundraiser - Part
2 - Here are some other things to consider.
School Fundraising Tips - How to
improve the results of your next fundraiser - Ten tips you can use.
Elementary School Fundraising -
Ideas for elementary school fundraising - Different fundraisers to consider when
putting together your school fundraiser plan.
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