Fundraisers

This is something we used to do when I was in college. And I saw recently that my son's school was doing this. It's called Penny Wars. What you do is set up jars for each class or grade. Then the kids bring in spare change. Penny's count for positive points silver and dollars count for negative (so at the end add up all the pennies and subtract out all other money to see who wins). The kids pick what jar they want to put their money in. My son's school is just doing change and see who's jar weighs the most at the end. Most parents don't mind sending in change and it's fun for the kids. This is an easy enough fundraiser and I know we use to be able to raise a couple hundred bucks in a few weeks.

Hi. I was a first grade teacher for 33 years so I have seen this issue time and again. The easiest and most enjoyable fund raiser we ever did was 'dances' for families of our students, their siblings and their parents. These were kids in a kindergarten to 4th grade building. A child needed a parent in tow to attend. We charged a dollar a head and held the dance from 6:30 to 8:30. Sometimes we sold little refreshments, sometimes not. All the teachers volunteered to be at the dances and dance with the kids. A teacher or parent was the DJ and there was 100% profit. We did it once a month, generally... but skipped the winter months. We raised about $200 to $300 per dance and over 3 years earned over $4,000. Easy as pie...everyone had fun, teachers and parents saw each other in a new role which made us all closer, and the kids felt special. Everyone knew what the money was for (a new sound system). No child had to sell a thing, no pressure, just a good time for all. You need teacher support to make this work, I think. A big draw was dancing with the teachers. We even worked up a dance to perform for the kids once in awhile. Good luck

We sell organic blueberries, raspberries, craanberries from farmers directly to parents and their friends - everyone gets a great deal. We also sell chickens and turkeys from another farmer -- the markup we put on is still less than that at the store, the farmer marks down a bit which is still higher than the price offered through wholesaling to retail stores and the school makes money, the farmer does fine and so do those buying the high quality food.

Have a Silent Auction and have parents donate services and things as well as getting donations from teh broader community. Have a dinner to go with it or musical entertainment or both and charge at the door an apropriate amount.

M. M

Hi E...

www.innisbrook.com

We used Innisbrook as a last minute fundraiser after our Yankee Candle fundraiser flopped. We too have a mixed economic population, and the candles were way too expensive for most people.

With Innisbrook, you can have an on-line fundraiser that lasts all year long, and none of the products ever pass through your hands, so there's no distribution to contend with. In the two weeks we did the catalog sale, (along with the internet sale), we made $2,400.

Innisbrook has high quality wrapping papers and candies, as well as a variety of other great products. If people order on-line, they can get their order in 3 days. So there is time for you to do this NOW.. The students get "credit" for the internet sales, so they can earn prizes too. (our younger kids liked that)

Another thing we did was candy sales. I don't know if your school allows candy sales, but we made $1800 in one month recently for our marching band. We asked local businesses (hair salons, liquor stores, small restaurants, ceramics studios, etc) who don't already sell candy to display our candy boxes with a flier we created.. The candy sells for $1.00/item, (more if you'd like a bigger profit) and we kept 50% of the sales. The company gives you the candy on a 30 day consignment. Kids also sold the candy at dismissal (our schools don't allow candy sales during the school day) Some kids did do the "direct sale" option, and parents brought the candy to work. Most people will succumb the the lure of a Snicker's bar or a bag of M&M's offered for $1 to benefit a good cause. We had to order 4 additional candy shipments to fuel the fundraising.

I'm the mother of a three month old, but the sister of a nine year old. I am interested in scrapbooking, so when my brother has fundraisers, I donate home-made cards for birthday, Easter, Christmas, etc. They always sell! Maybe you can put together a gift basket. That kind of stuff always sells quickly this time of year because the people buying them are busy moms who don't have the time to make home-made gifts. If you have the time and the skill, you can offer computer lessons. My brother "rented" himself out to pull the weeds in a neighbor's yard! Find out what people need and try to accomodate. Good luck!

What about read-a-thons? Have parents, family members, friends sponsor their child pledging money for each book their child reads or each page they read in a given amount of time. You can do walk-a-thons or hop-a-thons in the gym and have parents sponsor the number of laps their child does or the number or hops. The children will gain a sense of achievement because they are actually "working". Sponsorship can be as little as little or as much as they like ($.01/a page, hop, etc)

Hope this helps!

A couple things we have done in our town are yard sales and community dinners. The yard sales are pretty easy to do - everybody has stuff they wnat to get rid of! You just have to be very clear about the types of things you want and don't want, condition, etc.

Community dinners are significantly more work, but can have good payoffs financially and socially. you can do something that can be made pretty inexpensively like Spagetti Night (spagetti, meatballs, salad, rolls). you might even get a local restaurant to donate some food or give it to you at cost.

Third thing - if you live in a state where you pay bottle deposits. You can do a bottle and can drive. THe local boy scout troop does it monthly to support their activities.
Hope that helps!

My sons' school had a "carnival" this year. Each class came up with a booth (ring toss, marshmallow shooters, dunk tank, even Guitar Hero, to name a few). Parents and teachers manned each booth. Prizes were donated by parents and teachers (mostly dollar store/Oriental Trading items). It was quite successful. I know there was a lot of organization that went to making it such a success, but we live in an area such as yours where many of the families are not "well off". Our school also has earned quite a bit of money through the Box Top for Education program. That's an ongoing "fundraiser" and can help get some great things for your school. Let me know if there's anything I can help with.

How about a penny social, or a bake sale? These require some leg work and donations but they rake in lots.

Hi E.!
I am unsure of your location, but I may be able to offer this suggestion:
As a Mary Kay consultant, I am able to control my business and how I run it. I offer FUNDRAISERS as an option for people looking to raise money for particular causes or school events. I can donate UP TO 40% of the cost of any given product (which adds up VERY quickly). There are several methods of raising the money, including but not limited to hostessing skincare classes or parties (not direct selling and can be completely free) and taking books along. By using me as your main or supplemental fundraising, you are promoting women in business, supporting stay at home mothers, and showing off the NUMBER ONE SELLING BRAND OF SKIN CARE AND COSMETICS for 14 years in a row! We are recognized by animal rights and environmental groups for our business practices, and have a 100% easy to use satisfaction guarantee. Please let me know if you have any questions! V.

This past summer I organized a raffle for our daycare. I hit the local grocery stores, hardware stores, etc. and asked for donations to include in the raffel. One grocery store gave $30 in gift certificates, and the local hardware store gave a very nice 16 peice stainless steel bbq set. I went to the store and spend like $10 on an assortment of bbq sauces and maranades and put them all in a basket and we raffeled it off with tickets which I was able to print using my home ink jet printer.
We also raffeled off one of those huge blow up water play sets. It was a great deal and all in all it only cost under $30 for everything I bought to get it started. Selling the tickets at $1 a peice or 3 for $2 also made a world of difference.