How to fundraise and promote school events to your community

While your school might have the best fundraising idea known to man, if your community doesn’t get behind it, the idea may not get legs at all and remain an idea, rather than a successful fundraising event or campaign.

So how do you create fundraising events that are supported by your local community? The answer is by creating a solid promotions and marketing campaign that stands out from the crowd.

To make your fundraising event as successful as possible and to tap into the support of individuals outside of your school and within the general community, you’re best to consider a combination of communication and marketing ideas to promote your event to the masses.

Here are a few ideas to help you promote your school fundraiser and get the word out throughout the local area.

Focus on word of mouth

No one is ever going to know your school is holding a fundraiser unless you let them know, so share a flyer for the event to friends, work colleagues and family to let them know and to see if they can support.

You never know, if the community can’t come along they might be interested in donating items to help with the fundraiser or if your fundraiser is a drive of some kind they can donate funds or purchase items in the lead up to your event and you can collect their funds on their behalf.

Post flyers or posters throughout the local area

In most communities, there are noticeboards outside local supermarkets and in community spaces that allow for posters or flyers to be shown promoting upcoming community events.

Gather a team of volunteers and find as many areas as you can to plaster posters so your local community can see what’s coming up in your school’s fundraising calendar. Be sure to only erect posters in spaces that are approved, and don’t just put up posters anywhere otherwise you could get fined by the local council.

Promote events on social media

You would be surprised how much attention you can get via digital mediums especially when it comes to platforms such as Facebook and Instagram.

To promote your school event, set up an event on one of your social media platforms and ask your organising committee and school community to share to their list of friends and colleagues in the local area.

By sharing the event, you can drum up quite a lot of support and get an indication of interest and well as provide an opportunity for community members to ask questions and find out more about the upcoming fundraiser.

Post details on community websites

There is a swag of community websites that share information on your fundraisers. Have a quick search and you will be able to find websites such as Event Finda that list community events for free.

As well as this, your local council or region might also have a free community listing for events – so ask around and share your event info left, right and centre with your community.

Chat about it on your local radio station

If there is a member of your fundraising committee that is a great public speaker you can contact local radio stations to see if you can promote your event via a chat with the local radio announcers.

Radio stations are often looking for local events to get behind and add to their local news, so by sharing your school event information for upcoming fundraisers you can get a plug on air for free in their ‘what’s on’ section of the news or bulletin.

Ensure your info is short, sharp and to the point, so it’s easily converted to a radio announcement.

Create a media release and send it to local media outlets

Whether you want your fundraising event promoted in the print news, local parent networks or even in local parents magazine you will need to present the information in a way that is easily transferable to media outlets and this means a media release.

The media release is a pretty simple tool, and done well can work to generate some invaluable free promotion for your event.

To ensure your media release is a success either engage the services of a volunteer with marketing and communications experience or ask a local PR expert to donate their time to draft up a media release. The release only needs to be one page and should outline what you’re doing and why the community should get behind the event.

If you follow some of these steps you’re sure to get the word out for your event to the local community.

Just be sure to run any of your marketing and communications ideas past your school principal or executive to ensure they are happy with your plans to target the local community.

Involving the principal and senior school executive might provide more information on existing partnerships with media outlets or local businesses who might be happy to get behind your event, saving you valuable time spreading the word in your local area.