Parents- Would YOU like this fundraiser?

[FSUDisneyGirl]

I am a new teacher at a K-8 public school in Florida. I'm in need of a way to raise money for our school chorus and our spring play!

So...I've decided to start a fundraiser with my chorus kids (about 50). I'm trying to think low stress, easy for parents, and something people will actually use! The best thing I've found is a company that does something similar to entertainment books, but entertainment cards. We would find a bunch of businesses close by who would offer discounts (ex. pizza at a discount, free drink with meal, etc) to put on the card. We can buy the cards for $3, sell for $10, and make a $7 profit on each! I figure that if we can try and have each chorus student sell 2 cards, we can make about $700 for our spring play and for music for chorus next fall.

Since I am not a parent yet...I came to you! I know that not all parents are interested in fundraising. However, I figure that for the parents who don't mind, they could try and sell them, or just buy both for $20 and maybe give the other to a friend or family member. Is this something you would be interested in? I know that if the restaurants are not close or desirable, nobody will want the card. However, I would plan on many close by, frequently visited places.

If you think that is a bad idea...is there anything you have done at your school that was easier? We are in a pretty low income area, but it seems to me the parents who have put their kids into chorus would be willing to try and sell 2 cards. If we could get some really good deals, I think that the cards could really pay for themselves over the course of a year.

Thanks in advance for any help! I really am just trying to find an easy way for us to raise the money we need for a great program- thanks!!!

 

[MousekaMaddi]

from a high school football player from our town, Im a small business owner and put 20% off entire purchase whenever this card is shown, I like it, I paid ten dollars for the card I bought, It has buy one get one pizza slice, free dunkin donut with a large coffee,free fry with a burger at McD.......etc

 

[kribit]

A few football players came to our door at the beginning of football season with a $15 card similar to what you are explaining. I have to be honest, I wasn't going to buy it because the kids were not from my town, but my husband felt bad - they seemed like nice kids.

I think it's a nice idea for your fundraising.

 

[mjantz]

I like those. I've not found them in this area but if anyone came by selling them, I'd buy them.
If you have a choice, I'd go with a company that you can buy cards good in other states. That's one thing I like about the Entertainment Book is that our family in other states can buy them.

 

[disykat]

I like that fundraiser. I've gotten them as "thank you" for doing a friend a favor and I've given them for the same reason. I guess I have a lot of friends who just buy several to avoid selling them!

 

[tinkandpan]

I've bought them before- they are a pretty good deal. Even better and easier (IMO) is the grocery store cards. People buy grocery gift cards and the stores give back x percent. Everyone buys groceries so it's a real win win.

 

[Stephres]

It is a great idea: our PTA did them. The people who made the cards offered certain businesses but the mom in charge went out to businesses that were closer to our area and they agreed to do it. So don't think you are stuck with the businesses on the card if they aren't convenient to your area: you can always ask the ones closer to you. Good luck!

 

[dvcnewgirl]

I loved mine and was sad when they did not come to sell them this year. I never felt this way about a fundraiser.

 

[powellrj]

My DSs choir is selling these. We were really excited because it was finally a fundraiser we could sell until we saw the businesses they picked. They had a list of businesses that offered discounts and picked the ten they liked. The only problem was the 10 they picked were things we will never use so we couldn't sell the cards as easy as we thought.

They were things like coffee shops and tanning places. We were hoping for more fast food type places. I think the places where the discounts are can make or break your sale. Good luck!

Each child in DSs choir had to raise $1800, so it was easier for him to just get a part time job to help pay for the fees than to try to fundraise that much money.

 

[workinmomof2]

I have bought one of these for the last 5 or 6 years from various fund raisers. We get our money back out of it. Another plus is it benefits local businesses that participate in our area. I recommend them. We borrow each others at work if the card has a freebie from the place we are going to at lunch. If the card has businesses in the area that people will use you should have no problem selling them. We even bought them before we had kids.

