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Talking hops and ops with Yearbook Hero Justin Warren
Treering Yearbook Heroes is a monthly feature focusing on yearbook tips and tricks.
Financial constraints in college led Yearbook Hero Justin Warren to a warehouse job where he unexpectedly began a career pathway in a print shop, eventually becoming the operations manager. Rooted in his love of learning, his passion for innovation, and challenging industry standards, he moved from the print floor to directing Treering Yearbooks’ domestic, coast-to-coast print network. Early this year, Justin worked with cross-functional teams to introduce tactile elements through the Treering Heritage Collection.
How do you respond when people tell you print is obsolete?
I’ve been told that my whole career. Something physical in someone’s hand is so valuable, even though it may sit on a shelf for a bit. It’s so much easier to pull it off the shelf to relive the memories in a beautiful, full-color book than it is to dig through your phone and find a photo you think you took seven years ago.
It’s morphed, definitely, and that’s the great thing about Treering: we’re innovators. We anticipate what the future brings while maintaining that physical connection to our memories.
Speaking of physical connection, what inspired the development of studio-designed, textured yearbook covers?
Touch is a huge component of child development. You remember something you can touch.
One of my biggest “brings” to the company was to bring a more tactile element to our printed yearbooks. It really does bring a new dynamic. Texture has always done super well in print and is difficult to implement. I said, "We're doing this," and collaborated with our print network to create a thick, glossy polymer that extends to the end of the cover and the spine, of which we are proud. The Heritage Collection showcases the possibilities that we have in front of us. All it takes is great development and some research before we execute.
People ask all the time how we manage to have a three-week turnaround. What makes it possible?
It takes a lot of strategy. It takes a lot of preparation. It takes a lot of commitment in order to turn a digital file into a printed file, and it really comes down efficiencies. Being digital, we reduce waste and errors. If there is a problem, we can catch it immediately. We don’t have to remake or rehang plates to do a full run.
We're not going to store any inventory or print extras. Print on demand allows us to personalize and print your custom yearbook as the order comes in. That takes time. Real people look at the yearbooks (it’s not all automated) to check for quality.
Our printing network is coast-to-coast, so we are geographically positioned to service our schools with shorter transit times and increased flexibility. We are striving to be both eco-friendly and economically friendly to pass on savings to schools.
What other innovations set Treering apart?
Personalization, it’s what our thing is. Personalizations changed the world. When I first heard about it, frankly wasn't sure how, on the production side, I was going to produce it. It brought challenges and through discussions and brainstorming, we came up with a product that we can then continue to enhance.
Portrait autoflow is another. Treering utilizes technology to solve an old school problem and be able to bring our little twist to it. Without revealing too much, this is just the beginning.
Rumor has it, that you’re also a master brewer.
My dad and I own it together. We both have full-time careers, but after work, we do sales calls and on the weekends we brew beer. No advertising. It's just literally dad and I all the way from ops to janitor. We have 30 recipes that we rotate we keep five or six going year-round. Living in the Pacific Northwest, IPAs really are the huge driver: really bitter, really floral. Those are the king of beers over here. So we have quite a few of those. We just pick and choose what we're feeling and what our customers want. I mean it's a wonderful experience and it's taught me a lot about smaller companies because I've lived in the corporate world for so long that I get to see the smaller craft of a business. It keeps me out of trouble.
TRL 2023: start here
It's time to roll the dice and level up your yearbook game with three days of Yearbookopoly! This National School Yearbook Week, attend all three days of our flagship training event, or pick sessions matching your gaming style.
Tuesday, October 3 - Speed Round
A few sessions to start you off strong. A practice session, if you will!
Wednesday, October 4 - Yearbook Player’s Manual
We’ve scheduled concurrent sessions of back-to-back training to answer all your burning yearbook questions.
Thursday, October 5 - Cards Against Editorial Sanity
Meet some of the legends in the yearbook game. Our Treering Yearbook Heroes will spill their secrets and tackle your questions.
