We were a little stunned when we saw an article that was posted on the Drudge Report. The story comes from the Boston Herald and it talks about how state regulations would negatively impact school fundraising efforts .. especially cookie dough fundraisers and bake sales.

The articles starts with:

The Departments of Public Health and Education contend clearing tables of even whole milk and white bread is necessary to combat an obesity epidemic affecting a third of the state’s 1.5 million students. But parents argue crudites won’t cut it when the bills come due on athletic equipment and band trips.

And that’s where the uproar begins. Parents complain that the state is dictating what their kids can eat and they apparently don’t like it one bit. It appears like the people most irritated are those that sell food for fundraisers.

“If you want to make a quick $250, you hold a bake sale,” said Sandy Malec, vice president of the Horace Mann Elementary School PTO in Newtonville.

Maura Dawley of Scituate said the candy bars her 15-year-old son brought to school to help pay for a youth group trip to Guatemala “sold like wildfire.” She worries the ban “would seriously affect the bottom line of the PTOs. “The goal is to raise money,” Dawley said. “You’re going to be able to sell pizza. You’re not going to get that selling apples and bananas. It’s silly.”

Food fundraisers have helped send the renowned Danvers High School Falcon Band to the Rose Bowl Parade in California and the 70th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor in Honolulu. Danvers Parents for Music Education sell fudge because “it still works,” said the group’s president, Matthew Desmond. “Even my wife will buy it.”

If you do not want your state or local government dictating what you and your family can eat and in turn determining what products you can and can’t sell to raise a little money you might want to be proactive and start talking to your representatives now. Because if you didn’t think this could happen to you this article might be an eye opener.

In our opinion there is a place and function for government but more and more often policy can get to the point where it appears and feels intrusive and has more far reaching effects that anticipated.

We’ve meant to discuss the effectiveness of cookie dough fundraisers for a long time and now that the fundraising season is ending for schools and sports organizations we felt like this was as good a time as any.

Cookie Dough fundraising has been around a long time. Historically larger groups chose this option because of the minimum order requirements and difficulties handling a frozen product. But as time progressed programs were designed that allowed smaller groups to chose this option as well. Companies started lowering minimum orders and they started marketing the fundraiser to smaller groups.

So should your group consider it as a viable fundraising option?

We believe it is still a viable product in spite of rising prices. Historically fundraising cookie dough was not a bad deal. Customers would purchase a tub that would make 60 or 70 cookies and pay $10 or $12 for a tub. So that came out to half a dollar a cookie. That was cheap compared to prices for cookies offered at malls and other outlets. Of course it was more expensive that making the cookie dough from scratch. But fewer and fewer people wanted to make dough from scratch so the convenience of buying ready to bake dough in tubs or boxes further drove sales.

Over the years cookie dough companies tried to spruce up their programs by adding new and sometimes funky new flavors that never really amount to much in sales. But it was like merchandising in retail. You knew your bread and butter items would sell more but you offered some outlandish items that would attract attention but might not sell.

So now groups can choose from programs that offer just the best selling half dozen flavors and others that include 15 or more kinds of cookies. You can also find programs that include other dessert items hoping to satisfy a broader base of customers.

We believe when it comes to cookie dough fundraisers simpler and cheaper are the ways to go. The programs that offer the top 6 selling flavors offer enough to satisfy anyone willing to buy a tub or two. And we suggest you look for the least expensive tubs. Right now there are companies still offering tubs for $10.

The other option is to offer a nationally known brand like Spunkmeyer for example but their cookie dough sells for a premium which might turn off some potential customers.

If you are considering a cookie dough fundraiser check out these companies:

Easy Fundraising

Fast Track Fundraising

Spunkmeyer

All 3 companies offer superior products and there is no cost to hold a fundraiser with any of them.

Times are getting so bad that even towns are looking for fundraising ideas to raise money and other ways to reduce spending.

Shawn Touhill, a Doylestown Township supervisor, got people together as part of a new town fundraising committee. They gathered Monday night to brainstorm ideas for saving and raising money. Most of the ideas came from township staff, who suggested everything from enforcing existing ordinances (to increase revenue from fines) to requiring inspections on homes before they’re sold (and charging the seller) to holding Bingo nights to hiring a grant writer.

