Words That Make a Fundraiser Plan Work

Subject: Puzzle Challenge—Before We Announce It

1To: Zadie | From: Ishan Thanks for drafting the invitation for our puzzle challenge fundraiser. Teams would pay an entry fee to solve original logic puzzles, and the money left after costs would support student activity scholarships. Before we send anything, we need to assess the plan’s feasibility. Can we actually carry it out with the time, space, and volunteers available?

2The activities coordinator has offered us the cafeteria on Thursday. We have permission to use its tables, but we cannot attach clues to the walls. Only three volunteers are available, and each puzzle station needs one volunteer to check answers. Your draft lists six stations running at once. We could instead run three stations and rotate teams through them.

3Our budget also needs clearer labels. Revenue means all the money the event brings in before we subtract expenses. Entry fees would be our main source of revenue; printing and supplies would be expenses. Net proceeds are the amount remaining after those expenses are paid. We should describe the scholarship donation as net proceeds, not promise to donate every dollar collected.

4Could you solicit donations of pencils and scrap paper from families? By solicit, I mean request, not purchase. These would be in-kind contributions: useful goods rather than money. Please make participation optional and explain exactly how we would use the materials. We should also allocate a small portion of the budget to replacement supplies instead of assigning all our funds to printing.

5We need a contingency plan in case we lose access to the cafeteria. The coordinator can tell us whether a classroom would be available as an alternative. Meanwhile, let’s designate one person to collect fees and another to record each payment. After the event, those students can reconcile the records by comparing the payment list with the cash total and investigating any difference.

6Finally, our invitation should be transparent about where the funds will go. It should name the scholarship purpose and explain that event costs come out first. I can draft a short explanation for you to review. If any budget term still seems uncertain, let’s verify its meaning before using it in the invitation. A polished message will not help if readers misunderstand what we are promising.