Register now for TRL 23. Cost to join? Free! Prizes? Of course!
Disclaimer: Attendees may experience an uncontrollable urge to shout "Checkmate!" during sessions.
TRL 23 FAQs
How much does it cost to register?
Treering Live is a free training event.
I'm not a Treering customer, may I attend?
Yes, please attend. Treering loves to share.
How do I get on Zoom Events?
For best results:
- Use Chrome on a computer
- Update to the latest version of the Zoom desktop client/mobile application.
What do I need to prepare for TRL 23?
Make sure you have the latest version of Zoom, so you don’t miss out! If you are having tech trouble with Zoom, be sure to visit our day-of TRL Support.
Some sessions, such as Teaching Yearbook and Creating a Yearbook Marketing Plan, have work time. To maximize your takeaway, please have your school calendar on hand.
If you’re old school, have paper and a pen to take notes. New school, live post on X, formerly known as Twitter, or Facebook and hashtag #trl2023, #BiteSizedPD, #treering
Will TRL be recorded?
We will record and share all group TRL sessions on the blog. Those who attend the live demos will receive a recording of their session.
Are TRL sessions captioned?
YES! In the toolbar at the bottom of your Zoom screen, click the Show Captions icon.
To enable it for every TRL session, click your profile picture then click Settings.
1. Click the Accessibility tab.
2. Under Closed Captioning, click the checkbox to enable Always Show Captions.
This is my first year leading the yearbook. What should I do?
Welcome! We recommend beginning with either I’m the Yearbook Coordinator, Now What? or Teaching Yearbook sessions. Follow that with Design 101/201 or Getting Organized.
Is this only for first-year advisers?
Returning advisers have curated sessions on social media, marketing, and advanced design.
Can my yearbook students attend?
Student privacy is always our utmost concern. Yearbook classes are welcome to attend together; the adviser must be present to model responsible online engagement.
What is CAT Genius Hour?
The Genius Hour is a drop-in 1:1 session designed to help acclimate first-year advisers/editors to their Treering account. Bring your Treering questions.
Can I get professional development credit?
For our teacher friends who need to apply for professional development or are looking for a yearbook PLC, TRL attendees with gain fundamental knowledge and skills related to yearbook creation, marketing, volunteer management, and effective engagement with students and parents, preparing them to support the yearbook team and contribute positively to the school's yearbook project. (You can quote us on it!)
Upon request, we will offer a TRL 23 certificate of completion for three or more sessions of attendance for attendees.
Introducing treering's heritage collection
If there is one thing we’ve learned in our 15 years, it’s that memories are important. And just like our software, we’re continuously upgrading how we preserve them for you. We spent our summer vacation designing new archival cover options. The Treering Heritage Collection is comprised of six new bespoke designs to enclose your memories from cover to cover.
What’s in a Name?
Often associated with strength, longevity, and wisdom, the mighty oak became the symbol of these studio designs. Like your stories, they are treasured.
Heritage oaks are highly resilient trees that can withstand harsh weather conditions—including droughts and storms—due to their deep root systems and sturdiness. Like your memories, they stand the test of time.
We find these oaks in urban, rural, and suburban areas alike. And because of their age and size, they process more carbon while serving as a home base for many animals. Like your school community, they affect their surroundings.
Heritage Collection Designs
The Heritage Collection is available in 8.5 x 11 hard- and softcovers.
From the Treering Design Studio to Your School
It’s a cliche for a reason: we truly judge books by their covers. That’s why Treering answered the question, “What if I could have a professional designer create my yearbook cover?” Eliminate the what-ifs: you can.
Each Heritage Cover is 3D in texture and covered in our signature gloss. This raised polymer coat acts as a shield, protecting your yearbook from scratches, tears, and fingerprints. Because of it, the ink colors are more vibrant, and your school story is more tangible. Pair your heirloom cover with our fully editable layouts to create a truly unique and long-lasting school treasure. It’s as easy as click, drag, drop, and done!
