Have you ever compared a magazine to a pepperoni pizza? Nah, probably not, but stay with us for a moment:

A.      You can read a magazine fairly easily, but can only read a pizza if you’ve taken Professor Trelawny’s Divination class.

B.      You can eat a pizza. Of course, you can also eat your words, but that assumes you’ve published a piece in the magazine in question.

C.      The magazine lasts for days. The pizza is gone in 15 minutes (though the indigestion may stay with you for a while).

D.      Selling magazines are a much better way to raise money for your organization than selling pizzas.

These are the conclusions reached by Erin Bucheger, Nate Falcone and the Public Relations Student Society of America. The University of Wisconsin students had tried selling pizza along with grilled cheese, wreaths and housewares in an effort to generate travel funds. Their destination: The national PRSSA convention in San Francisco.

According to Erin, earlier efforts had been less than satisfying. “These fundraisers took a lot of planning and permission for little profit”. she says, noting dryly that the grilled cheese fundraiser they had just done had raised a mere $80.13. And when that happened, she knew it was time for drastic steps and a change of mindset. She turned to the Internet…and found CampusFundraiser.

“Someone was always available to help us with our concerns or questions” she recalls. “The staff was very polite, correspondence was punctual, and they made our fundraising experience as pleasant as possible.”

Politeness, pleasantries and punctuality are all well and good, but results are what really matter. “Our group coordinator sent us detailed e-mails; taught the group leaders how to prepare for a successful fundraiser; gave us objectives to complete; did conference calls; and organized training sessions. The networking worksheet got members organized, and guiding team captains to pre-sell their orders showed the simplicity of the sale. It was a great picker-upper for the group.” In fact, she sums up, ”Most members had all three of their subscriptions filled by the end of day one.”

The students who attended the PRSSA convention were thrilled to be there and happy to have had CampusFundraiser’s help in getting there. And imagine their delight that there wasn’t a grilled cheese sandwich in sight at the banquet.