Fund Raising with Create-A-Book

........

Fund Raising

The definition of fund raising is simply raising money. Usually it is for a worthwhile cause and these funds are used to further the mission of an organization. Fund raisers are another way that dealers can generate year-round sales. These events can produce great interest and provide your company and Create-A-Book books with a positive image.

Fund raisers are different from your on-location sales, Give-A-Book projects, hospital programs. Usually, the organization provides the labor of selling the books and you become the supplier.

Many dealers have participated in successful fund-raising projects using Create-A-Book books. Here are some guidelines to consider when thinking about a fund-raiser.

What are the different ways to manage a fund raiser?

Basically there are two types of fund raisers. One is called interactive and the other is passive.

In an interactive fund raiser, large groups of volunteers go out and raise money. Donors are asked to contribute money for a cause or to purchase a product to help the group with their projects.
Passive fund raisers do not utilize the door-to-door approach. This system of fund raising uses direct mail to solicit funds. Implementing this method, work directly with the group to develop a mailing piece (brochure, catalog or coupon) that would be used to sell the books.

How do I find a fund-raising group?

Check with your local Chamber of Commerce for the names of different organizations in your community who do fund-raising activities. We contacted the local Chamber of Commerce and compiled this list that may have a local chapter in your area.

Boy Scouts Girl Scouts Lions Club PTA's
PTO's Band Boosters Firemen Policemen
Shriners Sororities Fraternities AMA
Medical Auxiliaries Home Extension Quarterback clubs LVA
Junior League Women's groups Churches Synagogues Sertoma American Legion YMCA Hospice Grant-A-Wish Jaycees Kiwanis Rotary Yearbook Committees Town Councils Library Support Groups Search and Rescue Groups
Navy Officer's Wife's Clubs
High & Junior High school special interest groups & athletic associations

How do I determine which group to approach first?

Research the groups and organizations to find out about their goals, interests and missions. If they are into children and/or educational projects, then this is a natural product for their fund raising campaigns.

How do I get started?

Hopefully, your company has decided to become a known entity in your community. One of the first things you should do is join your local Chamber of Commerce. Become involved so others can spread the word about your books. Also, join the Better Business Bureau.
There are local organizations in your area that might help develop good contacts (help networking in your community). You never know where some of these leads may take you. A few of our dealers have large corporate accounts now because of the local networking they did initially.
The International Reading Association (IRA) has a state chapter and a local Chapter. Call the school board office and ask to speak to the Director of Reading to find out more about the local reading association. The membership fee is usually very nominal. Join and attend the meetings. Let them know about your business. Keep brochures, order pads and sample books in your car at all times.
For as little as $10.00 a year (for a corresponding membership), look into joining the Women's National Book Association. "The WNBA is the only organization in the book world open to women and men in all occupations allied to the publishing industry: publishers, authors, librarians, literary agents, editors, illustrators, designers, educators, critics, booksellers, and those engaged in book production, marketing, finance, subsidiary rights, and personnel. WNBA also publishes The Bookman three times a year to inform the book world about its activities. Each issue contains regular columns written by the president, the book review editor, and a correspondent from each chapter, as well as major articles about news or developments of special interest to book people. This publication is sent to all corresponding members.

Call or write for more information:

WBNA
160 Fifth Avenue
New York, NY 10010
(212) 675-7805

Generate as much free publicity as possible about your company and what you're offering. Call the local newspaper and have an article written about your business for the money or business section. Call your radio station and see if they have a talk show. Do the same thing with local television stations. Donate books for local charity events. Make presentations to organizations in your community, and be the guest speaker. The most important point here is to have the community learn about your company and know it is a reputable part of the community, not a "here today, gone tomorrow" type of company.

What organization in your community receives the most individual contributions?

