OT-Easy Fundraising Needed for PTA

[imthatgirl]

Our elementary school does only a single fund raiser. It's a fun run. Each kids entry fee is $25.00 (those that can't afford it get to run for free). The kids all get T-shirts (there is a design contest) as well. We get local company's to sponser the t-shirts so there is no cost involved, they get the advertisement and the shirts are free. The majority of the kids participate. Parents donate water, donuts, and fruit for snacks after the run. The top three boys and girl runners in each grade get awarded medals. Parents volunteer for registration and are setup over the course. Our school is in the middle of a great neighborhood, so we can block off streets with the help of a couple of police officers. The principle runs with the kids. It's a great activity and it raises thousands of dollars every year. The best part is that it is the only fund raiser needed. The kids don't have to sell magazines, etc.

the fun run is a great idea. i work with colonial road runners here in MA every summer and do a 4 week fun run. but ive never thought of doing it in the fall for school fundraising. ill have to just think about how to approach this. we charge only 1.00 a child for each run. we run on sundays. i wonder if people would have a negative reactiob to 25 dollars.
but thanks for the idea!!!

 

[luvmy3]

www.cartridgesforkids.com

I didn't see this mentioned. Our school does this among other things that have already been stated.

 

[tripplanner]

the fun run is a great idea. i work with colonial road runners here in MA every summer and do a 4 week fun run. but ive never thought of doing it in the fall for school fundraising. ill have to just think about how to approach this. we charge only 1.00 a child for each run. we run on sundays. i wonder if people would have a negative reactiob to 25 dollars.
but thanks for the idea!!!

It's actually an easy sell to the parents since they know that it's the only money they will be asked to pay for the entire school year. It's also made real clear that if you can't afford it, your kids can still participate.

 

[imthatgirl]

It's actually an easy sell to the parents since they know that it's the only money they will be asked to pay for the entire school year. It's also made real clear that if you can't afford it, your kids can still participate.

yeah, the only problem for us is we've been doing it for 6 years at $1.00 a kid. so i dont know how theyd react if we raised it and only did it once. we do it in the summer 4 sundays in a row, so it costs each kid $4.
its just going to have to be in the wording, thats all. we'd have to make parents understand thats its 2 different functions. the summer one, we dont make any money off of it, this one we'd have to.

 

[SLK1]

We do a Read-A-Thon. The kids get pledges for number of minutes read at home. (most families just get donations). It's a great kick off idea if your school does AR or is good for the dead of winter when nothing else is going on and kids are getting bored with reading. It helps to have class competitions for minutes read and prizes.

What a wonderful idea!!! We have also done a walk-a-thon where kids get pledges and they walk the bus loop or whatever to raise money. No selling, no overhead, etc.

There is also a company that will turn kids' artwork into notepads, mousepads, magnets, etc.

 

[SLK1]

and it has gone over very well. Of course you would need all the teachers onboard.

Each teacher "raffles" something to do with their time/interestes. They can do something simple like bake a cake, or as most did, they can give of their time. (My DD won a scrapbooking hour with 2 of her friends that they did one day before school.) Other kids won a lunch with a teacher, a special painting by the art teacher, chess game with a teacher.. etc. Every adult can make it as easy/simple as they want to . For fifty cents kids buy a ticket and put it toward the teachers prize they want to win. It was "different", had no starting $, and it was nice to see all the extra talents/interests of the adults at the school.

Good luck!

This is BIG at our school too. A really popular teacher can bring in tons of money. Our principal even offers "Principal for the Day". We also auction off a prime parking space in the school parking lot and front row seats at the music performances.

 

[disneyplanningdad]

Check out www.scrip.com. This is effortless fondraising. Scrip sells gift cards for local and national stores. The easiest stores are grocery stores. Instead of using cash families use gift cards that the school gets through SCRIP. The school gets a percentage of the sale. Our school of about 300 families raised about $40,000 last year.

 

[FSUDisneyGirl]

I love the idea of teachers donating time/ interests. Can those of you who have done these fundraisers give me more examples of what types of things teachers did/ donated? What an awesome idea! We are trying to raise money to take our Chorus/ Drama Club to see the National Tour of Annie, but our kids really don't have much money, and I think this would be great!!!

Any other ideas that your music teachers have done? We are debating hosting a Fall Festival...has anyone been to or done one that was great? Any ideas for games/ events/ fundraising/ etc?

Thanks a bunch!

