Need fundraising ideas for Summer Event

[carj]

My son will be a senior next year and his class is looking at several ideas for fundraising for the various senior activities. He asked about selling items during the football games but those events are already taken by various booster clubs. The senior class gets several events that are theirs as well.

The city holds an Independence Day celebration at the HS stadium and the class sponsor mentioned that the senior class could do something there because it is not a school event.
The event lasts several hours and there are various vendors. We would love to find a game, activity or item that we could use for this event. It will need to be fairly low cost to get going.

Does anyone have any ideas that might work for this event? I had thought about light up toys but the stadium lights are on until the fireworks start so the light up things aren’t too much fun.

I’ve thought about a carnival type game. I just wondered if anyone had any great ideas. Thanks!

 

[mousehockey37]

So is this for the entire class to do as a group or just him?

 

[kymom99]

How about face painting?

 

[clh2]

Sell ice-cold bottles of water?
Sell glow necklaces?

 

[Southernmiss]

Homemade ice cream?

Fresh fruit bowls

Watermelon slices

 

[bababear_50]

How about sell *Glow Sticks*
Or
Hold a **Car Wash**
Or
Decorate a cupcake--school colours
Or
Make and sell ice cream sundaes.
Or
make and sell Seasoned Popcorn
Or
Board game
Let participants choose their favourite board game to play. Give out prizes to the winners — you can approach local businesses for contributions. Charge a fee to play, an entrance fee and sell refreshments.

Hugs Mel

 

[TwoMisfits]

If you want a cheap-to-execute carnival game...

1st, you could do the Dum Dum tree...pick a Dum Dum lollipop from a display - if it has a black bottom, you win the pop and an extra prize...if it has a regular bottom, you win the pop. This also asks very little of the students, which might be a concern...and can be run with 2 of them easily...

$1/guess...pops are cheap, set up is stupid cheap...and you can easily know how many winners you'll have (by how many marked pops you do)...For the overall prizes, giant candy might be easy and fun. It couldn't be chocolate, but you could get those giant gummy bears or gummy worms, pop rocks boxes (fun for July 4th), swedish fish boxes, etc. Making them in school colors - all the better!

2nd, you could do a Ring Toss...use glow bracelets for the toss (you have to make sure they'll work - they weigh enough and stay together enough to circle a bottle), and glue a board of bottled waters to aim at that sits on the ground (cheap and easy)...if you lose, you keep the bracelets you tossed. If you win, you get the bracelets plus an ice cold bottle of water (from a stash separate from the board).

$1/toss should still let you make money on every toss, even if they win a lot...

I like games where parents know their kid gets something to "win" even if they lose...it makes them more willing to open their wallets...

If you want a game, I'd do the Dum Dums myself, but I could see wanting something more active...

 

[powellrj]

You can rent machines for the day. We (parents group) rented a snow cone machine for several years at the schools carnival. We made a nice profit. You could also rent things like cotton candy, popcorn, frozen coke machines. Inflatables are always popular.

 

[Southernmiss]

Dunking booth

Tp Toss

Slip n slide $2 for 15 minutes or so

 

[carj]

So is this for the entire class to do as a group or just him?

It’s for the whole class. There are about 400 in the class but there will not be that many who participate. Since it’s a single opportunity, I’m looking for something without a huge investment.

 

[Dumbo777]

I'm fundraising VP for our school and out of all my experience food sells the best. You could do a snack booth with sodas, Frito pie (crockpot full of chili and another with cheese), hot Cheetos( not sure if that's everywhere or just a Texas thing) with cheese and sell pickles. Food makes good money and you can buy it cheap in bulk.

 

[carj]

If you want a cheap-to-execute carnival game...

1st, you could do the Dum Dum tree...pick a Dum Dum lollipop from a display - if it has a black bottom, you win the pop and an extra prize...if it has a regular bottom, you win the pop. This also asks very little of the students, which might be a concern...and can be run with 2 of them easily...

$1/guess...pops are cheap, set up is stupid cheap...and you can easily know how many winners you'll have (by how many marked pops you do)...For the overall prizes, giant candy might be easy and fun. It couldn't be chocolate, but you could get those giant gummy bears or gummy worms, pop rocks boxes (fun for July 4th), swedish fish boxes, etc. Making them in school colors - all the better!

