What did you last buy online?

A book on Amazon? A rare vinyl copy of your favorite guilty pleasure band on eBay?
Did you buy something online to support your school’s fundraiser? Would you do it often, and would you remember where to go to make sure your group makes money?

I have been working in the fundraising industry for over 7 years, and have been in many a meeting within some of the biggest and brightest fundraising companies who are adement to blend online big brands with loyalty and fundraising.

It’s hard, very hard indeed - but the potential revenue and cost effective ‘onlinesolution in a box’ keeps driving them on.
I am going to let the cat out of the bag, and hope some of you reading this will forward it to people who make decisions on fundraising, as a cautionary tale - and perhaps you know someone who has some other solution that I have not seen, so let me know…. here goes - the brutal truth your fundraising groups need to know:

The Truth Is This:
We are still ahead of the curve, most people will not frequently shop online to support their group - just because you send them an email asking them to.
The following story is true:

Mrs. Smartypants (name has been changed to protect the ego of a real PTO Chairman, and also because I like the new name a lot) is the Chairman of a fairly large High School.
Her background is in marketing, and she is familiar with affiliate marketing in particular. She has told the Fundraising Chairman she will help her look for an additional fundraiser that will not replace their highly successful Worlds Finest Chocolate fundraiser, but add an extra revenue stream for their school using an online initiative.

She looks up on Google ‘Online Fundraising’ and finds a bunch of companies claiming to be able to harness the power of the Internet, and provide fundraising dollars in the thousands. After really understanding the way in which these dollars are supposed to magically appear, she realizes how it could really come true:

History:

Back in the day when every company was dying to increase online sales and brand awareness, a couple of smart cookies started affiliate marketing solutions. You have a widget you want to sell online? Easy - contact www.CJ.com and they will allow you to promote your product (as long as you pay commission on sales) to thousands of people who have web sites, those websites have people looking at them, and as quick as 1,2,3, widgets are being sold via banner ad’s and text links leading to the widget web site - and commission is being handed out left right and centre.
Now if you don’t have tons of traffic on your site - how can you also take advantage of this affiliate commission structure? Easy - find a group of people who’ll do the hard work for you, getting the attention of potential buyers, asking them to click on the advertising on your groups fundraising site they design, and they in return will share a percentage of their commission with your group on each sale.

Magic.

All of this looks great on paper, but the real hump to get over, is to find a company that has a great user experience awaiting potential customers, and a way to get them on the website more than one time.
Some companies set up multiple email reminders, (can be annoying), offe incentives (not always great), begging normally followes, then disappointment and frustration set in on behalf of the fundraising group. They do not recommend the service to other groups and the fundraising companies either give up, and continue to sell cookie dough, or go under.

Mrs. Smartypants could see that although these companies dazzled her with big brand names, products she thought might be interesting to her community, she knew `build it and they will come’ is not a way to run a successful fundraiser for her school.

Mrs. Smartypants spoke to the school Principal. This was her approach:

‘I have invested my time to bring to the table a personalized website for our parents to buy magazines from, where our school earns around 40% of each sale - the user experience is good, prices are fair, and I know with a little help we can raise thousands without involving the kids, and in fact we’ll do little work at all - but I need your help’

Principal:
‘Sounds easy - what do I need to do?’

Mrs. Smartypants:
‘If you really believe in this, I have set out the following step by step guidelines to guarantee our success (yep’ she was in marketing all right!) :

1) Before we even tell parents we have this site, I want you to personally write a letter, asking all parents in principal - if we invest our time in setting this up, will they at least look at the website during the first week it’s launched and see if they are already subscribed to one or more magazines. You will also ask them that it’s very important for them to agree to bookmark the site, confirming they will do this if we move ahead. It will help determine if our school proceeds. The letter will also focus on not just what the money raised each year will be used for (in this case it was yearly upgrades to computers) but much more importantly what effect having outdated equipment has on their children’s learning - THE CONSEQUENCES OF INACTION!
2) On EVERY (not some, but all) school communication, the School Magazine Stores Web Address (plus short request for help) would be visible. This basically meant adding it to the letterhead, which took around 20mins of work.

3) On the home page, there would be a link added - directing people to the store.

The Principal agreed.

Mrs.Smartypants raised over $5000 in the first 6 months, and each year sales have risen by around 10-17%

The parents committed in principal, were always made aware of the store, and knew what would happen to their kids if they fell behind with their Information technology learning.

The brands parents found online did not guarantee success, the brain power of a savvy PTO President did, plus an open minded Principal.

it also became pretty clear that many parents already had subscriptions - and a simple renewal through the site brought in a ton of money - what luck!