August 27th, 2010
School fundraising calendars have become more and more popular over the past few years and are known to be a great fundraising tool. Custom school calendars are not only extremely effective in reaching your school’s fundraising goals; school calendars are also great for generating school spirit and community support. When creating your school’s fundraising calendar, follow the following steps to ensure your school calendar is a fundraising success!
- Before you start to create your school fundraising calendar you need to decide when you would like to start selling. This is very important since it takes a bit of time to create the calendar and (hopefully) find sponsors! Generally, the beginning of the school year is a great time to have your fundraising calendar ready, so start planning in spring or early summer.
- Once you have decided when your fundraiser will take place, the next thing you want to decide on is the size and format of the calendar. Although 8.5” x 11” wall calendars are the most popular for fundraising, many people choose to make an easel style or CD case desk calendar. The oversized 9.5” x 12.25” wall calendars are also very popular since they allow you to have larger photos and date boxes, which are great when inputting school events.
- After you have chosen the style and size of your calendar, the fun part begins when you start to build the calendar online. While most photo calendar websites are tailored for personal (family) calendars, some such as custombuiltcalendars.com cater to businesses, charities, schools, churches and other non-profit organizations. These websites generally offer more professional calendar templates and tools, and better pricing. Another thing to keep in mind if you’re building your calendar from your work or school computer is that a computer firewall may prevent you from downloading software, so look for a site where you build the calendar totally online.
- Once you have selected the website that best suits your needs, select the appropriate template, upload your photos and insert the appropriate text. A great way to customize your school fundraising calendar is to use photos of teams, faculty and students as well as insert school events into the date squares.
- When you have completed your school calendar you can either download a proof or order a sample. Some calendar websites, such as custombuiltcalendars.com allow you to order a free print sample to review. This is always your best bet since you can see exactly what the calendar looks like and there are no surprises when you get your order!
- Upon receiving your proof, be sure to review it carefully and make all the necessary changes before you approve and confirm your fundraiser calendar order. Companies, such as Custom Built Calendars allow you to order a PDF every time you make a change. This is great because you can ensure all the changes have been made before your calendar goes to print.
- After all changes have been made and you are 100% satisfied with your school fundraising calendar, you can go ahead and order your calendars. Now get ready to sell sell sell!!
Tags: calendar, fundraiser, fundraising, school
Posted in Uncategorized | 65 Comments »
May 26th, 2010
If you run a non-profit or charity organisation, one of the most exciting and satisfying things you can do to raise funds is to make a fundraising photo calendar. Calendars are great for raising awareness, and the good news is thanks to the Internet, making a fundraising calendar is easier than ever.
The first consideration is accumulating the photos you want to use. The biggest stumbling block people run into when making a fundraising calendar is photos with insufficient resolution, so it is important that the people supplying the calendar photographs know what is required. If you’re holding a photo contest, be sure to tell people to use at least a 5 mega pixel camera set at the highest setting.
Next, decide what type of calendar you want to make. Although 8.5” x 11” wall calendars are the most popular for fundraising, many people choose to make an easel style or CD case desk calendar.
Making your fundraising calendar is the fun part. While most photo calendar websites are geared toward personal (family) calendars, some such as custombuiltcalendars.com cater to businesses, charities and non-profit organizations. They generally offer more professional calendar templates and tools, and better pricing. Since most offices do not allow software downloads for security reasons, be sure to select a calendar software solution that is totally online (i.e. no software to download).
Using the online software and templates, design your fundraising calendar by uploading and inserting your photographs, selecting the holidays and observances you want (plus inputting additional ones that are relevant to your calendar), and inserting your logo and contact information.
For fundraising calendars that are printed digitally (generally orders up to 750 calendars), a hard copy production quality sample is available for your review before you have to commit to your entire order. Check it very carefully looking particularly for things such as spelling mistakes, and when you are 100% happy, totally thrilled and excited, get it printed and share it with your fans and supporters.
Remember to give yourself lots of time to make your calendar in case you run into any problems or in case others who will also approve the calendar need an extra day or two.
Tags: calendar, custom, design, desk, fundraiser, fundraising, make, photo, software, wall
Posted in Fundraising Calendars | 173 Comments »
May 26th, 2010
If you are having a difficult time finding calendars for your business, charity or organization that are relevant, then it may be worth your while to consider making a custom calendar. Designing a custom photo calendar is something that used to take time and specialized expertise, but now thanks to the Internet, it’s pretty easy to design a professional-looking wall, desk or pocket photo calendar yourself.
Some custom calendar websites cater to businesses, charities and organizations wanting to make their own calendar. These specialist sites offer a wide variety of tools and options that make it easy to find a calendar design that suits your needs, and they are generally are less expensive than the typical photo calendar websites that families use. As a defence against viruses, most offices don’t allow you to download and install software, so make sure you use an online custom calendar solution (i.e. no software download required).
The best photo calendar design websites make it easy for you to:
- Choose a template design that suits your needs
- Upload and insert your photos – some even allow you to crop your photos and then analyse the cropped image to make sure the resolution is sufficient to ensure it prints clearly
- Select the holidays and observances you want on your calendar; allows you to add your own custom dates (Industry trade show, “Company Picnic”, “International _______ Day”, etc)
- Insert, resize & reposition your logo and contact information – make sure you have the design flexibility to add the same information to all months or just to one or more months
Some of the calendar websites that cater to businesses, charities and organizations such as custombuiltcalendars.com will send you a free hard copy production-quality sample for you to approve before you commit to the entire order. If changes are needed, you can often make them at no charge.
Designing a custom calendar online is fun and exciting. With intuitive design software and professional templates and tools, the game has changed from what it was even five years ago.
Tags: calendar, custom, design, desk, photo, pocket, software, wall
Posted in Custom calendars | 8 Comments »