Fundraising ideas

Released 27/06/2008

Financial management conferences sparks fundraising ideas by Matthew Jane

I attended the Effective Financial Management in Schools Conference this week in fashionable Kensington.

Amongst the many speakers was David Poppitt, a fundraising expert who, along with a panel of business managers, fielded questions on optimising schools income.

Several interesting and innovative schemes were raised. For example, who has thought of running a lottery to boost income, with half the takings given in prizes and half going in the schools kitty?

It seems such a simple scheme, yet one business manager said he was taking in several hundred pounds a month in pure profit.

Or what about transferring the pub's favourite ‘bonus ball' sweepstake, where staff buy a number in the hopes of guessing the lottery's bonus ball number, into the staffroom. Again, this offers the possibility for easy cash.

Without wanting to sound to mercenary, the potential to extract cash from every facet of the school organisation should not be underestimated.

The possibilities for fundraising seem endless. Just remember to check that you are ticking all the right boxes so that you don't get any unwanted visits from our friends at the Inland Revenue.

The conference offered an eye-opening look at all aspects of financial management and was well attended by business managers from across the country. I hope those I spoke to enjoyed the day as much as I'm sure they enjoyed the shopping sprees that were planned for afterwards. I'm sure Kensington was overrun by bargain-hunting bursars!

Why not let me know about your interesting fundraising schemes by emailing me at: matthew.jane@intelligentmedia.co.uk or share your ideas on our forum at http://www.edexec.co.uk/chat/.

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