Fund raiser for karate school

[Beckysc]

My boys take XMA/Karate from a new place in town. The owner has another school in a town about 45 minutes away. The location here is kind of small and they are going to open another location for kid/family programs, which will be great. Since this school is new, she is looking to do some sort of fund raisers to help with the costs of buying new mats and equipment and such.

Does any one have any ideas for good, not too overly involved fund raisers?

She sent us an e-mail and some of the things mentioned are

a kick-a-thon and in house tournament, some sort of private lesson marathon, some sort of raffle and some sort of Instructor Roast/dinner.

She said they need to raise $12,000 for Mats, training aides, equipment, sound system, overhead sign, mirrors & more.

And if each one of her students helped raise $100.00 We would be able to purchase & provide everything we need to open, run & serve our New Krav Maga Family Center.


So does anyone have any good ideas?

TIA

 

[The Mystery Machine]

How about she charge everybody $100.00 instead of doing a fundraiser.
I would rather pay than participate in a fundraiser.

How about a plaque on the wall for donations?

 

[okeydokey]

Around here, karate runs about $100 a month. I would figure my tuition is enough and not take part in a fund raiser. Is the school her own private business?

 

[taekwondo mom]

Out taekwondo school has:
Parents night out...
Kick a thon
Maybe sell tickets for a pie in the face ( favorite instructor)
halloween carvinal
bake sell
car wash

 

[CEDmom]

Can't she just build the cost of new equipment into the overall cost of going to the school? Most people are willing to pay a little more for a new facility. I bet most people would rather do this than fund raise especially since most of the people that would give to a fund raiser will be affiliated with the school.

 

[ckay87]

That was my thought. Karate was SO expensive that I wouldn't have been too receptive of the idea of a fundraiser.

Our karate school would do fundraisers for charity, however. Our favorite was when they turned the school into a haunted house one night during Halloween. Held a pumpkin decorating contest as well where you contributed a dollar to vote. The kids absolutely loved participating in the haunted house. DS played a hand coming out of the candy bowel. It was a long night for him!

 

[golfgal]

Our kids' TKD instructor had a couple fundraisers to pay for the trophys for their tournament. I refused to participate in those. You paid an entry fee to be in the tournament, you paid a fee to get into the tournament to watch, they sold consessions and clothing. The trophy fees should be covered with those fees. Their TKD instructor also brought in over $300,000/year just in monthly fees for his one gym, he had 19 others, this doesn't include the mark-up on the uniforms and equipment he sold nor does it include the testing fees for each belt test. I didn't do fundraisers for that!

 

[Beckysc]

While part of me doesn't mind helping out with the fund raisers.

The other part feels like we pay enough. I have two boys in XMA so we pay monthly fees, belt testing fees, we just spent a big chunck of change for sparing gear and a bo staff, we will be having pictures taken in October, we have attended every demo except the one during spring break and we were out of town that day and we have rarely missed a class. We will also be going to watch a tournament to see if that is something we want to get involved in. I feel like we are supportive enough.

I don't know how tings are going financially for the school, but the owner drives a hummer.

 

[golfgal]

While part of me doesn't mind helping out with the fund raisers.

The other part feels like we pay enough. I have two boys in XMA so we pay monthly fees, belt testing fees, we just spent a big chunck of change for sparing gear and a bo staff, we will be having pictures taken in October, we have attended every demo except the one during spring break and we were out of town that day and we have rarely missed a class. We will also be going to watch a tournament to see if that is something we want to get involved in. I feel like we are supportive enough.

I don't know how tings are going financially for the school, but the owner drives a hummer.

This is exactly why we didn't do the fundraisers. This is a place of business not a non-profit organization. Would YOUR boss have a fundraiser to buy new computers for the office, no, they would put it in the budget for the year and take it out of the profits from the company. The owner of the gym should do the same, if he wants to expand he needs to build those costs into the fees or take out a loan to pay for his business expenses. Our kids' old TKD master just bought a $500,000 office building to run his gyms out of, just the administrative end, not the actual classes.

 

[golfgal]

I should say that I don't support fundraisers for any organization that you have to pay to participate in like the hockey associations, dance studio's etc. I will support school fundraisers and fundraisers for non-profits but not for someone else's child to play hockey.

 

[barkley]

i'de have to wonder how a private bsns. does the bookkeeping on fundraisers. would'nt any money come in and be taxable income-they dont have non profit status that would exempt them from it.

i was on the board of a community org. that had npo status and it was very regulated as to the fundraising we could do and the accounting-i may be wrong but i recall privatly owned buisnesses are legaly precluded from operating these types of endeavors. (thats not to say allot of dance/cheer studios and the like dont do them-its just that they havent gotten called on it or had it questioned in a tax audit).

 

[Bearvet]

Two of my boys train in Olympic (or sport) style Tae Kwon Do. They travel all over the country to compete in regional, national and international tournaments. They represent the state of Massachusetts which is a big deal. The travel gets very expensive - flights, hotels, meals, etc. and uniforms, team warm-ups, etc. So our group of parents began to fundraise to help get these athletes to the tournaments.

We've done car washes, bottle and can drives, candy bar sales and more. Our 2 best fundraisers have been a golf tournament (businesses sponsor a hole or cart or donate prizes). We have made about $4000 each on our last two golf tournamnets! We also have a parent who works for a company that has box seats for Red Sox games (4 tickets). He donated the tickets and we had a very successful raffle. They also have Patriots tickets, but it doesn't seem like that will work out this year.

We could not have afforded to attend the Junior Olympics this year (held in Atlanta) if it weren't for the fundraising efforts. BTW DS13 won a gold and a silver medal, which reflects on our TKD school and our state!!

With all that said, we have never raised funds that directly benefit the TKD school. That is a business venture - fundraising is not the answer here.

 

[golfgal]

Two of my boys train in Olympic (or sport) style Tae Kwon Do. They travel all over the country to compete in regional, national and international tournaments. They represent the state of Massachusetts which is a big deal. The travel gets very expensive - flights, hotels, meals, etc. and uniforms, team warm-ups, etc. So our group of parents began to fundraise to help get these athletes to the tournaments.

We've done car washes, bottle and can drives, candy bar sales and more. Our 2 best fundraisers have been a golf tournament (businesses sponsor a hole or cart or donate prizes). We have made about $4000 each on our last two golf tournamnets! We also have a parent who works for a company that has box seats for Red Sox games (4 tickets). He donated the tickets and we had a very successful raffle. They also have Patriots tickets, but it doesn't seem like that will work out this year.

We could not have afforded to attend the Junior Olympics this year (held in Atlanta) if it weren't for the fundraising efforts. BTW DS13 won a gold and a silver medal, which reflects on our TKD school and our state!!

With all that said, we have never raised funds that directly benefit the TKD school. That is a business venture - fundraising is not the answer here.

It's cool that your kids are so into TKD and do so well, but I personally would not give money, buy anything, etc. for something like this, nor would I do any fundraising to send my own kids to something like this. If they want to do that either we pay or they pay or they don't go.

 

[mickman1962]

It's cool that your kids are so into TKD and do so well, but I personally would not give money, buy anything, etc. for something like this, nor would I do any fund raising to send my own kids to something like this. If they want to do that either we pay or they pay or they don't go.

Exactly, I can't come out of Walmart without some group shaking their coffee cans at me asking for donations. Sometimes children have to learn that they have to do without something. If you can afford it, fine. If not your child does without.