Kinesthetic Memories
Yerd alert: we’re going to get deep on the science of touch.
Tactile experiences influence memories due to the intricate ways our sensory experiences are woven into the fabric of our memories and emotions, shaping our perception of the world around us and our sense of self. Handshakes and hugs readily come to mind. What about yearbooks?
The short answer: yes!
The scientific one: yes, mechanoreceptors (aka the specialized nerve endings in our skin) respond to specific touch sensations such as pressure, temperature, and texture. They send electrical signals through nerve fibers to the brain, particularly to the somatosensory cortex, which processes tactile information.
How To Use a Heritage Cover in Your Yearbook
It's easy: from the Book Settings editor on your Dashboard, change your cover finish to Heritage. The full instructions are in the Help Center.
Remember, when we touch something, our brain keeps an imprint of it. The raised texture of a Heritage Yearbook Cover can sustain its impact.
Making yearbooks more accessible with opendyslexic
Fonts can be the Marsha Brady of the yearbook world. Overshadowed by epic theme packages and color palettes, the power of typography cannot stay silent. (In fact, the correct font can be louder than your graphics.) With 44 new fonts in the Treering catalog, you can share your story with boldness or a touch of whimsy. It can be focused or zany, handwritten or high-tech.
“Typography, like other design elements, evolves over time. Keeping up with current trends ensures that your designs feel fresh, relevant, and aligned with contemporary aesthetics,” Treering’s Director of Design, Allison V. said. “Typography also strongly impacts how a message is conveyed and perceived. More importantly, we listen to our users and try to accommodate their needs and wants. We often receive requests for fonts and appreciate the input from you.”
One such request came in the form of a text.
Meet OpenDyslexic
Since origin stories are a big deal in the superhero world, here is OpenDyslexic’s: app and game designer Abelardo “Abbie” Gonzalez developed the font in 2011 to help people with dyslexia improve their reading experience.
OpenDyslexic’s design addresses common challenges faced by many readers with dyslexia:
- Letter Weight: OpenDyslexic uses a slightly heavier letter weight, which helps the letters stand out more clearly on the page and reduces letter crowding. When designing for readers with dyslexia, avoid using italics or underlines because they cause letter crowding.
- Bottom Heavy: The base of the letters is slightly thicker, which provides better anchoring for letters. This can reduce the chances of them being flipped or reversed.
- Distinct Letter Shapes: The font uses distinct letter shapes to minimize letter confusion, such as avoiding mirror-image similarities between letters like "b" and "d."
Because it’s an open-source font, it is freely available. You can even make it your web browser’s font.
How Would You Use OpenDyslexic in Yearbook Design?
The short answer: headlines and captions.
The British Dyslexia Association and the UX Movement established Dyslexia-Friendly Style Guides. Summed up, the following tips can increase the readability of your spreads.
- Modular design: use negative space to break up content into meaningful chunks
- Keep backgrounds to a single color, ideally cream or pastel peach, orange, yellow, and blue
- For text, ensure there is contrast between the background and words on your yearbook spread
- Left align text
- Use font size 12-14 pt.
As with anything, it is essential to note that while dyslexia-friendly fonts and design can be beneficial for some individuals, there is no one-size-fits-all solution for all learners. If possible, seek stakeholders' feedback during the design process to identify potential improvements.
Artificial intelligence (ai): assuring safe memories
As Artificial Intelligence (AI) inspires nearly all facets of daily life, today’s news focuses heavily on buzzy AI tech like the ubiquitous ChatGPT. From improving the travel, automotive, and healthcare industries to monitoring coral reefs, the benefits of AI seem limitless. (You can even ask for curated movie recommendations!) The yearbook world, of course, is no exception.
Treering’s in-house engineers constantly strive for ways to improve and innovate the yearbook experience for everyone involved, and our AI-driven content review process is doing just that. Here are some ways employing this exclusive technology has helped protect cherished memories for the past several years and counting:
Streamlining the Review Process
One yearbook challenge editors are all-too-familiar with is ensuring that inappropriate content doesn’t make its way onto pages (or worse, the news).
