Thursday, December 26, 2013

How to Motivate Children to Fundraise WITHOUT Prizes

Use These Five Ideas to get Students Excited about Fundraising

For years, schools have executed successful fundraiser by awarding prizes as incentives for students to raise money. Sometimes however, prizes are not financially available or students do not desire the available prizes.

The good news is - it’s entirely possible to motivate children to fundraise without product-related rewards. Try using one or more of these five ideas:


1. Focus on the end-goal. Have your students remember what the money is going towards. Is it going towards the school itself, a special cause, or a new playground? If you make the goal real and show what it takes to reach, students will be more likely to engage in reaching it.

2. Hang “thermometer” posters in the hallways and classrooms to directly track progress. Not only does this directly show how much your team has made, but it inspires the students to reach the top of the thermometer.



3. Show inspirational videos. Is your fundraiser for a specific cause or charity? Showing videos related towards the cause make it even more real. If possible, bring in a guest speaker who represents the charity or cause you're raising money for. If it is not cause-specific, you can still show other inspirational videos that show how positive action and giving can go a long way.

4. Slime the top-selling students. While this might sound ridiculous, this activity creates a lot of hype between the students. It's almost as if students dare each other to do their best at fundraising (and calls for a celebratory school wide slime-ceremony)!




 
5. Create a no homework pass for a day to the top selling student. Rallying students around the idea of no homework often has exponential effects.

Tuesday, December 3, 2013

Teach Your Kids the Gift of Giving

Children Learn the Gift of Giving with Lil' Shopper's Shoppe

This holiday season, like any holiday season, there will be a lot of shopping. While gift-giving is a key element in the holiday season, how can you get your children to learn a valuable lesson without becoming addicted to their shiny new toys? Teaching your kids about giving is very important. Now is the time for them to learn about spreading warmth and helping others. Lessons you can teach your children this holiday season include:



Thoughtfulness for Others
Witnessing the gratitude of others is a great way to help a child’s thoughtfulness grow and it’s a feeling they will want to repeat. Personalizing a gift is a great way to add a little extra touch and to give a child pride. Whether it is something as simple as wrapping the gift in the child’s artwork,or adding a personal message, small touches go a long way. Make sure to ask for your child’s input. Ask what they think would be best suited for siblings, grandma, grandpa, cousins, etc., and be sure to let the child “present” the present. Feeling included in the gift-giving process is essential to making the child understand thoughtfulness.

The Value of Money
A fun and fantastic way to teach children the value of money is to involve them in the gift buying process. If planning a surprise gift for a child, it may be difficult to include them. However, you can easily incorporate their own wish list into a lesson about value and money. You can teach children about shopping around for the best price and how to get more bang for your buck. This will not only make more thrifty shoppers, but also teach your child about worth and value.

Gratitude and Values
Of course kids love receiving presents at the holidays but what truly makes the season special is the goodwill around them. Perhaps most important of all, a child learns gratitude when receiving gifts. When you involve a child in the buying and giving process, it helps them to better understand the effort behind receiving a gift from others. Incorporating your child in gift giving helps them to appreciate what they receive and be thankful. Children learn to express thanks for big and small gifts, not just the ones at the top of their list that year.