HOW TO CREATE A CALENDAR FUNDRAISER
At PrintingCenterUSA, our purpose here is to give ideas on how to a create a fundraising calendar and help your school or non-profit organization raise money and support your activities.
The majority of these ideas and information for fundraising calendars can be applied to Non-Profits, Educational Institutions, Schools, PTA, Community Organizations, Humane Societies, Animal Organizations, Religious or Church Organizations, Sports Teams, Fire Departments, Police Departments and other fundraising activities. Use as few or as many ideas as you like to inspire your sales team.
Many organizations have had great success in obtaining sponsors to support the upfront cost of printing their calendars before they go to press. Having upfront sponsors also adds extra profits from calendar sales, thus enabling your school or organization to focus on designing and selling your fundraising calendar.
DESIGN
Online Design & Photos
- Design calendar yourself or let students or associates create their fundraising calendar.
- If You Have Your Calendar Print Ready PDF Files (Photoshop, InDesign, Illustrator) word > get a price> order> upload >
- Utilize our Free Downloadable Templates and Layout Guides to give you a quick start using your design adobe software. Click Here
- Don’t Have a Calendar Design Program? Our online photo calendar maker maybe just what you are looking for. Just upload your images, drag and drop and we’ll make it pop. Click Here.
- Need Professional Design Help. Click Here
Let Your Imagination Flow
- What story do I want to tell my audience with pictures? Do I want to highlight my products, services, people who work for me, etc?
- Look at existing calendars you like, look at pictures you have. Walk around look at your story, talk to fellow employees and form an idea for your calendar. Sit back and look at the story you want to tell and visualize what pictures will tell that story best.
- Rough out your story: Say you are a manufacturing company and want to show your production facilities and the products you produce or you are a community leader and want to promote your town. What pictures would best tell your story?
- Grab your digital camera or smart phone and start taking pictures.
- Need pictures or images why not buy them? You can download great images from online stock photography sites such as Fotolia.com for only a couple of dollars per picture.
PHOTOS
Calendar Photo Ideas:
- You and your fellow calendar developers can take current digital pictures, gather digital pictures and or have fellow students, associates, etc. collect images that will enhance your program.
- All you need is a digital camera and a computer. • Take your digital pictures or use existing photos from your desktop, Face Book, friends, etc.
- You will need 300 dpi pictures. A good resolution for printing photos is 300 dpi (dots per inch). Anything below will print pixelated. Most images displayed on a monitor has a resolution of 72 dpi and 96 dpi, which means it may look great on your screen but will not look great when printed.
Create A Theme with Pictures
- Showcase a picture or collage of photos on the cover of your fundraiser calendar best describing your subject.
- Put a picture or collage of photos on the top of each month. For example, September would say, “Welcome Back to School” and showcase the football team or theme of your calendar.
- Students in campus settings.
- Pictures of peoples’ favorite animals.
- People in funny situations or wearing funny clothes.
- Liven up the month with funny sayings to go with the picture.
- Places or things that relate to your cause or organization.
- Events or things that are going on in a featured month.
- Points of interest, such as people, landmarks, etc. from your school, organization, community, sports team, etc.
- Photos of firefighters or police officers with their shirts off. We did one with firefighters dressed in drag. It was hilarious.
- Pictures from previous years’ events.
- School sports programs and other school events, band, cheerleader, DECA, whatever you feel is necessary for students, teachers, parents, your non-profit and the community during the year.
- Put reminders in this years’ calendar for people to submit pictures for next years’ calendar contest.
COPY IDEAS
List your school, non-profit organization and local community events for the year on your fundraising calendar:
On The Inside Front Cover or Inside and Back Cover You Can:
- Tell a story or promote what you are doing and what the funds will be used for
- School or Non-Profit philosophy
- Mission Statement of school or organization
- Student Learning Expectations
- Tell a story or promote what you are doing. Achievement goal. List of men and women student groups, activities and committees
- Facts and Figures
- How you can make a gift to (LAU case study)
- Notes page
In The Lower Calendar Page with The Days, Show
- Sporting events
- Holidays
- Plays
- Other school activities
- Days off
- School board meeting
- Teachers convention
- Parent-teacher conferences
- Daylight savings time begins and ends
- 1st day of spring, summer, autumn, winter
- Graduation day
- Super Bowl Sunday
SALES: You can sell: birthday and anniversary dates, personal/parent ads with pictures of students, and daily specials from supporting businesses
How Will We Sell Our Calendar Fundraiser
- Calendars can be pre-sold like Girl Scout cookie sales and delivered when done.
- School events and other fundraising events
- Local grocery stores and convenience stores
- Outside high traffic Big Box Business’ (Don’t forget to get permission)
- Parades, festivals, farmer’s markets, sidewalk sales, garage or yard sales
- Go door-to-door and start taking in orders
- Parents, relatives, friends, colleges, supporters of your school or non-profit organization
- School Bookstore
- Sponsors can also sell the finished calendars.
- Advertise with your local radio station or newspaper (They may donate the ad)
- Mail a postcard and email all of your relatives, friends, coworkers, customers, members, contacts and supporters of your school or non-profit organization.
- School or organization website, blog, Facebook page.