Just suppose someone called your friends, family and neighbors on the telephone and asked them to contribute or advertise their business for YOUR school… And your school absolutely knew NOTHING about it! This popular school fundraising scam is happening all over the country.
How does it work?
More importantly, how can you protect your neighbors as well as your schools reputation?
How does these school fundraising scams work?
Your school, PTA or sports program counts on raising money through fund raising, doesn’t it? Your friends, neighbors, and family understand this and are only happy to help support you. Unfortunately, unscrupulous con artists are taking advantage of this school spirit loophole in many small communities.
How do they do this?
Take, for example, what is happening in the Estes Park School District. The con artists call local businesses and claim to provide advertising space in a program or calendar as an athletic booster club fundraiser for the district.
Why does this work? Many local business owners probably were in this very school district as students themselves. Others have friends, family and neighbors with children in this school district. So, as alumni they have a soft spot in the heart and are willing to pay for advertising in advance. Sadly, many have lost hundreds of dollars to this con game across the country. Even worse, it could sour some into not wanting to donate to real causes like your school has.
What can you do to protect your school from fundraiser scams?
We can take a lesson from the business owners in the Estes Park area. What did they do? They called the police and reported the phone call. Furthermore, the police contacted the school and found out that they were not affiliated with the school. Finally, the police then sent out bulletins warning everyone to be on guard against telephone solicitations.
What else can you do?
First of all, the best thing to do is to send a fundraising letter for the parents home with each student. This way every parent understands what the fundraiser is about. Students are also encouraged to sell only to people that they know. This way your friends, family, coworkers and neighbors are all protected.
In addition, tell everyone you know about this scam so they can protect themselves too. So, encourage them to call the police or the local school if they get any solicitations for school fundraising from someone they don’t know.
Finally, choose a reputable school fundraising company. For example, here at https://fundraisingzone.com we have been helping schools raise money for over 50 years now. Our fundraising products are top notch and we stand behind them 100%. Furthermore, your school can earn up to 52% profit and has no upfront costs to get started. In conclusion, we invite you to find out what hundreds of schools like yours have figured out already. Contact us today for a free school fund raiser coaching session. You will enjoy it.