2nd, you could do a Ring Toss...use glow bracelets for the toss (you have to make sure they'll work - they way enough and stay together enough to circle a bottle), and glue a board of bottled waters to aim at that sits on the ground (cheap and easy)...if you lose, you keep the bracelets you tossed. If you win, you get the bracelets plus an ice cold bottle of water (from a stash separate from the board).

$1/toss should still let you make money on every toss, even if they win a lot...

I like games where parents know their kid gets something to "win" even if they lose...it makes them more willing to open their wallets...

If you want a game, I'd do the Dum Dums myself, but I could see wanting something more active...

I love both ideas, especially the glow bracelet ring toss idea!
We definitely need games where the initial outlay is inexpensive and since it’s in the middle of the summer, it will be harder to get a huge group of kids.

 

[carj]

I'm fundraising VP for our school and out of all my experience food sells the best. You could do a snack booth with sodas, Frito pie (crockpot full of chili and another with cheese), hot Cheetos( not sure if that's everywhere or just a Texas thing) with cheese and sell pickles. Food makes good money and you can buy it cheap in bulk.

I would love to sell food but because it’s a community event, there are already several food vendors. We could definitely sell pre-packages items though, if we also had a game set up.

 

[carj]

How about sell *Glow Sticks*
Or
Hold a **Car Wash**
Or
Decorate a cupcake--school colours
Or
Make and sell ice cream sundaes.
Or
make and sell Seasoned Popcorn
Or
Board game
Let participants choose their favourite board game to play. Give out prizes to the winners — you can approach local businesses for contributions. Charge a fee to play, an entrance fee and sell refreshments.

Hugs Mel

We could definitely do a decorate your own of something. Maybe a cookie would be easier than a cupcake? I will look into that! Thanks!

 

[TwoMisfits]

We could definitely do a decorate your own of something. Maybe a cookie would be easier than a cupcake? I will look into that! Thanks!

The thing with decorating food products is that it will make an enormous mess in high heat - icing will be incredibly melty and any "stick" item will be almost impossible to stick...and then you'd need some way to clean everything...and you're outside...and outside in the summer means bugs, lots and lots of bugs...

You could do arts and crafts, but most folks don't pay for that...

If there are food vendors already, I'd stick to the face painting (which folks will pay for), a game, or if you have any talented kids, you could do balloon animals (folks would also pay for these - swords and dogs...

PS - Another game you can do is a bean bag toss through either predone boards (if kids own them) or your own homemade board. Prizes could be a Dum dum for "a good try" and something better for a win...

 

[Dumbo777]

I would love to sell food but because it’s a community event, there are already several food vendors. We could definitely sell pre-packages items though, if we also had a game set up.

Since it is July and it will be hot, what about a water balloon toss?

 

[BrerRabbit66]

Set up a Dance Party for the littles hosted by the teens. They can get out and active getting the littles jumping around to the music and sell softdrinks, water, juice boxes on the side. Maybe have some of the kids doing face painting.

 

[carj]

Since it is July and it will be hot, what about a water balloon toss?

That’s a great idea!

 

[carj]

The thing with decorating food products is that it will make an enormous mess in high heat - icing will be incredibly melty and any "stick" item will be almost impossible to stick...and then you'd need some way to clean everything...and you're outside...and outside in the summer means bugs, lots and lots of bugs...

You could do arts and crafts, but most folks don't pay for that...

If there are food vendors already, I'd stick to the face painting (which folks will pay for), a game, or if you have any talented kids, you could do balloon animals (folks would also pay for these - swords and dogs...

PS - Another game you can do is a bean bag toss through either predone boards (if kids own them) or your own homemade board. Prizes could be a Dum dum for "a good try" and something better for a win...

Yes, anything with food may be too much trouble.

 

[mousehockey37]

Ok, so cheap to do games...

Dime pitch
Ring toss
Goldfish bowl game
Dart board game
Corn hole toss game

For prizes, they could hit the community and get donations. Depending on the business and how it goes, you might stumble into someone looking for an opportunity to get their name out there and work with the kids to "up" the games. I'd also hit all the grocery stores and such too for prizes. Most will be willing to give gift cards and such.