Fundraising is the life-blood of a parochial school. It is also one of the most time consuming activities at any school. It is important for it to be as efficient as possible.
How efficient is your fundraising? How can we make it more efficient?
Make a list of all of the fundraising activities at your Christian school. Please include the newsletter to donors, the annual appeal letters, and the calls to high value donors as well as the bake sales, magic shows, and other activities.
How many hours (staff and volunteer) are consumed by each activity? Please remember to include the hours spent contacting merchants soliciting, collecting, and labeling items sold at the silent auction.
What are the expenses associated with each activity (printing, materials, postage, cost of baked goods, etc.)? Please remember that staff time is an expense associated with the various activities.
What is the total income for each activity?
What is the net income (after all expenses) for each activity?
Divide the net income by the hours for that activity.
List the activities with the most income per hour first.
The list now ranks your fundraising activity in order of efficiency. What are the bottom two activities? Those are the least efficient fundraisers in your portfolio.
Next Step:
Analyze the last two activities and determine if there is a way to increase the efficiency (reduce the hours and increase or hold the income constant)
Institute the efficiency ideas or eliminate the activities
Either replace eliminated activities with something new or redirect the energy to other activities
This should be an annual event performed about 4 months before creating the annual budget. The expected increase in income from the efficiencies is important information when creating the budget.
Replacing the inefficient will ensure that your fundraising is consistently becoming more efficient. It will also help ensure that your fundraising income grows faster than inflation.
In short, each year you will have more money with less or the same work. That process creates sustainability and helps ensure the school has sufficient resources to serve the students.
As always, contact us if you want help. We use a special process that offers a guarantee. For more information about our process and guarantee, you can click here.
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