It's churches. The Grace Christian line of our products does very well as a fund raising product for local churches. Let the members of local congregations and the ministers in your community know about our Grace line of books. Remember that there are Christian versions available for several of the regular Create-A-Book titles too.
Most everyone you meet or know probably belongs to a church or group. You can network with them to find out if they would assist you with an introduction to the decision makers within those churches or groups.
Know and respect your audience. If doing a show at a temple, for example, be sure to ask the person in charge about the general guidelines for vendors regarding appropriate dress, bringing in food, and the display parameters or restrictions for the books.
If unsure of where or what groups are in your local area, read topical local magazines and newspapers. Check your local library for current publications. Look in your local yellow pages under community clubs and churches. There may be a coalition of local religious ideas listed also. This would be an excellent source for church listings of all denominations. Contact your own minister, rabbi or church council for current activities.
Different denominations hold bazaars and/or fund-raising events at different seasons based on their own calendar of historical events. Visit those events to meet people there to get your foot in the door. Maybe they can offer your books at their next event. Take business cards, catalogs and a sample book. While you are there, enjoy the event. It sure beats a day in the office (one of the perks of your Create-A-Book business).

What are the possibilities of doing fund raisers with public and private schools?

At the Preschool, Nursery or Day Care Level:

Good. Fund raisers with private nursery schools, day care centers, or pre-kindergarten programs usually do not entail much paperwork. Contact the owner, manager or person in charge of the budget for the facility. The sticker books are especially great fund raising items for children this age and their parents. It is a good idea to set up a demonstration for the children by bringing in your computer system and showing them how to make a book. This becomes an educational interaction between the children, their parents, and the operators of the centers. Children love learning new things, and are being introduced to computers earlier each year. Their natural curiosity encourages them to find out how things, like books, are made.

Make an appointment by phone to stop by and show your product to the owner/operator. Take sample books and a letter for each child to take home to their parents inviting them to come to the demonstration also. Explain how much money the school will get for every book sold. The profit split is negotiable. However, two to five dollars per book is about average. Try to determine before hand the amount of money the school is looking to make and set percentage accordingly.

At the Elementary Level:

Very good. However, talk to someone on your local board of education before working directly within the local public school system. A good lead would be to talk to a teacher, the principal, the superintendent, or the president of an individual PTA/PTO organization in each school.

A suggestion for initiating a working relationship with the PTA/PTO would be to donate a set of books, in their name, to the school library using teacher's names as the main characters. Instead of using individual names for friends, type in a phrase like "the third grade class," "his/her third graders" or "the class of 1996," etc. For books that require an additional adult character, insert the principal's or librarian's name. Customize each story line provided as much as possible. It is important to use names of people that most of the children in the school will recognize. Using the head librarian's name, in at least one of the books, may insure her support for getting the book into circulation.

When you do a project like this, you will get to know the president of PTA/PTO. Hopefully the president will get to know your company better. Once the books are donated you can then suggest a form of fund raising for the PTA by using your Create-A-Books. One form of a fund raiser for the PTA might be to hold a book fair. Book fairs can also be used as a fund raiser for the school or the school library. Again, it would be educational to set up your computer and manufacture the books on the spot for the children attending the fair. This type of arrangement is similar to the RIF (Reading is Fundamental) program because the children get to choose their own books. And even better, the children can watch their Create-A-Books being published on the spot.

RIF programs generally require corporate sponsorship. (This is how RIF is funded.) Contact the local chapter and request a list of their continuing sponsors.

Another option would be for the PTA/PTO to buy the books for the students, since the funds they earn are usually used to buy things for the children. This is only true if the fund raisers of the past have been successful and the PTA/PTO has money left in the budget.

At the Junior High or Middle School Level:

More schools are developing "Partners in Education" programs in their communities. This involves a 6th or 7th grade level class, a business sponsor and a recipient 2nd or 3rd grade elementary class from a school near by. Check with your Chamber of Commerce to see which companies already have one of these programs in place. Make an appointment with the Company. Your mission is to see if the company would like to give books to the children of the school they are sponsoring. Offer the company a bargain price if they purchase a book for every child in the program. Or, offer a percentage back from every book sold by the junior high class.

See if the junior high school participates in an intramural sports event. Offer the books as a fund raiser for booster clubs.
Ask if the cheerleading squad, chorus or band has to raise their own money for trips and offer the books as a product they can sell. The sticker books can be sold door-to-door just like candy bars and light bulbs. They would be offering a product with educational integrity and raising the reading level of elementary students in their own communities.
Donating some titles to a reading lab produces product awareness in the school. Junior high students, with a reading problem, recognize and talk about their successes with teachers, counselors and their parents. Great products get attention and when the attention is positive the community notices.