To solve this, Treering implements our automated AI review pipeline before going to print. This process efficiently moderates a book’s content across a network of computers that wield industry-leading and constantly evolving computer vision.
Free Time for Editors
Treering’s AI can swiftly and accurately analyze vast volumes of data (1,430,921 pages year to date, in fact!), flagging them as necessary for review and follow-up. This process allows teams to focus more time and attention on tasks that can’t be automated, like matching students with a stellar list of yearbook superlatives.
Offering the Best of Both Worlds
Of course, the human component remains a vital part of the yearbook review. (Treering loves a good collaboration!) In addition to utilizing AI, we employ staff dedicated to this process.
When teams combine Treering’s content review procedure with other proofing tools, such as our free printed proof, schools can relax, knowing they’ll immortalize the best possible yearbook version.
The applications of artificial intelligence are plenty, and Treering is proud to pioneer its use to proactively benefit schools by making it easier and safer for students and families to capture life’s memories.
Yearbook myths
School-friendly is the descriptor that popped up in an email about yearbook companies. It made me snort. As great as my relationship with my sorority sister-turned-yearbook rep was, I no longer could reconcile the bottom line on the invoice, demands from school administration, and equity concerns for students. While it was time for a change, options seemed limited. Aren't all yearbook publishers the same? That myth and others nearly kept me (and many other advisers) from making a beneficial shift in the name of students. Let's go through the top six yearbook myths together and learn the truth.
Myth 1: Customer Service is a Thing of the Past
Treering re-wrote the traditional approach to yearbook contracts and customer service to meet the changing needs of parents and educators by leveraging the technology they already use in the classroom and workplace. Editors receive real-time help without having to leave school or pre-scheduling an appointment. Instead of having one person on which to depend, there is a team of experts to assist with account management, design, and ongoing training.
Beyond the live agents and customer success managers—most of whom are current or former yearbook advisers—Treering users take advantage of:
These tools improve knowledge sharing and provide their staff and students with more opportunities for development and growth.
Myth 2: I’m Not in the Yearbook
We all know students don’t purchase the yearbook because they are unsure if they will be in it, so we provide coverage tips to help you and your staff gather stories in fresh ways. Also, students who transfer schools mid-year can still be a part of it because yearbook editors can also add students to the portrait section at any time.
In addition, advisers can give students ownership of their memories: every Treering yearbook includes two free pages on which they can drop their vacation, extra-curricular, and milestone photos. (Even better? It’s less than a buck to add two more.)
Myth 3: You Can’t Include Spring Sports and Events in the Yearbook
Editors love being able to set their own deadlines and extend them if they need more time. That December 17 book order deadline is no more. With a guaranteed three-week turnaround, you have beyond February to complete your yearbook, ensuring time to capture lacrosse season, Read Across America Week, and other spring events.
Ship to Home for Fall Delivery
Yearbook Hero Beth Stacy’s school traditionally does a fall delivery. Instead of strategizing distribution over her summer break, she uses Treering's ship-to-home feature so graduates, international students, and military families all receive their yearbooks.
Myth 4: Yearbooks Are Out of Date
In a digital world, it’s nice to have something tangible. Yearbook coordinator Erin McDonald prompts, “Are you going to hand your kid the Cloud when they graduate?”
Yearbooks are a testament to the events, people, and culture of a particular moment in time. They provide a historical account of what was happening in a school, community, or organization and allow us to relive the essence of our past. Because they serve as a showcase for individuals to display their talents and bask in their successes, yearbooks also offer an opportunity to celebrate the achievements and accomplishments of students, staff, and campus organizations
They show how each member contributes to the story of the whole.
Also, from a pedagogical perspective, yearbooks offer a canvas for students, staff, and volunteers to express their creativity through writing, photography, and design.
