We are a school with 700+ students; k-8; I accepted my presidential roll due to a sudden change. we are now focusing our attention of our upcoming Jog-a-thon. several evening attempts to gather parents... has failed. I am now getting things going on a committee of about 3. What are your recommendations?
Our school used Champion Events Group and raised insane money. We raised over $200K in our event, and the elementary school down the street raised $50K+ as well. If you are just starting this, I highly recommend you contact them. They have manuals, timelines, and experienced people who helped us reach this success. Sure, we could have done it ourselves, and kept all the money, but we probably wouldn't have raised half of what we did - and their fees are only 25%, so it really didn't cost us anything - and the public elementary, had done walk-a-thons for years, and had never raised more than $7K. I hope this helps.
We run both, and easily make three times as much on the catalog fundraiser. We are a school of 720 students. We average between $12 and $15k on the catalog fundraiser, and only $4 to $5k on our jog. We have learned (at our school) that for every parent who would prefer not to buy the overpriced items, there are 5 who would rather get something for their money. You have to know your parents, and it may take trial and error to find the right formula for your school.
Jog-a-thons can be a funny thing. We are also a blue collar school, but with around 500 students. We always raise more money by selling products in the fall than our spring jog-a-thon. I have heard of schools raising HUGE amounts of money with jog-a-thons. They usually have it as their only fundraiser and hold it very early in their school year. This appeals to parents who don't want to buy overpriced stuff or split profits with fundraising companies. If you present it to parents as such you might have pretty good luck. Another key factor is to get the kids excited with incentives. The more excited kids are the more pledges they will collect and the more laps they will run. If you are worried you about raising enough money, try having it early in the year. If you do not raise as much money as you need then you can always sell something in the spring. Good luck!! Let us know what you decide.
I am at a public school of 700 elementary school students in a Blue Collar area. We profitted around $14,000 on our last fall fundraiser. This Fall we are thinking about doing a jog-a-thon. Not sure how much money we can expect. Anyone have any input on how this matches up to a Fall Catalog Sale. Thanks in advance for your help.
