Last year our principal (who is a really good sport) announced that she would dye her hair the school colors if we acheived a set goal amount. We exceeded the goal and she spent a day looking like the school spirit mascot. The kids were more excited about this incentive than the prizes, and... it did not cost anything. I have seen in this magazine the incentive of "pie the principal" whith a creme pie for a reached goal amount. I am sure your parent group could think of alot of great incentives that really don't cost anything. Example: an extra reccess or lunch with the principal for the top sellers, principal for the day to the top student, a cool spirit day, etc. A saw in our local newspaper that one elementary school offered the incentive of an assembly put on by the local high school dance troop for a reached goal. The ideas are endless.
Uusally we buy $500. worth of prizes and everyone that sells at least 10, get their name in a hat. (Sell 20 items name in twice. etc)We draw the names over the loud speaker for a few days into all prizes are gone. Last year we could not decide what prizes to buy so the names were drawn in advance and the chairperson went to Toys R Us, GAP, Old Navy, Claires, etc. and bought $25. gift cert. according to age and sex of the winners. Then they were announced over the loud speaker, Megan Scott won gift cert. to GAp for 25.00 for 5 days THE KIDS WENT WILD!! The parents like that better too, because the child could pick out their own prize or buy a gift for someone for the holiday!
Don't forget that to a fundraising company YOU are the customer and you can negotiate everything! Last year we chose a cash donation over the kid prizes and spent the money on an ice cream party for the entire school.
This year (different company)we are getting free stuff up front, great kid prizes, incentive prizes to give out during the sale, top seller cash prize, free books and more free items at the end of the sale.
We did away with the incentives entirely. We decided that the kids did not compete on a level playing field, and chose to discontinue it.
Instead, we let the parents know that the money that would have gone into the incentives was instead profit for the school. Then we used part of that extra profit to buy an gift for every student. The year that marked the 35th anniversary of the school, every student got a pennant celebrating that fact.
We found that the extra profit made up for any decrease in sales. Plus, parents let us know that they appreciated not being pressured by their kids to buy up to the next premium level.
So, from where I sit it looks like NO PREMIUMS are the best premiums.
One thing I learned from our experience this year is that you CAN negotiate with your vendor rep. They told us what they were offering by way of prizes - we asked for something entirely different (keep their prize catalog with the if you sell one item you get this, if you sell five items you get that in place) but for the other prizes we asked for cash instead. We will purchase the prizes that we think are best for each category/grade, etc. Also - in addition to a pizza or ice cream party with the highest percentage of participation, the vendor is giving us a gift certificate for their merchandise that will be given to the teacher in that classroom. Even though I negotiate for a living it never occurred to me to negotiate with these vendors. After that experience, I've done it with some of our other vendors as well. The worst they can say is "no" and to be honest, they want your business so chances are they will do anything they can to either get it or keep it. Good luck.
I also do a fall fundraiser for our school in the fall. I negotiated with the local movie theatre and got them to rent me the theatre for a Saturday morning to see the Harry Potter movie. The top selling class in each grade won the movie (I got the first Saturday that the movie came out) and the fundraising company footed the bill. The kids loved it and I am hoping that the second movie is out by November so I can do it again this year. Hope this helps.
