Any one ever do fundraising for a private school building project?

[luvmarypoppins]

Our private school wants to build a gym. We heard a figure today of 1.3 million. It just blew me away. We have a pre school with 100 kids and then K-8 has about 115 kids. I havent seen the sept. figures yet. Anyone do anything like this on a big scale. We have small fund raisers now, but nothing that would amount to what they need for that. Gambling, bingo etc. is out of the picture. I did see how another local school got a famous speaker and had a dinner. Any ideas? Thanks.

 

[Pin Wizard]

Hmmmmmm...you definitely need "big" things! Any car dealership in the area that might be willing to donate for a raffle? I know our high school's car/SUV raffle goes for $100 a ticket.

At DS's former school in FL, there was a lady in the parish who passed away and had it in her will that the school would get $1 million IF the parish could raise the same amount of money! They did it!! Of course, this was the largest parish in the diocese and there were major bucks in this town.

Good luck! Hope fundraising goes well!!

 

[orvilleair]

1. I agree with Pin Wizard on the car raffle.

2. Too bad on the gambling. Heard a commercial on the radio, that a school athletic booster orgainization is organizing a Texas no hold em poker tournament, and poker is hot right now.

3. I can't think of anything else other than start a capital campaign with the students' parents. Maybe some parents are contractors and can donate services to lower the construction cost.

As for $1.2 million, building material prices have gone through the roof this year. Some lighting companies are raising their prices by 10% due to increase steel costs.

 

[Pam]

I know that you don't want to hear this but - 1.3 million is cheap for a gymnasium..... I know, I know....... Our HS wants a new gym and locker rooms and it's over 4-5 million. They've been trying to get it passed for over 1.5 years now - spend thousands of $$$$$ on feasibility studies and architecture drawings, etc.

I'm sorry but I don't have any ideas for you to fund raise.

 

[IMALOVNDISNEY]

Have you considered doing a public auction. All of our local Cath. school are doing this. Each yr. we are all increasing our profits.

Our process is very time consuming.....but, it's for the betterment of our children.

pm or email me for more information on this. I will help as much as I can.
Liz

 

[deirdrefitch]

When we were raising money for senior celebration two years ago, we did several things.

1. We did a fundraiser with Krispy Kreme Donuts. Kripy Kreme
gave us a really nice discount since it was school related.
Took pre-orders/pre-payments. We picked up donuts and de-
livered them to people's houses very early AM. This was a very
big hit in our community.

2. We did a Brisket/Chicken sale. Bought our meat from Sam's
Warehouse. Again, pre-sale/pre-pay. Sold by pound

3. Held a raffle with a local Travel Agency and sponsors for a free
trip with spending money.

4. Also did the raffle for a used car, which was donated by our
local dealership.

Was lots of work, and was very glad when it was over!

 

[bsnyder]

That seems reasonable to me, for a gym. My daughter's former school (private) raised about $3 million to buy new property and build a gym.

They financed it two ways: with a three year capital campaign where donors made pledges and paid them off over that time period and with a special "legacy" fee that was added to the tuition costs for a fixed amount of time (I think it was five years).

I think it would be difficult, if not impossible, to raise that kind of money only with "traditional" fundraisers like auctions, raffles and sales.

 

[my3kids]

Has the school been around long enough to have alumni out of college? If yes, then solicit them for gifts.

 

[The Mystery Machine]

A good way to raise those funds is a "Capital Campaign". You pledge your donation and pay over a period of time. Once the right $$$ is reached then the our diocese would loan us the rest of the cash in good faith that we would pay it back by such and such date.
If you do not want to get a loan just keep chuggin along until the $$$ is reached. Takes a couple of years. With a parish church/school it is easier because that is our community. If it is just a school then it might be a tad harder to get people to donate I would think.
With our church as we were nearing the end we actually had individual things listed and people paid for them, like windows and special things. They got name recognition for their donations. This is how you could get big alumni donations, possibly?
We also did an inscribed brick courtyard.

Very hard work, but doable. Good Luck!

 

[Betsyt82]

All I can add is Tupperware is great they give 50% of the total in cash to the organization that is doing the fund raiser. So if you all sell 5,000.00 that means the profit to the organization is 2,500.00, And plus Tupperware sells.

 

[Rollwithit]

Our school is trying to raise money for a new high school building and athletic field. I don't know if the school has contacted these people or if they've just volunteered (either way, it's a very generous thing to do), but I know they've gotten a couple of parents who happen to be builders build homes at their cost and then donate the money they make selling the home back to the school for the new building.

That's a huge chunk of change in one fell swoop! Good luck to you.

 

[Toby'sFriend]

Is it a Non Profit school? You might want to look into Grant Writing with some foundations. Depending on where you live there might be some local resources that will help you with the details of your campaign and give you some ideas. You might want to ask around with some of the local Non Profit agencies to see what they know.

These things usually have to be done over a period of 3 to 5 years. You also have to be really careful that you aren't stealing traditional fundraising that usually goes toward the operating budget for the Capital Campaign. Remember, most parents only have a certain amount of money to give every year.

You will want some kind of sell a brick or a brass plate on a Plaque kind of thing where people can honor or memorialize loved ones. You can usually sell those for the $100,$500, or $1,000 ranges depending on the specifics of your area. It is usually good to set up levels of giving with different forms of recognition -- Gold, Silver, Bronze, and Platinum or whatever.

A plated dinner with a speaker to talk about the importance of education etc is also very good. It is getting late to organize, but Election years are really good for attracting local politicians to these.

 

[lovemygoofy]

I don't know if this can be done because it's a school project, but as a fundraising project I worked with, we worked football games, hockey games, and major concerts at a big venue near us. We'd usually raise a couple of thousand for the night depending on the number of people we brought with us. Contact the manager of a major venue close to you and tell them you have a group of people that would like to work as fundraisers for their venue. We did everything from walk up and down the aisle with foods/drinks, selling concert items, and worked concession stands.

Good Luck,
Tina

 

[canwegosoon]

Don't know where you are, but at our Church/School.
1) The Church "loaned" the school some money 500,000. And it was paid back $100,000 a year from the school.
2) Capital Campaign from Mystery Machine is good.
3) Golf Fund raiser. ($30,000 annually)
4) Night Out ( Auction with donated items). We contribute a week at our summer house, and the school earns 500-700 dollars. Several others do similar things. Can be as small as a party basket, gift Cert to businesses etc. (10,000 annually).
5) Then there is the normal fund raising for school programs too.
6) My old HS does a large 50/50 I think for $1,000 a ticket, as well as a seperate 50/50 for a $100 ticket. But we do not do that.
7) Businesses always like to donate if they know what their money will be going towards, and if it can be related to their business. Eg: Local Lighting/eletrical services can be done for cost, if they can advertize, or get recognition. OR perhaps they could donate some of the lighting fixtures. Gym mats could be donated by another business. Paint etc.

By the way we have 400 famlies in our school. And if you have 100 children in pk, but only 115 in k-8 Your school has alot of potential for growth. Look for people at your school who have experience in Marketing and General Business for help getting this off the ground. Good Luck.

 

[Christine]

Our school has about 600 students. They have been saving for years to put on a new wing which they accomplished last year. The biggest moneymaker for them was the annual World's Finest Candy drive. That thing makes a LOT of money. Each student is required to sell $120 worth of candy. If you don't want to sell the candy then you just pay the $60 (works out to $120 worth of candy). Many people sell far more candy than that.

As the time got closer the school held a few big ticket private auctions that I'm told brought in a lot of money.