Restaurant fundraising nights (booster club)

[snowbunny]

We are trying to raise money to help send a group of students to compete in the Disney Martial Arts Festival this fall.

Has anyone ever done a restaurant fundraiser (like at McDonalds or Pizza Hut), where at an arranged day and time, you get lots of friends to pack the restaurant and receive a percentage of the receipts?

I found out about this idea on some of the fundraising websites, but I want to see whether it's real before I call up restaurant managers this week and ask if our association can have a percentage of their revenues

 

[lastminutemom]

Our PTA has done these before. Our local dominoes will give you (or you design it yourself, can't say for sure) a flyer and you can have a weekly or monthly dominoes night, usually a slow night like a Tuesday, and your organization gets a percentage of sales.

Keep in mind that the sometimes restaurants are franchises and what one does in one place, another might not do. But all you have to lose is a phone call. You might want to confirm the details. We once had a partnership with a fast food restaurant and at the end of "_____ NIght" we got a cash payout, which met that someone had to be there to collect the money.

Sweet Tomatoes and California Pizza Kitchen are two that do it at all their restaurants. Most of these restaurants require that customers bring in a flier for you to get credit and most prohibit the distribution of fliers in their parking lot.

I don't know your community, but ours is very diverse economically. We found (and continue to find) that the less expensive "______ NIghts" actually bring in more revenue than the more expensive sit down place nights.

hope this helps.

 

[InstImpres]

Our PTA has done Chevy's and Chili's. Also Barnes and Noble will do a night for you. We have Chevy's & B&N in one parking lot, so we do a double dip night. At B&N the principal and several teachers do a story hour during our night.

 

[pigget74]

Our Applebees does a pancake breakfast. You have to serve and bust tables. The cost for 250 people is $100 and we sold our tickets for $5.00 per person. It was a very easy fundraiser. Also, our dominoes and MAzzios sells discount cards for fundraising. Good luck.

 

[StitchandPooh'sMom]

Our PTA has had a few fundraisers at Moe's Southwest Grill. We usually have the line out the door since it is an easy place to bring kids, and we get 50% of the profits for a two-hour time period.

 

[snowbunny]

This helps a ton, thanks. I'm going to start dialing for dollars tomorrow.

Another question - we do not yet have 501(c) nonprofit status for our booster group - do the restaurants ask for that or care?

 

[MyGoofy26]

One thing that's very popular around here is "Celebrity Server Night" where members of the media, team, club etc (whoever is trying to raise the money for charity) with wait all the tables. All the tips (possibly part of the reciepts as well, but I'm not sure on that) go to the charity or high school team and I know most people will leave significant tips since most are going to that restaurant to support the event.

 

[InstImpres]

Another question - we do not yet have 501(c) nonprofit status for our booster group - do the restaurants ask for that or care?

I know Chevy's requires it (and they require a lot of follow up for payment). I am not sure about the others,

 

[tinkwannabe2]

Fazoli's is another chain that does this! Good luck!

 

[mommyoftwinfants]

Our McDonalds lets the seniors do a pancake breakfast fundraiser to purchase prizes for Grad Night.

 

[debbi801]

Two of my kids' schools (through the PTA) have done this and so has their religious school. It has been very successful each time. Generally, we've had them at Fudruckers (burger place) or a locally run restaurant.

 

[snowbunny]

Thanks so much everybody. I've been calling around, just got off the phone with the general manager at Applebees. I think we will be doing a pancake breakfast there!

 

[pigget74]

good luck with everything. We just did this one in June and it worked very well. We brought our own milk and juice to serve. The pancakes were 2 big ones and 2 sausages. If they wanted another pancake they could have one. OUr kids had a blast busting the tables and just hamming it up with people. Our pastor even got into it. He was the main server and people loved it. Have fun and good luck.

Another thing--we sold more than the 250 tickets for $100. I only counted the tickets of people that I knew were coming. So if someone said I will buy one, but can;t make it I didn't count them. SO we ended up selling about 35o tickets and had about 200 people show up. It was a great fundraiser.

 

[ckoncurat]

Our school is doing this every wednesday this summer. They are using burger king, friendlys, subway, pizza hut, plus several local (non-chain) restaurants. Its a really painless fundraiser- you don't have to do a thing but make arrangement with the restaurant and advertise!

