Keep Parents Involved in School Fundraising

Getting parents and students involved is the goal in order to make fundraisers successful. According to one statistic, 77% of parents think their child’s school should fundraise and want to get involved. That’s a promising statistic, and although many parents want to help as much as they can, many aren’t consistently involved. This consistency is needed, but as life continues to become more hectic, parents have turned to helping every now and then or not at all. How can this be changed?

What really matters when it comes to parental involvement is making each parent feel connected. If a solid connection is made, parents will be more willing to continue helping with their child’s future fundraisers. To create this connection, here are some tips to follow:

Give parents hard data about previous successes and accomplishments.

A steady flow of reassuring information of what you are doing and that you are accomplishing great things is what parents need. Feeding parents hard data builds the schools credibility, gives parents confidence, and makes parents happy and satisfied.

Connect with parents often.

Send parents newsletters regarding how your fundraising efforts are going or went if the fundraiser is over. Another great idea is to send letters of thanks. Keeping communication going is extremely important for top of mind awareness for being involved in future fundraising efforts.

Be personal with parents.

You should be tracking parents’ various interests and their participation with various fundraisers. Doing this allows you to tailor mailings to parents’ specific interests, and if you are able to do this, it makes parents realize: “they know me, and they care about me.”

Make it simple.

Make it easy for parents to participate. Keep meetings short and post information about the fundraiser and upcoming events in a variety of outlets – school website, community website, Facebook (social media) and in the school bulletins whenever possible. The easier you make it for parents to get information, the more likely they will be involved.

Always communicate to parents what monies are doing.

This is extremely important! More than anything, parents want to know what their time and effort is accomplishing. Tell them before they get involved, keep them updated as the fundraiser continues with your progress, and follow up when the fundraiser is over with schools success.

Whether you use one or all of these tips, we hope that the idea of keeping parents involved is of new importance. Make 2014 the year that you spread the love and start to keep parents involved for the long run!