Knowing how to strategically plan to meet your fundraising goal is important to success, and Country Meats can help you get there in a few simple steps. You’ve got a nonprofit with a funding goal, and we’ve got a delicious meat stick snack that people love to buy. Selling Country Meats is a fantastic fundraising idea, and planning how much you need to sell helps you meet your goal.
How Do I Set Fundraising Goals?
Set manageable and realistic fundraising goals. For example, let’s say you’re the head of your high school’s FFA chapter (Future Farmers of America). You need to raise $1000 to cover registration, travel, and meals for your group to attend a Saturday career development event out of town. If you have an in-person fundraiser, you keep 50% of each sale, meaning you earn $113 for every case of Country Meat sticks your group sells. You can meet the $1000 goal by selling nine cases of tasty meat snacks. Broken down in this way, if you have 10 members of your FFA chapter, you can get to the career development workshop with money left over if each member sells one case of snack sticks. Now that’s a manageable and realistic goal! For a real-life example, check out this high school woodworking teacher’s plan to take his students to the state skills conference.
How Do I Meet Fundraising Goals?
Once you’ve set your fundraising goals, the next step is to prepare your team to meet those goals. We’re happy to send along free posters and display boxes at your request! And, we even have some tips for creating a marketing flyer sure to attract customers. Coach your team—whether they’re students or adults—with positivity, and identify your top sellers quickly so you can get them front and center of potential customers. Offering flexible payment options, including cards and digital payment apps, also boosts sales, especially for customers who don’t carry cash. Set daily or weekly benchmarks and celebrate sales to keep up momentum for your fundraiser.
What Is the SMART Formula for Fundraising?
The SMART* formula for fundraising is often used to help set and meet goals. “SMART” is an acronym that stands for specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and timely. The SMART formula helps fundraisers be, well, smart about their goals, expectations, and results. The idea is to set specific and attainable goals that you can measure, as we mentioned in the example above about students attending the FFA career development workshop. It’s important for morale and success to set bite-sized goals that add up to a huge win.
As for “relevant” and “timely,” the point is to make sure your customers know why you’re raising money, why it’s important, and how long you have to raise the funds. Understanding the relevance of your fundraiser makes people want to support your cause, or, in this case, buy your meat sticks! Knowing that your group only has a month or six weeks or until the school holiday break to raise a certain amount of money creates the sense of urgency customers need to buy right away. Many organizations choose to follow the SMART formula as a winning strategy for meeting your fundraising goals.
We’re proud to say that we’ve spent decades helping groups just like yours reach their fundraising goals by selling Country Meats snack sticks. From churches to homeschool field trips to JROTC to scout troops, Country Meats offers a variety of flavor-packed snack sticks that make the perfect food fundraiser. If you’re ready to start your Country Meats fundraiser, order today. If you have more questions, we’re happy to help. Call us at 1 (800) 277-8989 or send an email to customerservice@countrymeats.com.
*The SMART formula was established by corporate planning expert George T. Doran in 1981 as a way to set and reach management goals. It has since been used as a successful fundraising strategy.