Any Preschool Fundraising Ideas?

[Goingtodisneyworld]

We have less than 30 families total with 2, 3 & 4yr olds, last yr I went to several businesses & asked for donations that we raffled off, will probably do something similar again this year although we live in a small-mid size town with many chain restaurants & stores, which usually do not donate, so we rely on the Mom & Pop businesses that may not be able to donate much. I could not think of a better place to go for ideas &/or advice than this board, as always ~ Thanks so much!!!

 

[ceecee]

How about selling candy bars? Our Sam's Club recently had a box you bought that was all set up for reselling. You don't make a ton, but the candy bars always sell well.

 

[ValerieK]

Our Preschool has a big fundraiser every other year. They do a Casino Night at a local Country Club.

This will be my second year at the school and we haven't been yet, so I can't give you any more info right now. I could find out though.

I do know that they raffle off things that are donated by local companies. They also raffle off Prime parking spaces near the entrance to the school for use during carpool. They also name the drive way in front of the school after one of the school kids, it is raffled off at the Casino Night. They even have a sign made up and posted in front of the school.

We have gotten donations from a lot of different places, not just restaurants. Dunkin Donuts will often give donations. Also hair salons, movie theaters, Tae Kwon Do and Karate schools, some parents have vacation homes that thay donate weekends to and sporting event tickets. The place were I get my hair done has donated a cut and style for Teacher Appreciation last year and is giving a Color, Cut and Style for a raffle this fall. The TKD school is donating a 6 week membership with a free uniform. I told them that a competing school had donated to the last fundraiser and what they donated. The owners were more than happy to donate, hoping to gain more business.

Last year we did a fundraiser for a preschool in Washington DC. Each class did an art project that was then raffled off. Some of the projects were wonderful, well all of them were. One class painted a small table and chairs with flowers and plants. Another class painted a large canvas with a rainforest scene.

If you have specific questions let me know. Our school is larger than yours and is in a metro area, but I think some of the ideas we use can be adapted to smaller areas. Here is a link to all our activites, most of them usually have some sort of small fundraising event.

Village Green Day School Parents Advisory Council

 

[mommytotwo]

The preschool that I used to work at, had a golfing function. Contact a local golf course and let them know what is going on and ask if you can put up fliers so that their regular players will also see it.
Go to various businesses to ask for items to put into the goodie bags that you are handing out to the golfers upon registration.
At the same time, while the golfers are waiting for everyone to get together, you can put up a silent auction with various items. Call the bigger companies in your area, airlines, massage places for certificates, hotels, travel agencies, places that tourists may go to during their visits that usually the residents don't do but may want to try, restaurants for dinner for two certificates....
After the golfing is done, have a lunch then awards and the silent auction which can be done till the last minute.


You could also put together a small carnival type function, but that will take alot of work from the parents, teachers, and community, but you may get alot of people attending depending on the location you live in.
At the same time, you could have a produce/flower sale, bake sale, and white elephant sale.

 

[Bella the Ball 360]

When I was a PTO president we used to have a harvest festival. We sold pumpkins and everything that goes with them. Baked goods etc. BUT the one thing that really went over well was gift baskets made with a theme. We assigned each grade level a theme, bought them a basket and had them fill it. In your case you could assign so many students a theme and ask each person to buy something for the basket. Themes we used were

Toy Basket
Coffee and.. basket
Kitchen bAsket
Cd or DVd basket
Bath and body basket.
Goodie Basket
Gourmet Basket
You can make up a bunch of ideas.

IF you set a minimum of say 5.oo per parent then you should be able to fill some nice baskets.

 

[gigi1313]

www.honeybell.com (cushman's fruit company/best honeybell oranges ever grown!) and www.joecorbi.com (pizza kits and cookie dough)

ENJOY!

 

[ValerieK]

Originally posted by Bella the Ball 360
When I was a PTO president we used to have a harvest festival. We sold pumpkins and everything that goes with them. Baked goods etc. BUT the one thing that really went over well was gift baskets made with a theme. We assigned each grade level a theme, bought them a basket and had them fill it. In your case you could assign so many students a theme and ask each person to buy something for the basket. Themes we used were

Toy Basket
Coffee and.. basket
Kitchen bAsket
Cd or DVd basket
Bath and body basket.
Goodie Basket
Gourmet Basket
You can make up a bunch of ideas.

IF you set a minimum of say 5.oo per parent then you should be able to fill some nice baskets.

This is a great idea. My DS old school use to do that. Some of those baskets went for several hundred dollars.

 

[disneyfor3]

My son's preschool has a hop-a-thon each year as one of their fundraisers. Sheets are sent home with each parent ahead of time and you get family/friends/businesses to donate so many cents per hop. Then on hop-a-thon day the parents that have volunteered help count each child's hops and then sends the sheet home with the amount of hops and each parent collects the amount. At the end of the school year the child with the most hops got a special certificate at the graduation ceremony. We also have a yard sale/bake sale/silent auction near the end of the school year.

 

[disneymom3]

Our preschool makes a pretty decent amount of $ doing a silent auction at a country fair type thing each fall. There are games for the kids to play with little dorky prizes, food to buy and lots of items to bid on. It is affiliated with our church so some church members donate, but mainly it is the families of the kids in the preschool. Lots of at home moms have home party businesses, so they always donate some items, people make baked goods, homemade jam etc and people ask businesses to donate too.