 

[ceecee]

Our PTO used to do McDonalds, making drinks mostly (before the drinks were self serve) and cleaning tables. Teachers and PTO did this not kids. Our Color Guard did the Waffle House, it was mildly successful, nothing great. Not real busy at all. The girls did it though, we just sat and watched.

 

[Gillian]

Our MOMS club & PTA have done this at Friendlys, where they get a % of the sales. I think it's for everyone who eats there that night, because there isn't a flyer to show.

I don't know how much money they make, but it's very, very easy. Almost no work except spreading the word and getting people to show up. There's no reason why you couldn't do both types of events. People have to eat!

If you have girls in your group, Avon also has fundraisers that are good because the products are familiar and useful, plus there is no markup like most fundraisers. They have a small fundraising brochure to keep it simple.

 

[6mouskateers]

Our PTO also does "Dough Raising" nights with our local Dominoe's --actually several per year AND they deliver. Don't know where you are located but we have Zoes Kitchen who also did dinner packages where we got X amt of $$ per dinner --these were usually take-out. It also worked well.

Another fund raiser that many groups do here is through our local grocery stores--one is a Winn Dixie and the other is a smaller locally owned store. The various groups bag groceries for tips during the weekends--very lucrative. The store lets them bag from around 9:00-4:00 or 5:00. Most folks are very generous, of course some are stinkers. These days usually make lots of $$. Since the baggers at these stores are not allowed to accept tips no one gets cheated.

 

[snowbunny]

Thanks for these great ideas!! We have a carwash set up this month, but I think the restaurant(s) will earn more money and also be lot of fun.

Wide World of Sports here we come!

 

[NeedaVacation03]

Our school does the 1st Tuesday of each month at Donatoes. It is a good way to get out of cooking while benefiting the school
We have done it for 2 years and it has gone very well.

 

[barkley]

our local highschool does a great car wash that garners alot more money than the usual ones. they have the kids take pledge sheet around where people commit to donating a set amount per car the kids wash-then the local grocery store lets them set up on the side lot and stand out in front with 'FREE CAR WASH' signs. they end up making great tips from the people who get their cars washed plus the money from those who have signed up as sponsors. they've enhanced it during the summer months to make even more money-the grocery store donates root beer, cups and ice cream and they have a stand where they sell cheap root beer floats to people who are shopping or waiting for their cars. the store gets a charity write off for the items they donate as well as getting more foot traffic from people who are waiting for their cars.

i'm not big on attending the fund raisers at restaurants-i figure at minimum it costs me $50 to pay for the food, tax and tip-and then the school only gets their percentage off the food amount (alot of places exclude the beverages). i figure i can donate $20 to the school directly and we both end up ahead.

one school my kids attended had a great idea that reaped them huge proceeds. their pto invested in a couple of industrial sized espresso machines and some coffee pots and set up a 'coffee cafe'. parents who did drop off could stop by and pick up their coffee or latte, kids could buy hot chocolate and breakfast items (packaged sweet rolls and krispy creme donuts). it started out as a once a week thing but it got so popular they ended up organizing volunteers to do it every morning. one thing that got realy popular was purchasing 'coffee cards' that enabled a parent to pre-pay for so many cups so no hassleing with cash in the morning. they encouraged using the prepay cards by offering a slight discount on the per cup price as well as a quick service line for non cash purchases. another area school kind of picked up on the idea by working out a deal with a local coffee house that had a portable unit-they had the place bring the portable to all the games and school events. the owner of the bsns. made good money and gave a set cut to the school.

one last fund raiser i've heard some folks have had success with is a 'mom's night off'. they work out a set meal with a local italian place (like a pizza, salad, order of pasta and garlic bread) and sell orders ahead of time. volunteers go and pick up the stuff and take it to a predesignated place where people can drive by and have it handed to them in their car and take it home (for a higher fee you can get it delivered by volunteers to your home). the restaurant gives a significant price break to the organization so they make money that way-and most of the people tip the 'delivery' crew as well. in fact-i was at our local pizza place a couple of months ago and saw people loading massive amounts of pizza into their vans-i asked the owner what was going on and he said it was a weekly fund raiser one of the schools had going-they contacted local bsns. and set up ' hassle free friday lunches'-the bsns either paid for or their staff agreed to pay for pizza every friday delivered on sight by volunteers of the school. the owner gave the school a percentage of the sales-and the buyers got a price break because they were'nt charged for delivery (but he said most passed on that savings to the school via tips).