7 Easy Ways to Raise Money with a Program Book Fundraiser

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1 FREE REPORT 7 Easy Ways to Raise Money with a Program Book Fundraiser Did you know that it s possible to raise thousands of dollars with just one program book fundraiser? It s the perfect fundraiser, while at the same time creating a lasting memory for members and supporters of your organization. The information in this special report has been compiled over several years of helping individuals just like you create stunning (and profitable!) program books. Consider this a blueprint for your own project, as you are about to learn the inside secrets that can make YOUR project a complete success! Many of our customers ask us why we provide so much free insider information on how to create a profitable team program book before anyone has even downloaded our powerful software or decided to partner with us. The answer is really quite simple... Your success is more important to us than your business. You see, we are 100% confident in our ability to create the highest-quality, most profitable program books. We do this every day, and have an unmatched track record for managing successful projects for organizations everywhere. So, whether or not we get YOUR business, we want to do everything we can to make sure you have the information you need to help your kids get what they need. That's what is important to us. So, with that said, let s get started with the first of 7 Easy Ways to Raise Money with a Program Book Fundraiser 7 Easy Ways to Raise Money with a Program Book Fundraiser Page 1

2 SECRET STRATEGY #1: Make It EASY for Your Parents & Volunteers to Help; Give Them a Fundraising Swiss Army Knife! It might seem obvious, but it s amazing how many people try to create a program book without soliciting help from the parents of EVERY team member. And even when they DO ask the parents to help, they almost never provide those parents with a well-written, pre-drafted solicitation letter to make it easy for them to ask for advertising support. A common theme with the most successful projects we see is the distribution of effective sales letter templates to volunteers. Parents and volunteers should distribute these letters to friends, family members, their employer and other business contacts. It s simple, but it can really make a tremendous difference to your fundraiser. So when planning and coordinating YOUR team program book, be sure to write a letter (or letters) that kindly solicits advertising support, and provide this template to every parent and volunteer with the specific request that they reach out to their personal contact base in the community. You might even want to provide slightly different versions for different audiences. If this sounds like a lot of work don t worry. We have a proprietary solution that will save you countless hours, and ensure your organization will maximize its fundraiser. You see, we ve developed a comprehensive Quick Start Resource Kit of proven, pre-written fundraising and sales material that you can copy word-for-word to put your project on cruise control! Our copyrighted Quick Start Resource Kit includes over 30 templates, everything you could possibly need, including: Advertising Sponsor Solicitation Letters and templates Advertising Sponsor Thank You Letters and templates Advertising Donation Tracking Spreadsheets Advertising Order Forms and Receipts Project Tasks and Dates Checklist and Schedule Program Book Content Checklist Request for Photos Letter and template with quality guidelines Volunteer Recruitment Letter and template and many more!!! To order our Quick Start Resource Kit royalty-free CLICK HERE. These templates will pay for themselves many times over. In fact, just ONE additional ad generated by one of these form letters will more than pay for the entire library! Plus, think of the TIME you will save not having to write these form letters from scratch yourself! 7 Easy Ways to Raise Money with a Program Book Fundraiser Page 2

3 SECRET STRATEGY #2: Don t Re-invent the Wheel! (Save Time and Money with Specialty Software) This strategy will allow you to save time and money so you can focus on maximizing fundraising sales (i.e. revenue) while keeping costs to a minimum. I think you ll quickly see why this secret is incredibly valuable Unless you are an expert graphic designer, you absolutely do NOT want to build your team program book from scratch. This would take a significant amount of time and energy which is better spent developing the program s content and soliciting donations. The good news is that you don t have to be a graphic designer or hire one, or even know how to use (or own) programs like Publisher, InDesign or Photoshop, to be able to create professional quality team programs. In fact, you can save more than 80% of your time and absolutely eliminate design costs by utilizing do-it-yourself software specially designed for creating team program books. Better still, it s FUN and REWARDING! Sports Program Printing offers just such a program, which has allowed literally hundreds of schools to create colorful, high-quality program books and media guides in a fraction of the time. It s called Program Designer PRO and, believe it or not, it is absolutely FREE!! To download a FREE copy of our do-it-yourself design software, Program Designer PRO, CLICK HERE. 7 Easy Ways to Raise Money with a Program Book Fundraiser Page 3

4 SECRET STRATEGY #3: Tap into Your School s Vendor List This secret strategy deals with a virtually-guaranteed source of paid advertisers that is commonly overlooked or approached without a solid plan. Do NOT make this mistake when fundraising for your program book or event guide!!! This strategy can easily increase your advertising sales by 25% or more. Here s what you do: Ask your school s administration for a list of companies that provide products or services to the school or district, more specifically, the athletic department, the music department, etc. (wherever your organization fits). This might include uniform providers, athletic or musical supply companies; the company the school buys their trophies from, etc. Basically anyone the school is already spending money with. Approach this list of vendors with the opportunity to advertise in your team program book. Because they have a vested interest in the success of your school they will typically feel obliged to advertise, and will view their donation as an opportunity to show their appreciation for the school s business. It s a win-win and a rich source of fundraising revenue Plus, when you utilize our exclusive Quick Start Resource Kit (see Strategy #1), you ll have access to a pre-written solicitation letter specifically tailored to this opportunity. This will ensure that your fundraiser delivers a consistent and effective message to the vendors your school and district does business with. 7 Easy Ways to Raise Money with a Program Book Fundraiser Page 4

