I sort of joined a parents group who is looking for new fundraisers that don't involve gambling or drawings (it's a school at a Methodist Church and these things are not allowed). We don't have a whole lot of people to volunteer, but the ones that do don't mind working hard.

The other question I had was how does your school distribute fundraiser items, like whatever you purchased, how do you get it home? The kids are too little to have to carry things home and it seems like a pain to have everyone come pick stuff up at school, any other ideas for that?


Any ideas would be great! Thanks!

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"A true friend is someone who thinks that you are a good egg even though he knows that you are slightly cracked." ~ Bernard Meltzer

We sell Entertainment/Gold C books (I think the school gets half the price they sell it for plus if you have family and friends from out of state/town they can order too), have book fairs and do monthly scholastic book orders, we have sold cookie dough, had carnivals, garage sales, sold pocket calendars ( we did this in preschool), we have sold from catologs (like wrapping paper etc), area restaurants have a night where 10 percent or their sales go back to the school. Area supermarkets have where you have a code entered on your coutesy card and every purchase you make a certain percentage goes back to the school. We do pizza sales. Holiday pictures. My kids sports programs usually sell chocolate bars. I am sure there is alot I have not mentioned.... We do ALOT of fundraisers in public school.
If the children have sold alot usually the parents come and pick them up from school that day. All items the children picked up at school. The children are responsible for distributing the items they sold.

The type I am more likely to BUY from the school kids are the ones that give discounts to the local eateries. We bought a $10 sheet of coupons for Papa Johns pizza, and another time a card that gave discounts at several stores locally.

What I dislike the most is candy! There is usually way too much candy around!

We sell gift cards and make about 2%to 15%. We had a silent auction made a ton. I have found that with fundraising you will get more involvement with the parents if you keep it down. Meaning don't do a ton of different fundraisers try to do BIG. If you are unable to do big another option is ebay. Do a big garage sale on ebay have everyone bring something in and sell it all at once and make it an annual event. We sell cookie dough which makes about 50%. Spaghetti dinner does pretty well. During the holidays we of course do a bake sale which does OK. Let's see what else We have a school carnival. I guess this sounds like a lot but these are not all done in one year. We try to do one big event and then do 1 or 2 little ones.
Hope this helps.

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I'd rather be hated for who I am, than loved for who I am not.

Life! is a coin. You can spend it anyway you wish, but you can only spend it once.

my faves to purchase are the discount cards which are about $10-$15 and give you discounts at like 30 places locally. My fave restaurant is on it and I save 20% everytime I go I also like cookbooks that have recipes from other parents at school. I STILL have one from when I was in elementary school (and I have 2 kids in elementary school now) that I use often

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Proud to say I haven't shopped at a Wal-Mart since Sept 2003

My son's preschool did a family photo fundraiser. A local photographer who was trying to get her name out there volunteered her services. Each family(whether with the school or not) was charged a $30 sitting fee(no matter how many people were in your group), the entire fee went to the preschool and then 10% of whatever people ordered went back to the school too. We hadn't had a family picture done in yrs(always had the kids done, but none with dh and myself), so it was a great way to get it done and help out the school

We also do bake sales and we are planning on a marrianette show in the spring. This done by a professional troupe and will be at the highschool auditorium and open to the public.

Another idea is a soda can collection. THis would have to be done by the parents but it can be quite successful. You can go door to door(we recycle around here, so every always has a bag of cans in their garage) or ask the public to bring the cans to you.

We do Morley's candy (overpriced stuff in it), book fairs, this Jan. a pizza one too. They also do frozen cookie dough sales and Market day.

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I've never lied to you. I've always told you some version the of truth.

We sell cookie dough as our big fund-raiser

another small fund-raiser that we do is a "sock hop" dance for the families. We don't charge an entry fee but do sell concessions. We try to get a dj donated and all other items so it does bring in some money...and it envolves the whole family

We run a magazine drive at our middle school (6,7,8) and have had WONDERFUL results. This year we earned a little over $13,000.00! It's the only fundraiser we do and it's always a success.

WOW! We could take the rest of the year off!


I have never heard of the frozen cookie dough fundraiser, can someone tell me about it?

This is what we already do:

garage sale
sub sale on Superbowl Sunday
Burger King family night 10% of the sales
pictures with Clifford (at a school event)
breakfast with the Easter Bunny


That's pretty much it for now. I am trying to get a Home Interiors findraiser for next year, that looks easy and profitable.

Keep the ideas coming, you all have so much more experience! Thanks for sharing!

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"A true friend is someone who thinks that you are a good egg even though he knows that you are slightly cracked." ~ Bernard Meltzer

My DIL is a Home Interiors rep and she does candle fundraisers for two schools in her neighborhood. It's an easy one to do because many people use candles and will give candles as gifts and Home Interiors is a reputable name. I'm not sure of the profit breakdown, but she said it was profitable for the school as well as herself.

