The Instrumental Music program and Color Guard relied heavily on in person fundraising sales over the past few years, but now they have discovered a new method for fundraising: MoneyDolly. The result of this? It is their most successful fundraiser so far.
Instead of raising money through former time-consuming processes such as a manual popcorn fundraiser, they have opted to use the fundraising app MoneyDolly. MoneyDolly is an online fundraising app for schools and sports that lets participants collect donations or sell products to raise money for their team. Users create a campaign, and participants invite supporters through their phone contacts using text, email or social media.
“We had a great time using MoneyDolly for the very first year, and we’ll definitely do it again” Katie Takahashi, the Band director said. “It’s the best fundraiser we’ve ever done [and] we made the most money we’ve ever made.”
Unlike traditional fundraisers that rely on in-person product sales, the band’s campaign used the MoneyDolly app to sell items online. Teachers praised how simple it was, noting that students managed most of the work after setup.
“We used to sell chocolates,” trombone player sophomore Dominic Gladfelther says. “And you would usually be in a slow process of going around during lunch and selling it.”
Gladfelther was the top earner in the program, raising over $1,000. With the help of MoneyDolly, it is easier to spread the information to contacts and students can send the link to anyone in the world.
“It is a lot easier for everybody to make money and help the band out,” Gladfelther said, “Rather than going around and asking people within the city, you can just send the link out to everybody, even in other countries.”
In exchange for the money that they raised, students were given prizes. The more money that students raised, the better the rewards that they got. The gifts they won were distributed to the students through an online gift shop.
“We got to redeem [Moneydolly] coins for [e] gift cards,” Violinist and flautist Instrumental Music Council treasurer sophomore Sofia Coreas said. “I got a Target [e]giftcard [for] 50 bucks.”
Despite these benefits, there are some flaws to using this program. The app repeatedly kicks users out due to glitches in the system and consistently sends alerts for donations to contacts and people who already made contributions.
“[The excessive notifications] can be annoying to other contacts and people who already donated,” Gladfelther says. “[Also], the rewards that you make throughout the app can be really repetitive.”
However, MoneyDolly also stood out to students for its simplicity and seamless communication since all students had to do was send out messages and the link to purchase items, and the app did the rest. Once a student sends out their fundraising link, the app automatically handles order placement, payment processing, tracking, fulfillment, and fund distribution.
“I really like [MoneyDolly]. It’s super intuitive,” head drum major and Instrumental Music Council band vice president senior Keegan Beecher said. “I think it’s a great way to easily fundraise without having to try that hard. You have an easier time getting the word out to people.”
