October's "Pictures are Worth a Thou$and Dollars" Winner: Fairmont Music

Stacey Barta was hired in 2006 to develop a competitive music program for Fairmont Preparatory Academy. During her tenure, she started a concert band, concert choir, show choir, pep band, musical theater and a faculty dance team.

Despite being only 6 years old, the program has competed and earned many personal awards-1st place trophies, national rankings of gold and silver, and many other top honors. The program is extremely diverse with students from the United States, India, Thailand, Vietnam, Korea, and China. Invitations have taken the team to places such as San Francisco, New York, Hawaii and now London.

The organization is working aggressively towards the goal of raising $180,000 this year so they can perform at the London Festival of Music in April 2012. This is an inaugural event and they are hoping to upgrade their status from "National Champions" to "International Champions."

“Our biggest challenge every year is money. We do not receive financial support from our school beyond classroom necessities, so it is up to the students to raise money for their uniforms and competition costs which costs from $1,500 to $3,000 each year depending on where we are going for competition,” says Stacey.

“We raise a large portion of our funds from aggressive fundraising throughout the year. With so many challenges on an annual basis such as lack of instrumentation, lack of funding, and being a small program, I teach my students the most important thing of all for success – No Excuses!”

To see more videos and photos, visit Fairmont Music's Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/pages/FPA-Music/81361155942 or their website at www.fairmontschools.com.

Timing is Everything

When planning your fundraiser, the first question to ask is "when?" Timing is very important and depending on the kind of fundraiser you want to hold, certain times of the year of the year are better than others.

When planning the timing of your fundraiser, take the following into consideration:

· Make sure you do not plan your event on a big social or religious holiday or compete with an existing local event. Don't forget that final exam week is not an ideal time either.

· Take a close look at product delivery times, especially if you are having your fundraiser around the holiday season. Add some cushion just in case shipping is delayed due to weather and other causes beyond the fundraising company’s control.

· Avoid timing your fundraiser right after the winter holidays, when everyone is strapped for cash.

· Plan your fundraiser when you can reach the most potential consumers, so winter, spring or summer breaks are usually out. You also want to be sure that you'll have plenty of volunteers on hand to help.

· Your product may determine when you will have the fundraiser. For example, you don’t want to sell chocolate in the summer months.

Don't forget that your fundraising start/end dates affecs other areas:

· Announcement Date: Be courteous to everyone involved by giving an advance notice. The earlier, the better, so that they can mark their calendars.

· Marketing/Promotion: Your marketing needs will vary depending upon the fundraising type. Do you need the school’s approval to announce the fundraiser in the school marquee, perhaps need time for flyers to be created and printed, or need some time to create a website?

· Recruitment: Remember that the early bird gets the volunteer hours.

Your fundraiser will be successful if it is well-planned and well-attended: timing is key!

Holiday Bowl Cheer!

For over 15 years, Dream Dancers Studio has been offering dance classes from tap to tumbling. Their goal is to help build confidence, skill and an appreciation for the art of dance. The dancer's hard work paid off as the competitive dance team was invited to perform in the Orange Bowl in Miami, FL.

The dance team was very excited about the opportunity as this was a big deal to a small group of kids from Montana and they were the first team from the state to perform in a bowl game! Naturally the team was very proud to represent their state.

Fundraising coordinator Heidi Lamoreaux said, “We were looking for any fundraiser to do to help us achieve our goal. Your product looked amazing so we thought we would give it a try. We all made great money doing your fundraiser and will do it again because after people tried your product they told us to come back and they would buy more!!”

Heidi’s team has been invited back to do another bowl game and will be flying to San Diego, CA on December 25^th for the Holiday Bowl!

“We have done your fundraiser again already. It has really helped us reach our goal. We will do it again in the future to raise money for our dance competitions since so many people we delivered to loved your product. THANK YOU!!”

For more information about Dream Dancers Studio, visit http://www.dreamdancersmt.webs.com/

Meet our #Popcornmonsters!

Congratulations to Michelle, Sameer, Dan and Lisa for naming our #popcornmonsters!

We had a lot of fun creating them and got some amazing entries. We hope you enjoyed playing along as much as we enjoyed choosing their names from your entries.

Stay tuned, our popcorn creatures are sure to return soon!

Best Boo Wins!