Myth 5: Numbers are Firm in Fall
It’s freeing to say, “Yes, you can still order a yearbook.”
Tweet
Treering advisers say they never have to say no to a student: if someone misses the school’s deadline, they may order a book to be shipped to home. Your school’s storefront is always open.
Myth 6: I Always Have Too Many Leftovers
Conversely, say goodbye to overruns and hustling boxes of old yearbooks at alumni events. Frankly, schools are financially punished for these and they are a waste of resources and space. Moving forward, every year is a sell-out year because your yearbook shipment only includes what was pre-sold. You can breathe deeply, knowing the pressure to make a sales quota is eliminated. The savings are passed on to families.
The misconceptions about yearbook publishing end here.
Happy holidays from treering yearbooks
Since 2009, you’ve trusted us to capture and print your priceless memories, and we reflect on this honor every holiday season. In addition to helping schools raise nearly $2 million in the 2022 school year, we printed over 600,000 custom pages in 2022—that’s a lot of joy. Thank you for trusting us with this invaluable task. We wish you all the best this holiday season and we can’t wait to get to work in 2023. Happy holidays!
What to Expect in 2023
- Semi-monthly training through Yearbook Club
- Design contests for editors and parents
- Your memories arriving within three weeks of clicking Print Ready
- New predesigned "About Me," "Year in Review," and "Best of..." pages
- Superior support as you design, market, and distribute your best book yet
- Weekly blog articles to provide inspiration and resources - subscribe and have them sent to your email
Staff pictured
Top: Chrissy K. (Customer Success Manager), Jason S. (Customer Success Manager), Jen C. (Customer Success Manager), Niri B. (Customer Success Manager), Brian M. (Director of Engineering) with Titan
Bottom: Melizza T. (Community Advocate Team Supervisor), Codey V. (Community Advocate Team - Quality Assurance), Daneesha B. (Community Advocate Team), Ramona E. (Community Advocate Team), Robelyn O. (Community Advocate Team)
Yearbook hero Nick Pasto engineers success
Treering Yearbook Heroes is a monthly feature focusing on yearbook tips and tricks.
Meet the man who created Treering's new color picker. Engineer Nick Pasto grew up among cherry, walnut, and apple growers in Stockton, CA. In addition to his swoon-worthy homemade lasagna (yes, Pasto makes pasta) inspired by his time studying cuisine with Italian grandmas, Nick led the teams which developed many of Treering's other editor favorites:
- Recognition ads
- Spell check
- Marking pages "done"
- Polls
- Language support for Arabic, Chinese, and Hebrew characters
- Alignment tools
- Package tracking improvements
(This is not an exhaustive list by any means.)
How did you move from the classroom to the backroom?
Back then, Treering’s design software was Flash-based, and that was going out. I saw a message that they were looking for developers to change it to HTML5. The opportunity spoke to me because there was a lot of overlap between my professional career and personal interests.
While earning my art education degree, I worked as a graphic designer and animator for my college. I’ve also been an indie game developer.
[Editor's note: Nick made Super Chibi Knight with his eight-year-old daughter who served as the voice actor for the main character; she's now 18.]
How does your background as a classroom teacher make you a better developer?
So many people who work at Treering are currently making yearbooks at their kids’ schools. I’m one of the only engineers who’s served as an adviser. It helps to have real-world experience with our product because I can see it from both sides.
The leadership at Treering looks for a breadth of experience to remain customer-focused and make the best product. The strength of our team is our diversity–our experiences help with ingenuity and problem-solving.
We build in a ton of automation and templates to make things less intimidating. You don’t have to know Photoshop, Illustrator, or InDesign to do desktop publishing for your yearbook design. Treering’s software is the bridge.
If you could tell our editors anything, what would it be?
The most impressive part of Treering as a user is the customer service.
Like many first-time advisers, I missed our deadline. The pressure of making sure kids had their books before summer was stressful. As a new teacher, it was too much on my plate.
