For some non profit groups, magazine fundraising is a perennial favorite. A magazine fundraiser allows for recurring revenue. Some schools, churches, booster clubs, charities and other non-profit organizations sell them every year with consistent results.
A magazine fundraiser for schools
One reason the school magazine fundraiser works so well for raising money is that most households already subscribe to at least two. Since they will have to renew their favorite subscriptions eventually anyway, they might as well renew it from someone who is promoting a worthy cause—like yours.
The magazine school fundraiser also works because of the tremendous variety of magazines that are available. Most people will be able to find at least one periodical that interests them and fundraising magazine subscriptions are usually a lot cheaper than the newsstand price.
So it’s an easy sale. No pledges, sponsorships or donation soliciting (begging) required.
The magazine subscription fundraiser…so many choices
There are magazines for nearly every topic under the sun. In fact, some companies provide subscriptions to over 650 different titles that your customers can choose from including news, sports, science, fashion, lifestyles, hobbies, home improvements, and many more. There is truly something for everyone. There are even a number of magazines for kids. What a great way to spark a child’s interest in reading.
The mag fundraiser is also easy to run. There’s no product for your school or charity to buy, so your volunteers just show the mag fundraising brochure to family, friends and neighbors, and then fill out a form. That’s it. You don’t even have to deliver the magazines when they arrive since the post office takes care of that. It’s simple. No inventory and no product delivery.
Now it’s even easier since the whole process can be done online.
Why I like magazine fundraisers for schools
What’s even better is that these same customers will likely order from your magazine fundraisers again each year when they renew their subscriptions. Magazine subscriptions also make great gifts.
You’re not limited by geographical area either. Your fundraiser volunteers can expand their customer base to include all their friends and relatives across the country.
Magazine fundraising companies
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What others say…
Sharp Students Raise Over $5000 with Magazine Fundraiser
What we did to make our magazine fundraiser successful was the prizes we offered the students. They all worked extra hard for the prizes, and we ended up making over $5000.
We gave out 4 Wii’s for $500 sales and 3 iPod touches for students who sold over $800 worth of magazine subscriptions.
They would go online and set up a “store” and send e-mails to everyone they knew who had a magazine subscription. How these kids managed to do this I do not know, their parents probably helped them somehow, but that is good that they want to be involved with the school’s fundraiser.
Big Win with Our Mag Fundraiser
My son was in the 6th grade and was raising money for the 6th grade for field trip. Magazines are very hard to sell these days because the schools right off the bat say don’t go door to door. But what else are you to do when every kid in the school has the same fundraiser to do too?
We found out that there were a lot of laundromats near us because our washer had gone out. We also noticed that there were a lot of people sitting around with nothing to do but wait. So, we decided to go around to all the laundromats in our area – it would take about an hour every night.
The top prize for the most sold was a Game Cube with two games and four remotes. My son had sold the most and won the Game Cube.
We found out later that the boy that had come in second his parents had done most of the buying just so he could win first place.
I feel proud of my son because he did all the work by himself and I just took him from one place to the next. He did all the selling and the talking to get what he wanted most.
My son ended up raising $1200.00 for his 6th grade class which was more than they need for class trips for that year. They ended up with a big party at the end of the year for all the hard work they did.
Encouraging People to Read While Raising Money
When I was teaching at a grade school a number of years ago we decided to sell magazine subscriptions to raise money for Reading Counts! library books. We chose the selling of magazine because we felt that we would be getting good reading materials into the homes of our school community as well as getting quality books in the Media Center.
We asked for teacher and parent volunteers to set up the program under the leadership of the Media Specialist (me). It is very important to have the cooperation and support from staff members and parents when planning a fund raiser. We had a number of informal meetings where members of the team shared information on various Magazine Fundraiser Companies, and there are a lot of companies in this business. Once the information was gathered we looked at the options to see what would be best for us.
When selecting a company we looked at the following criteria:
- Were magazines appropriate for families?
- Did the list of magazines include some for all age groups?
- Did the list include some for various sports interests?
- Did the list include some for various activites such as cooking, crafts, collecting, and so forth?
- Was the cost of the subscription reasonable? What was the length of the original subscription?
Parents checked the prices of the select magazines on the store rack, and staff and parents checked out the price of a subscription online from the sellers of select magazines. Once the companies were narrowed down, members of the team went online to checked the history of Fundraising Companies and reviews about them.
Another consideration was the percentage we would receive from selling the subscriptions. We were in the business of raising money for books, not selling magazines although getting magazines in familys homes was a great side benefit.
Once we had chosen a company we contacted them. We asked for a representative from the company to meet with the team and bring all of the information and the contract. A number of our parents work in the legal field and one of them volunteered to check it over for any hidden problems. This is very important. What the representative says is meant to get you to buy into the program. Be careful to check out any hidden commitments.
We were happy with our company and we went forward with the program. We decided on a reward program. The parents suggested that the best reward would be free subscriptions to the magazine, and this was included in the contract. We also decided to have little incentives such as a pizza party for the top class and cookies or little prizes for those who achieved certain goals.
We obviously did not want to spend a lot of money on prizes and we received donations from parents for the prizes. A brand new stuffed animal that a child does not want makes a great prize for another child.
The fundraiser ran for 3 weeks. You do not want to run it for too long or people lose interest. We had it for 3 weeks so people could sell to extended family members. We ran it over Thanksgiving vacation since this is great time that extended families get together.
Needless to say, the fundraiser was a great success. And even though I am no longer Media Specialist at the school the magazine subscription fundraising program is still a part of their yearly fundraisers.
I hope you can use my experience to encourage others. Thank you.