Doylestown has been struggling for the past few years to keep property taxes low, while maintaining its level of service and pay for capital projects, such as road repairs and bike and hike path resurfacing. You hear the same story in town after town across the country. But it appears like Touhill is helping his town to brainstorm ideas other than simply raising taxes or cutting services.

Doylestown Parks director Karen Sweeney suggested that the township ask other municipalities that might not have parks and recreation programs if they want to “buy into” Doylestown Township’s programs. The municipalities would pay a fee and their residents would be charged the resident rate (rather than the higher nonresident rate) to participate. Thinking outside the box was the main purpose to find revenue sources that had long been ignored in the past.

So the question for you is what funding opportunities are available to you or your group/organization that you have not considered to date? Have you gathered the appropriate people to brainstorm? Doylestown offers a great lesson for all of us. Times are changing and we need to change with them.

We ran across an article the other day that was encouraging. It talked about activity based fundraisers like walks and runs and how they had set new fundraising records in 2011.

For the past few years there’s been lots of talk of the decline in product fundraising. The main reason given time after time has been childhood obesity. Schools and large organizations started to move away from food products that had been a staple in the fundraising industry for them and were seeing declines in the amount of money they raised.

Is it possible these smaller groups could learn from these large organizations and the amounts of money they are raising?

The other interesting thing about the list below is that they are almost all adult organizations with adult participants:

The top ten programs by total gross revenue in 2011 were:

1 $415.0 million (-0.4%) Relay for Life American Cancer Society

2 $131.3 million ( 7.7%) Race for the Cure Susan G. Komen for the Cure

3 $105.0 million ( 2.6%) March for Babies March of Dimes

4 $ 99.1 million ( 9.7%) Heart Walk American Heart Association

5 $ 87.5 million (-9.8%) Team in Training Leukemia & Lymphoma Society

6 $ 85.7 million (-0.4%) Walk to Cure Diabetes Juvenile Diabetes Research Fndn

7 $ 84.4 million (-5.4%) Susan G. Komen 3-Day Susan G. Komen for the Cure

8 $ 82.4 million (-0.8%) Bike MS National MS Society

9 $ 61.4 million ( 7.0%) Jump Rope for Heart American Heart Association

10 $ 61.0 million ( 1.7%) Making Strides Against Breast Cancer American Cancer Society

So if you want to raise money don’t be afraid of thon type events.

If you think presidential fundraising is different than the way you raise money think again. There are lots of similarities. The one I’d like to discuss today is the need to bring star power to your fundraising event.

Apparently former President Bill Clinton has agreed to make joint appearances with President Barack Obama at a series of campaign fundraisers. One would think having the current President present would be enough for any fundraiser. But the people in charge of raising money understand the need for even more star power.

So the handlers have arranged for President Clinton to join Obama on the fundraising trail. They must figure that the former president is more impactful with certain donors than the current president. That the combination of the two will bring an electricity that will fire up their donor base differently than if either man worked independently.

The lesson for us, then, is how do we fire up our donor bases? What can we do to bring excitement and publicity to our cause. What can we do to broaden our donor base and bring in more money?

Those are questions that need to be asked and that can only be answered on an organization by organization basis. You need to think outside the box. The problem many groups have is they are uncomfortable or unwilling to go outside their organization for help. But just consider presidential campaign and its understanding that by itself it could raise money but by partnering with others the end results could possibly be much higher.

Would that work for you as well?

Here are some basic fundraising tips:

1. Start with a List: Put togther a list of friends, family, neighbors and anyone else you might contact to raise money from. The more people the better. But don’t add people for the sake of adding them. The names on this list should be people you will actually contact.

2. Set a Goal: You would think this would be obvious but you’d be surprised at how few people set goals. Without a clear cut goal how will you know if you’ve been successful? Set a goal slightly higher than you think you can comfortably attain. Push yourself but don’t make it so high you get frustrated.

3. Clearly define what you’re raising money for: If you are raising money for something you believe in or need you will be more successful in your fundraising effort. Don’t waste your time trying to raise money for something you don’t care about. Use your network of contacts and your best efforts only when you believe in what you are doing.

4. Consider using online resources: These days we have large circles of online friends and you should make sure you are up to date with the best ways to reach those people. After all the first tip was to write down a list of people who might be willing to help. By using your online communities you expand those circles.

