Think about something that you worked hard for. Was it training for a marathon? Getting a promotion at your job? Picking up an instrument and learning to play? Beating your personal challenge of making ten free throws in a row? When people are working towards something, they’re putting time, effort, and emotion towards a massive goal that will change their lives, typically for the better.
Why, then, is it so difficult to work on things that’ll benefit us? Oftentimes, we get burnt out. We’re excited to work towards something new at the beginning, but when the first challenge comes along, we quickly negotiate with ourselves on how badly we really want this. We often lose this battle, and we’re back to square one. This happens all the time in fundraising.
How can you keep yourself and your teammates from getting burnt out as you work towards your fundraising goal? One major tip: incentives. Follow the quick four tips below to ensure your future fundraiser goes better than the last by sprinkling in rewards.
- Understand how incentives work
The use of incentives, in general, has mixed reviews, especially in the workplace where they’re often thrown around to motivate individuals. According to Forbes, the use of incentives can help lead engagement and performance when used correctly. In order to use them correctly, your incentives need to help your teammates feel motivated towards a goal. Especially with kids, incentives can be the ultimate weapon that will keep them engaged and excited about the work they’ll need to be doing.
- Know what motivates your team
Just because it’s something YOU think is awesome doesn’t mean everyone else will. If I were to personally want an incentive for something, it would be different from what others may want. Handpicking incentives that are interesting for everyone is really easy on a football team and really tough on a football team. Do whatever you can to appeal to the masses with incentives. If it means doing more incentives to cover a wide range of prizes, great. If it means scaling back and doing a few large ones, awesome. You know your team best–make it about them!
- Be specific, avoid ambiguity
You ever see A Christmas Story? The one with Ralphie and the Red Ryder BB gun? Ralphie, throughout the movie, is working towards a goal: to uncode the super secret message from Little Orphan Annie. He’s getting little things here and there towards his goal–a decoder, announcement messages, etc. He has no idea what the secret message is, but he is sure, without a doubt, that it’s worth his time and effort. When the time comes for him to finally decode the message, he learns that this awesome, super secret code was simply an advertisement for Ovaltine.
Moral of the story? Don’t do what Ovaltine did to Ralphie. Give your team a clear incentive that they’ll be happy to work towards. Having the incentive being something like a “super cool prize that everyone will definitely love!” is something that is bound to create some disappointment in its unveiling.
Keep your incentives specific. Make sure they know exactly what they’re working towards. Things like, “Something fun at the end of practice” is ambiguous. Instead, replace it with an unmistakable reward that cannot be confusing. “We will play dodgeball instead of conditioning on Thursday” “The top seller from this date to that date will get to pie coach Jones in the face”. These are specific, thrilling, and will allow your team to work hard and have some bonding moments once the incentive hits. Your teammates can then visualize their reward as they’re working for it!
- Sprinkle them in early and often
Let your team know that you’ll be rewarding them often throughout the process. Sprinkle in these incentives as early as you can to set the tone for the entire fundraiser. This will give your team a clear vision on how the fundraiser will operate. Make sure your first incentive is particularly interesting so that you can peak interest right off the start.
What do you do if they fail to hit their goals and they don’t get the incentive? You can certainly go with the “tough love” option, meaning that they simply do not get to experience the incentive. You can allow those that did reach to the goal to experience the incentive. Or, you can secretly stack the incentive for a later time, perhaps doubling up with another incentive to create another opportunity for the team to succeed! Check this post to see how to use one major reward instead of incentives if you feel that would be better for your team.
