Learn how fundraisers prepare students for success at school and beyond
Schools offer students the earliest exposure to philanthropy in their community. To a large extent, many schools rely on fundraising to ensure optimal academic success for their students.
Entrepreneur and no profiteer Adam Braun said, “When it comes to fundraising for a social enterprise if you are pursuing your true passion, you'll learn to become great at your craft because you'll care so much about perfecting the skills necessary to make that dream a reality.”
Braun’s observation that fundraising is a practice to develop skills speaks to both the mission-minded and human capital aspects of fundraising, recognizing that it powerfully shapes and is shaped by those who engage in it. As the social enterprise grows and fundraising becomes a means to good outcomes for more and more cases, it poses the question: what do school fundraisers do for our children?
Focusing on these aspects can be powerful ways to engage parents, faculty, and community in support of your School Fundraising Ideas Go Social. By showing how your fundraiser is both improving academic outcomes and developing civic leadership skills in your neighborhood’s youngest learners, your school’s fundraiser is poised to have a new level of impact.
1. School Fundraising Teaches the Value of Earning
The idea of incentivizing good performance is directly connected to advancement in the workplace. However, raises and bonuses are not reserved for grown-ups; most parents can attest that positive reinforcement has remained a dependable way to develop good habits in children, from an allowance for doing chores to an hour with friends for every three hours of studying.
Before you go further, first take a minute to reconsider the size, shape, and cost of a reward for your child. The rewards they reap from fundraising can go far beyond a new electronic or an experience. In fact, children assign a lot of value to acquire new skills, and they take their cues from parents and adult role models on what skills they should aspire to develop.
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| How can parents and volunteers change reward culture in school fundraisers to help teach students to value the process and the prize? |
Here are a few guideposts to assist in framing rewards:
- Assign the most value to skills like confidence, leadership, and planning when communicating about school fundraising.
- Provide parents with talking points to promote conversations with children about these skills. Parents.com has some great ideas on how to rethink the reward and promote self-motivated behavior.
- Consider alternative and innovative reward programs, like a Big Event prize program, that offer large group experiences that students can enjoy with friends by selling as few as five items.
2. School Fundraisers Fosters Social Responsibility
“Generation Y,” those born between the 1980s and early 2000s have experienced some of the most rapid changes in daily life in human history. Their connectivity, dependence on digital devices and ability to individualize virtually any experience has been seen by some as evidence of impatience and entitlement.
However, as Generation Y unfolds, and these innovative and creative thinkers dive into business, it appears they’re adding the social bottom line to all that they do. The Case Foundation noted that millennials aren’t settling for business as usual; they need to know that what they’re doing means something, and this bodes well for the values inherited by their children as Generation Y re-dubs itself “Generation Why?”
To bring this full circle, a generation inherently motivated by doing well and doing good has the chance to raise a civic-minded generation beneath them. School fundraisers provide an excellent and supportive training ground to help teach students how to orient their efforts in a way that helps the community. It also teaches them to be grateful for the opportunities they have to give back to their school so that their entire community can be a better place because it gives them a stake in its success and draws their attention to the fact that there’s no truly “free” lunch.
In talking with your student or child about why their school is sponsoring a fundraising event, you have the chance to discuss the significance of an opportunity to get an education, and how their efforts are a way to give back. By engaging in a school fundraiser, students have the chance to take ownership of their education and help open doors for their school and their future. They can begin to make connections at an early age and understand how their hard work can benefit the community.
Product fundraising has traditionally followed a “door-to-door” model, where students and their parents approach their local friends and neighbors about the products they’re selling. At its core, this approach is driven by an ability to communicate with adults in a persuasive and compelling way.
School fundraising programs offer students the chance to practice these persuasive skills in a real-world setting that can lay the foundation for communicating effectively with teachers, professors, bosses, and clients. Put Integrity Back in School Fundraising Programs
However, as Generation Y unfolds, and these innovative and creative thinkers dive into business, it appears they’re adding the social bottom line to all that they do. The Case Foundation noted that millennials aren’t settling for business as usual; they need to know that what they’re doing means something, and this bodes well for the values inherited by their children as Generation Y re-dubs itself “Generation Why?”
