School fundraising switching from student door-knocking to e-mail sub pitches

Watch your inbox for a subscription pitch from students of your acquaintance, switching from traditional fundraisers like selling chocolate bars door-to-door. A story in the Montreal Gazette says that EFundraising.com, a Montreal company owned by Reader's Digest, is making its online sales system available to Canadian schools this fall. Already the company has 125 employees and a projected US$25 million south of the border.

President Eric Boyko says that while half the company's revenue comes from online selling of traditional goods like chocolate bars, fully half now comes from magazine subscriptions.

"You gotta sell a lot of chocolate bars to make the same amount as the sale of a $30 magazine subscription, " he told reporter Allison Lampert.

"Instead of knocking on doors, students will send friends and family members pleas by email to buy discounted subscriptions of magazines like Maclean's or Chatelaine." the story went on. "The students keep a share of the sales and the magazines improve their circulation, which leads to more advertising dollars.

"Traditional fundraisers, like the sale of chocolate bars, are very time consuming for school communities, said Angie Bertone, chairperson of the central parents' committee at the English Montreal School Board. Selling magazines online could make fundraisers less painful for busy parents, Bertone said. 'If it's done through email, it would save parents a lot of headaches.' "

Yesterday, eFundraising tested out its virtual solicitation technology for the first time with a Canadian audience, by sending out 12,000 e-mails. The company is using its magazine-selling strategy to raise money for the Alzheimer Society of Montreal.