 

[Love the Mouse]

I am hesitant to say, but I do The Pampered Chef and they also have a fundraiser program. Just a thought. But, I do like the gift card idea too. It's so hard doing any fundraisers. Good Luck

 

[SummersMom]

They do the cards in the High School around here. It's a pretty good deal and almost every High School kid has one (that I know of).

Our 8th graders are fundraising to go to Washington DC in the spring. The best fundraiser they do is sell Pizza slices for $1 each on Thursdays for lunch. The usual 'hot lunch' kids love it. Be careful if you do it to talk to the school lunch people. We only usually have hot lunch on Monday, Wed & Fridays so by selling pizza they weren't stepping on anyone's toes or taking away from the hot lunches.

 

[squirrlygirl]

My favorite coupon fundraiser I ever received was a from a local pizza place. It had 10 punches, each for one 1/2 price pizza. The (baseball team?) sold them for $10. They were business cards that had the promotion on them. Sadly no one has come around again with any lately

The only other book we've actually bought had some half-price golf coupons in it. A lot of times the businesses just don't appeal to us.

 

[ptcruisermom]

I absolutely love these cards. Our private school ( catholic) where my kids go, started selling these maybe 4 years ago. Before that,the public school always sold them and i always bought one from them, even bought one from a neighboring public school ( they had different discounts on them) They are so worth the money for what you pay for them and what you get back, plus the schools are making a profit on them. Last year I lost mine, so I bought a replacement and feel i was still ahead of the game with all the discounts i received ( one business offers 10 per cnet off all school jackets, which was enough to pay for the lettering) I don't use all the discounts on there but even so get more than my monies worth out of the card. OUr card has 36 businesses on it this year. Dropped a few and added a few new ones. The one I willmiss most was the .50 drink at Fazoli's

 

[afinnteach]

I'm an elementary music teacher in a rural/lower income area. Our football team does this fundraiser and I think they make a pretty good amount on it - at least they continue to do it year after year! I usually buy one - but I agree with a previous poster, you need to make sure that the businesses are convenient to your neighborhood and frequently used by the masses.

My chorus, in the past, has done a coupon deal with Subway - I forget the specifics, since we didn't do it last year, but I do remember that we made about $600 on it. So, I would think your estimation of $700 for the cards would be reasonable.

Good luck!
Amy

 

[jackskellingtonsgirl]

I would like that better than the "Giant Catalog of Crap" that DS is supposed to be selling from for band! The items range from $5-$10 but NONE of it is stuff that I want to buy. If he had to sell 2 cards for $10 each I would gladly pay the $20 and be done with it!

 

[GoinToDisney]

I think it sounds good. The best fundraiser I have seen is during Christmas time kids sell gift cards to common stores and get a percentage of the $. They were for all kinds of stores best buy, maybe target. It was a good idea because it let me do a lot of my gift card shopping from home and helped the kids at the same time.

 

[OhioGrumpyGirl]

My son's school and my neice's school (in a different city) have both sold these cards. They both had different discounts on them so I own 2! We only paid $5 for each of them but they are great!! Ours has Papa John's buy 1 get 1 free on carry out.....that makes it worth it right there!!! My neice sold over $300 worth of the cards just from myself and her mom taking the form to work with us. Good luck!

 

[WDWorBUST]

I like the cards okay - but as a consumer of school fundraisers I always buy blue and gold sausage and butter braids. I will pass on most of the other stuff. But everyone is different. I definitely say go for "consumable" stuff.

 

[Disneylush]

I am a youth minister and the cards work well but anything that is cash and carry has always made more money for us. We do bags of ground coffee (we serve the coffee at meetings and such and then sell it) We do plants at all seasons..easter lilies, primroses at val day, pansy's at mother's day, mums in the fall and poinsettia's at Christmas. We (I) have to raise 28,000.00 so I feel your pain!!