"Fun" Fundraising Ideas

We attended a fundraiser for a Montessori school one time where they had dinner and a dance coupled with a silent and live auction. A couple of things that we really liked were that the wine glasses were engraved with the school name and you were able to keep the glass, the teachers each donated a bottle of wine for a nice live auction basket, and each student had individually created a quilt block which volunteers sewed together creating a personal "class" quilt. These personalized, one of a kind quilts brought in excess of $1,000 a piece! The dinner was served buffet style and drinks were limited to two per person, choice of red or white wine and beer so the cost was minimal. They also offered babysitting so the parents could attend the dinner. It was a very nice evening.

My favorite fundraiser when i was a teacher was when the principal allowed us (the teachers/staff) to purchase a "jeans pass." For just $10 I could wear jeans and a nice shirt or school shirt for the whole week. <<Whew!>> No dress pants, no skirts, no fancy matching or uncomfortable outfit. Jeans and a button - up top <<ahh, comfortable>>. The prinicipal offered it 2 or 3, maybe 4 times a year. I paid the $10 every time.

Now lets say your teachers don't want to do this or they're stripped for cash already - perhaps your husband's work would allow their staff to pay $10 for the week, then post a sign somewhere in the office saying that donations from the jeans week will go to benefit X-school .... so that customers coming in don't feel like the office is super-laid-back. Or ask a nearby business if they'd allow a jean's pass in their work - donations going to the school.

we have a few. some suck, and some are great. i will mention most, while telling you which ones i Participate:
1. chocolate sale (50 bars for 50 bucks, mandatory for all families, and it's at the beginning of the year).
2. wrapping paper sale (don't participate because i cannot justify the expense)
3. yankee candle sale (this one did great because a lot of people bought for christmas gifts)
4. moms night out (invite local vendors, charge 20 bucks per table). this one was a major let down because the vendors who got invited were expensive to begin with so there were no deals for parents.
5. christmas boutique sale (it's eh but most kids participate because they like to go to the gym and buy knick knacks. i give 20 dollars per kid for them to buy christmas gifts)
6. magazine sale (it does well)
7. father-daughter dance for valentine's (it does well. charge 20 per family. do it at the gym. provide refreshments and snacks/mostly donated so all the monies gets pocketed
8. chocolate sale (not mandatory)
9. plant sale for mother's day (it does great)
10. scrip sale (does great especially during christmas time. and it's offered throughout the year. the gifts cards are for anything/gas, grocery etc so you could just buy anything and the school gets a percentage)
11. fashion show (first time this year. don't know how it will do. being held at a restaurant, charging 50 per dinner, kids are less. i plan on going
12. garage sale (not sure how it will do)
13. carnival in june. being held at a local park. families will bring grilles and there will be tons of games, food, drinks for participants. not sure how much per person.

Check out the Panera Bread fundraiser, Dough for Funds. You can visit their website at www.panerakansas.com for all the information. It's a great fundraiser!

When I was a teacher one of the fundraisers the student council did periodically throughout the year (once or twice per quarter) they would sell Krispy Kreme donuts -1 donut for 50 cents or 2 for $1. It was such a hit with kids and teachers because it was cheap and yummy and everyone bought them, so a good amount of money was made.

The coupon books seemed to do pretty well as well as the tubs of cookie dough. (Red Wheel I think is the brand I have purchased before.)
HTH,

A.

I just thought I would mention two fundraisers that Boy Scout troops near us do:
1) Christmas tree sale
2) mulch sale
not so sure if they are easy to plan.

Our main support at our private school is a jog a thon. They do it once a year, send out mailers to support the kids to jog 30 min on a given day .
If you want major details, PM me.

Father / Daughter dance would be fun with a ice cream social ?

Car wash ?

We also do BBQ as an extra once or twice a month and all funds help a specific grade.