Halloween is all about treats (and tricks) and we at Popcorn Palace want to share some of our treats with you. Share your best Halloween pics (costumes, houses, Jack-O-Lanterns, etc.) with us on our Facebook wall and you could win our Popcorn Palace 6-Flavor Gift Box!

The winner will be the photo with the most Facebook "Likes." So, post your photo and get your friends and family, ghosts and ghouls to visit our Facebook page and click on the "Like" associated with your photo.

Good luck!

................................................................

RULES:

• No purchase necessary to enter.
• You may only enter once.
• Photos must be posted by midnight (CST) on Nov. 7, 2011.
• Voting (liking) will close at 5 pm (CST) on Nov. 8, 2011.
• Winner will be announced on Facebook on Nov. 9, 2011.
• Winner will be contact via Facebook.
• Once notified, winner is responsible for responding with their postal addresses, email addresses and phone numbers (for our shipper).
• Postal addresses must be submitted within one week (seven days) of notification.
• This promotion is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with, Facebook, Blogger or Twitter. You understand that you are providing your information to Popcorn Palace and not to Facebook, Twitter or Blogger.
• Employees, interns, contractors and vendors, as well as their immediate families, of Popcorn Palace, its affiliates, and any representatives or agencies of Popcorn Palace or other persons professionally connected to the Contest are not eligible to participate.
• Judges' decision is final.

"Pictures are Worth a Thou$and Dollars" Contest

Does your organization have a compelling story to tell? If so, enter in our “Pictures are Worth a Thou$and Dollars" Contest.
We will be selecting a winner for the month of October, November and December! Monthly winners will receive a check made out to the organization for $250. Then it will be up to the Popcorn Palace fans to vote on which organization will receive the grand prize of an additional $250!

To enter, fill out this online survey at http://bit.ly/pkTcov AND send an organization picture to patty@popcornpalace.com.

If we do not receive a picture, your entry will be null and void.

As a token of our appreciation, every complete entry will receive a gift!
We look forward to reading your stories!

Rules
• Your entry is not complete until a picture is sent to patty@popcornpalace.com
• Only fundraisers that completed a fundraiser during 2011 are eligible
• All submissions become the property of Popcorn Palace
• You may only enter once
• October entries are due on the 31st. October winner will be announced Nov. 7th
• November entries are due on the 30th. November winner will be announced Dec. 7th
• December entries are due on the 31st. December winner will be announced Jan. 9th
• Voting for Grand Prize winner ends January 31st, 2012. Winner will be announced Feb. 4th
• Prize is non-transferable
• Winner will be contacted via email
• Once notified, winners are responsible for responding with their postal addresses, email addresses and phone numbers (for our shipper)
• Postal addresses must be submitted within one week of (seven days) of notification
• This promotion is in no way sponsored, endorsed or administered by, or associated with, Facebook, Blogger nor Twitter. You understand that you are providing your information to Popcorn Palace and not to Facebook, Twitter nor Blogger
• Employees, interns, contractors, vendors, as well as their immediate families, of Popcorn Palace, its affiliates, and any representatives or agencies of Popcorn Palace or other persons professionally connected to the Contest are not eligible to participate
• Judges’ decision is final

Passing the Torch

It’s a common occurrence. One day you have a key point person in your organization and the next day he/she is gone and the organization is left scrambling trying to pick up the pieces. If you've ever been unlucky enough to take the helm of a group or its fundraiser with no preparation, no records, and no help, you know how important smooth leadership transitions are.

Find Your Replacement

• Recruit potentials actively! This will give you time to test the
waters to see how much the person can handle and quickly learn

• If your organization does not have a structured team in place, make sure you have a back-up in place even if it’s a family member

Train Your Replacement

• Invite successor to attend any ‘wrap-up’ meetings for current fundraisers. This allows the person to be involved in discussions pertaining to successes, improvements, and issues

• Assign a task that is important, such as recording and tallying sales or distributing orders to get their feet wet. Ideally go through a dry run so they are prepared for their upcoming role

Keep Good Records

• Include essential information and responsibilities which can serve as a check off list. Items can include an event calendar, guideline outlining each step of the fundraising process from beginning to end, and past fundraising sales figures

• Keep an address book of contacts that the new coordinator can use as resource

Be Courteous

• Alert your preferred vendors of the coordinator change

• Introduce the incoming coordinator to key contacts as often as you can, even if it's via email or phone