What Makes a Booster Club Successful?

A successful Booster Club can mean increased revenue, parent involvement, school spirit and brand awareness for your school. But, how are schools building those successful Booster Clubs? Taking a closer look at some of our customer's more established Booster Clubs, we noticed a few things they had in common.

Experienced Board Members: Rather than selection based on seniority, Board Members are chosen based on their experience with event planning, finances, communication and fundraising. We also noticed that one very successful program uses parents of Seniors as mentors of the Board rather than executive members. They will be challenged during their son or daughter’s senior year with helping to prepare for college, scholarships, senior party, and a host of other activities that will take precedence over administrating the Booster Club.

Financial Plan: The Booster Clubs have established a basic financial plan that details not only their income and expenses for the current year, but includes estimated expenses for programs and projects planned for the next two to three years.

Communications Plan: A clear strategy for regular communication with parents and students is key to the success of these programs. They coordinate communications schedules for the year and are utilizing websites, social media and newsletters to get the word out.

Annual Membership Program: An Annual Membership Program can be a great way to build revenue and parent involvement that spans the course of the year. By paying a $30 - $50 annual fee, parents are granted access to all home sporting events as well as events at other district schools. Not only will this increase attendance at events, but it will also increase your concession sales.

Strong Apparel Program: Booster Clubs that have done the research to find out what apparel items are popular with students today, and get help from their vendor to find quality items and create a strong design are seeing increased sales for their spiritwear. Many of our customer's Booster Clubs have a Director of Spiritwear.

Regular & Unique Events: Frequent unique events are also a common thread among our customer's Booster Clubs. Schools are thinking outside the box to host fun, unique events that draw interest from parents and students. Some examples are fashion shows, team reunion parties, weekly coaches breakfast with parents and garage sales.

Be sure to use the following resources when starting or growing your Booster Club program:

http://www.boosterclubs.org/
www.ptotoday.com
http://www.pta.org/