PTO Fundraising Takes Customer Service

When your PTO or PTA runs its fundraisers, do you have “customers” you’re trying to serve and please? Or do you think of parents more as a captive audience who should support you (no matter what the fundraiser) simply because their children go to your group’s school? If it’s the latter, you’re missing the boat.

Even if you believe that the customer route is the way to go, do your fundraising actions reflect that belief? Or do parents get subtle and not-so-subtle messages that profits come before their happiness?

While I know that PTO and PTA leaders have their hearts in the right place when making fundraising decisions (the profits do go to support great work), today more than ever your group’s leaders have to begin thinking like small-business owners and even like marketers when it comes to running fundraisers.

Only a small percentage of parents will respond to the guilt sale, buying because it’s the right thing to do. That number goes down even further in tough economic times. Rather than relying on guilt, the smart marketer tries to find the right product at the right price and to develop the right plan for communicating those things. When you combine a good product at a good price with the added advantage that selling it supports your great cause, then you have a promising start to your fundraising efforts.

Quality matters. A fair price matters. Taking the time to communicate well with your customers and to appreciate those customers repeatedly is the extra ingredient that gets the fundraising machine turning at maximum efficiency.

I can already hear the response from some readers: “But why do we have to do all that for the parents of the exact kids who will benefit from the fundraising? Shouldn’t they support us because we help their kids?”

The answers are fairly blunt: You don’t have to do all that. And they should support your group’s efforts. But I know for a fact that successful fundraising groups do those very things and that a growing majority of parents need to be sold on the program and treated well before they pull out their wallets.

Many of these marketing steps are small. At the auction my school runs, we’ve kept the ticket price as low as we can (equal to the cost of the meal at the hotel venue) to encourage as many parents as possible to attend. We still make a nice profit; more parents equals a better time; and no one feels fleeced before they even arrive. The same ideas apply to more traditional fundraising. Yes, you can make 55 percent profit if you choose a slightly lower quality gift wrap or jack up the retail price of your cookie dough. That might even be the best way to make the most money on your current sale. But if parents feel taken advantage of, your next fundraiser and next year’s profits will certainly be affected negatively.

If you’re really focusing on marketing, even mundane things like letters home and pickup procedures and payment options matter. Are you really thinking of what your customers would most like when setting those policies? Does the tone of your fundraising communications make it clear just how much you put parents first and that you appreciate that those parents have other ways to spend their dollars?

Y

Yes, I’m asking you to do even more to make life easier for the parents who don’t volunteer as much or at all. I wish their wallets would open for you as they should just because you ask for help. But we know that reality is different. If you want financial stability and fundraisers that generate consistent support, then treating your parents like valued customers is a key best practice.