Contributed by the 2024-2025 Collegiate DECA Executive Officer Team.
Fundraising is vital for the success of any DECA chapter, providing the necessary financial resources to support your activities, events and member development opportunities. While traditional fundraising methods like bake sales and car washes can be helpful and successful, incorporating various data into your fundraising strategy can significantly increase the outcomes your efforts produce.
Here's how to leverage data to boost your DECA chapter's fundraising success:
Understanding Your Audience
Data is integral to understanding your target audience when it comes to fundraising. Not only should you collect demographic information about your potential donors when possible, but you should also collect this information about members. Demographics include data about age, occupation, gender and interests.
There are many ways to obtain this information, including social media analytics or surveys. Collecting this information will allow you to better tailor your fundraising messages and avenues to suit your targets, potentially resulting in more or larger donations.
Examples of ways you can tailor your efforts include personalizing donation requests, highlighting personal stories, segmenting your audience (students/alumni/professional members) and allowing you to contact potential donors on the media they are more likely to use.
Setting Goals
It is also important to consider certain data points when setting goals for your fundraiser. Goals are most reachable when specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time-bound (SMART). To set goals that adhere to this framework, you can use data from past fundraisers to set targets in multiple areas. You can measure the number of donations, total donation amounts or how many days the fundraiser lasts.
Keeping track of the fundraising method is also important since it can range from events like car washes to exclusively online campaigns. Keeping track of this data lets you know what your leadership team can adjust for the next fundraiser and sets a benchmark for future operations. Having an idea of what your team wants to achieve also ensures you have the time to take the proper steps to reach your fundraising goals.
DECA's Impact
It is also important to acknowledge that data helps bring the mission and brand of DECA to life and allows potential donors to see how big of a reach it has on its members. You can have members of your leadership team discuss their experiences in DECA with potential donors and how it has benefitted them, as well as give an overview of the organization's mission. It is a great idea to represent this information visually with the help of tools such as infographics and charts.
If you have worked with your school and received their approval, you can also mention your relationship with them, such as sponsorship or events you have hosted. This is a great chance to discuss data points such as increases in membership, leadership passport recipients, competition winners, scholarship recipients or awards your institution has granted your chapter.
Integrating data into your DECA chapter’s fundraising efforts can lead to more targeted, efficient and successful campaigns. By understanding your target audience, setting SMART goals and utilizing the organization's direct impacts on your members, you can maximize your fundraising potential. You should use data to reach your chapter’s financial goals and create a more consistent and engaged community of donors. With these strategies, your DECA chapter can ensure it has the resources to continue operations and have members attend international conferences.
