Any great fundraising ideas out there?

[pjlla]

My Mom and I have an American Cancer Society "Relay for Life" team. If you aren't familiar with that, the Relay is an event held nationwide on different dates (usually in June). Each team at a particular event is responsible for having walkers who walk one hour laps for approximately 21 hours (i.e. I walk for an hour, than another team member, etc). You get people to sponsor you when you walk. Also, it is sort of like a carnival/fair where each team has a booth where they have raffles, games, food, to raise more money. YOu can also hold fundraisers throughout the year to raise money for your team.

ANYHOW... I am looking for some fresh fundraising ideas for our team. Our team's theme is "Apple Hill Gang". We have a local bakery who donates apple pies that we sell pieces of during the event. This year we are also planning on making/selling carmel apples and candied apples. And we make up about 10-14 apple themed gift baskets that we raffle off. Understand, except for the pies, the capital for everything we make/sell comes out of our pockets. I have just purchased 300 glowsticks to sell during the evening/nighttime portion of the Relay.

Anyone have any other fundraising ideas that they have been successful with in the past? Keep in mind, there are about 200+ other teams at our event, each with their own fundraisers.

Thanks for any suggestions............................P

 

[GoofItUp]

This is a simple one, but we use to do really well at our hometown festival raising money for 4-H with it. We made fresh-squeezed lemonade, lime-ade, or lemon/lime-ade. Just set up a large Igloo cooler (with spigot) of sugar water. As people order, you squeeze the lemon, lime, or both in the cup, add sugar water and ice, and stir. We sold them for $1/cup or $1.50 for the lemon/lime as I remember. If you're walk is in hot weather, these will go over great! Or, since you have an apple theme, you might want to do apple cider. I personally prefer lemonade, though!

Good luck with your fundraiser. This is a great cause!

 

[hockeymom7691]

We have tons of fundraisers throughout the year and some that work very well are:

theme baskets - these are great and we've done so many! We even bought a outdoor grill, picnic supplies, meat gift certificates, etc.
jeans day - we do this at work & pay $1.00 to wear jeans.
card party
Krispy Kremes
sub/sandwich sales.

Good Luck & have fun!

 

[pjlla]

Bumping to see if I can get a few more suggestions.
Thanks to those who have contributed ideas!................P

 

[my3kids]

Okay, here's what you can do. Have someone build an outhouse or something like it. Paint it the Relay for Life Colors. In the dead of the night, put it in someone's front yard (the more visible, the better) who you know will support the cause. Leave a note that to have it removed, they'll need to donate to the Relay for Life team, then THEY get to specify someone's house to leave it at. Same thing, note now says XXXXX brings this to you and to have it removed, donate. And so on, and so on. Get your paper to write a story on it or your local news to do a human interest piece on it.

 

[whirlsy]

Bottled water always wins at our fundraisers~ and for some reason people go for Dasani the best. We get ours donated from a coke distributer and sell it for 1.00 a bottle.

 

[kimber79]

Originally posted by my3kids
Okay, here's what you can do. Have someone build an outhouse or something like it. Paint it the Relay for Life Colors. In the dead of the night, put it in someone's front yard (the more visible, the better) who you know will support the cause. Leave a note that to have it removed, they'll need to donate to the Relay for Life team, then THEY get to specify someone's house to leave it at. Same thing, note now says XXXXX brings this to you and to have it removed, donate. And so on, and so on. Get your paper to write a story on it or your local news to do a human interest piece on it.

Awesome idea!!


How many people are on *your* team??

 

[pjlla]

Thanks for the ideas! On our team we have about about 15-20 people, including my two kids, but most are just people who walk during the Relay. There are about 6 really dedicated people (like my Mom and her friend who started the team) who work on it year round, including organizing the team, collecting the money, etc. Keep the ideas coming!.............Thanks............P

 

[mommytotwo]

I think this one would work really well-Hot Cocoa and Hot Coffee. Since you folks will be out during the night, I'm sure people would want things to keep them warm.
Good luck with this event, it's a great cause.

 

[pjlla]

I guess I left out a key factor..... we don't have access to electricity during the Relay. So that eliminates anything cooked. Plus the local Lion's club does a HUGE food booth (hotdogs, hamburgers, fries, soda, coffee)....................P

 

[tar heel]

Here's a variation on the outhouse on the lawn that doesn't take as much prep work. A teen group here "flocks" people's lawns with about 20 plastic pink flamingos. You donate to their organization to get them removed. I don't think you have to specify where they go next, but ideas are always appreciated.

 

[MarthaB]

I help plan fundraising events for my daughter's elementary school parents' club (like PTO). I read about a neat idea on the web and we're going to try it. You contact your local Burger King, McDonald's, Pizza Hut, or Wendy's restaurant and tell them you're interested in doing a family night (some call it cashola night). You pick a designated night, usually from 5-8 pm. You're responsible for printing coupons or flyers. You get 15% of the sales generated by people who bring in one of your flyers. We're trying it in May at our local BK and if all goes well, we're going to do it on a monthly basis for fundraising next school year.

 

[disneysnowflake]

My niece sold coupons for McDonalds. They cost $1 each. The buyer gets $1 worth of food. My niece's group got, I think, 25 cents per ticket. I can't remember.

They also sold coupons for Pizza Hut and Subway. That went really well.

They just got done with a Krispy Creme sale which was great, too. Too bad I can't eat doughnuts, but they smelled awesome.

 

[sk8belle]

I've done fundraising with the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society for three years. Some fundraising ideas I've had success with include:

car washes - esp. during the spring. People get pollen all over their car and have no problem paying someone to clean it off for them. Some gas stations will let you use part of their lot to do this.

Check with your local Ben & Jerry's. One of my teammates once got them to donate ice cream, cups, and plastic spoons. She made a good bit of money selling that at a local fair

Raffles - get a letter on your organization's letterhead and take it around to a local mall. Go store to store, telling them what you are raising money for, show them the letter as proof and ask them if they will donate merchandise. I've gotten stacks of CDs from Sam Goody and $50 gift certificates from restaurants this way. Local sports teams sometimes will donate tickets as well. Spools of raffle tickets can be bought at stationary stores. Staples or Office Depot might have them. You can sell them around the office, or talk to a bar/restaurant that might let you have a portion of the main area where you can set up shop and sell tickets. I even had one bar let me do a guest bartending night where we took a portion of the profits for the evening AND were able to sell tickets.

Smore's nights - Cosi/XandOs let me have a Smores' night one time. I did the advertising (put up signs at a gym, grocery store, office or apt. building), set up a raffle, and brought in a huge group of people in. Cosi/XandO in turn gave me a portion of the profits from all Smores' platter sales that night.

Garage sales. Get friends to donate clothes/items they want to get rid of.

I'm running out of ideas now, but those have been the biggest money makers for me. One last one - I've heard this as a rumor, so you might want to check it out and see if it's true. Apparently, if you hold a bake sale or raffle or other small-scale event like that in front of a Wal-Mart, they will supposedly match whatever funds you make that day. As I said, I've only heard this rumor, I've never tried to find out for myself. But if you need some more money, that might be something to chase down.

Good luck!!

sk8belle