Our Mission:

Bluebird Fundraising is an online service dedicated to giving schools and educational organizations simple and safe fundraising tools that complement daily life rather than complicate it.

Who is Bluebirdfundraising.com?

Our company is the brainchild of three working fathers who became frustrated with the low returns and time commitments of traditional fundraising drives, but still wanted to help support their children’s schools. With well-rounded backgrounds in high-tech businesses, these three faced the dilemma and found a solution that not only helped their own kids and schools, but could also help any number of schools around the country with only a small initial time commitment on their part.  It is from this idea that Bluebird Fundraising was born.

For some time, most established businesses have offered incentive programs for fundraising groups.  These affiliate programs serve both a charitable and monetary benefit to these companies by allowing them to give to local causes while making new sales that they might otherwise not make. They can afford to give a percentage of their sales back to schools without charging a higher per-item price, so both the companies and the schools benefit from the deal.  However, each company tends to have a different set of criteria for their affiliate programs and signing up can be tedious and time-consuming.  Since most schools only have limited time to devote to these programs, what usually happens is that only a handful of programs are approved and supporters end up with only a few shopping choices.  That either limits the total sales (and fundraising returns) or forces you to buy things that you don’t really want.

That’s where Bluebird Fundraising comes in.  What we do is provide a single point of entry for hundreds of pre-approved programs, saving your school many hours of application time.  And because we have a virtual mall of hundreds of online retailers to choose from, you will be able to shop for virtually anything you like and still be able to support your fundraising drives.

Why replace traditional fundraising?

There is no doubt that schools all around the country are facing unprecedented budget shortfalls and it is now more important than ever to maximize the return on any fundraising program.  Traditional fundraising drives can be successful, but they often require a fairly large commitment from faculty, staff and parents.  As parents we are all feeling the crunch too.  Often, families have two working parents who have little time to devote to fundraising and the result is only partial commitment to the effort…not because they aren’t interested, but because they simply can’t find the time.  We’ve talked with many parents and supporters who are frustrated, like us, with the inconvenience of traditional fundraising.  Parents want and need a better option.   

Do people really shop online?

According to Forrester Research, in 2006 shoppers spent over $211 billion dollars online, up from $168 billion dollars in 2005.  By 2010, annual online spending is expected to reach $315 billion dollars.  For the school fundraising sector, it is interesting to note that people with children are more likely to shop online than people without children and that 63% of people who shop online are women**.

Why the sudden increase in online sales?  Convenience and ease of use is a huge factor. Ever wait in long lines during the holiday season? What a time saver online shopping has become! No lines to wait in, no parking hassles, no traffic, no gas expense, no crowds and your merchandise can be shipped right to your door! Or, if you prefer, you can have your purchases gift wrapped and delivered to another address. All you do is sit at your computer with your shopping list and get done in a few hours what may have taken you several days and trips to the mall to accomplish! In addition, online security has improved immeasurably in recent years.

**source: peoplesupport.com

How does Bluebirdfundraising.com work?

Bluebird has affiliate relationships with over 200 established online retailers that are already pre-approved.  When you visit our website, all you have to do is identify which school or schools you want to support from our extensive schools database, or you can easily add your school to our database if it doesn’t exist yet.  Once you choose a school, you can then shop directly from any of the retailers listed on our website. 

For every purchase made, the retailers will credit back a percentage of the sale to Bluebird under the name of that school or schools.  Bluebird will send a check to your school for all accumulated funding earned at regular intervals.  It’s really that simple.

Because we respect the privacy of our shoppers, BluebirdFundraising.com doesn’t require any personal or credit card information to use our website. All you have to do is to go to your school page on the BluebirdFundraising.com website and click on the retailer links to shop. 

You can raise money anonymously, or if you have a personal fundraising goal and need to be identified, you can sign-in with basic information and get full credit for any online shopping contributions. 

Why Bluebird instead of other online services?

There are other online affiliate programs out there and perhaps you’ve already used some of them.  What we have found is that every single one of them has either a lengthy registration process or requires personal financial information before a supporter can shop.  Both of those processes can be significant roadblocks towards participation in any successful fundraising program.  What makes Bluebird Fundraising different is that we try to make fundraising as simple as possible with no signup obligations, no credit card information required and a safe and simple shopping experience.  We feel that the easier our website is to use, the more frequently your parents and supporters will use it.  And that means more funds for you! 

How do we get started?

All you have to do is find your school, then start shopping. Start right now by clicking here.