5.Make it personal. Make sure the people you contact know the fundraiser means a lot to you. Make your plea personal and from your heart and people will respond more generously. Everytime!

6. Form teams: Whether for accountability or for more coverage often times teams help people stay on track. You might not get something done for yourself but often you would not want to let a team mate down. Teams should brainstorm and combine talents to get the best results.

7. Send thank you notes. When you are done with your fundraising idea you should always send thank you notes. It might not affect the results of this fundraising campaign but it will help next time when you approach your contact list again. If people know you appreciate their help they will be more likely to help again in the future.

Does your group sell fundraising discount cards to raise money? I am curious to find out how you are doing with the sale of cards? The fundraising companies we speak to tell us that discount card fundraisers are booming. But then we ran across an article in the Tyler Texas newspaper that made us pause.

I’d like to share a little bit of the article and then get some feedback from our loyal readers about whether discount cards are still a good fundraising idea. Are Discount Fundraising Card Sales worth the work necessary to hold this type of fundraiser?

Here’s some snippets from the Tyler Paper:

“After eight years of discount card sales, Tyler elementary school students will take a break this year. The cards provided people with discounts at more than 20 Tyler area locations and served as a fundraiser for the participating schools and the Tyler ISD Foundation. Participating vendors included restaurants, entertainment and service companies such as oil changes, hair salons/barbers and dry cleaners, among other locations.”

Although we have not seen the actual card they used the discounts sound typical for fundraising discount cards and the inclusion of 20 merchants was a greater selection than most discount cards. So it would seem that the cards offered value. But apparently the buyers in Tyler didn’t think so.

“The TISD Foundation has led the campaign, but decided to suspend it this year because of poor sales last year and other priorities at the elementary schools. The way the program worked is that an outside company contacted vendors to include their discounts as part of the cards. Students and parents sold the cards and the school earned one-fourth of the profits, the foundation earned one-fourth of the profits and the company earned half of the profits.”

We are not familiar with any companies that operate with a profit split so we don’t know if the motivation for sales was not as high with this profit model. Most large discount card fundraising groups make 90% profit selling cards. Based on the article it looks like this group only made 50%.

“TISD Foundation executive director Larry Goddard said last year’s sales earned the foundation $10,000, half the profits of the previous year. Another $10,000 was spread among the participating elementary schools. “For the amount of time put into it by parents and teachers and students, it wasn’t worth it,” Goddard said. He also said elementary school parents, students and teachers have a lot on their plates this year with the new state assessments. “The elementary campus principals told us that they would do the discount card sales to help the foundation,” Goddard said in a statement. “We were impressed with the generous, dedicated benevolent spirit of our elementary principals — they do everything so well — but we want to change the vendor company and make it so that the card sales provide more dollars to the campuses for their discretionary spending.” He said the foundation is investigating other companies so that it can offer the cards and possibly additional fundraising opportunities next school year.”

The way we read the end of the article it appears like there was at least $20,000 of profits to be split. Most schools would love to have that kind of fundraiser. But Mr. Goddard indicates that there is too much work involved relative to the amount of money they raised.

So we would love to hear from you. Are discount card fundraisers still working for your group? Is the amount of time needed too much? Will you continue to sell cards?

Unique Fundraisers for Unique Needs. If more groups would think like that they would most definitely raise a lot more money.

We all know there are tons of fundraising ideas out there. Lots of them are tried and proven like cookie dough fundraising or candy fundraising. But even though they are tried and proven doesn’t mean that they are right or the best idea for every group.

Consider a group called Loaves and Fishes. They have come up with a unique fundraising idea to raise money for their local food shelters. They want to all kinds of people to come and purchase a bowl of soup from what will essentially be a soup line and pay $25 for the soup. They hope that they can attract enough attention where people will be lined up out the door and around the block if possible.

Their idea is to give people an idea of what some people go through. Most people have no idea what its like to stand in line for the only meal you’ll get that day.

The idea is not just to raise money, but help people empathize with the plight of those who are experiencing homelessness.

They are enlisting the help of 10 local chefs to create a great selection of soups that can be purchased.

