fundraising ideas for band to go to Disney

[Barbi]

I just used this company for my daughters softball team. They are reputible and have good quality shirts. For every tee shirt sold you keep $5.
Call the 800 # and explain your situation, they are very helpful. The best part of this fundraiser is you have zero financial commitment.
They have a quick turn around time, less than 7 days from the day I mailed the order to the day UPS dropped off the boxes at the house.
Good luck, hope this helps someone!

www.fundraisingtees.com


Barbi

 

[D L and K's Mom]

We did a great fundraiser at Chuck E Cheese. If there is one in your area you pick a night and then you get I think it is 10 or 20 % of the profits from that night. The catch is people have to go to a designated cash register. We did this for one night and we made quite a bit of $$$$. Almost all the families came and we stood at the door and asked the people who were going in if they would mind going to our reigister no one minded at all. We had a great time! The kids loved it and we didnt have to do any work....the people at Chuck E Cheese did it all. We did it for our school and they let the teachers eat free and the kids all got a ticket for 10 free games. It was great! Call your local Chuck E Cheese and see if they do this. It is a great idea.

The second idea that the school did was buy some awful pink plastic flamingos from Oriental Trader. They then took orders from people who wanted to "Flamingo" their neighbors. The kids took the Flamingos over and put them on the lawn with a note telling the people they had been selected to be "Flamingoed" and the birds stayed there for 48 hours. The kids then went and got them and went to the next person's house. This was great fun but I could see problems happening if the people in town didnt know about the Flamingos (Trespassing) I think it cost $15.00 per trip. We are from a small town and the people LOVED it!

Also, Barnes and Noble will do an "in store bookfair" for you. You designate a week and tell people about it and when they purchase books they tell the clerk your name and B and N will keep track. I am unsure if you can only get books for this or if they give cash.....hmmm now that I think of it I think it is only books.

Near Valentines Day we ran a carnation sale....carnations were pre-ordered and then sent home with the children for Mom, sisters etc. We got a good deal on the carnations from SAMS club and sold them for $1.00 a flower. They were wrapped in white tissue.

We also sold cans of Orange Crush with the message "Ive got a Crush on you" the kids loved those.

At Exam time we sold little Study Kits ( bottle of h20, raisins, granola bar, chips and cookies) the parents pre-ordered them for their kids and they were delivered to the kids the day before exams. They came with a little note of good luck.

When I was in College (many moons ago) the local High School band sent home notices to all the incoming Freshman parents. The note was an order form for a birthday cake. The cake was delivered to the dorm the week of your birthday (they only delivered once a week). I know the HS parents took a lot of time to set this up (had to check with the college, collect checks, organize ordering and delivering cakes etc) but it was a huge seller. The cakes were $25.00 and came with a card. I am sure they made quite a bit of $$$. I know it was so nice to get a cake for my birthday on my first time being away from home . My roomates really appreciated it too!! If you can set this up this would be a great money maker but as I said before it was a lot of work and quite a commitment. I am not even sure if colleges would let you do this now....security and all but you never know.

Contact a local sports team and ask if they will donate a game shirt or something. I know our Hockey team will occasionally donate a game jersey to raffle off.

We also had a golf tournament. I dont know much about this as I don't golf. They had teams and they golfed and they had to pay money to enter the tournament. Some parents sponsored holes etc. They also had a dinner after adn it did make money. I think it would be lots of work to pull this off though.

One of the local charities sponsors a "Duck Race". For $1.00 you can buy a duck with a number . On the day of the race the ducks are let go in the canal and the duck that travels the fastest wins $100. unfortunatly you need a river or canal for this one. We live on the Erie Canal so this was a big one




Good Luck!!

 

[totallydisney]

contact a Longaberger Basket rep. Ask them to do Bingo party. Our school does this every year , they make lots of money. You sell tickets, every winner wins a basket. You can even have a food stand and make money off of that. It is lots of fun, because you have alot of collectors.

 

[nitsak]

Never tried this but I heard that WalMart will let you have a carwash at their location. And they will match what ever you make.

