Fundraising With Purpose: Aligning School Missions and Goals

Your school likely runs multiple fundraisers throughout the year. From bake sales to fun runs, there are so many opportunities for your community to get involved and help raise money to support your school.

However, if you just choose different fundraising ideas at random, your efforts may feel disjointed. To create a cohesive fundraising strategy, you have to start at the top with your mission and goals and then work your way down to the fundraising ideas you’ll implement.

With the help of this guide, your school will be able to fundraise with purpose, leveraging strategies informed by your overarching vision for your school. That way, your efforts will pack a greater punch and inspire more community members to get involved. Let’s get started!

Clearly define your school’s mission.

Every school shares a central purpose: facilitating students’ learning. However, each school has a different culture and community that may impact how it approaches this mission.

For example, two schools within the same district might have very different mission statements, even though both aim to help students learn effectively. Take a look at what these two hypothetical schools’ missions may be:

• Midtown Elementary School: “Our mission is to help our young students develop a foundation of communication and interpersonal skills, create long-lasting friendships, and instill a lifelong love of learning.”
• Greater Atlanta High School: “At Greater Atlanta High School, we aim to prepare students for secondary schooling and their future careers through diverse, rigorous coursework. We also strive to help students find their passions both in and out of the classroom so they can become well-rounded members of society.”

Alternatively, some schools may offer general studies while others specialize in STEM, the arts, religion, or another subject matter. Tailor your mission statement accordingly to provide focus to your fundraising efforts.

Assess your current needs.

Discover what you need to fundraise for by narrowing in on your school’s most pressing needs. That way, you can create a feasible fundraising plan and prioritize certain campaigns accordingly.

Assess your school’s current needs by:

• Evaluating existing programs and resources. Determine how effective your current programs are and if there are any gaps in your resources you can fill through fundraising. For example, you may have run an after-school program for the past several years that needs updated art supplies or games to enrich students’ experiences.

• Gathering feedback. Reach out to parents, guardians, and staff to hear their perspectives on how your school could improve. You may find that parents and guardians would like more healthy lunch options for their children or that the math department needs to replace its calculators, for instance.
• Analyzing school performance data. Dive into student test scores and progress reports to identify academic areas of improvement for your school as a whole. This data may prompt your school to adopt a new curriculum for a certain subject, invest in enrichment programs, or develop new field trip opportunities.

You may also discover what could improve students’ experiences by directly asking them. While younger students may not be able to articulate what would help them at school, you can still ask them what they like and dislike about the school day to see if there are any problems you could resolve with additional resources. Older students will likely have insights into areas that parents, guardians, teachers, and administrators don’t necessarily interact with, such as transportation, extracurriculars, and counseling.

Create fundraising goals.

With your most pressing needs at the forefront of your mind, it’s time to create your fundraising goals. Aly Sterling Philanthropy’s fundraising strategy guide recommends setting SMART goals, which stands for:

• Specific. Your fundraising goals should specify exactly what you’re raising money for. For example, if you previously identified a need for a new playground, include that context in your goal statement.

• Measurable. To assess progress, your goals have to be measurable. In the case of fundraising, this typically means you’ll assign a set dollar amount you aim to raise for each of your goals.

• Achievable. While your goals should be ambitious, they should also be reasonable based on your past fundraising results and available resources. For instance, if you have a volunteer shortage, you may be more conservative about the amount you’ll be able to raise through a campaign that relies heavily on volunteers, such as peer-to-peer fundraising or a 5K.

• Relevant. Your fundraising goals should clearly connect to your school’s mission, whether by improving the student experience, assisting teachers, or upgrading school resources and facilities.
• Time-bound. Lastly, each fundraising goal should have an associated time period. That way, you can mark the start and end of each fundraising campaign and assess your results accordingly.

An example of a SMART school fundraising goal may be to “raise $100,000 over the next school year to adopt a new math curriculum the following year that will better prepare students for standardized math testing.” This goal is SMART because it specifies what funds will go towards, includes a specific dollar amount, relates to the school’s overall mission, and has a specific time frame. Whether this goal is achievable will depend on the school’s unique fundraising history and resources.

Select fundraising initiatives that reflect your mission and goals.

Now, choose fundraising campaigns or ideas that align with your mission and goals. When you focus on fundraising methods that relate to your school’s overarching philosophy and needs, you’ll offer more relevant, engaging fundraising opportunities that help you gather community support.

Here are a few ideas to help you get started:

• If you’re looking to engage the broader community or teach students about the importance of supporting local businesses, host a discount card fundraiser. A discount card fundraiser involves selling cards that offer discounts to local restaurants, shops, and merchants. As ABC Fundraising’s discount card fundraiser guide explains, “Discount card fundraisers are excellent ways for merchants, restaurants, and stores in your community to support your group and in turn for the community members to support those businesses that support you.”
• If you’re looking to promote sustainability or fund new STEM opportunities, consider a flower bulb fundraiser. Not only do flower bulb fundraisers offer students and their families an exciting activity in exchange for their contributions, but they can also provide a sneak peek into the kinds of STEM resources your school will be able to offer using the funds it generates from this campaign.
• If you’re looking to build strong relationships among students, families, and teachers as you fundraise, launch a back-to-school night fundraiser. Members of your school community will get the chance to catch up or meet each other for the first time as they discuss the upcoming school year and what your school can accomplish thanks to their donations.

Get creative with your fundraising ideas to offer options that truly reflect your school’s values and vision for the future. After each fundraiser, consider surveying participants to assess the impact of each campaign and whether the connection to your mission was strong enough.

Fundraising with purpose requires a mindset shift, greater attention to detail, and a deeper focus on your school’s mission and goals. When you put in this extra effort, you’ll run fundraising campaigns that get to the heart of what your school is all about, encouraging community members to get involved and help you pursue your mission with their contributions.