 

[4xfloored]

we have worked with several schools and they have done very well with our personalized Gourmet Beef Jerky.. one of our local high schools raised nearly $6000.00 from just the girls high school soccer teams alone... we make it fast, easy, and best of all personalize it with your group photo or organization logo.. there is a 40% return on a $5.00 sale per 3oz. bag... for more info please private message us ( we own the jerky factory to ensure a fresh and trouble free fundraising.)

 

[FreeGasFundraiser]

Fundraising in these hard economic times can be quite difficult, so why not offer a product that everyone NEEDS every day, GAS and GROCERIES.

You can now have a high profit fundraiser that is quick and easy to implement thanks to some competition between oil and grocery companies.

A free fuel center has teamed up with these big companies to offer up to $500 of gas or groceries for pennies on the dollar. You can now ask for donations and give away these big amounts. Quite an incentive for your donors.

This is no cookie dough fundraiser, you can set your own price, but can expect between $25-$35 profit per certificate. This really adds up fast and door to door sales have worked great, not to mention friends and family.

Everyone is excited to get their hands on one of these certificates and this fundraising idea will not remain unique for long.

Find out more about this new program and be the first in your community to get involved. Jump on over to Gas and Grocery Depot.com for more information.

PS Enter code PLSDX for a quick price cut.

 

[disneymamaof2]

Our big fundraiser is a calendar party, we have a chinese auction the same night. It goes really well.

 

[shelby101301]

I do a fundraiser every year to raise money to donate to the orphanage overseas my daughter was adopted from.

I own a scrapbooking store so I do this:

I use my church's hall for free and run an all day crop. If you're not familiar with scrapbooking, a crop is an all day event where ladies come to scrapbook. Professional crops can run very expensive, so these fundraiser crops are gaining in popularity.

Assuming you can use the school hall and tables for free, you sell spaces for roughly $35. Save $5 per person to use on food, and provide lunch or dinner or both. If you can sell 100 spots, that's $3000 profit.

Find local vendors to sponsor you, like Creative Memories, Close to My Heart and local scrapbook stores. Go for about 4 vendors for 50 croppers, and maybe 6-8 if you get 100. They donate door prizes (at least$40 value) as entry into the crop, and then they can set up tables to sell their own stuff. You can also contact mfg's online and many have links for donations for just this reason. You will have to contact a lot of them, because with this economy, they are cutting back drastically on donations. If you get enough, you can give away smaller items as door prizes and larger ones you can sell raffle tickets for to make even more.

You can also contact local grocery stores to help donate food to feed everyone. Or ask parents to donate a spaghetti dinner or baked goods for desserts, or cases of soda etc... you can choose to do just lunch or just dinner or both.

That's the basic idea. Feel free to pm me for more info on how to do it.

 

[Linda Gravelle]

My name is Linda Gravelle. I can assit your group with a very easy fundraiser. This can be an ongoing fundraiser, that will not cost you anything. This thread will not allow me to add my email address or website for you to view. Please call me at 425-372-6899, and let me tell you all about this great fundraiser, that you could start tommorrow, if you choose.

 

[santa's surpriz]

This fall we did our first walk-a-thon and it was a huge success. We exceeded or goal. We gave the kids an incentive, collect $50 and get a free T shirt. It was grear bc there was little cost, the kids walked arond the playground. It was more or less parent donations, but at least I did not have to pick a useless item item from a catalog so my DD can get a junky toy.

 

[woodkins]

Our PTA is great at fundraising events. Some recent ones are:
1-Reusable tote bags-we used www.mixedbagdesigns.com

2-School pictures-we raised almost $4k from this one

3-Wingo-like Bingo we sold by the card but also did family pizza pkgs where they got a bottle of soda, lg pizza & 4 bingo cards. The prizes were all donated from local businesses so costs were next to nothing.

4-Gingerbread university-the local gingerbread shop sold us kits at a discount and we ran a decorating party, sold refreshments, extras etc.

5-Smencils-PTA bought a case of these & sold them for $1 each during lunch periods. They are super popular with the kids.

6-Milk & Cookies Pajama Book Party-On a Friday night the school is open and all of the kids come in their pajamas to a book reading party. The teachers volunteer to sit in classrooms and read bedtime stories to the kids. It is usually in one corridor and the kids can stand on line outside the room to hear the story that they want. Each book is 5-10 mins long & they rotate from room to room. There are milk, cookies and refreshments in the cafeteria for sale. We usually pair this up with the book fair to raise even more $$.