 

[DVCfan1998]

Re. the Christmas sale of Pointsettias - one switch on that is to sell wreaths (instead, or also). (One disadvantage of Pointsettias is that they are tremendously temperature sensitive, so you have to be careful in transporting/delivering, etc - no such problem with wreaths). My family has a retail Christmas Tree business, and we've worked with a number of fundraising groups in the past (I'm not local, I'm from Massachusetts, so no, I'm not trying to sell you anything... )

We've sold them both undecorated, or with bows, you could get more ornate if you want. The organizations that we've worked with have generally been very successful with this. (Unlike some of the other fundraisers, it's actually something people will be buying anyway, so why not benefit a good cause).

 

[gharrer]

We had a spaghetti dinner at a church. We got donations of food from grocery stores. and the cooks donated their time. We had a Chinese auction with this where people donated services, gift certificates and even their condo for a weekend. The best money was made by parking cars for the county fair. We were also paid by some businesses to keep people from parking in their lots during the fair.

 

[Chereya]

Our school used to raise money every year for United Way. They created a special celebration day called "Gratitude Day" : and basically sold candy grams in advance of the date of Gratitude Day. Then on the special day they were delivered. I think they mostly cost $1 per candy gram and you could choose what type of candy bar from a list ahead of time (also you know how much of each type of candy you need to buy with the funds) and you can choose how large of a candy selection you want to offer.

Every year there's a contest for the students to come up with the "logo" for that year's Gratitude Day. The logo goes on the front of the candy gram note and the person buying it can write their personal message inside. The back has space to write who it's for and who their home room teacher was. They also had special buttons made with the same design that were sold on the day for $1. Makes a really nice keepsake.

Students usually sent Gratitude Day grams to their favorite teachers, friends and secret crushes. It always gives you a good feeling to get one and know that you're appreciated, even if it's from an anonymous source.

Anyhow, I guess it's the same idea as doing candy grams on Valentine's Day or Halloween but the creation of an additional "holiday" gives you one more day to raise money.

Chereya

 

[calypso*a*go-go]

You could also sell Cookies-In-A-Jar where you buy large canning jars and fill them with all the dry ingredients for different types of cookies. The person purchasing usually only has to add eggs, butter, etc. You could do a few as samples and then let people pre-order so you know how many to make.

 

[bobcat]

We have a community birthday calendar that we sell for $5 and $1 per birthday. We have a picture of the marching band and also advertisers. We have been doing this since I was a kid and it is a pretty easy fundraiser.

Last year we had a spaghetti dinner at the local firehouse during homecoming. All the suplies were donated by parents.

We just started selling car ribbon magnets with our school name on it. A local company made them for us and the profit margin is pretty high.

 

[sarahsmom73]

The Flamingo thing raises a lot.... Our Middle school did a can/bottle drive and raised almost $4000 for tsunami relief.

Our parents club does a holiday raffle with lots of great prizes such as gift certificates for dinners out, 100 gallons of fuel, flower arrangements, sp services etc. They have eneough prizes donated that 1 person is drawn every day from Thanksgiving to Christmas. Tickets are 5 dollars each. They raise a huge amount of money.

Good Luck!

 

[nboicepardee]

Some restraunts will sponser a night during which they'll donate 10-15% of the profits. I know Friendlys does it-they'll give you a 3-4hr. time period on a specific night (weeknight), and you get the percentage for your organization. It's good for them (they get lots of people in and it's probably a write off) and good for you!

I know Chevy's does this too. Good luck!

 

[ebhurleys]

The simplest method that the kids can get involved with is still the candy sales. Take a look at darnallfundraising.com. This is the site that my wife used last year for Winterguard Fundraising. For each one dollar candy bar sold, the kids receive about 50 cents. If you order properly, the shipping is free. Send the kids out in groups or to school and it sells pretty fast.

I think we are planning to do the same type of candy sales for the band trip to WDW in February, 2006. This will allow the kids to offset the cost. We are looking at about $1,000 per kid so we have to get this up and running by September.

The other big fundraiser that was successful was a comedy night. My wife and another mother organized this last year. They had 6 improv comedians in a donated function room and sold admission tickets. Raised about $3400 in one night. This included admission and raffles. The raffles were both handmade crafts and donated goods. They restricted the audience to just adults. We are talking about doing this again this year, maybe more than once. People were buying a whole table for their friends and relatives. It is a cheap and fun night out.

