Best / Worst Fundraiser you have participated in

[kc10family]

What was the best / worst fundraiser you have run, participated in, bought from, etc?

BEST
Harlem Wizards
Pine Needles
Carwash
Candy Bars
Pies
Penny Drive / wars
Straw (farming)



WORST
Casino Night
Catalogs
Wrapping paper
Carwash
Donuts
Cookie dough

 

[disneychrista]

The worst fundraisers are those that are selling things (ie candy, flowers, cookie dough etc).

I know fundraisers are necessary but really I prefer to just pay my childs way then to have to deal with them.

 

[metalis4ever]

Best - Jimmy Fund - I spent an amazing 6 hours raising money for this wonderful cause

Worst - I participated in a fundraiser for the Boys Scouts of America before I found out that they are a hateful and exclusionary organization...I wish that I could take those 4 1/2 hours back...

 

[momof1princess]

the fundraisers that go over best around here are the candy bar sales. quick, relatively inexpensive, easy...can't beat it. my DH can take a full box of fundraiser candy bars to work and sell the whole thing before his shift even starts.

 

[clh2]

Magazine sales are the WORST, IMHO.

We had problems with our orders 2 years in a row, and when "X" magazine was dropped from the offerings - the company wanted to sub "y" magazine. Those were difficult to resolve.

My favorite is a car wash (local gas station/convenience store offers the use of their lot, and water). Down side - if the day you pick is bad weather - you get $0.

 

[disykat]

The best fundraiser I have run have been what most people refer to as those awful catalog sales. I've done it several times (yearly school fundraiser) and for minimal work made about 12K each time. One person can oversee this succesfully and each family involved can participate fairly minimally with maybe just a few hours invested.

The worst is fundraising auctions. Again, made about 12K but it was a TON OF WORK. Catering, soliciting donations, making up what I call "baskets of crap" for the silent auction, decorating, lining up MC, auctioner, entertainment, etc., cleaning up afterwards, making sure everyone gets their items. The absolute worst is watching people spend a ton of money you know they're going to regret later. ARGH!!!!! Several committees are needed and hours and hours of time to get this accomplished.

There's a reason people do those awful catalog sales! Kids can sell or not, buyers can buy or not (or make a donation instead) and you make easy money without all the work and guilt. I'd much rather spend a few hours organizing a fundraiser than months of hard work for the same outcome.

I also help with a yearly rummage sale for one of the organizations I'm involved in. It's good honest work, but it involves about 4 or 5 days of hard work and usually only nets about 2K.

 

[KristaTX]

When I was in French Club in high school, we sold small Toblerone bars as a fundraiser every year. And I LOVE Toblerone . It's a lot easier to sell stuff if you're selling it to yourself .

I don't mind buying normal products at somewhat reasonable prices, like the Toblerone, M&Ms, or Girl Scout Cookies - things that are simple but delicious, that provide immediate gratification, and are under $4. But I hate trying to find stuff from those brochures full of WAY overpriced things like wrapping paper, canned caramel corn, and weird chocolates or cookie dough that you have to order and then wait a few weeks for .

 

[dakcp2001]

Selling tubs of cookie dough is HORRIBLE, it is a logistical nightmare. It has to be kept frozen/refrigerated and it is heavy.

Candy bars are good because you get lots of repeat customers. You cna bring them to school or work and people will buy them everyday. Easy peasy!

 

[Lassie Lynne]

The best fundraiser we ever did (many years ago when I was a band student) was collecting register receipts from a local grocery store, they donated so much for the total amount spent my customers. It was so easy, they even let us sell raffle tickets outside their doors and if people didn't want to spend money, we just asked for their receipts instead!

 

[luvmyfam444]

My dh did a pizza one they said went over extremely well

cookie dough does okay here

and the coupon books - everyone we know buys those - though several schools sell the same books

we do TONS of silent auctions around here -get things donated - any & everything imaginable (dog sitting, cleaning house, condo stay, paintings, gift baskets -just everything) the trick to these (it seems) is to do tie them into an event where every parent is coming anyway (the kids are singing.playing instrument, etc) but make sure they know to bring $

dd's school did an art show fundraiser this year - don't know how it went - I didn't buy - the kids did art with the art teacher & they framed it for the art show & you could buy it framed for like $35

for our sports here they sell BBQ plates as a fund raiser - for $8 you get pork/chick, beans, bread,drink - they akso preorder Boston Butts

When dh worked for Chick-fil-A every week they were doing biscuits for the local highschools as fundraisers - the schools get the biscuits @ a discount rate & mark them up for the kiddos to buy @ break. They were doing about 600 biscuits 2times a week

I know one school here that I heard sold Cros with the school logo on them -

There are tons of carwashes around here too - don't know how much they really make though

I hate the giftwrap ones - but they must do okay 'cause they do it everyyear & the chocolates too

 

[princess.chell]

The best fundraiser at my high school is selling Jamba Juice before school. I work at a local one so every club I'm in sells Jamba. I sell at least once a year. Sell them for $4, get a dollar back from Jamba, plus high schoolers love to give us their extra dollar. In two days I made $541, only selling about 300 smoothies.

