At the beginning of every school year, sports season or program, many turn to SnapRaise as their primary tool for fundraising. SnapRaise has proven to be successful in raising money for thousands of fundraising events, even exceeding more than $1 billion dollars since its launch in 2014. The program has funded many sports and clubs at Buena and benefited students greatly. However, many students dread the process of adding emails and phone numbers to have SnapRaise ask their relatives for donations.
SnapRaise is a digital fundraising platform that allows students to request donations from relatives, friends and anyone they choose without actually having to ask them or go door-to-door. Its design allows for ease when fundraising and provides a wider range of opportunity for donations as it is all digital and can be shared worldwide.
A large issue that many of these fundraisers face is a lack of participation from the students. It is required of students to enter 20 emails and 20 phone numbers of anyone they think would donate to the cause. Nevertheless, student participation is at a new low.
This lack of participation could be for many reasons. Since the fundraising system is automated and does all of the work in sending messages, it may feel awkward to put in family and friend’s contact information for a robot to send the rather impersonal emails and texts. Follow up texts of confused grandparents may follow, asking if they can trust the site that is reaching out to them.
Furthermore, students feel guilty about asking their relatives and friends for donations, especially in such a repeated manner. SnapRaise will take all contact information and send near daily messages asking for donations, which makes adding an email feel like you’re sacrificing your email inbox.
Students across the school have had to participate in multiple SnapRaise fundraisers, including senior Adrian Esquivel, who has participated in nine over the years.
“[The emails] sound very desperate to those who are receiving them,” Esquivel said. “Often families will just look at it or not even open the message unless you ask them to donate personally, and I feel the school should give each program the funds they need.”
Similarly, senior Jaceylynn Chavez has had to participate in SnapRaise fundraisers for the cheer team to raise money for the season, leaving her feeling guilty about the rush of emails headed her relatives’ way.
“If you don’t put in all of the emails, SnapRaise takes more money, so it defeats the purpose,” Chavez said. “The spamming of emails just makes people feel pressured to donate.”
While many students are not fans of SnapRaise, it has proved time and time again to be an effective way to raise money. It is an innovative way to get attention quickly, as the link can be shared on social media and donations can be collected from anyone.
It also eliminates the need to sell products, go door-to-door, or spend money on campaigns. Its technology allows for secure transactions for donations, and even offers personalized merchandise for students who earn a certain amount of money
To combat the lack of participation in students, SnapRaise has begun taking more of a percentage of the funds raised if the students do not add enough emails. SnapRaise usually takes around 20% of profits, but they pride themselves on tailoring to the needs of the program, and figuring out what percentage to take based on that.
Many staff members have used the website and found success in making money for their program, including AVID teacher Heather Arrambide.
“Other fundraising options do not give you the return on your investment the way that SnapRaise does,” Arrambide said. “Becuase AVID is a program rather than a club, we need a lot more money for field trips and to fund those really meaningful experiences.”
SnapRaise continues to grow and it is likely that you will be asked to add 20 emails when the 26’-27’ school year commences. Knowing this, it is important to watch the dropping numbers in participation, not just at Buena, but with all of SnapRaise’s fundraisers. The company may continue to find success, but it is hard to know the timeframe as it has become less favorable to the ones who benefit from it.
“I think SnapRaise exhaustion exists because more and more programs are using it, but it allows us to provide opportunities for every kid as possible,” Arrambide said.
