Fund Raising for small college Group-suggestions?

[dakcp2001]

Hi there, I am the chair for a Spring Break Volunteer project and I am trying to come up with some creative and effective fund raising ideas! There will only be about 10-12 students doing this fundraising, so please keep that in mind! And we are suuuuuuuppppper busy with Nursing school so we do not have a lot of free time.

Any advice on how to approach or ask local area businesses to contribute, sponsor, or make a donation? How to word it? Should we ask for an amount? I was thinking it is better to do this in person, but my classmates think sending out lots of letters would be more effective. Anyone have any experience?

Any advice on how to get local businesses to donate items for us to raffle? Or donate service for the trip? Like rental car etc?


Here are some ideas I have so far, please give me your feedback!

I was thinking of doing a coffee & muffins sale one day a week or twice a month on campus. How much should we charge? I do not mind baking the muffins, which could save some cash.

Holding a mid terms or finals "midnight study break" where we have the campus center stay open and we sell coffee/snacks?

Bake sale few days before Thanksgiving, but sell whole pies, cakes, breads etc etc. No idea how many to make or how much to sell for!

Maybe asking a local politicians to let us have a bake sale outside their meetings?

Pasta Supper or Pancake breakfast & do 50/50 raffles and gift certificate raffles?

Kids day - rent bouncy houses etc and have fellow nurses dress up as characters and princesses- sell tickets





I suspect I am going to bear the brunt of the work for all of the fundraisers, so any help you could offer!!

 

[marlynnp]

?

Am I understanding this correctly? This 'fundraising' is just to pay for your spring break vacation. Why would a business want to donate to that???
Stick with selling muffins.

 

[NEVERENOUGHWDW]

I'm not clear on why your raising $$$$$$$

I was a non profit fundraiser for many years & letters do not work.

 

[dakcp2001]

We want to go to Florida to Volunteer where the "Wish Trippers" stay . We want to spend our spring break making childrens wishes come true. We will be spending the week volunteering, although I imagine we would like a day or two at the end to enjoy the sunshine.

 

[Rafiki31]

I think with a small group you could do raffle tickets for something. Can you get a big prize like tickets to a concert or something? Do people still buy things from bake sales? I am a little weird with food, I do not like to eat things if i do not know where they were made. I would buy coffee though.

 

[NEVERENOUGHWDW]

We want to go to Florida to Volunteer where the "Wish Trippers" stay . We want to spend our spring break making childrens wishes come true. We will be spending the week volunteering, although I imagine we would like a day or two at the end to enjoy the sunshine.

To sell raffle tickets you need a 501(c)3.
If you ask a business for money & they want a receipt for their donation you will have to supply that as well as your non-profit tax information.

The big problem here is a few days in the sun is 100% illegal if paid for by the donations you receive.

 

[jlima]

You want to travel from where you go to school, to Florida, to volunteer; and you want local business where you go to school, to help you pay for your trip.

It sounds what you really want is someone to pay for your Spring Break trip.

If you are serious about volunteering, IMO, I would find a local charity; and have your group volunteer locally. A reputable charity with a volunteer coordinator could work with your schedules. It shouldn't be too hard to find somewhere, especially if you are nursing students.

Is there a Make A Wish chapter where you go to school? Call them and ask how you can help them. Or, have your bakes sales and give them the money. But I wouldn't expect a lot of support from local business to fund a trip to Florida for a group of college students.

 

[RNMOM]

Some uniform stores with have sales at your place and give a % of the profits back to you. The ones here were between 10-15 %.

If you are non profit you might have to check on the legality of your money raising. For example, if you would be subject to taxes and the like.

 

[tiggger1]

To sell raffle tickets you need a 501(c)3.
If you ask a business for money & they want a receipt for their donation you will have to supply that as well as your non-profit tax information.

The big problem here is a few days in the sun is 100% illegal if paid for by the donations you receive.

Actually depending were you are you can have a raffle and not be 501(c)3 if the item that you are raffling is under a certain amount the amount is usually under $1000
In mass as long as they are part of a educational organization they are allowed to have raffles..

 

[Green Tea]

Is there a fantastic place to park-like at the President's house? If you could get the President to allow it, raffle off the parking place for a month or however long you can get permission for.

 

[barkley]

you have to be careful with raffles, in some places they are considered 'gambling' and are therefore illegal. you also have to be VERY careful with using the u.s. mail service to mail any kind of solicitations for donations. i sat on the board of a non profit organization and we learned that we were very limited by the u.s. postal service in what we could/could not mail pertaining to soclicting funds-and that very specific wording had to be used for the type of solicitations that were permissable.

unless you are an official non profit group i suspect (esp in todays economy) local buisnessess are going to be very hesitant to donate $, products or services. if you are going to be doing it as part of an educational group you need to get the school's (you attend) approval, just as if you are going to help with the 'wish trippers' i presume you have to get authorized through them (most organizations that work with kids require volunteers to make application and go through back ground checks-even then they might not permit fund raising that would be conducted by private individuals for the purpose of working with their group).

as for the current ideas you've posted-

muffin (or bake) sales-make sure campus allows it. some don't because of contracts with their food services providers. some don't because of local laws regarding how food sold to the public has to be prepared (and it can require a special for fee license).

bounce house idea-check into insurance. when the early childhood department i was a student in did something like this we had to clear it with the insurer of the property the event was held on and get a special one day policy.

keeping a campus area open late-may not even be remotely possible. while you see it as a fund raising opportunity, it could cost the campus $$$ because of legal requirements for security, official person to open/close facility and other factors.

 

[powellrj]

I think your best bet would be to buy a box of fundraiser candy bars at someplace like GFS or Costco and sell $1 candy bars. When I did fundraising for our school, this was always a winner and it had a very low cost start-up.

Unless you have an official letterhead to approach businesses with for them to use for taxes, you won't be very successful. I know most businesses have really cut back on this type of thing.

 

[The Mystery Machine]

It sounds like you want this to be volunteer and vacation, which is great, however as others have pointed out there are legal problems with your plan.

In order to get businesses to donate you are going to need an official letter from the MAKE A WISH group to get those donations. I would begin with MAW and ask them about your ideas. See what they say and what is legal and not legal.

 

[*pixie*dust*]

We want to go to Florida to Volunteer where the "Wish Trippers" stay . We want to spend our spring break making childrens wishes come true. We will be spending the week volunteering, although I imagine we would like a day or two at the end to enjoy the sunshine.

Are you talking about Give Kids the World?

I think this is not the type of thing you ask for donations for unless its just from family and friends. It sounds like you want to have a vacation paid for. I doubt in this economy you will get many to be willing to give.

Its great to want to volunteer but do it in a way that doesn't rely on others to pay for it.

 

[NEVERENOUGHWDW]

If you truly want to volunteer due it locally. The satisfaction will be just as rewarding.

If you want Spring Break pay for your vacation.