To bring this full circle, a generation inherently motivated by doing well and doing good has the chance to raise a civic-minded generation beneath them. School fundraisers provide an excellent and supportive training ground to help teach students how to orient their efforts in a way that helps the community. It also teaches them to be grateful for the opportunities they have to give back to their school so that their entire community can be a better place because it gives them a stake in its success and draws their attention to the fact that there’s no truly “free” lunch.
In talking with your student or child about why their school is sponsoring a fundraising event, you have the chance to discuss the significance of an opportunity to get an education, and how their efforts are a way to give back. By engaging in a school fundraiser, students have the chance to take ownership of their education and help open doors for their school and their future. They can begin to make connections at an early age and understand how their hard work can benefit the community.
3. School Fundraising Teaches Communication and Networking Skills
School fundraising is also inextricably connected to the mastery of effective communication skills. From start to finish, a successful school fundraising program relies on good communication with students, faculty, parents, and customers to express clear goals and a compelling mission and message.Product fundraising has traditionally followed a “door-to-door” model, where students and their parents approach their local friends and neighbors about the products they’re selling. At its core, this approach is driven by an ability to communicate with adults in a persuasive and compelling way.
School fundraising programs offer students the chance to practice these persuasive skills in a real-world setting that can lay the foundation for communicating effectively with teachers, professors, bosses, and clients. Put Integrity Back in School Fundraising Programs
To maximize the learning potential of a school fundraiser:
- Work with your students on developing an introductory speech that they’re comfortable with.
- Encourage them to use tools they learn in the classroom to write in the persuasive mode in response to the question, “Why should someone buy products from you?”
- Help your child pare down their speech to a quick, but the effective pitch that will resonate with adults.
“Kids: The Manual” offers keen, no-nonsense advice about teaching your child how to have meaningful, mature engagement with adults without placing undue expectations on their development, comfort, and confidence. In particular, teaching students to ask questions can be exceptionally beneficial in a fundraising setting, where developing rapport with potential customers can be of great value to sealing the deal.
Additionally, having your children overcome the fear of making asks and talking to those who are older and/or more experienced than they have the added advantage of getting them comfortable with speaking up. Dr. Gail Gross unpacks the value of raising a child to be a self-advocate in The Huffington Post with practical tips that can help give them confidence before beginning their on-the-ground fundraising.
4. School Fundraisers Teach How to Handle Rejection
From job interviews to dinner dates, we’ve all faced rejection at some point in our lives. Resilience is the ability to bounce back from these rejections, turn them into positive experiences, and stay oriented toward success (or perhaps redefine success entirely!).Resilience is a particularly important skill to cultivate in children, as it helps them overcome the fear of trying new things and instills a sense of self-confidence. The American Psychological Association offers 10 tips for developing resilience in children and teens—all worth reading before diving into selling products.
Have a candid conversation with your child about what they can expect. Let them know that someone saying “No, thank you,” or even “I’m not interested” is not a reflection on their abilities or performance, but also remind them that it’s very possible they will hear “No” more than “Yes” on the fundraising trail.
Exposing children to these types of situations in grade school and having constructive conversations about the experience can help them cope effectively with more significant rejections later on in life. Through this exposure, they’ll find their personal ways of adapting or managing rejection, and hopefully, realize areas of opportunity to persevere when they don’t get the result they were looking for
Read More Information.
Why a Scratch Card Fundraiser Makes Sense in 2020
How to Make School Fundraisers Great Again (2020)
4 Lessons School Fundraisers Teach Kids: Best Tips 2020
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ReplyDeleteWesley was in the army-and soon after leaving-he revealed hidden, "self mind control" secrets that the government and others used to obtain whatever they want.
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