Marching Band Booster fundraising ideas

[SydSim]

Would love to hear of some great fundraising ideas. We only have about 60 members (including color guard) and our funding has been cut, so we really need to raise more money.

What have other booster clubs done? Thanks

 

[snarlingcoyote]

My dear relations' band goes to all the local businesses and asks them if they could give some sort of special deal for people who buy a "spirit card". This usually ranges anywhere from a free drink to half-off a second entree to 10% off at a local clothing store. The band then prints up the cards with all the deals on the front and back and sells the cards for a certain amount, $15 or $20 I think.

The band is only out the cost of printing the cards from the profit of the cards, the local businesses get additional customers and the purchasers of the cards get a discount. Win-win-win.

High dollar/hard-to-get raffles do well around here. I know a couple of private schools that make a good bit of money by raffling off box tickets, including parking, to impossible to get football games that are donated by alumni.

 

[golfgal]

Our biggest fundraiser is hosting a show (field show band). We bring in over $10,000 with entry fees, admissions, concessions and ad sales in the program booklet. We have also added a silent auction to our home show "events' with a professional organizer doing all the work for us .

Our band also has various "sales" through the year, wrapping paper, cookie dough, fruit, etc. These are all voluntary for the students.

We have a HUGE garage sale each spring as well. We have several semi trailers parked in the school lot for a week and have people bring donations, sorted into spots in the various trailers as people bring them. We have any large donations (furniture, etc.) brought the night before as we are setting up in the school cafeteria. All of the kids help and most of the parents so we man the sale that way. It has been around for about 10 years so people mark it on calendars (always the same weekend in April). We bring in about $8000-9000/year but I think we could do better by marking items up a bit-very inexpensive. It is pure profit since everything is donated. What we don't sell we bring to a charity since we have the semi's there already it is easy.

We also have a hot dog/Bratwurst stand for the local parade and for the garage sale.

 

[VAfamily1998]

Have you considered Scrip?
http://www.glscrip.com/howscripworks/index.aspx

I've known of a few private schools and churches that use it as a fundraiser...the good thing about it, is unlike selling wrapping paper/cookie dough, etc, people arent' really spending any more money than they would have anyways. For example, if I know I usually spend $150/week at Albertson's Grocery Store, I can just buy $150 of Albertsons Scrip and use that to buy my groceries...I'm not "out" any money, yet my organization has earned $6!

 

[golfgal]

Have you considered Scrip?
http://www.glscrip.com/howscripworks/index.aspx

I've known of a few private schools and churches that use it as a fundraiser...the good thing about it, is unlike selling wrapping paper/cookie dough, etc, people arent' really spending any more money than they would have anyways. For example, if I know I usually spend $150/week at Albertson's Grocery Store, I can just buy $150 of Albertsons Scrip and use that to buy my groceries...I'm not "out" any money, yet my organization has earned $6!

Our kids' Catholic elementary school did this. It's a lot of paperwork but very worth it. I am pretty sure you have to be a non-profit to use this but most booster clubs are (and if you are not you should be).

 

[disneyfan007]

Our band starting doing band shows about 3 years ago. They are very well attended and do bring is good money.

We have also done Marketday for many many years and have good luck with that. In fact our Girl Scouts take it over in the summer time. I am sure you can just google it and find the website. It is basically like Schwanns, but the food is delivered to the school for people to pick up. Students take turn sorting and packing the food for everyone to earn credit towards their funds.

We also do concession stands at all home football games and track meets.

 

[clh2]

Our high school's fundraising is generally "student driven". Someone manages the individual accounts. That way if students sell more - the benefit is to their direct account. This account is used for any trips the band may go on. Our band goes on an international trip every 4 years, and does a trip in the US 2 years after every international trip.

Some of the things our band has done is - frozen pizza sales, entertainment books, cookie dough, candy bars etc. Probably the "usual" ones.

There are some bigger fundraisers the band boosters do - an annual golf outing which includes a dinner, and a silent auction. The bigger efforts benefit the entire band program.

Also - in our high school, marching band requires a $50 "activity fee" and a $40 fundraising fee (i.e. help out at concession stands 2 times, or pay the fee). In case you are wondering the difference - there is a district-wide family cap on activity fees, there isn't a cap on the fundraising fees.

Hope this helps!

 

[golfgal]

Our high school's fundraising is generally "student driven". Someone manages the individual accounts. That way if students sell more - the benefit is to their direct account. This account is used for any trips the band may go on. Our band goes on an international trip every 4 years, and does a trip in the US 2 years after every international trip.

Some of the things our band has done is - frozen pizza sales, entertainment books, cookie dough, candy bars etc. Probably the "usual" ones.

There are some bigger fundraisers the band boosters do - an annual golf outing which includes a dinner, and a silent auction. The bigger efforts benefit the entire band program.

