I thought I’d send out what I hope is a simple reminder this week, although I feel like it’s needed. When choosing the fundraiser or fundraisers for your group, please remember that the number-one characteristic of a good fundraiser is that it actually makes good money. Your final profit matters.

There’s so much talk these days about profit percentage and direct donations and no-fuss and no-cost and making things healthy that we seem to be forgetting the point of the fundraiser. We run a fundraiser to help us fund all the great work we do all year round. The fundraiser itself isn’t the good work—rather, it supports the good work. And more money raised generally means more good results for your school.

If you can sell as much tofu as you do pizza dough—awesome! Have at it. But if the pizza fundraiser brings you $7,000 more in profit than one that sells, for example, health food or Tupperware, then the pizza fundraiser is a better one for your group. It will allow you more quickly to get back to your real work and to do more of that real work.

Are there other factors? Yes. We have lots of resources on fundraisers. (And this new  feature about choosing your next spring fundraiser can also help you think ahead.) But for sure, the key question to ask when choosing a fundraiser should be: Will this fundraiser help us make the money we need to thrive? Many of the most traditional fundraising options remain very solid options when using that key measure.