When we read about their idea we were very impressed and wanted to share it with you. We believe these people will have the best fundraising results they’ve ever had because not only have they identified a fundraising product that can be associated with the cause, they have created one that can be very profitable. The event raises awareness as well as dollars and what more could you ask for when choosing Unique Fundraisers for Unique Needs.

Is School Fundraising Replacing Tuition Hikes? That’s a question that’s being asked more and more.

We have heard from lots of parents lately who tell us that their schools are requiring more and more school fundraisers rather than raise tuition. They complain has been that this practice is really a stealth way of raising tuition without calling for increased tuition rates. We can understand why some schools have chosen to do this but there might be a greater lose of good faith than a loss of revenue.

Consider this story that we found in The Beacon. It discusses how one school approached this dilemna. You judge whether this was a good strategy or not:

Early this year, the parents of St. Boniface school children received a letter from Erin Karl, President of the St. Boniface School Advisory Council. Thanks to a 10 percent increase in enrollment for the 2011-12 school year, the school has managed to find the finances to keep going. That appears to be in jeopardy for the 2012-13 school year…

…According to Karl and the School Advisory Council, they need to acquire $100,000 to fund the school next year. Each family who has a student at St. Boniface has been asked to raise $3,500.

Sandy Heschel said her jaw dropped when she saw that number. “What am I going to do?” she asked. “I picked myself up off the ground and decided to do whatever it may take to make this happen.” Parents have been encouraged to contact relatives, neighbors, friends, employers, co-workers, local and area businesses and St. Boniface alumni. Karl emphasizes that all donations are tax deductable and will be earmarked and returned to the donor should the funds not be used for school operations. ”

Now we do not know how much annual tuition is at St. Boniface. Based on the $3,500 per student shortfall we can only assume it is not inexpensive. Regardless. You can sense the reaction that we would surmise was more common than not. The parents are shocked. They feel misled.

So Is School Fundraising Replacing Tuition Hikes? The answer, unfortunately, is yes for many parents. Many of those parents would prefer the school simply tell the parents what the tuition cost needs to be for their child to attend and stop using fundraising ideas for tuition replacements.

Most parents understand cookie dough fundraisers or candy fundraisers to fund the extra needs but most parents do not want to pay high tuition and then supplement tuition costs with unexpected fundraisers.

Are people really tired of cookie dough fundraisers?

I ran across an article in Our Colorado News that highlights one group that says it is. Cookie dough fundraising sales, though, suggest that is not true. First let’s explore the Colorado group in the article.

“With supplemental funds so essential to helping preps sports programs perform at a highly competitive level, high school athletics departments and their booster clubs are forced to come up with their own style of “Moneyball.” In the Douglas County School District and at Littleton Public Schools, a student athlete’s cost for participating in sports ranges between $135-$150.”

That’s true every where. Sports and other extracurricular activities are costing more at a time when school budgets simply can not handle those increase. Thus the increased need for sports fundraising and school fundraising campaigns.

“Generating consistent supplemental funds from a community can be just as competitive as the teams they go toward. Creativity tends to be the key. “We have very creative parent groups (at Heritage) that find creative ways to raise money,” Shelton said. “So many people are sick and tired of cookie dough and butter braids that they would just rather write a check. We push them to get creative.” Some of the ideas booster clubs in the area have come up with include car washes at local businesses, fresh fruit sales and selling ads in the athletic programs. Heritage has been known to raffle off choice parking spaces and run tournaments of dodgeball, volleyball and basketball, as well as organize “Skate with the Eagles” events.”

This is a very fortunate school and school district because it appears they have very involved parents and administrators who are willing to do lots of different fundraisers to raise their money. It reminds me of a local band booster club that seems to have weekly fundraisers. Both, at first glance, seem to be successful. But that might not be true.

People might not be tired of cookie dough fundraisers. Instead they might be sick of weekly fundraisers and being bombarded with weekly fundraising ideas that are sent home. History shows us that each of these fundraisers raises less money and the money is often just donated by the parents who are sick and tired of constantly fundraising.

We still see groups raising tens of thousands of dollars with their cookie dough fundraisers. They are the ones that promote their fundraiser. They manage it well. They promote the benefits of participation. They set goals.

Our suggestion is not to give up on cookie dough fundraising – or any other fundraiser for that matter. It is to do the things necessary to make sure each fundraiser you run reaches it potential through extraordinary implementation.