Well, for Choir we were going to DC for nationals and we hosted a Singathon! We got Pledges - like walking, so one person might pledge 5cents/song but another 1/song 1.05 x 20 songs = 30 bucks get LOTS of pledges, and we hosted it in our theater - for every song we sang - group, solo, duet etc we earned money. We had the Theater set up with the choirs performing all their music like a concert, plus in the choir room- drama room and band room (all connected around the theater were "Kareoke Rooms" run by parents/staff and the songs we sang in those rooms counted as well as the main stage AND parents/friends etc that attended could pay to sing as well. I think it was a dollar a song but you could by 8 for 5 or 15 for 10 or something like that - we had local kareoke KJ's donate time/equipment to do it and everyone had a blast - we raised TONS! I know I got a flat 500 donation from a parent and I raised an additional 300 from singing that night alone (just from pledges) and then from the non pledge money we earned 3000 (enough for two full rides to DC) for the night. It was fun and faculty came along with tons of family and friends and student body.

Honestly I've always found that the easiest and best-selling fundraisers are the cookie dough. When my daughter sold cookie dough in preschool one year, we sold tons of it. Her elementary school never does it, I wish they would.

When I was in high school, the culinary arts department baked and sold fresh, hot cookies in the morning. They would sell them right out of the oven. They were an Otis Spunkmeyer fundraiser. You can order the dough and the oven straight from Otis Spunkmeyer. They sold them for $1 for three hot, gooey cookies. They sold like hotcakes!!! Teachers, students, parents, bought them all the time. The culinary arts department at school made a killing off of those cookies.

Our schools do a skating fundraiser. The local skating rink gives a discount and only charges half their normal fee and they make up the rest from concessions and skate rental fees...They must have 100 skaters, but usually that's pretty darn easy to do. They normally have over 200 skaters there and make a nice chunk with little work!

Best of luck!

Hi K., Where in SH are you? I grew up off of 223rd!

I think we may have done this fund raiser for my daughter's softball team, but you 'sell' insurance for no more fundraisers for a certain period of time. I can't remember exactly now how we did it, but say for $25 (has to be a little bit more, because you're not coming back to ask for more money) you would not ask that aunt, business owner, grandma etc. to buy or participate in any fundraiser for 6 months, or whatever.

We also talked about, but didn't do it, at book sale. Sounds no fun, but everyone has books they don't or won't read anymore but hate to just get rid of them. Collect them to a central location and have a little sale.

I know some restaurants will donate a % of all sales on a certain day back to the school or organization.

Personally, if I'm the one buying, I would rather buy the cookie dough that someone mentioned than wrapping paper or candles. I LOVE the greenery the boy scouts sell in the winter! I'm not a big coupon user, but I know those coupon books are generally popular.

Good Luck.

I work closely with the cheer booster club and PTA with our senior high.

We hate all the selling, blah blah..

#1 check writing campaign (brings in $ because people don't have to do anything but write a check)

silent auction -- can bring in good money if you have great sellers posted

carnival

we made over $3000 last year by test driving a Ford car. Ford set up in the school parking lot, designated a route, and money was donated from Ford for the number of people who participated. Easy peasy money

our cheerleaders brought in $6000 be selling game day t-shirts. We nailed down 5 rival football games, made up a slogan for each one, sold the shirts in packs of 5 for $25. Then on the specific game day, everyone wore the shirt to school and the game. Great fundraiser.

cheerleaders brought in over $3000 for throwing a tailgate party at a rival football game. EVERYTHING was donated by Carrabbas, Market Street, Corner Bakery, and we spent less than $50 on condiments, etc. We sold tickets for $7 in advance and $10 at the door.

PTA/cheer sells advertising for the activity program that is sold at a loss at each game. We sell the programs for $5 but it cost about $10 to produce each one. You go in knowing that will be a loss... the $$ is in the ad sales. Our cheer group walked out with $28,000 which is 50% of our sales. The other 50% goes toward PTA, and athletic boosters.

Cheer coaches do cookie dough, UGH but we have a buy out program. If you choose not to sell, then you write a check for the amount you are expected to sell. That was $140 per cheerleader (23 girls)

our elemtary school did a walk a thon.

I wish success to your group!!

book fair, garage sale, festivals, car washes,