At the high school Level:

Because government funding for our public schools systems is constantly being cut, high schools are looking for ways to generate funds for all extracurricular activities. Art supplies, science projects, drama and/or music programs as well as athletics and their supporters are being forced to provide their own capital or do without. The state lotteries do not seem to be providing the revenue they projected. Get a list of curriculum items that are losing budget money and make a presentation to the class. (Check the local, state and national sections of your local newspapers to see which government cuts are affecting your schools.)

4-H, FHA, Junior Achievement and many community clubs have clubs in the local high school. Academic clubs are always looking for community involvement ideas. Contact the high school extra curriculum coordinator and set up a time to make a presentation to the club of your choice.

Be creative. One dealer contacted a computer club and donated a copy of the Create-A-Book software for the McGruff book. The students studied the software, then contacted businesses and got sponsors for the program. They then collected the data necessary to complete the books, purchased the inventory from the dealer and successfully carried out the program. They received community recognition for all their hard work. The elementary students each got a free book. Sponsors were delighted by the high school students’ ability to carry out the program and the dealer has access to a repeating McGruff program that does not require much work.

What are the possibilities of a group repeating a fund raiser using our books?

Most organizations are very desirous of repeating projects that have done well. Again, the service provided and the community exposure developed will determine whether your fund raiser will be a success. In other words, once group approval is granted, and you willingly work with them to make their fund raiser easy and profitable, they will want to do it again and again.

Initial Steps for your Fund Raising Project

Make an appointment with the person in charge of fund raising for the organization you are targeting.
Make a sample book and personalize it with your contact's name and appropriate information that would relate to the person.
Determine how much you want to charge the organization for the books. You will need to negotiate with the group on this amount. If you intend to mail the books, don't forget to add postage and handling. Remember that the sticker books require much less time and effort. Sometimes, groups such as Junior Achievement, or ARC will donate labor in order to reduce the cost of the books to them.
Bring the sample book(s) and any pertinent information you may have on fund raisers to the meetings. If you have successfully completed a fund raiser elsewhere in your area using the books, bring the articles or copies of audio broadcasts with you.
Make your presentation. If you've done your homework, you might know what the organization has done previously for fund raising events. With that information in hand, you might be able to tell them how you can offer a premium product that as much or more value than anything they have worked with before.
Show them how quickly you can make and deliver the books. (Dealers have taken one compete book and one book with cover not yet on. then, during the demonstration, peel the liner away from the sticky paper and put the bound book into the cover in front of everyone. Good show!
Explain the discount from your retail price.
Point out that books promote reading and education in general. (Literacy has become a very important promotional tool.) Many businesses, organizations and community clubs are interested in participating in a literacy program now because of the attention the issue had received from former First Lady Barbara Bush.
Once the project is approved and the organization has agreed to pay a specific amount for each book, you may want to have them sign a letter of understanding. Many dealers have a verbal agreement. However, some groups and/or dealers may want a written contract. The group may prepare the contract or they may ask you to provide one. Remember that contract are legal and binding. It is a good idea to discuss any new contract with an attorney before you sign.

If you prepare the contract, include some or all of the following information: The date, whom the agreement is between (your business name and the individual's or complete organizational name) and what the terms of the agreement are. Included information would be:

the price per book agreed upon
the period of time the contract cover
what your delivery time for completed book orders is ,
how the finished product will be delivered.

Now that you have obtained approval to initiate a fund raising program, you will need to work with your contact person to set up the event and coordinate the project. Enthusiasm is contagious. The more interest you can generate in the project, the more successful will be the outcome.

Implementing the Fund Raising Program

Determine if the group will be using catalogs, samples or actually carrying the sticker books door-to-door. Some groups may want to utilize the talent within the organization and develop a brochure or flyer especially for this project. Other groups will simply want to have a set number of sticker books on hand as a goal. For instance if the group will be receiving two dollars per book sold and they need to make two hundred dollars in order to reach their goal, they may go ahead and order one hundred books. This means that as soon as the books are gone, they have reached their goal. If the project is going well they may even reorder books before they run out and extend their own goal.