Also - in our high school, marching band requires a $50 "activity fee" and a $40 fundraising fee (i.e. help out at concession stands 2 times, or pay the fee). In case you are wondering the difference - there is a district-wide family cap on activity fees, there isn't a cap on the fundraising fees.

Hope this helps!

One band in our area also does a golf fundraiser. We tried one last year but just not enough golfers associtated with the band to realize that $100 for 18 holes of golf, with a cart, dinner and a gift bag was a good deal. They wanted to bring kids to the silent auction. I felt like saying-"only if your kid has a checkbook" .

I should add-we pay $850/kid for marching band. Our band program is 100% self-supported. That pays for a week away at band camp and 2-3 overnight trips and all transportation costs, etc.

Our band also goes on a trip every 3rd year that a lot of kids raise funds for during the fundraisers (half of the profit from any fundraiser, except the garage sale goes into the student account).

 

[SydSim]

Thanks for all of the ideas!

Unfortunately, we don't have a lot of parental involvement (poor band director feels like he's just a babysitter sometimes). So the fundraising that we do has to get us a lot of money, because only a few will participate.

Golf isn't really the thing around here, but garage sales are! We'll look into that. Our history with the normal stuff (pizza, cheesecake, etc.) isn't very good at all, and our budget was cut last year, so we are in desperate need of some funds replenishing. And we don't really travel, just band camp, but we are in need of newer instruments (pit stuff).

All in all, with about 50-60 band and color guard members, we have about 8 active parents. And it doesn't help that a lot of kids don't bring some of the information home to their parents

 

[Pixie Dust for Me!]

Here are a few other ideas:

Trivia Night with a silent auction. For the auction items, ask each student to donate something that they will do -- i.e., shovel snow, 3 hours of yard work, a night of babysitting, homemade cookies (a batch a week for 4 weeks), etc. Also things the school can chip in that won't cost them anything are reserved front row seats to the band concert, the drama production, etc.; reserved parking for a particular event; principal for the day; etc.

It's old fashioned, but a car wash or a dog wash?

How about selling "treats" at school -- we used to do a valentine sale where we would sell valentines for $2 and the sender got us to deliver a valentine in class with either a rose or candy (yep, back in the dark ages when I was in high school).

We once had a school mixer sponsored by our choir -- the choir arranged for the DJ and got parents and teachers to chaperone; charged each kid attending about $10 and asked them to bring an unopened 2L of soda (yep, back in the stone ages again) and made a TON of money. Most kids in our school attended (about 800 kids) and the parents and teachers donated their time while one of the choir members was the DJ. We also did it one time where the kids could pay $5 if they brought 10 cans of food for a local food pantry....the pantry made out like a bandit too!

For those parents that don't/won't participate, I agree that they should pay a fundraising fee. We've been asked to either participate or pay as much as $200 to buy-out concession stand times, etc. (I'm ususally the one organizing, so I make sure it "hurts" a bit not to participate -- but at the same time I'm flexible...for example, we had a single mom with breast cancer and 4 kids....yep, couldn't ask her to pay it...no way! But, at the same time, as soon as she was able, she came up and tried to work a shift at an event...we told her to go enjoy her kids and gave her a big hug! Next year when she was doing much better, she volunteered to work an extra shift for a dad who recently lost his wife.)

Hope these ideas help. I'm now doing fundraising for my kids class trip and helping another class raise money for a trip to London. It's time consuming!

Karen

 

[momof1princess]

i don't think our HS marching band does fundraisers, but the band boosters (parents) are responsible for running the concession stand at every home football game, and we keep the proceeds, minus food costs, of course. we don't have a big trip this year, so i'm not sure if there are fundraisers for those, but i'll find out next year-they usually do a big trip every other year. DD13 will be eligible to march this coming fall (she was an equipment manager this year), so she's going to be responsible for earning the money to pay for her uniform.

 

[wowsmom]

Our band doesn't do any big fundraisers (there is a participation fee and a donation to the department) but one little thing we do that adds up over time is asking all band members to bring in their aluminum cans and plastic bottles. CA has a 5¢ CRV that you pay when you buy water/sodas/etc and then the bottles can be turned back in to get that fee back - a couple of the band kids take the bottles/cans in once a month or so. It's not a lot of $$ but every little bit helps.

 

[NYEmomma]

Do you do a yearly Tag Day??

We did it when I was in the high school band & the city that we live in now also does it.

One day every year the band members go door to door throughout the city (dressed in their band uniforms) and ask for change (or any donation).

We had a 250+ member band so we were able to canvas a bigger portion of the city than 60 kids would be able to, but we always raised a TON of money that way.

We also sold a Market Day type food service. Wasn't Market Day though since the PTA did that... for some reason, I want to say Omaha Steaks???

I second the person who suggested a "discount card" for local businesses. DH & I buy them every year the band or sports teams come around and sell them. There's almost always a BOGO pizza deal, Chikfila deal and discounts to the local miniature golf places.