 

[WDWjen]

Someone already mentioned it, but our preschool does a yard sale every year. It only requires manpower - no money to lay out. We have families donate unwanted items up to a month beforehand. Then we heavily advertise around town and on craigslist.

That morning only requires parents help set up the yard sale, sell and clean up afterwards.. its a lot of work but if you have enough volunteers its sooo much better.

We raised $700 in just a few hours- and cleaned out the school basement and garage!!


Also - we do a 'parents night out' at a local bar. We charge $25 for open bar 3 hrs.. with a DJ and dancing. Then our parents donate some snacks/appetizers and desserts to munch on. We have 5-6 raffle baskets with local donations. Its very minimal work from the parents, and everyone loves a night out without the kiddies every once in a while!

 

[MrsPooh]

Fundraising in these hard economic times can be quite difficult, so why not offer a product that everyone NEEDS every day, GAS and GROCERIES.

You can now have a high profit fundraiser that is quick and easy to implement thanks to some competition between oil and grocery companies.

A free fuel center has teamed up with these big companies to offer up to $500 of gas or groceries for pennies on the dollar. You can now ask for donations and give away these big amounts. Quite an incentive for your donors.

This is no cookie dough fundraiser, you can set your own price, but can expect between $25-$35 profit per certificate. This really adds up fast and door to door sales have worked great, not to mention friends and family.

Everyone is excited to get their hands on one of these certificates and this fundraising idea will not remain unique for long.

Find out more about this new program and be the first in your community to get involved. Jump on over to Gas and Grocery Depot.com for more information.

PS Enter code PLSDX for a quick price cut.

PLEASE investigate this before going further. News channels in our area have done reports about problems ever getting the gas & groceries from this type of program. It was a major scam. It may not be this company but please make sure you investigate before risking making a bunch of supporters upset.

 

[MrsPooh]

I love the idea of teachers donating time/ interests. Can those of you who have done these fundraisers give me more examples of what types of things teachers did/ donated? What an awesome idea! We are trying to raise money to take our Chorus/ Drama Club to see the National Tour of Annie, but our kids really don't have much money, and I think this would be great!!!

Any other ideas that your music teachers have done? We are debating hosting a Fall Festival...has anyone been to or done one that was great? Any ideas for games/ events/ fundraising/ etc?

Thanks a bunch!

The most popular from last year:

The very popular kindergarten teacher offered to host a b-day party for up to 15 kids. This went for over $350.

Another teacher is a professional bowler and he had his favorite bowling alley donate a bowling party for up to 20 people which he hosted and gave pointers. He also had a used bowling pin for each child attending which he autographed and allowed them all to sign each other's pins. This was perfect because a group of parents went together to purchase it as a graduation party for the girls in my dd's class. Since they split the cost it wasn't too expensive for any one family but the total paid was about $400.

One teacher hosted a very nice dinner for 8 at his house. Four couples went in together and purchased it for $800 - way out of my price range for dinner but they were very happy.

Another teacher took a family out to dinner.

We've had music teachers donate free lessons and math teachers offer free tutoring - not just for their students but also for high school students.

Our school also does very well with auctioning off good parking and front row seating for all of the various events at school - like Christmas concerts or band concerts.

Another thing that goes well are items the kids personalize. For example my the art teacher had each class design a special item - for my dd's class they made a large (think popcorn sized) bowl which she painted and then had each child sign their name before glazing. All of the kids wanted the item from their class and there were always a few parents with enough money to pay "whatever it took" to get their child the item.

If I think of any others I'll post.

 

[Copy247]

I print customized spirit yard signs. These signs can be used for every sport. What makes these signs different from others is that we print the child's football number on the sign. So each sign is different. We also print cheerleader for pep squad signs. This sign is in the shape of a megaphone with the cheerleader's name on it. I sell the signs for $12.50 each and the schools sell them to the parents for $25.00. Every school I approach loves the idea and we print for all their sports.

 

[perkinsrose]

We do a Read-A-Thon. The kids get pledges for number of minutes read at home. (most families just get donations). It's a great kick off idea if your school does AR or is good for the dead of winter when nothing else is going on and kids are getting bored with reading. It helps to have class competitions for minutes read and prizes.

I like this idea.

Many schools around here do Walk-a-thons lately.

I gladly donate to my kids' school to a walk-athon that I know will go directly to the school's needs versus a company getting half the proceeds of stuff the kids are expected to sell that nobody really wants to buy.