$35,000 from 600 students. Half the size of the big two, nearly the same money.

The school

An elementary school in Lexington, North Carolina, in Davidson County, about half an hour from Brian’s desk in Greensboro. Around 600 students. A normal-sized elementary school in a normal-sized North Carolina town, which is exactly why this one matters. Most of the schools reading this page look more like Lexington than like Charlotte.

Brian does not name the school. The town, the size, the dates and the number are real.

The goal

One number, set before the kickoff, the same way Brian sets it with every school. What the money was for stays with the school and its PTA.

What Brian will say is that a 600-student school should not set its goal by looking at what a 1,400-student school raised. It should set it by asking how many of its own families will share a link, and then work on that number. This school worked on that number.

The sale

The sale opened September 8, the day after Labor Day, and closed September 25. Eighteen days. By September 8 a North Carolina elementary school has been in session a couple of weeks, the forms are in and the routines are set, so the kickoff landed on a school that was ready to hear it.

The school ran the fall gift catalog. Sweet treats, cookie dough, popcorn, wrapping paper, candles, kitchen goods, tote bags and magazines. The VIP Duck prize program ran the full sale. Every student’s progress was in the admin site, so the school could see each day which classrooms were moving and which were quiet.

The online store was live from day one with a share link for every student. Orders from the link shipped direct to whoever bought, in North Carolina or anywhere else. In-person orders came back to the school pre-sorted by student. Nobody at the school counted a box. The program is on how it works.

The number

$35,000 at close. The two biggest sales of the fall, the Charlotte charter and the Summerville elementary, each closed at $45,000 with 1,400 and 1,200 students. This school did $35,000 with 600. The whole anonymized list is on the results page.

What made it work

1. The kickoff. A sale that opens on a school that is settled, the day after Labor Day, with the goal said out loud and the ducks in front of the kids, starts fast. A fast start is most of the result.
2. The midpoint push. Every sale flattens around the end of the first week. Brian watches the daily numbers and calls the school with a plan for the second week. On a sale this size, that second week is where the number separates from the pack.
3. The ducks did their job. A cumulative prize program gives a kid who has already sold three items a reason to ask for a fourth. Tracked in the admin site, the school could see it happening and keep the energy up in the classrooms.
4. The share link reached past Lexington. Six hundred students is a lot of relatives in other towns and other states. The online store ships to all of them, and none of it comes through the school.

If your school looks like this

A 400-to-800-student elementary school in a mid-sized town. A PTA that has run fundraisers before and wants the next one to be bigger and easier. Same program, same catalog, same ducks, one call to start. See the school fundraisers page for the full picture.

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