We'd buy just to support the sports/music programs because we were both band nerds and it played such an important part of our lives (it's how we met!), but the discounts are always worth the $10 anyways.

 

[pixiewings71]

Our bands major fund raiser is a yearly crab feed. The profit from this year was $10,000.....that's profit, that's after we paid for the food, drinks, and anything else they had to actually pay for. I don't have the exact breakdown but that amount includes ticket sales, raffle sales (they asked for basket donations), 50/50 drawing and the big raffle was an iPad, one of the parents was able to donate it so all the proceeds were profit. You might want to check into something like that, you could do a spaghetti feed instead of crab...we are very close to SF so it's easy to get crab/oysters here, but we also had chicken, pasta, bread and salad and it was all all you can eat.....oh ya, they also did a silent cake raffle, parents donated cakes and diners made bids for the cakes, that was neat as well.

 

[Pembo]

Our band sells fruit in November. They had a candy bar sale. We also have Night at the Races and a steak fry.

A new idea is to sell Krispie Kreme donuts at the football games.

 

[kellyg403]

We have a fairly large HS marching band with a bit of parent involvement. Honestly, if you were to host a competition, it is the biggest money maker. Our band members are REQUIRED the day of the comp to help out in different areas, concessions, gate etc. I have been the Gate Chair for 3 years and I don't have anyone in marching band anymore. Just appreciate all the hard work that goes into it and understand how hard it is to get parent volunteers. Our marching band also gets to host concessions on JV football nights and I 'try' to volunteer a few nights for that. By requiring the students to volunteer we are able to keep the comps going. EAch year we have several parents who volunteer and the day of not show, so we have to have that buffer in the students.

We do a car show once a year, we have a pancake breakfast hosted by one of our local restuarants. We get a percentage of the proceeds. The students sell fruit or pizzas in the beginning of the year and usually Krispy Kreme's at the end of the year.

During the year we have someone who donates the bread for the sandwiches for competition and a local business donated water for EVERY comp..what a god send that was.

Get out in the community. For the competition handbooks, we make the most in advertising. Donors pay a certain amount for ads in the program and then we have a printer who donates a large portion of the program materials and printing. Some will donate towards trophy's with their names on it as advertising so that helps there.

As for day to day fundraisers, it can be rough to raise the amounts of money to get what is needed for the band.

Kelly

 

[meliss8599]

Can you do penny wars at lunch?

Each grade level has a large jar/jug and at lunch, people from each grade level will deposit pennies into their own jar. They put silver coins into others' jugs which count as negative amounts. The winning grade level can win a nominal prize such as a pizza party (hopefully donated by a local establishment) or a no homework pass or a coupon/discount/gift card to a local place.

Each morning, the grade level currently in the lead is announced on the loudspeaker to increase excitement and the desire to win. At the end of the contest, your band would have all of the change to add to their fund.

 

[golfgal]

Thanks for all of the ideas!

Unfortunately, we don't have a lot of parental involvement (poor band director feels like he's just a babysitter sometimes). So the fundraising that we do has to get us a lot of money, because only a few will participate.

Golf isn't really the thing around here, but garage sales are! We'll look into that. Our history with the normal stuff (pizza, cheesecake, etc.) isn't very good at all, and our budget was cut last year, so we are in desperate need of some funds replenishing. And we don't really travel, just band camp, but we are in need of newer instruments (pit stuff).

All in all, with about 50-60 band and color guard members, we have about 8 active parents. And it doesn't help that a lot of kids don't bring some of the information home to their parents

Our district has an instrument donation program as well. It is mainly designed to get instruments for new students (5th graders). That has gone over very well. Sometimes if you have a specific goal and dollar amount people are more willing to donate--say you need $5000 for new marimbas or whatever-have that be your 'goal' of either getting the instruments donated or money toward them. Even just going door to door asking for cash donations when you can say "my band is raising X dollars for this equipment". I think you will find people willing to help.

 

[Sadie22]

There was an active parent organization associated with our high school's band. The concert band and the marching band were the same. The band would perform in local parades and receive money for the appearance. (Each parade participant would be sponsored by a local business.) Once or twice a summer they would give a performance at the local outdoor bandshell and receive funds from the local government for that. During the school year there would be cookie dough and pizza sales. For each concert performance there would be a program and ads would be sold to appear in the program. The band also sold woven blankets and other items. There have been spaghetti dinners and basket bingos also benefitting the band.

 

[wowsmom]

Can't believe I forgot this when I replied earlier...especially since I ate there twice last week - once for each son's music dept!!!

Every month, on a specific day (like the 1st Monday or 2nd Thursday), a local restaurant will give back 10% of food purchases - you eat, then sign a sheet. The restaurant does this for all the local elementaries, plus various middle school and high school groups (music dept or science club, etc). Each group has their set day and sometimes there will be 2 or 3 groups on the same night. I think that usually brings in 200-300 per month. One year, the middle school music dept actually got a bonus because they'd had the biggest fundraiser night ever.