Overcome Common School Fundraising Barriers with Integrated Software Solutions
“COVID-19 has greatly exacerbated the ‘triple squeeze’ of rising costs, declining revenue, and greater student need – challenges that districts were contending with even before the pandemic struck,” explains Education Resource Strategies (ERS) in a report on the cost of COVID on schools. Experts project that schools will be underfunded by $12K per pupil over five years
The grim multi-year financial impact of COVID-19 on K-12 school districts means that education leaders across the country are scrambling to address immediate and future funding gaps. Many Parent Teacher Organizations (PTOs) and extracurricular programs have turned to fundraising as a stop-gap measure.
Despite the pressing need for schools to secure additional funding, parent groups cite challenges in achieving their fundraising goals. A survey of parent group leaders found that the biggest fundraising challenges include logistics, communication, and engagement. All issues can be resolved with the strategic use of marketing and fundraising software.
Although a quick solution cannot resolve the issue of rising cost pressure on schools, effective fundraising can help minimize the impact. Marketing and fundraising software can boost family participation, simplify order details, and improve communication with supporters.
The ultimate goal is to help schools meet their critical funding targets. Keep reading below for 10 software tools that can repair common school fundraising frustrations.
1. iATS
Did you know that iATS Payments by Deluxe® can support product fundraising and even has integration options for school-specific software? For instance, iATS works seamlessly with Azily Solutions, a leader in school food service management that schools love using for lunch money management.
iATS was built specifically with fundraising in mind. Business-minded school administrators appreciate how iATS can connect fundraising, communications, and payment processing in one place.
2. Neon One
Neon’s offerings that work great for schools include a customer relationship management (CRM) system, a fundraising platform, membership engagement software, event management solutions, and a website builder. This means Neon can support school fundraising efforts from acquisition through retention.
If your school needs an all-in-one solution for fundraising, communications, and volunteer management, Neon One might be the right choice. This program can streamline communication with your school’s hundreds or thousands of donors.
3. Salesforce
Salesforce offers an all-in-one solution for sales, service, marketing, IT, and analytics specifically for K-12 schools.
Schools using Salesforce report incredible gains with a 38% faster response to student needs, a 10% increase in enrollment, and a 30% in work-based learning attendance. Education Cloud for K-12 advances admissions, enrollment, student success, fundraising, grant management, communication, and family engagement.
Schools that host product fundraisers welcome Salesforce’s sales capabilities with process automation, contact management, reports, purchase tracking, and more. A parent’s cookie dough purchase becomes more than a one-time donation. School fundraisers can maintain contact with that parent, invite them to an event, and target them for future fundraisers.
4. Google Analytics
Use Google Analytics for your fundraising campaign to track online engagement and identify areas for improvement. For instance, you can find out where visitors come from (e.g. Facebook, e-newsletter, referral site) using the channels tool. The in-page analytics tool helps you position a donation or campaign link in a prominent area.
Schools, nonprofits, and businesses alike rely on Google Analytics to get fast answers to questions about data, uncover insights about website performance, and tap into modeling capabilities. Google Analytics integrates with other Google solutions, like Google Ads, to optimize evaluation.
Most schools will find all their analytic needs met by the free version of Google Analytics. However, school districts might need Analytics 360 for more custom metrics, access to raw data, and integration with Salesforce.
5. Hootsuite
Hootsuite takes the headache out of advertising school fundraising campaigns, eliminating the need to jump between websites or remember 10 login credentials for the daily fundraising notice.
Its web-based platform allows managers to oversee all customer care channels, including SMS, social media, WhatsApp, live chat, and online ads. Marketing professionals flock to Hootsuite for its ability to recommend times for posting on social media, schedule posts in advance, and monitor all platforms on one screen.
6. FormAssembly
Turn fundraising interest into action by using FormAssembly – collect submissions from potential fundraising volunteers, analyze survey results regarding fundraising incentives, create donor accounts in your CRM system, or track applications for internal grants.
The University of Florida used FormAssembly during the height of COVID-19 to deliver emergency aid to students, staff, and faculty. Previously, the University used paper forms and received few applications. Transitioning to FormAssembly enabled conditional logic and automatically created a record in Salesforce for each applicant.
You can build online and mobile forms quickly and easily with FormAssembly. Their integration with Salesforce, Pardot, Mailchimp, Google Sheets, and other applications makes collecting and applying data straightforward.
7. Auction Platforms
An electronic silent auction simplifies logistics and communication throughout the night by automatically tracking bids, sending event updates, notifying winners, and collecting payment. With so many options for online silent auctions, there is no reason schools should have to host a paper and pen silent auction.
Both SchoolAuction.net and Bidding for Good have integrations with iATS. The systems can run in-person, online, virtual, or hybrid silent auctions. For schools that want to reach a large public audience, Bidding for Good can include your auction on their website reaching 1.7M+ philanthropic shoppers. These systems both have set pricing for their use.
Some schools prefer a payment option based on a percentage of funds raised. In that case, Bidding Owl might be the right choice. Although the platform is free, auction hosts must pay a 5% performance fee on all funds raised.
8. WordPress
Many school fundraising programs use WordPress for its ease of use, free themes, and ability to work with other school software programs. Incorporating school-specific programs, like the School Management Plugin, or fundraising tools into a WordPress website is simple. Collect contributions and spread awareness of your school's fundraising campaign using donation plugins.
Schools and universities cite reliability, scalability, ease of use, adaptability, flexibility, multi-site option, user permissions, and low-cost as the reasons for using WordPress
WordPress's flexibility and open-source structure make it a great option for schools that fundraise.
9. Anthology
Anthology’s alumni giving technology is a favorite among school fundraisers. Districts might already be using the platform for enterprise applications, admissions and enrollment management, student success/engagement, and institutional and learning effectiveness tools.
Anthology, previously made up of Campus Labs, Campus Management, and iModules, was created specifically to help higher education advance and thrive. Their mission is to augment classroom learning, take the student experience beyond campus, and build alumni and donor loyalty.
10. Talisma
Talisma allows school fundraisers to communicate with email, phone, chat, SMS, messaging, print, and portal through one system. Another education-focused software, Talisma, is a cost-effective fundraising software.
The single database system provides transparency and collaboration in a universal database for staff to access and update from anywhere. We love Talimsa’s analytic and report capabilities that provide insight into individual campaigns, appeals, and funds.
When schools put marketing tools to good use, they can transform their fundraising campaigns and meet their ambitious goals. Integrated payment processing, analytics, auction bidding, social media, email, and website systems convey a professional, reliable school brand.
Save staff time, maximize reach, and retain supporters with a tech-savvy approach to marketing and fundraising for your school or district. Use this list to start your school software research and trial opportunities.
About the Author: Clay Boggess
Clay Boggess has been designing fundraising programs for schools and various nonprofit organizations throughout the US since 1999. He works with administrators, teachers, as well as outside support entities such as PTA's and PTO’s. Clay is a Senior Consultant at Big Fundraising Ideas.
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