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Thanks. ~Susan

Please email me at.... snschapin@yahoo.com

Do not value the things you have in your life,
but value who you have in your life!

Art Auction is always big. Last year my kids preschool made about $20K. Each class made something to bid on and we also had alot donated. The donations take mega work, you have to go stores and beg. Found out that mostly small stores you do the best in, not big chain stores. The teacher even had things to bid on, like lunch with Miss Kathy, ice cream date with Miss Diane...etc., and these dates went for $25 to $100!

I just threw away the cookie sale stuff. Some frozen dough is better than others, the tubs run about $12 each. I just cann't remember the company name. If you really want to know more about it I can call fundraiser person.

Don't do Sally Foster, I learned to hate that stuff!!

I have a tub of the frozen cookie dough in my freezer that I just bought for $12.00 from my granddaughter's school fundraiser...... RED WHEEL FUNDRAISING, 1-800-235-7593, or redwheelfundraising.com

Haven't tried it yet.....anyone know if it's any good???

__________________
Thanks. ~Susan

Please email me at.... snschapin@yahoo.com

Do not value the things you have in your life,
but value who you have in your life!

Our school does the Entertainment Books...they pass the kits out the third day of school! I've never cared much for them because of the price ($25.00) and the fact that there is no flexibility...nothing cheaper to choose from if someone wants to get something to be kind. I feel badly asking someone to buy something that costs so much. We usually buy one ourselves and their Grandpa likes to have one, but that is about it for us!

This year for the first time they did Sally Foster at the same time as the entertainment books. That was better. It offered a variety of items at a good range of prices.

They do pizzas. You gather orders, volunteers gather to make them and then you pick them up to deliver to your customer the Saturday before Super Bowl Sunday. This is a good one. The price is reasonable and because they make them themselves the return is good. Lots of people are buying pizza for Super Bowl Sunday anyway so it is a win-win situation.

A Spring picture day...which is in addition to a FALL picture day!

I think that is it.

Edited to add...They didn't do it last year, but a few years ago they did a neat one. I think it was called Square One Art. The kids made pictures in art class. They were then submitted to the company. The company placed the art on a magnet so you could see what it would look like. You got to keep the magnet for free and there was all sorts of stuff in the catalog you could order with your child's art work on it...mugs, notecards, shirts, etc. I really liked this one. I am not sure why they didn't continue it.

Flipper sent you a pm. If you need help let me know

__________________
cmemaloy@yahoo.com


I'd rather be hated for who I am, than loved for who I am not.

Life! is a coin. You can spend it anyway you wish, but you can only spend it once.

I don't have kids but my nephews schools sells
discount cards for 10.00 and the school gets 8.75 of the
great profit
really good discounts
and they are good for 1 full year
my favorite discount from it is
spend 2.00 or more at Taco bell and get a free small pop
I used that one alot
Suzanne

My middle schooler has a place on the enrollment form where they ask for a dollar amount each year and you pay it with your registration instead of one fundraiser. Love it! The other is magazine sales.

My elementary daughter sells entertainmet books like the 2nd day of school, then later they do Sally Foster (candy, wrapping paper, bows, candles, stuff like that). They work it out so that the products are in and they send them home with the parents at conferences. The kids don't mess with bringing them home. We also do a basket auction where each class makes a themed basket. Each parent can either bring in something along with the theme or send in $5. They are auctioned off at a pancake dinner. They also do a Holiday Mart on a Saturday in November where all the local business people can choose to rent a spot in the gym for a day and sell their products. Last year they were looking for something new and tried a plant/wrought iron sale and it didn't go over very well. Sally Foster is by far the biggest for us - they made $22,000 this year.

Lisa

__________________
"It's not having what you want,
It's wanting what you've got"

Our school does Sally Foster and a magazine drive. The magazine sells Christian books as well as all major magazines. (It is not Readers Digest)

__________________
John 14:1
GO GATORS!!
GO BEARS!!
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Our school just did a cookie dough fundraiser which was awesome! The cookies are SO good. I already have people telling me that they want to buy again. Between my 2 boys we sold 43. The only pain was having to go pick it up. Wouldn't have been so bad but it was raining. How the school did it was seperate each kind into different areas. You picked up your order sheet from the desk manned with 2 volunteers and then went and filled your orders. I thought it would have been filled ahead of time, but I guess that would have taken them days. What was nice was that they had the older grades 6th - 8th helping us carry it out to our cars. It was the best fundraiser our school has ever had. I expect both boys to sell way more next year since people loved it so much.