5 SECRET STRATEGY #4: Be Sure to Maximize Personal Advertising Pages! (Don t Sell Your Fundraiser Short, don t rely on Good Luck ) The most memorable and profitable program books we have ever published had one important factor in common a personal touch. Volunteers responsible for these top books realized that in order to create a personal experience they needed to include numerous photos but they also understood that this provides an incredible opportunity for fundraising. Although many program book fundraisers already include some minimal type of personal Good Luck page that they market to parents, they fall short of turbocharging their fundraiser with personal advertising. We urge you to think innovatively about what types of personal ads you offer, how you offer them for sale and who you offer them to!!! If you are looking for ideas we encourage you to brainstorm with your volunteers, or better yet check out the Our Work section of our website where we showcase actual customer books. If you are looking for more ideas, our Quick Start Resource Kit (see Strategy #1) contains a several page document that we call Anatomy of a Program Book it contains a list of ideas for program book and event guide pages and content including some unique ideas for personal advertising pages. One last thought starter don t stop at mom and dad. Your sales of personal advertising should target the largest possible audience parents, grandparents, teachers, fellow students, basically anyone that might want wish a player or the entire team a great season! Once again, if you utilize our proprietary Quick Start Resource Kit, we will provide you with a powerful template letter written specifically to ask parents, grandparents and other personal contacts to support your fundraiser. 7 Easy Ways to Raise Money with a Program Book Fundraiser Page 5

6 SECRET STRATEGY #5: Choose the Right Printing Partner Two important decisions you will make when creating a team program book are how to get it designed, and where to have it printed. It is critical that you choose a partner that is properly equipped to assist you in both these areas, while at the same time providing you with a high quality book at a fair price. The fact is, most printers are not in a position to produce a bound, high quality program book in small quantities without charging a significant premium. Fewer still offer their very own custom software program that can be used to quickly and easily layout and design your book. Sports Program Printing excels in BOTH of these areas, and even provides access to our simple yet powerful program book design software for FREE! A huge benefit of partnering with Sports Program Printing is that our combination of printing flexibility and free software actually saves you even more money. That s because a key way of saving money when printing is to ensure that the file you provide the printer is both hiresolution and print ready. Lo-resolution files or files that are not properly formatted will result in a poor quality product and additional preparation fees from the printer. When you utilize Sports Program Printing s design software you are able to generate a final output file that is ready-made for printing without requiring any additional work. 7 Easy Ways to Raise Money with a Program Book Fundraiser Page 6

7 SECRET STRATEGY #6: Avoid the Varsity Blues! If you have decided to help put together a sports program book, there s a good chance that you have a son or daughter on the team. If this is the case, you may be focused on the specific sport or level of play your child is involved with. For example, if he or she is a senior, you might be focused on the program book as it pertains to varsity only. Or if he or she is on the volleyball team, you might not be considering the possibilities of expanding the reach of the book to include other sports within the same season. That would be a mistake. You should be as inclusive as possible with your program book. For one thing, this will make it easier to sell ads and more copies of the publication. For another, you will be able to pull from a larger volunteer base; many of whom will have contacts and skills you need to maximize the quality and profitability of your project. By featuring ALL of the teams (boys and girls) within your specific sport including the Freshman, JV and Varsity squads you will greatly expand the reach and popularity of your book. Likewise, by possibly reaching out to other sports within the same season, you can leverage the influence and reach of an expanded base of parents, volunteers and contacts. A Season of Sports book allows multiple sports (and levels) to be showcased which is particularly helpful in the case of lower profile or lower participation sports. This inclusive approach is a complete win-win. You will gain access to more help and more content, and businesses will feel they are getting more value for their advertising investment because they will be earning the goodwill of a larger community. 7 Easy Ways to Raise Money with a Program Book Fundraiser Page 7

8 SECRET STRATEGY #7: Set A Realistic Goal and Track your Progress Okay, so you ve now learned several tactics that are sure to help you increase the profit you can make with your team program book. You ve discovered the value of using specialized design software to greatly speed up the process. You ve learned to involve everyone from the athletic director to the players grandparents to generate valuable advertising revenue. You ve even found a way to get a templates to make it super easy to ask local businesses to place an ad in your program book. This final secret strategy, however, is a bit more obvious, but is still crucially important Determine a realistic, achievable goal for your book that will raise the revenue you need. Here s an example of a reasonable financial estimate for a 36-page program book: Layout: Revenue: 16 pages w/ pictures, rosters, schedules etc. 20 pages w/personal or business ads 20 ad pages x $350 (average ad revenue per page) = $7,000 (Ad revenue total) 200 (Quantity of books) x $2 (Selling price for program book) = $ (book sales) Total Revenue = $7,400 Printing Cost = $600 Net Profit = $6,800 (total revenue printing cost) As you can now see, with the proper planning and organization, creating a highly-profitable team program book is not that difficult. It is also one of the most rewarding projects you can participate in, as it also creates a memorable souvenir for your team or child s season. If you are ready to start creating a team program book your school can be proud of, do yourself a favor and contact us here at Sports Program Printing. We have the experience and expertise to help you every step of the way, and our proprietary do-it-yourself design software is the perfect tool that will save you time and money. To download a FREE copy of our do-it-yourself design software, Program Designer PRO, CLICK HERE. 7 Easy Ways to Raise Money with a Program Book Fundraiser Page 8

9 To learn more about how to create a highly-profitable team program book with Sports Program Printing and Program Designer Pro, call us today at or visit us at The perfect fundraiser has never been this easy or fun! 7 Easy Ways to Raise Money with a Program Book Fundraiser Page 9