Fundraising Ideas

[2thfairy]

My son's gymnastics team is having a meeting in a few days to discuss some ideas for raising money for our boys to compete this year. We are all supposed to bring ideas to the meeting. I have been looking online but it is so hard to know if these are good ideas or just scams.
Are there any fundraisers that you have done that have been successful. It can be for a group or individual sales.
Thanks so much!!!
Melinda

 

[daisy2jae]

a few ideas we've done:

Post Prom Group -
rummage and bake sale (get donations from parents and the community) We get everything donated even the place for the sale, advertising, etc... we usually make $1200-$1500.

Elementary School -
raffle (got donations and the kids sold the tickets - every 100 tickets sold the kids got their name in a drawing to throw a pie in the face of a teacher that helped)

santa's workshop - ordered crafts from oriental trading company out of Omaha, NE used the gym for 2 hrs. Parents brought kids and paid at the door for tickets. They made the crafts and some wrapped them as a gift for a family member.

Cookie Dough - there is a school in town that uses a cookie dough company and they sell it usually in the fall.

You're in Iowa? Check to see if you have a local Modern Woodmen of America Youth Service Club or an Agent. They have matching funds. They may be able to match your fundraiser. My MWA clubs can match up to $500 but it requires being approved before hand by the home office. Just a thought but $500 can go a long ways!

 

[TLuvsD]

You might want to look into this:
http://www.flowerpowerfundraising.com/how-it-works/online-program
It's a garden/plant catalog. Your group gets 50%, but doesn't have to distribute anything, etc Not a ton of work, but reasonable profit.

 

[erincon23]

Do you have a Krispy Kreme near you? They have a terrific fundraiser -- your group gets 50% of the sales, which is amazing. You can go on their website, krispykreme.com, to get the info. We did this with our band and choir, and raised a couple hundred dollars (and got some free donuts in the process!).

 

[peigirl]

Avon also has fundraiser products.

 

[sydney dog]

If you have a boston matket, friendly's, perkins, or chili's near you they do a fundraising night where your group gets a % of what they make that day. Check with any chain resaturants near you. I went on line to find out.

I am with an animal rescue and we do chinese auctions.

We also do psychic nights:

people pay to get a psychic reading and food-we do it at a coffe shop and we get a % of what is made, we also auction off some gifts here, might be a good idea with Halloween coming up

 

[Promomx2]

Also yankee candle has fundraising, pizza hut also.

 

[Bren's Mom]

Tastefully Simple!

My friend is a TS consultant. When I was looking for fund raising ideas I saw online that some TS consultants have done the locally so I called her. The group ended up deciding to go with that idea and we made a LOT of money! And so did my friend, as well as get additional new customers. Win-win all around. So you might see if any of the moms or their friends is a TS consultant.

(ETA: The nice part about it was there were no inflated prices. What you see on the TS site or the order form is what was paid. The money to the school came from the consultant's profit.)

 

[wdwmom0f3]

For our cheerleaders, we sold cookie dough, and we each sold raffle tickets for a gift card to Walmart which brought in a LOT, who couldn't use this with Christmas coming up? We are selling neat little blankets for football season right now. They are weather resistant on one side & flannel on the other & fold up to a carrying case.

 

[jenlynn0808]

We did this one last year for my daughter's fastpitch team. Super easy (no door-to-door/soliciting in front of a store either) and a 75% profit for the organization.

ESPN Magazine offers an online fundraiser, so email/facebook posts worked for us. The subscriber pays $40 for a 2-year subscription to the magazine, the organization recieves $30 back from the order (so $10 for the subscription and $30 to the team).

Personally, this worked great for us because all of our family is on the east coast & we're on the west. My Aunt ordered 3 scrips (one for each cousin, they attend different colleges) as X-mas gifts. So right there DD made $90 for the team.

Here's the online link if you are interested... http://proxy.espn.go.com/coaches/index

Figured it would be okay to post the direct link since, ESPN is owned by Disney.

 

[kaytieeldr]

The old simple stuff - car wash, raking yards, errands...

Spaghetti dinner.

Frankly, anything where they're DOING something to raise funds, I'll donate.

 

[wgwtgb]

We did a football pool for our college and our beloved SAINTS!!!

 

[MandM-Mom]

Zap-A-Snack was successful for us in the past...its french bread pizzas and cookie dough

Craft shows where vendors pay to rent table space and your group sells refreshments and such, great during the late fall to get ready for Christmas!

 

[maddiesmom0116]

a few ideas we've done:

Cookie Dough - there is a school in town that uses a cookie dough company and they sell it usually in the fall.

We make great money on our cookie dough sales, we use market day.

 

[MickeyManiac]

We did a banquet for my sons high school baseball program.

The boys sold tickets for $15 and it was held in the school cafeteria. We asked each family to donate a basket for a silent auction or a larger item for a live auction with a volunteer auctioneer. Managed to get most of the food donated (everything but the meat for BBQ pork sandwiches, chips, beans, potato salad, bottled water, cheesecake and cupcakes) We made $14,000 dollars (profit) that night! We were beyond thrilled. We had been hoping to make $5,000. We had nearly 400 people show up. Those boys did a great job selling tickets. It was such a fun night.

Good luck. Fundraising is never easy or fun but so necessary.

 

[Schachteles]

Almost all of the direct sale companies do fundraisers. I sell Pampered Chef and there are specific items that you can sell for the fundraiser or you can have a catalog show and a portion of the consultants commission would go back to your organization. I have done it for my DDs for dance and it worked out well, I always give up my entire 20% and give it back to them.

 

[DipsyDoodles]

My son's gymnastics team is having a meeting in a few days to discuss some ideas for raising money for our boys to compete this year. We are all supposed to bring ideas to the meeting. I have been looking online but it is so hard to know if these are good ideas or just scams.
Are there any fundraisers that you have done that have been successful. It can be for a group or individual sales.
Thanks so much!!!
Melinda

www.Innisbrook.com - wrapping paper, gift bags, etc. - it's a big fundraiser for our school every year we make over $5K on this one.

 

[drgreene1096]

I put on a lot of fundraisers for various groups. I sell Gold Canyon candles and they have a great program. It is a scratch and sniff program so you can smell what you are buying. They are awesome candles. If you'd like some info, I can e-mail it to you. Just send me a private message.

 

[momplus3]

A pee wee football team in my area had a Meat Raffle! They worked with a local butcher shop and had approx. 10 prizes - 10 different quantities of meat. Each prize had either a turkey or a ham with it, with the top prize being 20 pounds of NY strip steak.

I heard that they made over $1500! I did not buya ticket but when my DS's team played this team, the prizes were announced and many of our team parents wished thaey had bought tickets!

 

[SarahD]

Gold cards (or green cards). Our boosters use it - so does our youth football program. You get area businesses to participate (ex. McDonald's might offer a free apple pie with purchase of an extra value meal). The all the offers are printed on the cards and sent to you. You sell the cards for $10 each. Profit potential is huge. Here's a link to one company...http://www.fasttrackfundraising.com/discount-card-fundraiser.php