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Reaping the Benefits of Fundraising
It would not be farfetched to assume that as the first Model T-Ford rolled off the assembly line, some entrepreneurial athletic director or coach instituted a school car wash to supplement his fundraising needs.
The same could be said of a bake sale. That is, of course, if the Athletic Director or coach pre-dated Betty Crocker.
The point is that homegrown fundraisers have been around a long time and are to be blessed for their enthusiasm and devotion to the cause. But how cost effective are they in the new world of mass production, advertising, transportation and salesforce?
Enter professional, or commercial, fundraising.
A multi-billion dollar professional fundraising business offers many, many advantages to high school and college athletic programs. After all, it's what these companies do. The profit margins are quite appealing - 50% retention is the norm. And they furnish the guesswork and the hard work at no extra cost.
What to sell? From candy and magazines to cookie dough and licensed sports apparel, to bottled water and flower bulbsthe options are endless - and profitable.
"In terms of the types of products being sold, it's a lot of the same things, quite honestly. Because they have worked over time and they continue to work," says Russ Lemieux, Executive Director of the Association of Fund Raising Distributors and Suppliers (AFRDS). "In recent years you have seen more in the area of things like cookie dough and frozen and refrigerated foods. That's all because of the availability of new technologies and transportation of the product. The companies are in a position to offer more variety."
The AFRDS, an international association of companies that manufacture, supply and distribute products that are re-sold by schools and other non-profit fundraising organizations, was formed in 1992 by a merger of preexisting organizations - the National Association of Product Fundraisers (supplier oriented) and the National Association of Direct Sellers (distributor oriented).
The old Greyhound Bus Line commercials hit the spot by simply stating: "Go Greyhound and leave the driving to us." Today's fundraising companies use a similar approach: "Leave the fundraising to us."
After all, coaches and players should be spending their after-school hours on practicing and playing. Not fretting about raising enough cash in a short time frame.
"The real advantage is time," says Dick Raddatz, president of FundRaising.Com in Cedarburg, WI. "For example, on a car wash, you can tie up half your team for at least three or four hours. If they would spend that time selling a popular product they would probably make five times more money. It's a matter of selecting the right product that makes sense for you and your community. It has to be something the kids want to sell."
Says Joe Mosey, president of Superior Fundraising in Buffalo, NY: "A bake sale or a car wash, and those types of thingswhat the heck are you doing? What are you going to make at a car wash in a day - $500 or $600? Don't you want to maximize your return for that tremendous amount of effort you put into it?
There are two types of fundraising. The most common is direct sale, where products, such as candy bars, are paid for at the point of sale. The second is the pre-order system that allows groups to take orders, then turn in the money, before the product(s) are shipped direct, in most cases, to the customer. Pre-order campaigns, particularly with magazines, are recommended to last between 10 and 14 days.
Whatever the season, whatever the reason, fundraising has become a way of life at high schools and colleges. As times have changed, so too have the costs of fielding a football team, entering a cheerleading squad in a competition and saving for ancillary needs that may arise.
"You might have a school, for example, that maybe 10 years ago needed just one fundraiser in the fall to meet all their needs," says Russ Lemieux. "But the fact of the matter is their demands have increased. Now you have schools running spring and fall fundraisers. And you have special interest groups within the school, like bands, choral groups, cheerleading teams, and sports teams that are doing additional things.
Athletic programs are considered excellent fundraisers and are highly successful due to their structure and teamwork.
To fundraising experts such as Mosey & Raddatz, that translates well in terms of meeting and exceeding goals.
Says Mosey: "A coach has to have the ability to motivate his team to participate, and he should be able to do that better than anyone else."
Says Raddatz: "The coaches do a good job because they get the kids organized. A lot of them will set goals for the kids by telling them they need to sell so many lollipops and so many candy bars. Their position of authority enables them to make such demands - which the volunteer-type fundraisers cannot do."
Raddatz has basically seen it all in the world of fundraising, dating back to 1974 when he was one of the first people to establish a frozen pizza fundraiser, Mister Z's Pizza in Grafton, WI, a company he has since sold.
FundRaising.Com, originally called Raddatz Marketing when it was founded in 1990, has a 40-page catalog that sells well over 35 products - everything from candy bars and beef jerky to gourmet lollipops and bottled water (90% of its products earn 50% profit).
One of the products that Raddatz is very excited about is custom-labeled bottled water. "It is particularly good for the high school athletic market," he says. "We can actually put the school logo or team picture on the label."
This story appeared in COACH & ATHLETIC DIRECTOR MAGAZINE - August, 2003.
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