For schools, fundraising is so important. You might want to raise funds for new books, new equipment like computers, or new facilities. Whatever your fundraising goals, parents can have a key role to play, so it’s important to get them involved as much as you can. Here we look at the best (and easiest) ways to do so.
Why Parents are so Important for School Fundraising
Parents are central to successful school fundraising efforts. As well as donating money themselves, parents can spread the word of fundraising projects and can lend support and valuable skills. Put simply, engaged parents can help ensure your school meets its fundraising goals.
Here, we’ll give you advice on how you can involve parents in your school’s fundraising projects, including how you can effectively communicate with parents and make it easy for them to engage. We’ll also detail how you can use easyfundraising as a unique and effortless way for parents to donate to your school.
Communicate the Importance of Fundraising to Parents
Effective communication is crucial in the run-up to any new fundraising efforts, but should also be used throughout the course of a fundraising campaign to keep parents informed and committed.
Make Your Fundraising Goals Clear
The first step in engaging parents in fundraising projects is to clearly communicate the school’s fundraising goals.
Set out a clear statement of how much money you’re aiming to raise, how you intend to raise it, and most importantly, why. Explaining what the funds are needed for is crucial when it comes to convincing parents to get involved.
Give Regular Updates and Transparent Communication
Over the course of a fundraising campaign, you can keep parents up to date and engaged with timely communications. You can summarise the progress made so far, recognise contributions and successes, and mention upcoming events, milestones, and goals.
Depending on how your school usually communicates with parents, you have a range of tools available to keep them updated, including newsletters, email, social media posts, and parent-teacher meetings.
Involve Parents in Fundraising Planning and Execution
Involving parents in the development and implementation of fundraising efforts is an excellent way to include them and ensure they remain supportive throughout the fundraising campaign. This is how to do it.
Invite Parents to Join Fundraising Committees
Creating a fundraising committee gives an official way for parents to become involved and to give input and advice early in the decision-making process and throughout the course of the fundraising campaign.
Encourage Parents to Volunteer for Fundraising Events
You can persuade parents to volunteer their time and skills to events by:
- Clearly outlining what’s required and allowing parents to volunteer for specific roles that best suit their skills and experience.
- Keeping roles limited and simple, with clear responsibilities and specific time commitments.
- Making it personal – allow parents with specific relevant skills and experience to volunteer for the roles that best suit them.
- Recognising the contribution parents have made after an event. Make sure you thank parents and do so in a range of ways. You can thank them in person or as part of your wider communications to highlight the contributions of parents and emphasise how vital they were to the success of an event.
Make It Easy for Parents to Contribute
Ease is central to effective engagement. The simpler you make it to understand why funds are being raised and how parents can help out, the more willing and likely parents will be to give their money and time.
Offer Various Ways to Donate Time
Break down all the tasks required to make your fundraising campaign a success. Create roles for these tasks and allow parents to volunteer for the roles that suit them best.
Offer Various Ways to Donate Money
You can also offer a variety of ways for parents to donate money to fundraising efforts, so they can donate in the manner that’s simplest for them.
Consider allowing parents to give with cash donations by using online payment platforms, like PayPal and through dedicated charity donation sites, like easyfundraising. You should also make it clear that parents donating their time and skills is equally as valued as monetary contributions.
Set Up Recurring Donations Where Appropriate
For ongoing fundraising campaigns, you can offer recurring payments as an option, to allow parents to contribute over time. At easyfundraising we also provide a way for parents to regularly donate with their online shopping (more on that later).
Engage Parents Beyond Direct Donations and Volunteering at Events
The time and money parents can devote to fundraising efforts is vital to their success, but you can also encourage parents to help out outside of directly donating and volunteering.
Encourage Fundraising at Home
Allow parents to help out when at home, on their own time and when it’s convenient, by providing a range of additional fundraising options. An example of this could be allowing parents to do their own sponsored challenges or to make crafts for craft sales and food for bake sales.
A popular fundraising activity is a charity auction, where parents can offer their skills and experience to willing punters. This could be an hour of photography training, a cookery lesson, or an excursion.
Leverage Parents’ Networks
Parents can also be vital in helping to spread the word about fundraising efforts, boosting awareness. Ask parents to share communications about your school’s fundraising efforts. One of the most effective ways you can do so is by posting to social media and encouraging parents to share your communications in their groups and via their own accounts.
Recognise and Appreciate Parents’ Contributions
A little recognition goes a long way. Saying thank you can cost little to nothing, but it can have a big impact. It helps volunteers feel valued and engaged, making them more likely to donate or volunteer again.
Express Gratitude to Parent Volunteers and Donors
Take opportunities to thank volunteers by name and to recognise their specific contributions. You can use a mix of personal and private ways to say thanks, plus more public ones. This could be thanking people in person, using thank you notes, or recognising contributions in public forums, newsletters, and on social media.
For public recognitions, you may want to thank multiple parents at the same time, in case you think people will be embarrassed by being individually recognised.
Showcase Fundraising Success Stories
As well as expressing thanks, you should take the time to highlight specific successes and actions that have had a particular impact. This will inspire other parents and show how contributions have helped further the goals of fundraising campaigns.
Make Parental Involvement in Fundraising Even Easier with easyfundraising
We hope the simple advice given here will inspire and help with your school’s fundraising plans. In addition to these tips, we can also help by giving you an easy and powerful way for parents and other supporters to donate money to you.
At easyfundraising, we help people raise money for good causes with their online shopping, at no extra cost. After registering with us, our users can shop online with our more than 7,500 partner retailers, who will then donate a part of what they spend to a chosen charitable cause.
Simply register your school’s fundraising efforts with easyfundraising as one of our good causes, and parents can earn money for your school just by shopping online.