A Tale of Two Fundraisers
A fable based on true stories happening everyday
Once upon a time, there were two soccer teams at two nearby high schools. As it turned out, both teams were very good, and they both earned the right to fly across the country to compete in the national tournament. Both coaches were very proud of their teams and thrilled to go to the tournament, so they sat down right away to figure out how much it would cost to participate.
It didn’t take long for each coach’s enthusiasm to be dampened as they realized that with air fare, hotel stays, meals, and more the trip would cost their team around $10,000. Both of their school’s budgets were tight, so the coaches were on their own to raise the money, and the tournament was only 4 weeks away.
The first coach decided to do what he did to raise money when he was on a high school soccer team. He ordered boxes of candy bars, and then waited till they arrived to give them to his team to sell. During the 1 and-a-half weeks it took for the candy bars to arrive, the coach did some math:
The coach was concerned. He knew that even if everyone bought 5 candy bars, his team would need to find 2,000 different people to sell to. He also knew that the parents of his team members would probably give more than the $10 to buy a couple candy bars, but how many candy bars could one family eat? So, the coach was worried, but for now all he could do was wait.
The other coach decided to try something new, so he went to Advanced Fundraising. After hearing about the program, he signed up and 2 days later he was ready to send his team out to start raising money. Before he did, he checked out the online profit calculator.
Suddenly, $10,000 didn’t seem like such a large number. The coach knew that each of his students knew considerably more than 15 people that might be willing to help. He also knew that the students’ parents could give up to $65 for a longer subscription (of that the team would get $49.50), meaning the student would need to sell even fewer subscriptions. If that wasn’t enough, he got a big banner and a stack of flyers to help promote the fundraiser around the school's campus for free. Now, it was up to the team to sell enough subscriptions before the tournament. They got to work.
Meanwhile, with 2 and-a-half weeks before the tournament, the first coach received his shipment of 10,000 candy bars is several large boxes. His team members groaned as they picked up their lot of 250 candy bars each. When they went out into their neighborhoods, they found it didn’t take long to sell a candy bar (after all, it was only $2), but the box never seemed to get any lighter. After days of going door to door, they had all covered their local neighborhoods at least once. They even enlisted their parents to sell the candy bars at their work, but as the deadline drew closer almost no one had emptied their box. Finally, the team had to give up. They just needed too much money in too little time to make it to the tournament. They used most of the money they raised to pay for the candy bars, and the rest went for some new equipment for next year’s season. Everyone on the team always wondered what the national tournament would have been like, and how they might have done.
At about the same time the first coach was throwing in the towel, the other coach was busy buying plane tickets and booking hotel rooms. It hadn’t been easy. At first, his team members found it a bit challenging to explain the subscription plans to people, but the flyers and information they got from Advanced Fundraising made a big difference. Also, it helped to only have to explain it 15 times to people that they already knew instead of having to go door to door. The team was actually able to raise all the money they needed plus some extra for new equipment in only 3 weeks. The team members used this to brag about how good of salesmen they were, but the coach knew that the PlayStation he offered as a reward to the highest seller played a big role in his team’s motivation. The best part was that he didn’t even have to pay a dime for the PlayStation because he took advantage of Advanced Fundraising’s reward program.
The team always remembered the national tournament as a high point in their high school experience, and the coach never worried about fundraising again.
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