New Technology Options to Assist with Fundraising Efforts

Part of many music educators’ duties involves some fundraising, which is an unfortunate aspect of how fine arts are funded in many schools. Items are sold, events are sponsored and donations are collected, all to raise the monies needed to provide important and significant opportunities for a school’s music program, theatre program or other fine arts activities.

Many of those opportunities are the highlight of the school year for the participating students and can include festivals, competitions, national and international field trips, or honor events. Often the fundraising budget that the educator takes on each year far exceeds the curriculum funds provided by the school. Managing that much money that is generated by so many different types of contributions provided by so many individuals is a daunting task, even when the educator is blessed with a supportive team of adults or boosters.

To help manage the income (and expenditure) of the funds, there are dozens of vertical market software platforms designed specifically for this purpose. But with that variety comes the need to decide which one will work best for each program’s needs, both currently and in the foreseeable future. In addition, the choice of an online site for donations may also be a part of this decision. While the number of suitable options is not extensive, selecting the right one remains an important choice.

If the fundraising is limited to a few events (or just one) and donations are not a part of this annual effort, there are certainly ways to use horizontal software, both purchased and free, to track the details and manage that effort. So, an examination of what is being done now, what may be added in the future, and the technology capabilities of the group’s professional and volunteer leadership needs to occur before an investment in any software is made.

When considering what fundraising software to use, the examination of your program’s needs should determine if you need or would use the software to:

• Collect donations

• Track donors and their donations

• Manage long-term or annual donations

• Manage donor relationships

• Track sales of a product or service

• Manage product inventory

• Schedule services

• Allow online payments/donations

• Support donation or sales campaigns

• Automate some aspects of your sale or donation campaign

If you simply collect donations at the door of your events from audience members and sell fundraising products through your participating students, you can likely do that with Excel or Google Sheets. But if you collect donations from grants, corporations or local businesses, need to send reminders for monthly or annual payments, sell your products through various sources including a website, sell multiple types of products during several campaigns or have a significant number of donors/purchases to track, fundraising software to match can be beneficial to your efforts (and state of mind).

If you decide you want to consider making that purchase, consider how the software will do some or all of the following for you:

• Increase the efficiency of your fundraising efforts by automating some of the manual tasks, saving you and your supporters time to work on other tasks.

• Enhance your donors’ experience by making their donation/ payment more convenient.

• Expand the number of people you reach with your appeal or sale.

• Improve your ability to manage any long-term revenue sources.

• Track sales by both purchaser and salesperson.

• Manage the inventory/delivery of your product(s).

When done with foresight and planning, adding fundraising software to your tool bag can help increase the revenues generated as well as make positive connections with your supporters and community. Besides making it easier to manage, such software can also open up fundraising opportunities that might not have been considered in the past. With proper management and use, the efforts made by the educator, parent volunteers and participating students will generate more income and thus allow either the monetary goals to be reached easier and earlier, or support them being raised so that other opportunities for student learning can be added to the program’s offerings. Either way, in the end, students will benefit and that is the goal of every fundraising event any school program ever held.

Steffen Parker is a retired music educator, event organizer, maple sugar maker, and Information Technology specialist from Vermont who serves as the Performing Arts/Technology representative on the NFHS High School Today Publications Committee.