Organizing a School-Wide Fundraiser

The steps you take to organize a school-wide fundraiser will have a significant affect on how smooth it will run. They should be discussed between the fundraising chairperson(s) of the school and an Attractions representative in detail, so you will know EXACTLY how your fundraiser will be executed. This will show your organization and give you complete confidence in running your fundraiser.

1. Determine how many students are in the school. You will need this number, so we can prepare an accurate number of fundraising packets.


2. Determine the Start Date and the End Date of the fundraiser. We run fundraisers for 3-4 weeks. This keeps the excitement of the fundraiser at a high level. Allowing a fundraiser to continue longer is up to your best judgment; however, make sure you make arrange with us payments for books sold every 2-3 weeks.


3. Schedule a Teacher/Staff Presentation. Arrange to have an Attractions representative speak to the teachers and staff to keep them informed on how the fundraiser will run and how they will be involved. Basically, you will need the teachers to
   a) hand out the student packets (placed in the bags given to them on kick-off day),
   b) collect payments and any returned books from their home room students,
   c) make a note of what they received on the class roster placed in their bag,
   d) place the payments or returned books back in the bag, and deliver the bags to a designated area on the Fill Dates (dates we will fill orders). The days in between the Fill Dates will be collection days.


4. Schedule a student presentation. Set a date to do a live presentation or video or have an Attractions representative do so for the students to kick-off their fundraiser. In all cases, the best day to give or show the presentation is on the Kick-Off date, so the students get excited when the packets are handed out. The purpose of the student presentation is to inform them, but most importantly, to get them excited.


5. Arrange to have student labels and home room class rosters printed. This may take up to a week or so, therefore, it is very important to get this process going as soon as possible. Appoint someone to be in charge of these labels. Ask to have the students name, home room teacher, and home room number on the labels. The labels will be placed on the front of each fundraising envelope to make distribution and tracking easier. In addition, you will need to get a complete class roster for each home room. This roster will be used as an inventory sheet to keep track of who received a book, who made a payment, or who returned a book. In some cases, schools will not allow labels or rosters to leave the building. In this case, make arrangements to place the labels on the envelopes at the school.


6. Determine what type of prize program, if any, will be offered to the students. If you choose to have a prize program, Attractions offers several to choose from (Buy 5 Get 1 Free, toys, cash, pizza/ice cream parties, etc.). To request a specific prize program, we may need to approve it. In many cases, we will split the cost of the prize program with the PTA/PTO. The cost can be deducted from the balance owed to Attractions.


7. Approve the school's fundraising letter. We will create a school letter, which will include:
   a) Fundraiser Instructions section,
   b) Cost of the Book,
   c) Last day to turn in orders,
   d) Make checks payable to.


8. Prepare the student fundraising packets. We will help you put together packets for each student separated by Home Room. Packets for each home room will be placed in a bag and delivered to each home room teacher to be handed out on the kick-off date. Label the outside of each bag with the teacher's name and room number, so it is easy to identify throughout the fundraiser. Place the appropriate class roster in each bag. Each student packet uses a fundraising envelope with a student label placed on the front and consists of 1) one book; 2) a fundraising letter (folded and placed within the pages of the book).


9. Kick-Off the fundraiser. Arrange the time to have the packets delivered on your kick-off date. We will help deliver them to the classrooms.


10. Set Fill Dates. Fill dates are important not only for the purpose of getting your supporters their books quickly (which they love!), but also to keep the fundraiser organized. By setting fill dates you can get an idea of how your fundraiser is going, and you are also able to ask us any questions that the school may have.

Once the fundraiser has begun, you will receive an account login, which will help you stay organized and keep track of your books. You will also find many other useful tools, so please use them to your advantage. And most of all, have fun!

Good Luck!