Best Online Fundraising Ideas For Schools And Teams

1) How Online Fundraising Works

2) The Benefits Of Online Fundraising

• SAFER: Online fundraising eliminates the need to campaign door-to-door. This is safer in general, but also complies with social distance regulations to help keep us safe from COVID-19.
• QUICKER: Without having to invest time fundraising on foot or driving around the neighborhood, the length of your fundraiser can be shortened significantly! By campaigning online, you can reach everyone at the same time and raise the same amount of money (or more!) much more quickly.
• MORE CONVENIENT: Online fundraising ensures that you’ll never forget another order-taker on the kitchen counter or spend your lunch hour pitching products to your coworkers. The simplicity of a virtual store is a sweet relief for busy schedules. You can even plan your posts in advance and schedule them automatically so your fundraising game can be on point while you’re off doing something else.
• GREATER REACH: The opportunity for reach with an online store is astounding. One post can be read by hundreds of people, thus increasing your opportunity for sales significantly. Campaign on different social media platforms to access different audiences, and post to groups that you know would be interested in your product.

3) Benefits Of Ship-To-School Option

• GREENER: Instead of shipping to hundreds of individual locations, UPS or FedEx only needs to ship to one main location, reducing the amount of fuel, emissions, and packaging used.
• MORE PERSONABLE: Fundraisers would be futile without the generous folks that support them. Being able to directly hand the goods to supporters and thank them for their generosity goes a long way and increases the chances that they’ll donate again. Just remember to wear gloves and a face mask!
• MORE CONTROL: By having the products shipped to one location, you have more control over their distribution. You’re able to make sure that everyone is accounted for and that nothing is missing.
• MORE ECONOMICAL: JustFundraising ships your bulk order to one location free of charge. This means neither you nor your supporters have to pay extra for expensive shipping fees, which can sometimes be as much as the item itself.

4) Benefits Of Ship-To-Home Option

• CONVENIENCE: With products landing directly at your supporter’s doorstep, it eliminates the work of having to distribute each product individually.
• SAFER: With less contact between people, shipping directly to supporter’s homes is the safest option for COVID-19.

5) Tips To Boost Your Online Fundraising Sales

1. Use a social media management program to schedule your fundraising posts in advance. This way you can target the hours when the most people are online without having to be online yourself.
2. Try going live on social media or recording a video of yourself talking about your online fundraiser. Live and uploaded videos tend to reach more people than just a plain text post, so try getting the word out in a variety of formats.
3. Post regularly. It’s easy for a social media post to get swallowed up in an overload of content so, depending on your preferred platform, posting once a day or a few times a week makes sure your content will be seen.
4. Email or PM your network with your store’s custom link and a friendly note explaining the fundraiser. This, in conjunction with posting on social media, is very helpful.
5. Incentives are a great way to help your group stay motivated to post about the fundraiser and share the link with friends and family. Our online checkout lets people enter the name of the person they’re supporting, making it very easy to offer a prize to whoever raises the most money.

6) What Not To Do

• Don’t hassle people. These days we all suffer from information overload so try to keep emails about your fundraiser limited to the important ones. Plan your emails advance so you don’t forget any important information.
• Don’t forget about the rules. Make sure your emails and communication style is conforming to school policy.

Easy And So Convenient
Our PTO loves the idea of online fundraising. We’ve worked with JustFundraising before and had a great experience, and now we’re getting ready to sell cookie dough online in the fall!

Review by: Leslie