Once upon a time there were two schools with the same number of students; they both had to fundraise to pay for their expenses for the year! Both groups were in the very similar neighborhoods in the same type of small town USA, so barring a tornado coming through one of the towns, everybody thought they would get the same fundraising results.

The first group had just over 100 students. They were all excited about their new project and they chose to try out a pretty popular fundraising product that they had never done before! They were super excited to get their fundraising campaign kicked off. The second group also had the same number of students. They chose to do the same same product the first school did! Even though they both were in similar areas they weren't anywhere near each other. So they did not compete for same the customers.

Both schools decided to start the sale on the same day. There really was only one major difference in what each group did. The first school chose to run their sale like they had been doing it for years. The second group made a tiny change in "the way" they ran their fundraiser.

The first group finished the sales and raised $1,400 profit. They were pleased with their profit because they had been making about that amount for years! They were happy until they heard about the second school's profits. That group finished their sale and made over $4,000 in profit! The small change that they made in how they ran their sale was so minor that no one from the other school could figure it out. It's not that it was a great secret scheme. There was nothing that went on that was underhanded. It was all out in the open for everyone to see. In fact, that is exactly why the second school did so well. It is because everyone knew about the secret change is why they did so much more in profit.

But the question is still unanswered, why was there such a HUGE difference in Profits? Hint: It was not the profit percentage. In fact, the first group was offered 3% more profit than the second group because they signed up early in the year. So profit % is not the reason that they made so much more.

The answer will surprise you. You will probably think that it makes lots of sense when you understand what they did different. In fact it's something you probably see every day, but for some reason most fundraising companies don't help their groups apply it to their fundraisers. I simply don't understand why, but that is how it is.

Well, actually I, do understand why. But there is nothing that I can do about all the other fundraisier companies out there. The only thing I can do is make sure that my schools know what it is and how to do it at their school.