A lot of school fundraising campaigns seem to lose a lot of money because of the amount of hidden administration that they require. While it is true that many fundraising campaigns require a lot of volunteers, and all of these to be mobilized to collect a lot of money, it is surprising just how much time is required to administer every dollar that is collected.
Audit where the hours actually go
The hidden cost of administering a fundraising event is the most significant portion of total time spent per dollar raised. There is a lot of hidden administrative work that is currently carried out by staff and volunteer(s) for most fundraising events. This work includes cash handling, volunteer management, reconciling orders and payments, communication with parents etc. Work out the real administration cost per dollar for all past events.
Separate recurring work from one-off work
Work that is frequently repeated can be automated. Work that is done once for a campaign cannot. So automate the frequently repeated work and seek to transform the one-off work into re-usable templates that can be re-used year after year.
Move payments online and remove cash from the chain
Administrative cash handling often involves the risk of error, such as counting out money, getting two people to sign for it, safe storage, banking etc. Manual reconciliation of payments against orders for individual payers is also required for cash handling.
Online collections collate the order with the payment (name, amount, date and time of payment) for easy reference to check for any exceptions to the norm.
What to check before choosing a payment setup
- Whether fees can be absorbed by the school or passed to the payer, and how clearly that is disclosed.
- Settlement timing, since some providers hold funds for several business days.
- Refund and chargeback handling, including who is authorized to issue a refund.
- Whether the platform supports partial payments, installments, and family-level accounts.
- Export formats compatible with your finance system, not just a PDF summary.
Compare the administrative cost of common collection methods
It really depends on the event you are trying to organize for your school fundraising. Here is a rough guide to the trade-offs of the various methods for managing your school’s fundraising events.
| Method | Admin effort | Reconciliation risk | Best suited to |
| Cash envelopes | High | High, no audit trail until counted | Small, single-day events |
| Bank transfer with reference | Medium | Medium, references often mistyped | Larger one-off donations |
| Online order and payment form | Low | Low, record created at point of sale | Product drives, event tickets, raffles |
| Point-of-sale terminal at events | Medium | Low, but needs separate matching to stock | Fairs, canteens, merchandise stalls |
Treat volunteer coordination as a scheduling problem, not a communication problem
Volunteer management is often the part of school fundraising that goes wrong. As coordinator of volunteers for the fundraiser you manage the group via a group message. You collect replies to messages sent via email, text or phone call. You maintain a private spreadsheet of who is signed up to do what. Often the person who does all this is unavailable at some point and the whole program falls apart.
Instead of having people reply to a message with their availability and then you having to update a private spreadsheet, define the shifts for the activity with roles and times for the required number of volunteers. People can then sign up for the times that fit within their schedule. Automated reminders can then be sent to all people signed up for a particular time slot and a roster can be posted online for people to see who has signed up for what time slot. People can then fill in for another volunteer who has had a last minute emergency and is unable to attend.
Design shifts that people will actually take
- Keep shifts to two hours or less, since short commitments attract more first-time volunteers.
- Describe the task plainly, for example, serving at the barbecue or managing the raffle table.
- State whether the role requires a background check or clearance so nobody is turned away on the day.
- Build in a handover overlap of ten minutes between shifts.
- Cap sign-ups per slot so popular roles do not leave other stations unstaffed.
Consolidate the tool stack and standardize reporting
Where your data is fragmented (as is the case with most school fundraisers), i.e. Stored in lots of different places such as spreadsheets, text messages, online payment links and paper ledgers, then purpose built school fundraising software is worth considering, because it brings sign-up, payment and reporting together in one place for schools and PTAs.
Set reporting standards once
Set up a number of core KPIs to track the performance of your future campaigns. We recommend Gross, Net, % Participation, Volunteer Hours and Admin Hours as 5 figures that will give you a good understanding of whether or not a particular fundraiser has been worth your time and effort. By analyzing the past campaigns that have generated a loss you can be sure to discontinue them in the future.
Record the key learnings from each campaign in a short summary document when you close down the campaign. These summaries will form the bulk of what you can refer back to in subsequent years for similar types of campaigns.