Hope this helps.

 

[SnowWhite]

When I was in Drum and Bugle Corps we sold Worlds Finest choclate bunnies at Easter, Candy Canes at Christmas and we had cheese sales (we sold empire cheese here in Canada) and I sold enough that I never had to pay dues for any of our trips in 10 years. AND yes I sold these products, my parents never sold one item for me or took them to work. They didn't believe in that. Worlds Finest also sells chocolate almonds and chocolate mints etc. That may help out alot. Just a thought for you.............

Rob (snowwhite's DH)

 

[my3princes]

I haven't read all of the posts, but I've often thought that a great fund raiser would be to offer lunch, ie hoagies and chips or whatever to be delivered to local businesses. My husband is a mechanic and a truck goes there every day with snack/lunch items. everything on the truck is very expensive, but everyday 10+ people buy stuff. You could even come up with a menu and have people per order what they want. This truck goes to dozens of businesses each day. If you are really smart about it you could probably get most of your items donated. In our area I can get milk donated from the schools milk supplier. Coke corporation will donate soda for different projects. Bread manufactors often donate hamburger/hotdog buns. Local stores may be willing to donate hot dogs/luncheon meats.

 

[Mickey Mom]

Thanks for all of your responses! You are all great! Terrific ideas! I will definately use some of the ideas that I can use for my committee, and pass along some of the other ideas to the rest of the band! Thanks so much!

My friend and I are in charge of the individual fundraising. We also have other committees that work on group fundraising, so I will pass along all of your group fundraising ideas to them. We have done the percentage of sales at a local restaurant, but there again, that was done by the group fundraising. At our football games, the band parents run a concession stand. We sell hot food as well as fries, nachos, pop, candy, etc. It is a lot of work and takes around 25 to 30 parents to work one football game. We do get a nice profit, but when you split that between 150 students, and cover all of the expenses for things that the school does not provide, there is not too much that can go into individual student accounts. We have done car washes for other organizations and they have been very profitable, but our kids are so busy (with band and other activities) during the good weather, I just can't ask them to give up any more time.

For the pointsettia sales, I asked another band in our area about different ideas and they passed along the name of a place that locally supplies them. We have never actually done the pointsettia sales, but we are considering it for this year. The only drawback is that I am not good with plants, and I don't want to be responsible for plants that people don't pick up. I also looked into selling evergreen wreaths and swags. We haven't done that sale either. I really like to stick with the local companies. They seem to give you the best service and a good profit.

Thanks again for all of your responses!

 

[MrsPete]

In the past we have sold zap-a-snack pizzas, frozen cookie dough, subway coupons, candy bars, pies (from a local pie shop), soups, and candy (from a local candy shop).

The problem with most of these type of fundraisers is that you keep less than 50% of the profits. And with 9 sales per year and these students selling to the same family/neighbors, people will quit buying. If you can sell SERVICE instead of material goods, you make a much higher percentage.

Carwashes, of course, are the classic; and after you've paid for a bottle of soap, it's profit. Consider offering a yard-cleaning service in the fall when everyone needs leaves raked. Yard sales are pure profit too. We live in NASCAR country, and the Speedway pays local groups BIG BUCKS to come in and sell sodas, etc. on race days and to clean up after the races. Our local theme park does the same thing (they hire groups to work 1-2 days on fall weekends after their college student help has returned to school; the paycheck goes straight to the group). A babysitting service (large group at the school) around Christmas or on Valentine's Day could bring in some dollars; you'll need a few snacks for the kids, and your students can plan games and movies to keep the kids occupied. How about a haunted house /hayride on Halloween? Lots of work to set up, but you'll make bucks.

Spaghtetti suppers and pancake breakfasts aren't really service-oriented projects, but they have much less cost than the candy-sale type things; thus, your profit is higher. You can get much of the food donated from grocery stores and food suppliers, and parents will usually donate cakes for the dessert table. Do you have a granddad who looks like Santa? Rent him a costume and sell tickets to "Breakfast with Santa". Combine it with a kids' craft day where band kids guide little ones in making homemade gifts for family members; keep it cheap and simple.

