My Kids attend a private Christian (elementary) School, and we do NOT send make them door to door selling candy bars or magazines etc. We choose to do big group size fundraisers like...
-all school spaghetti dinner (food is donated by companies) and guest leave donations
-Pizza Hut Night (20% of proceeds come back to the school)
-Auction
-Carnival
I was just wondering what other schools do (besides making the kids sell stuff)
we thought about a car wash but not sure how elementary kids would do with that.
Any one want to share?? TIA!
Amy

I loved the 'script' fund raisers - our band does it.

you buy gift cards to everything from groceries to clothing stores to Blockbuster. the band makes a percentage off each one sold.

I've always loved this fundraiser- you can pick what gift cards you want and actually get something you'll use.

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Bevogal

elementary school does:
pizza night at Papa Murphy's
Baskin Robbin's night
Sally Foster crap....it's high priced and crappy. The only one I don't participate in
Carnival: you buy tickets and play games, etc...kids LOVE it!

the high schools do the discount cards for $15 each and they get a portion of it. I have 2 or 3 of these and LOVE them. I saved $15 the first time I used one

Preschoool did a cookbook and I liked it a lot. It gives you TNT recipes from other parents. PRoblem is, not a lot of the parents participated so it was like 20 recipes from the same mom and you hope she's a good cook LOL

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

Our school does an auction/carnival once a year...this is their biggest fundraiser too.
This year, they've had so many fundraisers that it's irritating. I can't even count how many they've had. Ridiculous and got to the point where I refused to participate anymore.
They had Dairy Queen WEEK....yes, a whole week. They did a car wash and donut sale at the beginning of the year. They sold Smart Cards(card that offers discounts to businesses in this area).
I know I'm forgetting things but like I said there were so many fundraisers that I had to quit counting!

We do an Art Sale, whatever artist they are studying that year, they copy the style and the parents are invited to the art sale!! Its one of the favorites b/c the kids work is displayed and they look great!
Christmas silent auction that the community businesses have donated (hotel rooms, gift cards, spa, etc)
We sell Krispy Kreme cards to family and work associates
And Cookie Dough
We also sold Entertainment books
Book Fair : Library
Walkathon : physical education

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Vicki


TLJ Women united in Spirit!

We keep to the 3to1 rule but I think we do more events that break even for the kids

Silent Auction-this is our biggest event at the beginning of the school year.
Gift Wrap-Most parents do a buyout rather than have the kids sell
Book Fair
Jogathon- again most do a buyout and we have 3 corporate sponsers that helped out
In N Out Burger Night
Escrip
BoxTops
Tiles for Technology-kids design their own tiles that go up on a wall
School Spirit items

Our school tries to keep fundraisers to a minimum, & no selling. (I kind of wish they sold something so we could break even for all my nieces and nephews.)

*Dream Dinners 1 mo (portion from any visit that mo. went to the school)
*4 or 5 restaurants and fast food places throughout the yr. where school gets a portion
*Barnes & Nobles day
*Book Fair
*Request for donations at beginning of yr.
*Spring fundraiser with dinner & silent auction (this one brings the most $$)
*Box Tops
*Monthly can/plastic bottle drive

Our does the typical door to door and we always opt out. Instead, I write a personal check for to my child's teacher to spend however he/she sees fit. So far, the teacher's response has been great and they always tell me what they've purchased with the money.

I've often wondered if more parents would be willing to do this rather than add yet another activity to ever increasing busy schedules.

Our school has restaurant nights -- on a specific night, if you eat at a certain restaurant location, they will donate a % of the profit to the school. Our school does this at Chick-fil-A and Beef-O-Brady's -- both fairly inexpensive and kid friendly.

They also did an art show this year where they made pictures in art and then sent them to a company who framed them. They had all the framed art displayed in the gym and you could buy the framed art for around $30 -- sounds like a lot, but it was a nice quality frame and double matted. At Michaels they want $15 just to cut a small custom mat!!! If you didn't want to buy it, the art work was sent home with the child a few weeks later. The school got a % of the sale.

For Relay for Life, they have what is called 'Bloomin Bids'. Parents bid on events for their child like, 'Pizza with the principal', 'afterschool activity with the teacher', 'make pottery with the art teacher', etc. Each teacher comes up with something and parents bid on it. It has become a very popular fundraiser (for Relay for Life) at our school.

Next week is the Spring Fling -- it's like a carnival/fair with vendor tables, food, moon walk, each class donates a raffle basket.