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Prom Prep

School Fundraisers - How To Raise Twice the Money With Half the Sweat

By: Travis Sago

If your members, parents or donors wear clothes, watch TV or read books you have the beginning ingredients to a sweet recipe for a great year-round school fundraiser.

How so? By taking advantage of what's known as an affiliate program or in more common lingo-partnering.

How would you like to partner your school with the behemoth Amazon.com? Blockbuster? Disney? How about Wal-mart? Your school would receive a commission or fee for every paying customer you sent their way. No products to deliver, cakes to bake or cars to wash. In short, none of the headaches of traditional school fundraisers.

It's easy to do, it's free, and is earning a lot of private individuals in the know a mountain of money.

Here's how it might work for your school: You partner with Amazon.com by filling out a simple form and setting up an account where your checks will be sent. And then let's put a link up on your school website to Amazon.com that is linked to your affiliate account.

Now what if you told your donors, church members or other friends of your cause that they could get great books, gifts, cd's and videos through your site and help your school with its funding needs at the same time? Do you think you'd have any takers? I think you might have a lot!

Now Amazon.com may or may not be a match for you. But...the good news is there are literally thousands of affiliate programs, many of which are bound to fit your school like a glove and make a smashingly successful school fundraiser.

Maybe you would like to get involved with something to do with pets...you could partner with PetSmart or PetMeds. Would you like to do something related to kids?...lots of great programs, like Ident-A-Kid, to keep kids safe. Of course try to match your affiliate programs to interests that many of your donors share.

Here are some places that will get your creative juices going. One of the biggest managers in the affiliate programs is Commission Junction, you can find them at www.cj.com, you will find hundreds of partnering opportunities from brand names you know and trust. Another great resource to checkout is www.clickbank.com, known as Clickbank, they specialize in electronic books and software with thousands of titles to choose from. Also many companies, such as Wal-mart manage their own affiliate program which means you can partner up directly from their site. It's great fun and can be highly profitable to look for the words "affiliate program" on a web page. Commission Junction is a smorgasbord of school fundraiser ideas you should definitely check out.

How much can your school earn? Earnings vary widely with commission ranging from 2% to 75%. Some pay flat fees, for example some satellite companies pay up to $100 for giving away free installations of their system. Wow! Print some flyers give away free satellite and your school receives $100 for each installation--very easy school fundraiser!

Now a word to the wise is play it safe. Stick with the companies you know. You will have better success at raising funds with well known and respected companies and you won't have to worry about your funds reaching your school.

So the secret to school fundraisers is out. Find a great partner, let folks know they can get great products and services they were going to purchase anyway, and help a school at the same time.

Want more fundraiser tips or help? Click over to www.MyUltimateFundraiser.com

About the Author: Article by Travis Sago a veteran fundraiser for several non-profits including The Special Olympics, Battered Women's Shelter and Arkansas Fraternal Order of Police.