Tips for Greener Fundraising

We often talk about efficient fundraising. Schools are learning to raise more money with less effort by transitioning to smarter fundraising approaches. This also leads to happier parents, students, and community members. But there is another beneficiary of more efficient fundraising – the environment. By selling less “junk” and creating less paper waste, we decrease our fundraiser’s carbon footprint.

Classmunity is proud to be a business that helps the community while promoting more efficient fundraising practices. We will be highlighting our green side this upcoming Thursday 6/14 at the 3rd Annual Green Schools Conference. To kick off what will be a fun and educational event, we’d like to share with you our top 5 tips for greener fundraising!

• Avoid unnecessary product sales. It’s a common complaint – parents hate buying popcorn and wrapping paper. When you ask people to support your fundraiser but only give them an option for buying goods they don’t want, you’re creating a wasteful situation. People purchase goods they otherwise wouldn’t for the sole purpose of supporting your cause. Give the parents what they want and cut down on waste. Either do a straight donation-based campaign or make it easy for parents to opt out of buying a product and make a donation instead.

• When you do choose product fundraisers, try to make the items local or eco-friendly. If you are going to do a product fundraiser, try to go with local or eco-friendly options. Parents will appreciate something different from the usual fundraising companies. Also, people like being able to support your cause while helping their community and the environment.

• Focus on fitness and getting active. Experiential fundraisers such as fun-runs and other activities are popular. These healthy ways to fundraise are great ways to be active, have fun, and reduce waste.

• Move your fundraisers online. Gone are the days when fundraisers were synonymous with mountains of paper forms. Save some trees – fundraise online!

• Give back to the community. Think about ways your fundraiser can give back to the community. If you want to “sell” something as part of your fundraiser, why not volunteer hours? Picking up litter, working in a community garden or local not-for-profits are a great way to have kids work for their fundraisers – without requiring them to sell pizzas and magazine subscriptions.

If you would like more information on any of these tips – or have suggestions for a future blog post – drop us a line at contact@classmunity.com.