I picked up the phone and just communicated with the CAT team and they helped me work it out by using my fundraiser to pay for expedited shipping. My students received their books on time, and I determined this is a company I am interested in learning more about. It was then I knew I wanted to work here.
TRL 2022: yearbook magic
We Made Magic Happen
Beginning the evening with a conversation on themes, a tour of the new look for Treering Yearbooks app, and a magic show, we transitioned to expert-led breakout sessions. The Magical Katrina wowed us with her close-up magic and improv skills.
Breakouts to Make Your Stress Disappear
Attendees had their choice of four breakouts:
Fundraising with your Yearbook
I’m the Yearbook Coordinator… Now What?
Teaching Yearbook
Selling More Books
Bag of Tricks
While magicians don’t usually reveal their secrets, we gave up a few of ours. Scan the QR Code below to access them.
Check out the full list of upcoming Yearbook Club webinars for even more training opportunities.
Treering + sandy hook promise
This year marks one of changes for Treering. To go with our new look, we have a new philanthropic partnership. Treering Yearbooks is taking another step towards promoting inclusion through partnering with Sandy Hook Promise. By choosing Treering to print your school's yearbook, you not only have access to crowdsourcing options and custom pages, but your purchase is also contributing to the “Know the Signs” prevention programs and K-12 instruction on empathy and inclusion.
Treering Yearbook's custom pages changed the way students tell their own stories: by providing an opportunity for families to upload photos and create their own pages in their student's book, we accurately showcase each student's interests and contributions. Then, crowdsourcing options widened the narrative to include more angles and perspectives from the year.
The "Know the Signs" programs include:
- Start With Hello: For students in grades K-12, Start With Hello teaches youth how to minimize social isolation, marginalization, and rejection by creating an inclusive community that reaches out and connects with at-risk individuals.
- Say Something: For students in grades K-12, Say Something teaches youth to recognize warning signs, especially in social media, from individuals who may be a threat to themselves or others and Say Something to a trusted adult or report it using our Anonymous Reporting System.
- Say Something Anonymous Reporting System (SS-ARS): For students in grades 6-12, SS-ARS enables youth to easily submit safe, anonymous safety concerns through a mobile app, website, or hotline number. SHP’s highly-trained, multilingual Crisis Counselors respond to tips 24/7/365, engaging youth in dialogue to assess and substantiate the tip, provide immediate crisis/suicide intervention, and triage the tip to local school and/or law enforcement response teams as needed.
- Students Against Violence Everywhere (SAVE) Promise Clubs: These student-led clubs empower students in grades K-12 to champion violence prevention in their schools and communities.
Join us to create inclusive yearbooks while teaching compassion and looking out for one another–together, let’s create a culture change!
Can a yearbook company save lives? We're sure going to try!
Treering’s glow up
Things are changing at Treering: you may have noticed the new look of the help center, blog, and website. This visual polish includes sleeker graphics, universal icons, and a more tranquil and optimistic green. Really: it’s the digital equivalent of getting our braces removed.
What hasn’t changed is who we are: your partners for a flexible, stress-free yearbook publishing experience. You are still in control of deadlines, page count, book content, yearbook quantities, editing permissions, and how your yearbooks are sorted in your shipment.
Not Just Cosmetic
Yearbook editors, advisers, and coordinators told us they wanted
- To enter the spread designer with fewer clicks
- More space to edit
- Time to prepare yearbook details before selling the book
- A way to donate books
Menus
Instead of a deep navigation (think: click, a new page, click, a new page, click, do your thing, save), we’ve kept chief editor controls centralized on the Dashboard. And while you're in the editor, you can now focus 100% on layout and design.
While adding photos to a template, do you have an idea for an additional spread? With the paginal navigation up top, you can preview thumbnails of your book and navigate throughout. Using the top navigation, you can also make changes to styles, move pages, and access help articles.
Yearbook Editor
The good news is all your favorites— templates, auto layout, and alignment tools—still exist.
