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Planning and managing a fundraising event can make you want to pull your hair out or perhaps start banging your head on the table out of frustration. Here are seven helpful tips that will help make your fundraiser a smooth and profitable success.

1.) Plan for a Huge Success

Efficient planning is an integral part to the success of not only your fundraising campaign but any project you might think of. Without a well thought out plan of action chaos will reign and your project will suffer as a result. In fact, you should have a primary plan as well as a secondary and tertiary as well.

2.) There can be Only One Person in Charge!

There can only be one captain of a ship and the same holds true for your fundraiser. Too many chiefs and not enough Indians is a recipe for failure.

3.) Delegate Authority

Give specific tasks to people that you have confidence and trust to get the job completed. When you do your planning create a list of tasks that have to be accomplished and choose the right personnel for each task. Ensure that each of your chosen staff understands that accountability for their assigned task and the buck stops with them.

4.) Promotion is the Key

Be sure that things are done to get the word out about your fundraiser. Promotion of your event will ensure that you reach your goal. Publish press releases to the local newspaper. Don’t forget your school web page is a great way to post your fundraiser and get the word directly to your parents. The type of fundraiser you are planning will determine if creating flyers and asking local business to place them in store windows would be helpful. There are lots of ways to promote a fundraising event and you should use as many of them as humanly possible.

5.) Pre-Sell for a Successful Fundraiser

This plan of action will work very well for any type of fundraiser. If your fundraising event is a dance, dinner, guest speaker, or other ticketed type of program that is a one night event, you can benifet greatly by pre-selling your tickets. Start selling tickets long before the actual fundraising night. When items such as cookie dough are your main product start mentioning it to friends, family, and neighbors before the fundraiser begins.

6.) Multiple Income Streams

Don’t put all of your hopes and plans into one fundraising event. Multiple streams of income have been a part of success in business for many years and you should be conducting your fundraiser just like a business. If all of your efforts are put into only one program, then you are taking a chance that nothing happens outside of your control which will mess things up for you. You might even have another nearby school start the same thing your were planning to do the week before your kick your fundraiser off. Planning several fundraising campaigns is an excellent way to reach your goal as quickly as possible and spread out some of the risk.

7.) Analysis After the Fundraiser

This is not part of the actual fundraiser, but this is something that you should not overlook. Analyze how each of your school fundraising efforts performed when it is finished. Which one raised your school the most money? Which one was the easiest to do? You can use your analysis of your current campaign to enhance future fundraising efforts. It is also helpful to make notes in a journal for the next board to view in case all the faces on the board change next year. This way they don’t have to re-invent the wheel like you did.