Best school fundraisers

[Miz Diz]

What fundraisers have you seen schools do that you thought were good and were actually glad to participate in? I always feel like "the school's getting my money again" and would like some ideas for fundraisers that people really like.

So far we have done:
Powerful Pixel (I wish I had just given my money straight to the school. We never got any updates on the "World record" and I think it is still going on. We did this 2 years ago.)

Fun Run (We actually did pretty well with this one, but the Fun Run people got 40% of the money)

XMas shopping/craft fair

Catalog sales

Movie night (We did this once at the school. The movie was free and we sold drinks and snacks. I don't know how much we made on this)

 

[missypie]

The only thing we sell that people actually seem to want to buy are poinsettias before Christmas and flat of pansies in the fall.

 

[hrh_disney_queen]

I hate catalog sales, and would rather just give the money directly.

We have a silent auction every year which seems to be very profitable. Each class asks for donations to a basket that they have chosen a theme for. Anyone can make up a basket to put on the table, if they want. (I made two last year, a boys and a girls made up from all the toys I have in the attic that I got on sale to give for birthday parties that never happened.) The PTA usually gets a large item for a raffle, such as a bike or scooter. They also raffle off homework passes. I told them last year that they should just sell the homework passes (with a limit of course) and they would probably make more money.

They didn't sell pizza and drinks at this, but they should have.

Every year we have a "marathon" where the kids walk around the car pool circle several times. They have to collect donations in order to walk-at least $5) They are given a bottle of water and a cookie as a minimum prize for walking, more prizes for more money collected. They can wear a school t-shirt and have their Ipods with them to walk. They do this during their "specials' time. In the past they have held this on a Saturday and treated it more like a walk-a-thon. I think they have used a company to organize this, I don't know why.

 

[nuttylawprofessor]

We need money to fund Y. Please send us a check for $X.

It's the most honest and straight-forward approach; and it involves no overhead.

 

[The Mystery Machine]

Fantasy Sports picks on Yahoo groups. My niece plays soccer and they did this for a fundraiser. It was called "Survivor Football". One wrong pick and you were out.

Trivia Night. I went to one recently for Autism.

 

[All American]

We need money to fund Y. Please send us a check for $X.

It's the most honest and straight-forward approach; and it involves no overhead.

That.

 

[Bren's Mom]

I just organized a Tastefully Simple fundraiser for ds's preschool. We did catalog sales for 2 weeks leading up to a big TS party at the school, complete with lots and lots of samples for tasting. It was a huge hit, although next time I'd do the party FIRST. The cost for each item is the same as if you purchased it on the website or at a party. The fundraisers are done by individual consultants, not by the main company. My friend is a consultant and gave us 23% of party sales. That leaves a little left over for herself, but gives her lots of new potential customers. Plus, she agreed to give us 7% of party sales from any party booked through the school fundraiser. She has several parties scheduled so the school will be getting additional residual $. (And the party hosts still get all of their regular host rewards!)

 

[starrzone]

I think the best one I saw was for gift certificates. They weren't discounted, but the school received x% of each one sold (anywhere from 2-15%). This was a WONDERFUL idea around Christmas, because people are buying the gift certificates anyway! I heard that the school made over $10,000 from one recent campaign.

 

[MiniGirl]

Our local elementary school does a Ladies Night Out that always goes over well. It is a dinner and a fashion show and each class also contributes a basket for an auction.

Personally, I like the idea of an undinner (or something like that). Basically, you buy a ticket for a dinner that will never be. Basically, it is just writing a check to the school's PTA. I much prefer it to anything else though. We are homeschooling now, but our last year in school we were having some sort of fundraiser every 4 or 5 weeks. Ugh!!! I absolutely hated it.

 

[JVL1018]

The Tricky Tray we have is our biggest fundraiser. We get aournd $10,000 from that each year.
We sell ice cream every Friday after lunch(spare me the evils of junk food lecture, please.) that brings in over $3000 each year.
We just started doing the Great Lakes Scrip(Gift cards) and that should be pretty good around Christmas.

 

[DisneyMomx7]

My kids are in parochial school and we do a lot. I'm actually in charge of fundraising for PTA. None of our fundraisers are mandatory, and they are used for specific purposes such as Fun Day, Class trips etc.

Each month we do a "Spirit Night" at a different restaurant. We also raffle off a gift basket there. The kids love this one because they get to see their teachers and the principal out of school. The teachers and the principal do a great job of stopping by their students' tables. Each student that comes gets a "homework pass".

Twice a year we sell gift cards - Christmas and Easter.

Twice a year we do a Partylite fundraiser.

We do a Book Fair, Santa's Secret Workshop and Trunk or Treat which are all events and fundraiser.

We did a Fundraiser at Coco Keys Indoor Waterpark which everyone loved.

We do a "Have a Heart" program around Valentine's Day where the kids sell paper heart with their names on to family members. They get to display them on their lockers. We also do a blood drive at the same time.

We do a golf outing - gift basket auction in June to raise money for our sports programs.

We do a walkathon in the Fall.

 

[mamacatnv]

We need money to fund Y. Please send us a check for $X.

It's the most honest and straight-forward approach; and it involves no overhead.

DD's Charter school started doing this twice a year, but they broke it out a bit further by giving us a "suggested donation" per family so that families with multiple kids were not overly burdened.