The better news: since the left and right menus have merged, you have more space to edit. The zoom tool is faster and smoother making precision edits easier.
More Time, More Control
Now you can begin selling yearbooks on your school's schedule by setting the date of the sale. We had many editors ask for more time to determine their ladder, page count, and fundraiser. When you’re ready, or on our universal go-live date of October 15, 2022, you can launch the online sales platform.
We recommend taking advantage of the early yearbook sales incentives and discounts.
Book Donation
This option launched in the spring for a trial and the positive feedback made it a keeper. When editors enable this option, parents can purchase an additional book to donate to the school. Some advisers gift them to teachers, and others distribute them to students in need.
We know change can be scary. When Treering entered the yearbook space toting a print-on-demand, no contract yearbook solution, schools were wary of this too-good-to-be-true proposition. We're glad you're on this journey with us.
Treering fundraising: from yearbook loss to profit
Wouldn't it be great if your yearbook could help buy your school new Chromebooks or iPads or fund a new STEAM program? We think so too! Treering has already helped schools raise more than $11 million (and counting) and funded all kinds of wonderful things for schools. Make money from something you already do: add any amount to the price of your yearbook as a fundraiser.
Our books are so fairly priced that you don't need to feel guilty about adding a fundraiser to the cost of the book. Let's say the core price of your book is $45, and you add a $5 fundraiser. If you sell 500 books, you will have raised $2,375 for your school! That could cover the cost of a few educational field trips!
Full disclosure (because, hi, we love transparency): Treering charges just 5% processing to cover the credit card and bank fees.
Fundraising in Action
Mercury Mine Elementary
"Treeing's fundraising tools helped my school build a yearbook program that no longer creates a drain on our finances. Now with Treering we MAKE money on our yearbook program. Funds raised from the yearbook go to our school's 501c3 Parent Teacher Group and help us to support the school’s programs and services. Our PTG strives to promote communication, understanding, and cooperation among students, parents, faculty, and the Miner community. Our goal is to promote a supportive and engaging community atmosphere and Treering helps us reach those goals." - Erin
Augusta Circle Elementary
"We use Treering’s fundraising tool in two ways. First, we add to the cost of the book, making $1 off each book sold. We also sell celebration ads to parents. We use our extra funds to provide yearbooks to 5th graders who may otherwise not be able to buy one, so that all graduating students leave with a yearbook. Last year, we raised enough money to refinish the outside basketball courts, which were worn down, cracked, and had become hazardous, plus added two new basketball goals! This year we hope to add a large sunshade over part of the playground with the money we raise through the yearbook. We are so grateful for Treering!" - Ansley
Presidio Middle School
"We give books to 8th graders who are moving up to high school. I give away about 60 books to 8th graders. We call it a contest, [students have to fill out an online form to enter] but it susses out students who might not be able to afford a book and don’t want to ask for a free one." - Janet
PSA on Fundraising With Yearbook Ad Sales
Typically, yearbook ad sales are one way teams do their fundraising.
Generally speaking, schools sell yearbook ads for one of three reasons:
- To pay back existing publisher debt
- As an opportunity to teach business skills (sales, advertising, negotiation, and more)
- As a fundraising effort to purchase new equipment
Number one can happen for myriad reasons: perhaps you bought far too many books last year, maybe your budget was slashed, or you inherited a yearbook program in the red. Negotiate, negotiate, negotiate with your publisher for more school-friendly terms. (Thank you for coming to our TED Talk.)
While selling ads is a good way to teach students about business, it’s not a necessity for every yearbook program. Virtually any fundraising opportunity can be turned into something teachable, and selling ads is probably the most resource-intensive of the bunch. This reality is what makes ad sales particularly alluring because they quite literally become part of the finished product.
If you want to add business development consider teaching:
- Problem-solving
- Goal-setting and project management
- Team leadership
- Social media marketing to promote your program, book sales, and crowdsourcing