Car Insurance and Fundraising
Posted by: Mark Kosoglow on: October 30, 2009
As you can probably see, I am really making an effort to get in touch with all the magazine accounts in my territory. The need for this was driven home to me just the other day when I finally listened to all those car insurance commercial claims. You know, the “We can save you $478 per year by switching” commercials. How could there be so many commercials like that if they were all lying?
I had my perfect excuse to see if the commercials were true or not when the old Mazda 626 blew up on me while driving northbound on I-99 a couple of weeks ago. After buying a new car, I thought I should look into some other car insurance companies. Now, I had been with State Farm for about 13 years for both auto and home. I had filed about 3-4 claims in those 13 years, and the agent was always nice and professional — nothing spectacular, but very serviceable. I was satisfied, but not blown away.
Julie did the leg work and got about 8 quotes from other insurance companies and, of course, we somehow got 2 or 3 solicitations in the mail during that time. After running through all the possibilities, I ended up saving $38 per month or $456 per year on my car insurance. It is the same exact policy as I had with State Farm with a few extras (like rental car insurance and roadside assistance). That is a ton of money! I happily signed the papers and ended a 13 year relationship with State Farm with a 2 minute phone call, during which they told me they could not match my new price and thanked me for my patronage over the years.
How do car insurance and fundraising correlate?
You may have a good company that you have been with for years. You may have even had to call in a “claim” a few times and been met with nice, professional service, but when the company is not doing anything above and beyond and you have a hunch that you could make some more money with another guy, why not go for the switch? Is it uncomfortable to call the old guy and tell him you have a new deal that he can’t beat? Yes, it was for me, but in the end, I am more loyal to my checkbook and my family then I am to my insurance agent.
With car insurance done, it’s now time to look into a new home owners policy!
Does Your School Have a Magazine Fundraiser?
Posted by: Mark Kosoglow on: October 20, 2009
I started an important project today: setting up appointments with schools to evaluate their magazine drives. After seeing each and every school that has switched increase their profits, it is time for me to really begin a concerted effort to meet with schools so I can show them how I can improve their fundraiser.
If your principal, librarian, teacher, or technology committee runs a magazine sale of any kind (address booklet or large brochure), please forward this post to them. “Why now?” you ask. Simple. Meeting right after the fundraiser has concluded allows the person I meet with to give me the most accurate picture of how their sale has performed, what problems they had, what they liked about what they did, and what is fresh in their mind regarding new ideas for the future. Here is a list of schools that have switched and their results (rounded): School with QSP with GA/Mark Kosoglow Chestnut Ridge MS $5000 $28,000Everett Elem Music Dept $5000 $18,000
Claysburg Kimmel Elem $5000 $20,000
Greencastle Antrim MS $18,000 $22,500
Mechanicsburg MS $15,000 $37,000
Waynesboro MS $20,000 (*not QSP) $30,000 I have also included reference letters so you can read each school’s story — you don’t have to just take my word for it. So, take 2 minutes and send this post to the person that handles the magazine sale so I can set up an appointment to make sure they are getting everything they can out of their magazine sale.
I Am in Time Magazine!!
Posted by: Mark Kosoglow on: October 12, 2009
I know “Fundraiser Guy” sounds like a very unglamorous job, but for the second year in a row, I have my name has made it into Time Magazine for helping schools with a project that helps them receive free reading materials. As you can see below, my name is in amongst the other people in my company that make this program a priority when talking to schools.
The Time for Kids program is a way to get a weekly non-fiction grade level specific publication into the hands of kids. I have many schools that are chopping budgets and these materials are an easy one to cut. Why cut it out when your school can get it for free? It is a very easy program that about 65+ of my schools are doing. If you would like to find out how to take advantage of this program, give me a call 814-935-4068 or email me mark@thefundraiserguy.com and I will take about 5 minutes to explain how it all works.