It was voluntary and extremely successful, no overhead, nothing frozen that must be delivered or chocolate that can melt No goofy cheap prizes or pep rallies to get the kids wound up to go harrass all the neighbors.

I gladly gave a double donation, we only have 1 kid in the school, we LOVE our school and it was cheaper than a couple of rolls of wrapping paper would have been.

 

[DisneyKT]

Smencils are a big hit at my DD school. Plus we do Yankee Candle at the first of the year.

Also for free money and school products, tyson label, campbells,ink cartridges,
cell phones, capri sun pouches and box tops.

 

[asta]

DD's Charter school started doing this twice a year, but they broke it out a bit further by giving us a "suggested donation" per family so that families with multiple kids were not overly burdened.

It was voluntary and extremely successful, no overhead, nothing frozen that must be delivered or chocolate that can melt No goofy cheap prizes or pep rallies to get the kids wound up to go harrass all the neighbors.

I gladly gave a double donation, we only have 1 kid in the school, we LOVE our school and it was cheaper than a couple of rolls of wrapping paper would have been.

My daughters' elementary school did this. They asked for $100 for each child (it might have been capped at $300 for families with multiple children). This was presented at the beginning of the school year and was entirely voluntary. The promise was that there would be no other fund raisers. We had about 75% participation and everyone loved this vs the usual series of fund raisers.

 

[luvmy3jewels]

My kids' school does a Sallie Foster (gift wrap) fundraiser in the fall. This spring, they just finished with a flowerpower fundraiser. I really liked the idea of this, since dh and I enjoy having a pretty yard, so I ordered $100 worth of flowers and plants on-line. This afternoon we recieved a Fed Ex box from flowerpower and I am extremely disappointed with what we received. I wish I had just sent a check in for a donation and then spent the rest of the money at a local nursery!!

 

[lustergirl]

candy bars are great to sell!!

 

[dizneygurl007]

The school I work for is about 500 students, K through 12. Some of our big fundraisers include a Jog-a-Thon put on by the school with no outside company running it. There are local business that donate money to help with different aspects of the day. At the very end of the day is an all out water fight between the teachers and students. We also sell poinsettas at Christmas and Easter lillies at Easter. Other fundraisers include our Spaghetti dinner, silent and live auction, alumni basketball players vs. current team, and our Valentine's day fundraiser (roses, cookies, ballons, stuffed animals, and songs are sold.). A school store with items bearing the school logo (tshirst, sweatpants, umbrellas, car stickers, water bottles, etc.) Most of these fundraisers are pretty easy to pull off, they just need organization. I hope this helps. Good luck!

 

[Luv2trav]

Walk a Thons and just asking for money!!

 

[Luv2trav]

My kids are in parochial school and we do a lot. I'm actually in charge of fundraising for PTA. None of our fundraisers are mandatory, and they are used for specific purposes such as Fun Day, Class trips etc.

Each month we do a "Spirit Night" at a different restaurant. We also raffle off a gift basket there. The kids love this one because they get to see their teachers and the principal out of school. The teachers and the principal do a great job of stopping by their students' tables. Each student that comes gets a "homework pass".

Twice a year we sell gift cards - Christmas and Easter.

Twice a year we do a Partylite fundraiser.

We do a Book Fair, Santa's Secret Workshop and Trunk or Treat which are all events and fundraiser.

We did a Fundraiser at Coco Keys Indoor Waterpark which everyone loved.

We do a "Have a Heart" program around Valentine's Day where the kids sell paper heart with their names on to family members. They get to display them on their lockers. We also do a blood drive at the same time.

We do a golf outing - gift basket auction in June to raise money for our sports programs.

We do a walkathon in the Fall.

I would flip if our school asked us to do this much. That is overload.

 

[aprilgail2]

In Sept we have a pie sale and they are delivered right before Thanksgiving. Typically make about 5,000 profit on that one

In Sept we have Fall School Photos -not a big
fundraiser but raises about 2,000.00

In Oct there is a book Fair -usually make about 2,000 on that

In Dec is the holiday fair- we don't mark things up much for that so the kids can buy for everyone they have on their list, only make about 1,000

January is Supermarket Bingo- that raises about 6,000

Feb is the Valentines Pop sale- about 1,000 from that

March is the spring fundraiser- about 3,000 from that

April is the Chinese Auction- about 7,000 from that
April is also the book fair which is buy one get one free so no profit on that

May is the Parents day fair and the flower sale- again only about 1,000 since we don't mark things up much

In between there are movie nights which only cost 1.00 to get in and you get free popcorn. There are evening family type shows which again only cost 1.00.
We also have a spirit wear sale in there someplace that make a few thousand.

And in between all the PTA things the school has the fun run, the walk a thon, the math a thon, a christmas toy drive, a winter hat and mitten drive, and various other things depending on what is going on in the world- this year they raised money for Haiti and a child with cancer.
Its not like they twist your arm to do any of the things, you participate if you want to, if not it doesn't matter. And we certainly do not EVER do a pep rally thing like people talk about on here for selling stuff. In our states PTA bylaws it actually says the kids can't be given prizes of any type for selling that stuff so the kids don't really care if the parents do it or not.
My favorites are the Chinese auction and also Spiritwear...