• 40% Companies and adult groups
• 30% Youth groups
• 20% Church groups
• 10% Fundraisers

People often ask how to host a successful fundraiser. If you have a student in your house, you know that almost every week there is some spirit night at your local Chick-Fil-A or the band is selling overpriced kitchen gadgets. My least favorite of all is the PTO getting students to sell $20 rolls of wrapping paper or bad cookies so they can make a whopping $2 back for each one sold.

Next up in our back to school series we want to give you five ideas about how to host fundraisers in your center that will bring business to you and to the schools who can make more money!

Fundraising Night

Allow schools or organizations to pick a night Monday – Thursday to host their fundraiser. Set specific hours and give them a percentage of all the sales during those hours. It makes it easier than reminding them they need to bring a flyer or tell the front desk what group they are part of. Work with your POS client on pulling reports or creating special buttons the front desk can use during that time. The goal is to drive weekday business and help the school make money and this is an easy and simple way to do both.

Discount Cards

Discount cards are wonderful and easy. As a parent of three boys, I will purchase a discount card over anything else anytime! There are several ways to do it – give one discount they can use one time per visit per year or create a punch card. The punch card can be good for one offer up to a specified number of uses or create various offers for one-time use. Give the discount cards to the school to sell and they can set the price point. Your return comes from keeping the offers simple such as BOGO offers, special packagings such as a family four pack, or discounted entry. More often it will be families that come in that will need to spend more to cover everyone or purchase additional food or gameplay. We love to work with spinnprint.com for all our printing needs where you can purchase 500 postcards for just $80.00. That’s just .16 cents each with you getting a big return! You can custom design a card for each group and personalize it just for them.

Online Fundraising

If you have an online reservation system, create a special link that goes to a direct fundraising page. Set the page to sell gift cards, packages, or pre-paid items such as buffets, drinks, or game cards they can redeem in the future. Allow them to run the fundraiser for a week so they can reach their family, friends, and neighbors through email and social media. The school or organization would then receive 20% back on anything purchased with their unique link. It’s easy to track and easy to sell. Talk with your POS client to get it set up in your system.

Pizza Party Fundraiser

Another great way for schools and organizations to fundraise is through food. Most can’t make lots of pizzas but you may. Have discounted prices for whole pizzas the organization can order and sell by the slice at their next event. You can cover your costs, get your name to families in the community, and they can set the price per slice. Make it a no-brainer by adding a small delivery fee and deliver to them.

Pre-Paid Game/Gift Cards

Pre-paid game cards or gift cards are a way to make sure organizations have some skin in the game. Pre-load cards with a specific amount of money and sell them to the organization for half the price. They can then turn around and sell them for full price! For instance, sell a $10 card to the PTO for $5 and the organization sells them for $10. When they come into your center, you know they are going to purchase more, and the school can make a great profit.

We hope these ideas help you with fundraising in your facility. Leave a comment, question or reach out to us at marketing@trainertainment.net. We are here to help!