Another good one we have done is a read a thon. Just like the hop a thon mentioned above as far as sponsers etc, but it is for books that are read to them. Then all of the donations went to buy new books for the classrooms. Pretty cool. We arranged it with an Usborne rep.

 

[momxx5]

The cookie dough sale is a big hit around here.

 

[2minnies]

If you have a Kohl's store nearby (other stores also do this) contact the manager to have your nonprofit group volunteer during their busy season. Work usually includes bagging purchases and very simple stock work. All hours worked are paid out to your group. We made a ton of $$ for our competition pom group this way and each family was required to work a set amount of hours during the timeframe. Thanksgiving and holiday shopping is right around the corner so it's not too late to gather information. Hope this helps someone!

 

[McDisney]

Try contacting your local McDonald's office (the store should be able to refer you), ours has a program called McTeacher night where they donate a portion of the nights' profits to a specific school (usually one that is either close or expresses alot of interest). If they are not participating in that program then they may offer to help in some other way. Any way it wouldn't hurt to ask.

good luck

 

[Mom2aPrincess]

I am a Sales Rep for a childrens clothing company called Chez Ami by Patsy Aiken Designs. The company is based in Raleigh, NC but has sales reps all over the country. The company has just set up a program for fundraisers. Normally, a Chez Ami party hostess would earn free clothes for her children. With the new program non profit groups can earn a percentage of their clothing party sales to be paid by check. The clothes are adorable and the sizes range from NB to 12. They offer styles for girls, boys and even items for Mom to match. You could check with a rep in your area for more info.

 

[JessetheCowgirl]

We have done jump-a-thons, bike-a-thons, etc.

The kids love it and usually bring in quite a bit in donations.

 

[magnumaid]

My sons preschool is selling KidStuff coupon books. It's about 400 pages of coupons. Everything from Macys to McDonalds. It's broken into 3 categories: shopping, activities and food. (example: 15% off at Macys, $5 off of $50 at Toys R Us, $10 off $50 at Footlocker)
The books cost $25 and the school gets $12.50 for each book sold.
I'm not sure if they are available in your area; but here is the # if you want to find out.

1-888-404-KIDS

 

[Goingtodisneyworld]

WOW ~ thanks soooo much everyone I just knew this was the right place to ask!!! We are having a PTA meeting Tuesday & I can not wait to take all these ideas, I will be sure to let you know how it goes, THANS So Much Again!!!

 

[janie91]

I'm the executive director of a non profit organization and the fundraiser we have found the easiest to do is Antiquities photos. These are antique looking photos of children using really neat props that they provide they also provide the clothing overalls and oversize coats for the boys lace dresses for the girls. The pictures are beautiful. It requires no money invested and is very easy. Your parents would sell coupons for the photo sitting for $10 and for that money you get the sitting and a 10x13 photo. Anyone can sell the coupons and if a salesperson sells 15 coupons they get free $150 package of photos so that gets people motivated to sell. All the money from the coupon sales is your organizations to keep and you also get a bonus from the photography company based on the number of sittings they photograph. You need volunteers to sell, set up appointments and help work during the photography event. They provide all the printed materials as well. PM me if you would like more information.

 

[HenDuck]

Our preschool is currently doing a bunch of fundraisers. The main ones are Sally Foster (giftwrap and gifts) and Entertainment Books.

I had never heard of Sally Foster and wasn't sure anyone I knew would buy, but I've sold to everyone in my office. And the best part is the school gets 50% of everything they sell! Wow! I don't know of any other fundraiser where you get that kind of return.

I believe the website is www.sallyfoster.com.

Entertainment books yield $6 per book to the school.

I think the school also has a family fair sometime later in the year.

Good luck!

 

[D L and K's Mom]

We do quite a few fundraisers in our school. We sold those really thick "Rag Wool" type mittens.....big sellers. We also made a school cookbook and worked with one of those cookbook companys to bind it etc. We sold it at local buisnesses etc. We also have a penny social and ask the parents to donate the prizes. One big one is BINGO night. The teachers are the "Callers"..the children love this. We take a count of how many families are coming and they pre- order pizza and pop etc. We make a small profit on the pizza and the selling of the BINGO cards. The prizes for BINGO are small . Also Pizzeria Uno, Chuck-E Cheese and Barnes and Noble hold fund riasers for you. At Chuck -E - Cheese you designate a night for your school and you get 10% of the profit for that night. This can get quite large when you have a lot of families attned. I am pretty sure teachers eat free and families ge coupons before they even go. Unos does the same type of thing and Barnes and Noble let you designate a week for an In store bookfair. They have you tell people to tell them the school name at check out and at the end of the fair you get a portion of the proceeds. I am unsure if it is cash or books. I think you have the choice but you get "more " profit if you choose books. These are great fundraisers as you really dont have to buy anything and put out any money first . ALso there is minimal that you have to do as the teacher and parents. I am pretty sure Krispy Kreme does a card for buy one get one free donuts....good luck!!!

 

[Boo Mc]

We've been doing a scrip program that works great. Lots of companies and stores (Kohl's, Toys R Us, Linens n Things, KFC, Chili's, Pizzeria Uno etc.) participate. Basically, a list of the stores comes home and you buy gift certificates to those places and your school gets a percentage. Works great at the holidays because yu can buy them and then use them to pay for your Christmas purchases or give the gift certificates as gifts. I bought a lot last year for fast food restaurants and used them for our Disney trip. We'd be eating at those places anyway so it's nice to know the school gets a cut. Also, we do General Mills Box Tops and Little Caesars Pizza Kits.