Fund Raising ideas

[Sunshineminnie]

I know this seems early, but we are in desperate need of some fund raising ideas for our After Prom.

Our goal is to keep After Prom a fun and exciting night to keep the kids safe while creating lasting memories. We have had really good attendance, with about 90% of our prom goers staying for the event.

However, our budget seems to be dwindling each year and I am afraid that we are going to struggle putting on a quality event.

We are looking for good fund raisers. Our problem is that we are a parent group and don't want to do anything that would compete with our school groups (Prom, 4-H, FFCLA ect) when it comes to fund raising. We also can't do a lot of things through the high school such as concession stands because we are not a "school" group.

Does anyone know of some good fundraiser for a parent group? I appreciate any ideas!

Thanks so much!

 

[McKelly]

Can you increase the ticket price to prom?

Or can you have a "Lock-in" for elementary kids? Have the grade that the prom is for, Junior or Senior, help keep the kids busy? Charge $8-10.00 per child for a 3-4 hours of games, crafts, pizza and a movie, etc. They seem to go over fairly well here. Parents like a Friday night out and it's cheap babysitting.

 

[soccerchick]

Go Fund Me type sites have been popping up here and seem to be very successful when people share them via social media.

 

[Marionnette]

I know this seems early, but we are in desperate need of some fund raising ideas for our After Prom.

Our goal is to keep After Prom a fun and exciting night to keep the kids safe while creating lasting memories. We have had really good attendance, with about 90% of our prom goers staying for the event.

However, our budget seems to be dwindling each year and I am afraid that we are going to struggle putting on a quality event.

We are looking for good fund raisers. Our problem is that we are a parent group and don't want to do anything that would compete with our school groups (Prom, 4-H, FFCLA ect) when it comes to fund raising. We also can't do a lot of things through the high school such as concession stands because we are not a "school" group.

Does anyone know of some good fundraiser for a parent group? I appreciate any ideas!

Thanks so much!

A couple of things that we did:

Prom Fashion Show and Extravaganza: Students model tuxes and dresses from local shops. Area businesses (flowers, limo, dress stores, hair salons, etc.) rent space for a booth and offer raffle prizes. Charge for the booths (discount if you offer a raffle prize), admission and for the raffle tickets. Sell refreshments. It's a major deal here. Usually held in February and we began planning in July.

Tux rental. We had a deal with a tuxedo rental company. They came to a location on 3 separate nights. They brought sample tuxes, measured the guys and took orders. Tuxes got picked up at the same place the day before prom. The company then provided bags to collect the tuxes at the after-prom and picked them up the next day. No need for tired students or their parents to get the tux back to the shop the day after the prom. I think they donated $10 per tux that was rented. We made a bundle! Most of the guys loved being able to "shop" with their girls and buddies and the parents liked not having to make an effort to return the tuxes the next day.
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Good luck! Our after-prom parties were always over the top. Almost every kid attended, whether they went to the prom or not. We always made enough money to make it free for the kids and their dates. It's a great way to keep the kids safe (no drinking and driving following prom).

 

[Sunshineminnie]

Thanks so much for your help so far! I forgot to mention that this is for a small, rural school. We average about 50 kids per class. We will have about 100 - 125 kids attend the prom and after prom.

We don't charge for prom or after prom.

Also, because the kids do so many fundraisers of their own for their clubs and such, we want to be able to do this will just our committee of parents. We have about 10 of us that are pretty active.

Thanks again!

 

[McKelly]

Is it a rule to NOT charge for prom? Sadly, it might be time to bring it up. I would gladly pay $10-$20 for my kid to go to prom (it's more here) than have to do another fundraiser.

 

[Sunshineminnie]

McKelly - It's not a rule, but tradition... however, After Prom is actually not a school sponsored event but a "Friends of RCHS" parent run organization. We wouldn't be able to do anything that would interfere with the Junior class that sponsors the prom or any other school club.

Thanks though for the suggestion. I too would rather do something like that than try to do another fund raiser.

 

[McKelly]

Does your parent group like to bake? Could you do a pre-order bake sale for Xmas cookies? Send out forms to go home and maybe people would buy cookies from your group? Charge by the dozen?

 

[jam217]

I have been approached by two organizations within the past week who are doing gift card fundraisers. The list is rather extensive, and the organization gets a small percentage of the gift card amount. You pay the same amount for the gift card as you would if you purchased in a store. If you google gift card fundraiser, the web page will pop up.

 

[RitaE]

Ours is completely sponsored by local businesses, including the door prizes and food - the grocery store, insurance agents, the banks etc etc. Pretty much every business in town gets hit up for a donation. It's just kind of one of those things that a home town business is expected to support.