The worst...wrapping paper. I hated selling wrapping paper in elementary school...ugh.

 

[Lintasare]

Our arts department in high school did a big fundraiser every year called Broadway Ole. The visual arts department would have an art auction and the band and choir would put on a show. I can't remember what tickets cost but it included a slice of pie and a drink. We got the pie from the local Village Inn for cheap and they would deliver and help serve.

It was always a ton of fun to put on.

 

[jlima]

Best - Gift Wrap fundraiser. DS15's elementary school was fairly small; less then 500 students. The PTO did the sale in September and made, no joke, $14K. They used the same company in the spring to do a smaller fundraiser and only sold chocolate rabbits before Easter; and made about $2,000.

Worst - Restaurant fundraiser. The non profit where I work tried one and we only made $45. The restaurant we used only gave back 10%. You literally need to have dozens, if not hundreds, of families participating to make any money.

 

[The Mystery Machine]

Best fundraisers are Trivia Night which is a lot of fun! I just went to one for Autism Speaks.

And I did a "fantasy football" pick this past season. Now that was very clever. That was for my niece's soccer team.

Worst? Not sure, have to think.

 

[aprilgail2]

the fundraisers that go over best around here are the candy bar sales. quick, relatively inexpensive, easy...can't beat it. my DH can take a full box of fundraiser candy bars to work and sell the whole thing before his shift even starts.

We are not allowed to sell candy for school fundraisers anymore "its not healthy"....nor can we sell cookie dough, pies etc...
Our best fundraiser and the one I enjoying working on and the ones I enjoy going to the best are the chinese auctions- they are the most fun and make the most money. I usually work with a friend running the one for our school and we have a blast running it.
Another one that did good was the one where you buy a ticket that had three numbers on it and whatever number comes out in the evening pick three state drawing that number is the winner, it runs for a whole month and is only 5.00 a tickets.

 

[golfgal]

Our kids' old school did a magazine fundraiser every year. They had done it for over 20 years so everyone knows about it and just renews at that time every year. The school makes over 90K every year doing this.

Worst, cookie dough. Although the kids' old school sold some cookie dough that was preformed cookies vs the tubs and that wasn't so bad.

I HATE fundraisers. Personally, I would rather pay more in taxes then ever have to do another fundraiser again.

 

[pyrxtc]

Yankee Candle is awesome and so is Pizza hut cards

worst was the wrapping paper or the pizza/cookie dough ones.

 

[BabyTigger99]

Best for me is either our school's Knowledge-a-Thon, or brat frys for Cub Scouts.

I used to think our popcorn sales for Scouts was the worse, until we sold last year before a Packer game to people tailgating around the stadium. Sold almost $500 in 2 hours!

 

[agnes!]

Best for me is either our school's Knowledge-a-Thon, or brat frys for Cub Scouts.

I used to think our popcorn sales for Scouts was the worse, until we sold last year before a Packer game to people tailgating around the stadium. Sold almost $500 in 2 hours!

That is BRILLIANT, selling popcorn before/at a sporting event.

agnes!

 

[cybrkitn]

DS7's school has a few good fundraisers and a few not-so-good (IMO).

The good ones include (IMO) - Nestle candy bar sales, Chuck-E-Cheese, Applebees, Country Kitchen.

The not-so-good fundraisers (meaning, our family doesn't do well at selling these items) include - Sally Foster (gift wrap, gifts and some candy), Joe Corbi pizza (a mix of both pizza kits and cookie dough kits).

Our son goes to a private school (Christian), so fundraising is essential for them. They do well each year with the fundraisers, but I just wish they would wait until October to start instead of the first 3 days of school .

DS is also in Cub Scouts and they do Yankee Candle lovestruc), flower bulbs, popcorn. This year they tried doing the candy sales with Hershey, but the variety was not that great and only about 1/2 of the box we were given was sold.

Because we get hit up to do so many fundraisers between school and Cub Scouts, with some going on at the same time, we pick and choose which ones we will do.

Of course, DS7 loves to go to both Chuck-E-Cheese and Applebees. About 10 - 15% of our check goes to the school. We recently did Applebees to support our school and it felt like walking into the Cheers bar where everyone knows your name . The whole place was filled with our friends from school and church - all there to support the school.