Make sure the group understand how to fill out an order form for the books. Provide answers to commonly asked questions about the order form. Explain the value of the information provided for the books and the prominence of the organization’s endorsement of the product. Each attending member should have an order form to fill out themselves. This will allow them to become familiar with the questions asked. Do this even if you are using the sticker books. You can have your volunteer sales staff take the time to have their customers fill out the postcard in the front of the sticker book they have purchased and return it to you with the money for the book. The customer does have the option, however, of waiting to fill out that order form until they are ready.

Collect the completed order forms and divide the monies collected. If using the sticker books, you will probably get your money up front and the group will keep whatever they collect. If they are returning the postcards for fulfillment, make sure you are on time to collect them. If using order forms and conventional books, set a time when you can get together to collect the order forms, order the books and set a time for production.

Make the books. Check with your contact and make sure you have all the information the organization wants in each book. (Use the sponsor page) Check all the information on the order forms and contact those customers who omitted information or wrote the information illegible. Ask the organization if they would like to include a "Thank-you for your support" notice in the book. This is usually a loose flyer or pamphlet provided by the organization for distribution about the groups upcoming events. Dealers don't usually provide this but many take the time to include the material with the finished book.

Deliver or mail the books to the group responsible for the fun raiser. The books will usually be delivered by the group with a personal thank-you from the members. However, with sticker books or if they elect to have you mail the books yourself be sure to include the cost in your initial price. If using sticker books include re-order forms and the groups pamphlet or flyer with the completed sticker sheets.

Generating Publicity

Once you have a fund raiser project in place, you will want to create some publicity. This will provide the group or individuals with whom you are working with favorable responses for the community. Check with your contact person and see if they have an outlet for public awareness of their cause. If they do, send a press release to them. Send press releases about the fund raiser to all public radio and television stations in the community.

The group may want to help create their press release. This usually results in articles written in the local papers. If the project is very successful you may even see one of your articles get picked up regionally or even nationally. This will lead to other fund raising groups.

Dealer Follow-up

Be sure to send a thank you note to any contact you made this year. Even if a group does not use your books as a fund raising item this year, they might next year. It's always a good idea to leave a them with the feeling that you will be supportive of future events.

Billing the Organization

Some of our dealers have chosen to use a monthly billing cycle when dealing with on-going fund raising projects. However, you may find it easier to bill on a weekly basis, based on the numbers of books made. You can type up an invoice for the amount you are charging. The group may want you to keep track of which individual made the sale and when the book was completed and/or mailed back to the customer.

Conclusion

Fund raisers are a great way to expand your business. You are not limited to the Christmas season, and there is no rent to pay. This method of sales is virtually risk free. Re-read the above information from time to time to absorb the material, and then go out and get yourself several fund raising projects. You will find the experience rewarding!

Addendum

Listed below are examples of feature vs benefit selling.

Features

Create-A-Book is the oldest and largest publisher if instant personalized books.
All the books created have an inherent educational value and fundamental reading practice aids.
All the books are of high quality and professionally bound.
All the books contain the child's name, age, hometown and several friends or relatives names.
The personalization is customized for each book made one order at a time.
The hand made books utilize a safety bind method insuring the child's safety and longevity of the book.
Titles available include many social and community related topics to help teach the child about pertinent social ideals.
New titles are added regularly and reflect market demands.
Story variables can be manipulated to include community goals and ideals.
Special sponsor pages can be incorporated into the hand bound books.
Special annual community events can be inserted into the story line.

Benefits

The stories were created to motivate readers and to give the child more self-worth. Tomorrow’s leaders will be more prepared to be successful.
Reader-friendly books with high quality craftsmanship and components.
The personal touch which makes every book a lifetime keepsake.
Attention to detail which results in customer satisfaction.
The placing of sponsors’ names in the home for years to come.
Community recognition for your group as a leader against the fight for literacy among our youth.
Fund raisers can be repeated yearly with the same quality products but new technologies and contemporary titles.
Children who receive a book during the fund raiser will remember and hopefully grow up to participate in future fund raisers using the books.
Community leaders will become recognized for their support of educational goals.
The children are empowered with self esteem and a sense of accomplishment.
The project will raise money for the church, group or organization.