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Texas School Students Buy 70 Smiles!

The more than 1,100 students who attended the 2009 edition of the Texas School in May contributed over $17,000 to Operation Smile! This unprecedented donation was made possible by class instructors who showed an Operation Smile video to their classes and encouraged their students to buy as many smiles as they could, challenging other classes to exceed their totals. The clear and convincing winner was the class taught by Jed and Vicki Taufer, whose members donated an incredible $7,300 through individual contributions, an auction of merchandize and a donation of private classes offered by the instructors. At the urging of Texas School Director Don Dickson, an impromptu auction of donated vendor items on vendor night netted $1,900. Best of all, many of the instructors and students vowed to come up with ways to increase donations next year. Sounds like a great new Texas School tradition has been born, and with a little luck it will spread to other affiliate schools.

Thanks to Texas School students, instructors and vendors, at least 70 children will receive new smiles from Operation Smile. Texas School Rocks!!

A special thanks to Jed and Vicki Taufer for their fund-raising creativity on behalf of Operation Smile!

Angie's Secrets for Fundraising Success

In 2005, when we heard about PPA Charities' Family Portrait Month, we knew we wanted to contribute. But October is our busiest month of the year(and typically most lucrative), so we did not have time in our schedule to hold a special photo event or offer special sittings to raise funds. So we decided to donate a percentage of our gross sales for the month of October. This total was $3,500. It was amazing to know how much we could help children around the world just by sacrificing some of our profits during our biggest month.

In 2006, we really wanted to blow that 2005 number out of the water, so we decided to run a year-round promotion to benefit Operation Smile. We started to offer "Smile Cards," which are 5x7 folded blank notecards with the client's choice of image printed on the front. On the back, we print the Operation Smile, PPA Charities, and our studio logos.

We sell these in packs of 10, and they cost the client just $15.00 for the pack. This is a great value compared to our regular press-printed card line for our customers, and since we print them in-house, we can print them whenever the orders come in. One hundred percent of the price of these cards goes to our charity fund, which is donated at the end of the year. Our clients love these cards, and especially love knowing that they donate $15 to Operation Smile every time they purchase them. We do have a limit of three packs per client, which serves to guarantee that they do not use them as birth announcements or holiday cards. At the end of 2006, our total donation was $8,500, a combination of revenue from the cards and our percentage donation from our October sales.

In 2007, we decided to do something a little different. In addition to the Smile Card year-round sales, we opted to sell gift certificates in lieu of the October percentage donation. (we were building a new studio at the time and needed all that profit we could get!). In October, we pre-sold 2008 gift certificates for $240 (the price of one smile). Included in this certificate was an 8x10 portrait from the session. Given that our session fee is $300, this was a good value to our customers! We did have success with this, as some of our clients bought these as gifts for their co-workers and we gained new clients in the process. Our total 2007 donation was $6000. We had similar success in 2008 doing the same program, raising $6,500.

We can't wait until the end of 2009, to see how many more smiles we can buy for such deserving children! So far, we have raised over $5,000 . . . so we are on target to bring our total donation through the years to upwards of $30,000.

You can download templates for Angie's vertical and horizontal Smile Cards here:

Smile_Cards.zip.

Partnering: The Key to Successful Fund-Raising

When he decided in September to take part in the 2007 Operation Smile campaign, especially after the studio's busiest summer ever, Terry Farmer was committing the staff to less than a month of intense preparation. But by adding some novel approaches, including a partnership with area dentists, Terry Farmer Photography, Inc., raised more than $8,000 for PPA Charities in 2007.

Beyond the Operation Smile donations, these successful strategies can be used to increase a studio's visibility during other promotions.

Critical First Contacts

Terry suggests determining first what groups within your community are logical partners for your studio fund raiser or event and make a meaningful contact.

"The concept of Operation Smile lent itself to partnering in the community," explains Terry, president of the Springfield, Illinois, studio. "Photographers record the faces of children and families, so partnering with dentists was a logical alliance. This was a reciprocal project in that partnering dentists received community-wide recognition.