Do you have a talented photographer amongst your volunteers? Could he or she take candid pictures at homecoming, the casual dances, etc. and sell them to students?

In closing, the way to make big profits is to avoid pre-packaged fundraisers. Those people who run those companies are already making the big profits -- they're making them from you.

 

[calypso*a*go-go]

You can recycle Christmas trees during the holidays. Our Cub Scouts do this and earn quite a bit of money. You hang fliers on doors a week or so before Christmas and offer to pick the trees up from the curb a week or so after Christmas. They ask for a $5 donation but usually receive more. All it takes is some able bodies, a few large trucks, and a county dump or recycling center.

 

[mrp4352]

http://themagnetoutlet.com/photo_pockets.htm

Hi! We're getting ready to sell photo pockets at my work for a departmental fundraiser. We decided to go without the logo on the pockets, but for the band, you may want to offer that option! (Also, we discovered that if you get a high-quality label maker, you can print out the label and stick it to the front to personalize each pocket. We're going to do that and charge extra for the personalization. But check the quality for yourself before you decide if that's a good option for your group.)

Also, for a group fundraiser, every year at church, our choir puts on a Valentine's Day Dinner. We work with a local restaurant who brings in the food, we plate and serve it (table service, no buffet lines). And in between courses, we have some entertainment - talent show type stuff. We have sold roses to be delivered during the evening in the past, but decided that we don't make enough money for the effort... Also, one year we took Polaroid pics at the tables of the couples and sold them at the table later in the evening (like on the cruise ships, kind of). That went over really well! The manpower is a little high. We used 2 waiters per 8-top table, a maitre 'd (for seating - and to keep him out of the way, lovely fellow, but a klutz!), 6 in the kitchen, 3 runners, 1 sound, 1 lights, and entertainment (which the people listed above could participate in.).

Oh, many thanks for the basket bingo idea. I'm sorry, I don't remember who it's from, but rest assured at my fundraising meeting this afternoon, it will be discussed!

Good luck!!

 

[Lisa loves Pooh]

If you have a Texas Roadhouse--you can speak to them. They will host fundraiser nights. For schools....I believe that the patrons must mention they are there for the school. I am doing a night with them for Leukemia LYmphoma. Due to this organization being nationwide--they are donating a percentage of ALL customers.

We have an Andretti thrill park--so if you have one of those go-cart, putt putt golf type of places--you can speak to them about having a school spirit night---they supply the coupons and you just past them out--you can negotiate a % or $ amount from each student who goes.


With a letterhead and official letter--perhaps from the Band director or school principal--you can hit up local businesses for items for a raffle.

Whatever you do--don't "beg" for money--always be selling something or earning that money. Wal-mart allows you to sell something for money (as opposed to just asking people for money). I will be doing patriotic mardi gras beads for 4th of July weekend. YOu can do the same thing for Labor Day, Halloween, Christmas, or Homecoming week. You can do it at Wal-mart or at your school. I just ordered 720 beads for about $30 or so (maybe less, I forget). If you sell them for $1 a piece at a football game...you are golden!

 

[rwebbirish]

There are companies who will allow you to buy gift cards/certificates at a discounted rate (from 1.5% to 20%). As an example, the company that our school uses will discount Wendy's at 10%. If I order $100 worth of Wendy's gift certificates, the company charges $90 for those certificates. That $10 is deposited into my account. I run the program for our Catholic school, and we split the profit between the school and the parent's tuition bill. In one year's time, I (just me) have earned over $800 for the school, and have saved over $800 on my tuition. You will need to purchase software to keep track of each family's money (this runs betweeen $100 and $400, depending on which program you buy). The great thing about this program is that if you spend $100, you will get $100 dollars worth of ceritficates back. It can be used for restaurants, gas, hotels, retail stores, maid services, lawn services, etc. Plus, your extended family can participate, and they don't have to spend $8 for $2 worth of wrapping paper. A lot of travelling sports programs use this in order to reduce family expenses. The only requirement is that you must be a nonprofit organization. We only have about 45 families that actively participate at this time and together we have raised, in one year, $28,000. Do an internet search for "scrip" and see which company might be best for your area.