Five tips to kickstart your EF tour fundraising strategy
Tackling fundraising can feel overwhelming at first. But with proper planning (and maybe skipping a few coffee runs), you’ll be feeling comfortable and reaching those goals in no time. Check out these fundraising tips that will set you up for success.
Start planning early
Communicate to your travelers the importance of fundraising and planning ahead. The further out you start planning, the more time you have to fundraise and prepare! Having extra time before your departure date allows you to monitor your goals more closely and decide if you need to raise additional funds. It also gives you longer to plan creative fundraiser ideas and spread the word to more people.
Set a realistic timeline
Assess how much time you have to fundraise for your tour, taking into account all the other ways you need to prepare to take your group on the road! In our downloadable fundraising guide, we list several fundraising ideas and estimate how much time each one takes to execute. A yard sale, for example, only takes a few hours to set up, whereas a movie night might take weeks to prepare for and advertise.
Discuss clear fundraising goals with your students
After finalizing your fundraising timeline, set realistic goals for how much money each student should attempt to raise. Having an honest conversation with students about fundraising will trigger more fundraising ideas, set the tone, and gauge their commitment. And don’t be afraid to start planning backwards. With the end goal in mind, determine how much money you need to raise, then figure out how many days you have until your final tour payment is due. Divide the total travel costs by the number of days, weeks, or months before the group’s departure. This helps break down costs and keeps students on target with their goals.
Talk about how you’ll distribute funds
We recommend equally splitting any money raised through group projects among travelers. Think about creating a way to track everything to make sure you’re ready to divide up the money when the time comes!
Communication, communication, and more communication
Once you have your travelers signed up, determine the best way to communicate with them and their parents for fundraising and other tour preparation updates. More communication within your group also opens the door to bigger and better fundraising ideas—you never know what one traveler’s idea will spark for another. So, encourage your travelers to keep talking to one another!
Love these tips? There’s more.
The fundraising journey can be a long one. If you want refreshers along the way, check out our downloadable fundraising guide.
Get the guide