Terry contacted current officers of the dental society serving eight Central Illinois counties. They were enthusiastic about contacts to their individual members.

Terry described PPA Charities, Operation Smile and Family Portrait Month in a letter to society members. For a minimum donation of $240, the cost of one surgery, Terry invited each dentist to partner in the fundraising. He also explained that a donation to Operation Smile would be contributed for each family portrait session during October.

At about the same time the studio mailed contact letters to approximately 100 member dentists, Terry also featured Operation Smile in the studio's fall newsletter delivered to more than 4,000 the homes. Through this cross marketing step, studio customers who also visited a partner dentist were already aware of the fund-raising campaign.

Prepare a Partner Package

"Individuals or groups will be more likely to buy in to your partnering proposal if they understand clearly defined benefits," Terry recommends. "Make it easy for your prospective partners to say 'yes'."

Dentists partnering in Operation Smile received the following, all of which were spelled out in Terry's contact letter:

Office display for their reception area, including an 11 x 14 counter card, a 14 x 16 poster with their office or individual name prominently featured and call-to-action counter cards for their patients;
Complimentary family portrait session and 8x10 print gift certificates for distribution to their long-term patients, family or friends; and
Recognition in news releases to area media outlets.

Spread the Word

Terry stresses, "As photographers, our businesses depend on image, so we don't want to skimp when preparing the components of our ad campaigns. Every piece has to look great!"

Building on prepared materials sent to the studio, staff writers and graphic artists created unique and unified wording and design for all customized components of the studio's Operation Smile campaign. The results were classy, consistent, eye catching and easily read.

While customizing Operation Smile pieces, Terry also insisted on easily identifiable ties to the studio. In addition to using the logo, the studio tag line, "Celebrate the best times with Terry Farmer Photography" was adapted for the Operation Smile campaign. It became "Celebrate the best times and Help Us Create a Child's Smile."

Incentives to book a family portrait session were included on a postcard sent to the studio mailing list. These incentives included significant savings off the studio's normal session fee and the promise of contributing a donation to Operation Smile in the name of each family booking a session.

Even during the first year of this campaign, the response was universally enthusiastic. Twenty-three dentists, about a quarter of those contacted, partnered with the studio. Their patients who received certificates were delighted, and studio staff have heard positive comments from people throughout the community who have recognized the studio's fund-raising efforts.

Recognize Your Partners

"My parents always taught me to thank those who work with you" Terry says. "A significant challenge for every fund-raiser or event is how to thank your partners publicly and repeatedly."

Terry made sure that the studio's dentists partners, and their patients, read "thank you" often.

Small thank-you cards, designed, of course, with the campaign's theme, were custom printed especially for mailing to the dental partners.

Additionally, the partner dentists were recognized in

the on-line newsletter of the Greater Springfield Chamber of Commerce;
a one-page ad in Springfield Scene magazine;
the State Journal-Register daily newspaper; and
the spring edition of the studio newsletter.

The newspaper recognition exemplified the creative persistence that organizers may need. If a newspaper sometimes hesitates printing news releases, even those related to worthwhile causes, if there is a marketing component associated with the release.

What worked was a letter to the editor targeted to the weekly "Good Deeds" section.

Plan to Expand

"Even when a studio project is a raging success, and Operation Smile certainly falls into that category, I'm thinking about how to improve. Building a campaign such as this benefits the cause, raises the visibility of your campaign partners and increases your bottom line," Terry concludes.

With only a year of experience using this approach to Operation Smile, there are options to expand. Terry anticipates extending the professional contacts to include the local medical school and area plastic surgeons. By planning further in advance, the studio will also incorporate campaign components on the web site and blog.

For the 2007 campaign, however, Terry Farmer Photography, Inc., is delighted in the knowledge that the lives of more than 33 children will be changed forever, and they will smile.

Learn more from Terry Farmer by logging on to his free webinar.

Terry Farmer Promotional Materials (click on image to see larger view)

brochure/mailer (inside)