What Fundraising Teaches Students

There are so many personal growth opportunities that can be made when you work with others to raise money for an organization that means a lot to you.

what does fundraising teach studients

If you’re reading this, you’re most likely interested in hosting a fundraiser with Chipotle or you have already hosted a fundraiser in the past with Chipotle. As a leader in restaurant fundraisers, we help thousands of different organizations a year raise money for school supplies, jerseys, instruments, and so much more. Whatever it is that your organization needs help raising money for, we are here to help you.

While the positive impact of fundraising is clear for the organization, fundraisers also benefit the individuals who participate in the fundraiser. As stated in this article, charity challenges are believed to help in meeting new people, giving you motivation, and even improving your overall health and happiness. There are so many personal growth opportunities that can be made when you work with others to raise money for an organization that means a lot to you.

For the majority of fundraisers that are hosted with Chipotle, the main fundraiser contact is typically a teacher, coach, parent, or leader of that organization. These fundraiser organizers take on the responsibility of hosting and organizing the fundraiser, but having those organization members, typically students, help is also extremely important for their own personal growth. PTO Today has listed three ways in which they believe kids learn from fundraising and the lessons that it teaches them. The learning opportunities for kids include customer service skills, goal-setting, and connecting fundraising and academics.

Communication Skills

Arguably, the most important part about hosting a Chipotle fundraiser is finding supporters to purchase food the day of your fundraiser. Without supporters, this will result in a smaller reward in the end. By promoting your organization’s fundraiser to friends, neighbors, and family, kids can learn valuable communication skills and responsibility. As fundraisers cannot be advertised to guests in restaurant, so preparing ahead of time and having the kids promote the fundraiser to those that they know will have a big impact in the end.  

Arguably, the most important part about hosting a Chipotle fundraiser is finding supporters to purchase food both in restaurant and online for pickup during the hours of your event.

Goal-Setting

Setting and accomplishing goals is a valuable skill that you can learn at a young age and then practice throughout the rest of your life. A fundraiser is a great place to start for kids to learn goal-setting because it helps them experience first-hand what raising money can do for a community cause, a school, or a team. An example of this can be a little league team hosting a fundraiser for new jerseys. By first determining how much money each jersey will cost and multiplying that by the number of players they have on their team, they will then know how much money they need to raise to accomplish this. In the end if they are able to reach that goal, each member will receive their new jersey and their hard work will have paid off. There’s a clear “cause and effect” relationship.

Academics

Similar to the goal-setting example, fundraisers are a great opportunity to incorporate academics. Adding up Chipotle fundraiser receipts and using math to determine the fundraiser give-back is a great way to practice the skills that are taught in the classroom.

A simple way of using math to set a goal for your upcoming fundraiser can look like this:

Step 1: Determine the amount of money your organization needs to raise in order to achieve your goal.

Step 2: Divide the number in Step 1 by .25. Chipotle has a 25% give back, so your organization will receive 25% of all event sales.

Step 3: Divide the number from Step 2 by 10. On average, a person spends between $8 and $12 at Chipotle, so $10.00 will be used as the average check amount.

Step 4: Use the total number from Step 3 in order to determine how many supporters your organization needs to come in for your fundraiser in order to reach your goal amount.  Just remember that there is a $150 sales minimum in order for your organization to earn a donation through a Chipotle fundraiser.

Using goal-setting and math to prepare for your fundraiser is a fun and useful practice for kids as well as for your organization in preparing for your upcoming fundraiser. Working together to set these goals can actively involve everyone and create excitement within the organization. 

Teamwork

Chipotle can host hundreds of fundraisers each day and some of the most successful fundraisers all have one thing in common – teamwork. These events can be so fun and impactful for the organization and their supporters if teamwork is practiced leading up to the event. Fundraising is a great way to teach students teamwork by setting goals together, giving tasks for each member to complete, and holding each other accountable. A successful fundraiser happens when everyone is working together to plan, prepare, and execute. Not only is teamwork important, but it’s also fun! Kids can learn and accomplish a lot when they put their minds together.

There are so many opportunities for kids to learn when hosting a Chipotle fundraiser, and we love all of the fundraiser success stories that are sent to us. If you have a specific success story that you would like to share, or other tips and tricks on what made your fundraiser great, reach out to us at fundraisers@chipotle.com.