They get "Sponsor of" signage to hang up in their businesses and also there's a huge "Thank You" type Advertisement run in a local newspaper.

I don't know if that is possible in a rural area.

 

[dpswift]

First off please do not start charging for prom. It is expensive enough without the ticket.

Our after party is funded by fundraisers. The biggest being a can and bottle drive held 4 times a year. They have 2 different drop off locations. They started this right after the bottle return law went into effect. They get donations for the prise from local businesses.

Our PTG has an annual spring plant sale.

It is hard to get a new event going.

 

[JanaDee]

Thanks so much for your help so far! I forgot to mention that this is for a small, rural school. We average about 50 kids per class. We will have about 100 - 125 kids attend the prom and after prom. We don't charge for prom or after prom. Also, because the kids do so many fundraisers of their own for their clubs and such, we want to be able to do this will just our committee of parents. We have about 10 of us that are pretty active. Thanks again!

I went to about the same size rural school and paid for prom tickets. My kids go to a little bigger school (about 80-90 per class) and they charge for prom.

Charging for prom is a standard practice and if you want to keep doing the after-party, it will have to be a serious consideration.

 

[pigletto]

It might be cutting it close but I'll mention it just in case..
I just did a poinsettia fundraiser for our school. We use a local garden centre and the plants are beautiful. You could do it with anything though.. annuals or perennials come springtime, or Christmas trees maybe? It was all pre order and we got almost 40% of the cut for the school. This is just a small elementary school and we made over $1000. Pick up was at our Christmas Bazaar and I had so many people ask if they could buy them then because they didn't preorder that I am pretty sure we'll order a bunch extra for next year to sell day of.

Another idea would be a pasta night to benefit the after prom party. I know these can be organized through the local Italian hall here and again, your group goes in and does all the work and prep and gets a decent cut. You would need to do pre-order and maybe have a dinner as well as take out orders.

 

[3boymthr]

Our area is slightly larger (elementary school class size is just over 100). If the prom is in May or June a group yard sale is always a great way to raise money with little or no investment on the part of the fund raising organization. We regularly make over $1,000 from our Boy Scout yard sale. Items are donated and all equipment is borrowed. We generally have items dropped off 1 hour before the sale, sort and price by table unless it's a large ticket item or furniture. If you have somewhere to store items you could start collecting them now as you will end up with more stuff. Sometimes we make arrangements with another charity to collect the stuff left over at the end of their sale to add to the items we have available. If you put it out regularly that you are collecing items a ton of stuff will be available. The biggest trick is getting rid of the stuff at the end and we usually donate to our local church for their Christmas white elephant sale. Advertise on Craigslist and in the local paper and the yard sale addicts will come.

Christmas Tree pickup - ask local tree lots to post hand out a flyer to everyone who lives in your town/area and get the school to pass out the flyer as well. Recruit parents with truck and or trailer to drive around and pick up trees the saturday after New Years. Charge $10 for each tree. Take trees to be chipped or to local town compost pile.

Not as budget but hire a comedian and host a Comedy night at a local venue. Our local school trust does this for $50/ticket and they cover the cost of the comedian and the venue plus make a couple of thousand in funds. Some venues will throw in the room at a discount if they know it's for a charitable event and they have cash bar.

Golf Ball Drop. Sell numbers for $10 each. Number a bunch of junk golf balls (that you can get cheaply from a local golf driving range or golf club or from parents in the school). On a pre-determined date drop the balls off the side of a tall building (or ask the owner of a local bucket truck to borrow it for a few minutes). The the owner of the number on the ball that lands closest to a golf tee pushed into the ground wins $100 or 10% of the take or... The rest goes to the prom.

 

[GaSleepingBeautyFan]

The after prom in my area is always at Dave and Busters. it's an all night thing.

I'm not sure how they get the deal on tickets but it was like 45.00 a ticket and the kids got 10.00 card for games and if they wanted to play more cash games had to supply their own cash.
Food was included in the price.
My son said it was a blast.

 

[Maddie2]

It wasn't for After Prom, but a local group here (Midwest) recently held a "Poultry Party". Never heard of it? I hadn't either. Also known as Bingo Night. It was held at the local firehall.

The group purchased a certain number of turkeys and hams and families donated pies and cakes. For each round of Bingo, there was a poultry prize and a pie/cake/baked item prize. I know hams are not poultry, but I guess, that is beside the point. For each round of Bingo, cards were 25 cents each.

Popcorn, soda, cookies & bars were sold as concessions. A couple of times there were several winners, so they had the winners (8-10) choose something from the concession table.

I was very surprised at the amount of money made. It wasn't as well attended as they had hoped, but they still made over $1000.

 

[danygirl]

Used book sale