Sandi Holden Scores With Hockey Fundraising

Fundrazr.ca: This week we met with hockey fundraiser, Sandi Holden and asked her to tell us a little bit about her fundraising program.

Sandi: Ok, well basically we started about 4 or 5 years ago with a group of us that were doing it for hockey, and it’s just kind of snowballed from there. Because we could only fundraise for 6 months of the year while the kids were playing hockey, we decided to open it up so it was a year-long fundraiser that everyone could continue to use. It’s basically just to help with the costs of all the sports that the kids do – hockey through the winter months or baseball or soccer in the summer.

The more people that found out we were doing  it, the more people that contacted me and see if they could join. I think most of it actually stems from the cost, obviously, I mean the economy’s kinda bad right now, so people are looking for a way to subsidize  the cost and keep their kids active.

We do a good job of keeping everybody informed each week – sending out our own reminders – letting them know that their orders are due by a certain time; keeping them informed all the time if there are changes, specials that are going on etc. I email them a lot, just to keep them on top of what’s going on: if there’s any promotions that you guys are running or, you know, changes in delivery dates… so it feels like everyone knows what’s going on each week.

Fundrazr.ca: Ok, that’s great – so how many people are involved in your fundraising project?

Sandi: You know what? I can’t even remember how many we’ve got now – I would say there’s probably 30ish. Not everybody orders every week, some order every other week. They just do whatever works best for them. We used to ask when we first started that everybody at least commit to about $150-$200 per week…

Fundrazr.ca: So you asked them for an actual commitment?

Sandi: Well, we did, only because we wanted to make it worth our while to get into the program, so that’s how it started. Now, most of our families are easily doing a recurring order of $200-$300 a week and then they add on as they go too. So, I really push the recurring order thing because people would always say to me “oh I forgot to order this week” and so I kept telling them the recurring order feature was a great option for them, and that they could always add more if they wanted. But if they they just put the minimum… you know I only put $150 in: $100 for groceries and $50 for gas, but at least I know the minimum is coming each week.

Fundrazr.ca: Sure…

Sandi: And then I tend to add more almost every week just with whatever I need that way so…

Fundrazr.ca: Well how much money have you guys raised with this strategy?

Sandi: To be honest it’s kind of scary when you look at how much we’ve spent on cards – I think we tend to do pretty well actually. Every week it varies, but I would say between $100 and $150 is average every week, and the last probably month or so, with everybody trying to stock up for Christmas (we’ve been pushing the Christmas rush a little bit too), it’s been more $200, $250, close to three hundred I think one of the weeks we were raising. So we were doing really well with having just a small group of people that actually do it.

Fundrazr.ca: That’s great! So, when you first got started, how did you get others to participate in the program?

Sandi: One of the moms had participated in something similar to it, years ago with her church; and so   she’s the one who brought it up. Then I did a bunch of investigating myself – because obviously it sounded too good to be true – and I ended up hooking up with Kathy [ed: FundScrip representative]. Kathy’s been phenomenal from day one. She’s always so helpful and she’s always accessible which is awesome. The minute I email her, 9 times out of 10 I hear right back from her, and if I don’t I’m always wondering if everything is ok, because she’s just – she’s always on the ball. She does everything she can to help us, and she was the one who gave us all the information we needed in the beginning.

We kinda tread water the first couple of weeks – just to make sure we were getting what we were promised we should be getting and that the cards were coming in. You know, we only ordered a few hundred dollars the first few weeks just to see. Then once everybody found they were comfortable and confident in how it was running, it just took off from there.

Fundrazr.ca: What did you do to initially gain your supporter base? Did you have a particular communication strategy?

Sandi: Well, just via email for the most part. We have a tight group that does the hockey and baseball – we’re in a small town – so most of the kids go from one sport to the other so it’s the same families technically that are in it for the year. So it’s not hard to keep everybody informed and educated because you’re with everybody almost 2,3,4 nights week. But email is the way to go; I have them all on a list and I shoot off an email once a week to everybody just to keep them informed about what’s going on and everyone seems to be reacting from that. If there’s any questions or any problems they let me know via email and we just go from there.

Fundrazr.ca: How do you maintain supporter interest in the program?

Sandi: Well because it’s so easy. I mean it really is… it’s a no-brainer fundraiser.  You’re not spending anything you’re not spending anyway – I mean, I’m spending some time doing it, but for the most part it’s not time consuming to run, so it’s actually very easy for the families. They know they can contact me Thursday or Friday and they get their cards and off they go.

Fundrazr.ca: So, if you were to start the program all over again, would you do anything differently?

Sandi: Mmm… no.

Fundrazr.ca: No?