Kelly

When my kids were in elementary school, our biggest fundraiser of the year was the spring carnival! The first few years it was small, we decorated the gym, had a "mystery egg" tree (everyone wins a prize), a cake walk (donated cupcakes), cherry tree (pick a cherry, win a prize), throw a football thru the tire, and a raffle (tickets 2 for a dollar). We also did concessions (pop and popcorn). Most prizes were donated by local stores, movie rentals, coupons, pizzas, some candy etc.

Well, 15 years later, it is one of the best in town, featuring a Haunted House (every year something different is haunted....a jungle, a wedding, a science lab...but not over the top gory for the little ones), face painting, cosmic plinko, jewelry engraving, tons of raffle prizes like bikes, books and radios! Tickets are .50 to get in, most games are 1 to 2 tickets. We usually raise over $6000! I guess you could eliminate the raffle or drawing, but usually there are so many prizes every family wins something!

All the parents volunteer then usually the hubbys take the kids home and the mommies go for a cocktail!!

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"It's not about how much baggage you have, it's about whether or not you can carry your own baggage with grace and dignity."

Market Day, Sam's Choice

EVERY retail store in our area has some sort of fund raiser. A lot of them require some sort of online signup and then parents can sign up and when their grocery card is scanned, a portion of the sale goes back to the school. Unfortunately, many of them have minimum $$$ amounts so if school is very small, that could potentially be a waste of time...

Our elementary and middle (6th,7th,8th grade) school does the Reader's Digest fundraiser which includes magazines, chocolates, gift wrap, and other stuff.

My older son's middle school holds dances and sporting events... the money maker is the admission charges as well as the concession stands (ie. pizza, hot dogs, soda, etc).

The elementary school sells 'SMENCILS' at noon every day. They sell them for $1! and make incredible profit from what I understand. These are smelly pencils and I don't know where they get them. Maybe a search on www.froogle.com? They used to sell candy (and made BIG bucks) but there is new federal legislation banning sugar from the schools. Each school interprets differently though.

Arizona has a tax credit in which *any* taxpayer can give up to $400 to any accredited school of their choice and receive a 100% credit on there tax return. That gives the schools a lot of money... Grandparents, aunts/uncles (without children!) can give too.

Lots of great ideas on here (I like the art auction idea a lot!) but I know it is hard when the school is small. It does sound like you already have some good things in place. Best of luck with this project!

They start with Innisbrook (gift wrap etc.) the school gets 50% i believe
They do bake sales, pizza days for the kids, KidsStuff books and usually they will throw in another one or two during the year to see what will work for us.

When the wrap gets delivered it is all set up in the Gym and parents are notified that they need to pick it up after school.

HTH

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beth

I just got an emails from See;s Candies about their fundraising program and thought of you.



Did you know that See's Candies offers a variety of Fund Raising programs that can help your organization earn up to 50% profit from the sales of See's chocolate?

For over 50 years, See's has facilitated the fund raising programs of countless educational, charity and sports groups through the sale of our popular candies. No group is too small to take advantage of:

Easy-to-sell price points starting at just $1.00
50% profit on many products
Instant funds! No waiting for your money
And much more!
http://fr.sees.com/frhome.cfm
For more information.

__________________
John 14:1
GO GATORS!!
GO BEARS!!
Check out my pictures!! Just click below:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/gotjenks/

One year we had a "cookies by the pound" fundraiser..we got local bakeries, and tons of parents to donate cookies, fudge, candies etc..and what we did was set up cookies in stations..you got a box that could hold 3lbs of cookies (we weighed the boxes out pre-cookie deposit in front of the customers so they could see that the boxes only weighed in at about 1/8 of an oz. Then we gave them a plastic glove and small plastic tongs and let them go around to pick out the cookies/candies they wanted..once they got what they wanted in their boxes they would have to go through a checkout point where the boxes were weighed and they paid for their purchase..the boxes weren't weighed by what type of cookie-just by the lb..most people left with an average of 3lbs of cookies. PS...we had cookie police located in the lines to make sure people weren't snacking! lol ..we made ALOT of money thanks to the good donations we got from everyone that were the reason we hauled in the moolah.

I don't have kids or do any work with fundraisers but I'd like to pitch in my 2 cents on the type of fundraiser I'd LOVE to see and would support whole heartedly.

RENT-A-KID

I'd pay a nice hourly wage to have a group of kids come to my home and do outside work such as raking leaves or shoveling snow. Nothing involving power tools or the like, just cleaning up type work that I HATE to do. Plus, I really like the idea of kids putting in some effort to get teh things they want.

Just my 2 cents!

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Jesus SAVES by shopping smartly and using double coupons!

My favorite is Fannie May candy because it sells for almost the same price as in the store and they give the school a very good percentage of the sales, plus a free box of candy for every 10th box sold. I think our school earned several thousand dollars last time. They did it just before Mother's Day and have just done it again for Christmas.