Sandi: No. Honestly we would just run the same way. I talk to different people about it – there are several different teams in our area that have gotten into it over the years, and when they hear about it they contact me. Some of those teams were successful; other teams were not highly successful, but the people that wanted to keep on the program have just contacted me directly and asked if they could join on ours. If their own team was doing it for a couple of months, they were finished and they saw how easy it was, they contacted me (knowing as we live in a small town that we did it) and asked if they could join into ours so that they could continue to do it year-round.

Fundrazr.ca: Ok, given this is an interview to try to determine what the best practices are for this type of thing, if you were to speak with somebody that was starting up a brand new program of their own, what would be the one piece of advice you would give them to get them off on the right foot?

Sandi: Well, I think they need somebody who runs it that’s committed. You know, I’m not trying to toot my own horn by any stretch, but I believe in the program and am committed to it; so I think you need somebody that’s going to keep at it every week, you know, just making sure that things are running smoothly.

My biggest thing is communication. If you don’t communicate with your supporters all the time, and let them know what’s going on, then you’re going to lose interest. But, if you keep them informed and let them know what’s coming up or what  might be changing…  Like I said, we’re a tight group too, so it may be a little easier for me, but I think email is the easiest obviously in this day and age because you can let everybody know what’s going on with the click of a button and at least everyone’s accessible that way.

I don’t think I’d change much – it was just believing in the program and then being committed to it week after week to make sure at least everybody was getting onboard; and once they figured out how easy it was, you didn’t have to do anything afterwards.

Fundrazr.ca: Excellent. So, had you tried any other fundraising methods in the past?

Sandi: Well, we did. We switched from FundScrip a couple of years ago – I can’t even remember what the reason was – it was just some small glitch that we were kind of having an issue with which really wasn’t that big of a deal at the time – but there was another program, and I can’t even remember what it was called to be honest, you could probably shoot off a couple of names and I’d remember. They offered more cards and retailers at the time, but their service was absolutely terrible and we just ran into problem upon problem with them. I never got any kind of communication; I didn’t have anybody accessible like Kathy was – you know, you didn’t have somebody to contact – and if you did try to contact somebody it was days before you heard back.

Sandi: When you’re dealing with people’s money like that, that’s my big thing: I wanted to make sure that if I’m in charge of making sure people are putting their money out every week but then getting their money back within a couple of days, I want to make sure the program’s running smoothly. You’re going to run into a few glitches here and there – a card that’s not activated etc. – but at least if you’ve got a communication with somebody, you can let them know that at it’s being rectified or dealt with. But, if you’ve got somebody that was expecting a card and didn’t get it, and there’s 3,4,5 days before you get an answer, that’s not fun.

Fundrazr.ca: No, I’m sure…

Sandi: You want to make sure that you’ve got the support coming from the company themselves. Like I said, I can’t say enough about Kathy: she’s fantastic, and if I’m ever telling anybody to deal with FundScrip, it’s definitely her email I give.

Fundrazr.ca: So, what are your supporters saying about gift card fundraising? What’s the feedback been like?

Sandi: Oh, it’s phenomenal. Like I said, everyone wants to do it.

Fundrazr.ca: So you’ve not had any negative comments whatsoever or any suggestions on how we could improve?

Sandi: No. The few little glitches we’ve had, I think people are 95% satisfied with what’s ever happened with it.

Fundrazr.ca: How easy is it for you guys to get repeat orders from your supporters – to get them on a recurring program?

Sandi: Um, you know I think I have about 7 or 8 of them that do it every week. There’s a few people that tell me “oh, I forgot, I forgot” and those are the ones I keep trying to push even now, you know if I talk to them I say “well just put a recurring order in”, but sometimes people do it, sometimes they don’t. I can’t really keep on ‘em because you know, 9 times out of 10, they’re just going to do their own thing. So, I do my best to inform them and then I just kind of stop from there – I don’t want to be pestering them about it.

Fundrazr.ca: Sure, and you speak to these people how often would you say?

Sandi: The majority of the group, like I said, we see them a couple of times a week. With the winter sports it’s hockey and in the summer it’s baseball and soccer, but I mean you’ve also got families that you don’t see through one or the other because their kids do something slightly different than what mine do. But, because they’ve been in the program for so many years, they just keep on going.

Fundrazr.ca: Ok, that’s great…  So, was there anything that you’d like to add that you think would be helpful for people that are starting a brand new program with FundScrip?

Sandi: Hmm… To be honest, what I tell people is that it’s as easy as it sounds and it’s not too good to be true; it is exactly what they say. You know, that’s the thing: we basically sell it on that. If anybody ever asks us about it, we just tell them it’s the easiest thing we ever got into and the best thing we ever did.

Fundrazr.ca: Excellent! Well I certainly thank you for taking your time this early on a Saturday morning and helping us out with this interview…

Sandi: Not a problem – have a happy holiday then!

Fundrazr.ca: You as well… That was an interview with Sandi Holden, who raises funds for her hockey team using FundScrip gift cards.