School Fundraiser Events - what do you do?

[pammypooh]

Inspired by the fundraiser question on another thread.

I really prefer an event or function as a fundraiser for our daughter's school, as opposed to the catalog fundraisers.

Our biggie is coming up soon. We call it "Tricky Tray". Its basically a raffle of over 100 themed trays that are donated by the parents. We also have about 50 items as a silent auction.
Each grade works together on a project that is then raffled off as well.

Its a really fun night out. Its grown-ups only. We have a fun MC and lots of refreshments.

We usually make in the range of $15,000 from the event.

I know of carnivals, casino nights, night at the races, basket bingos......so.....

What does your kid's school do as an event fundraiser?

 

[Otto's Doll]

We also just had a Tricky Tray on Saturday. It went VERY well. My DH & I ran the kitchen, which made quite a bit as well. The 5th grade kids use it to go on their school tv/news team trip in June.

Our school also does Gertrude Hawk candy sales, as well as QSP candy/wrapping paper. We generally don't get too involved in these, but do volunteer at our school 3 days a week (at least).
You can only do so much, and I hate to bug family and friends every other week to buy something.

 

[nativetxn]

WOW! $15k is a very successful fundraiser. I've been out of the school fundraising field for about 15 years, I'm probably no help for you.

 

[CamColt]

I was thinking of posting this same thread, inspired by my other one. I thought it might help others in fundraising for their organizations.

We do quite a bit at our school, but its all optional, and a lot are fun events, which is nice because its more of a social thing than anything.

In the fall we do a brochure fundraiser(candy, wrapping paper...you know, the junky stuff), but we are trying to get away from that.

In the spring(well its early this year) we had been doing Nestle chocolate bunnies, but this year we are doing cookie dough.

For events we have...

YMCA night-The school rents out the Y for the night(A Saturday night) and there is a set cost/family. The kids and their parents go and can swim, do arts & crafts, play basketball, floor hockey, wall climbing, etc... Its a nice night out in the winter.

Pizzaria Uno night- The students are given forms in school and if the kids, their families, or friends go to the particular Pizzaria Uno on a given day/night, they bring the forms with them and 20% of their total bill is given to the school. Weve done one so far this year and are doing another in May

Hockey night- We got tickets to a Lowell Lock Monsters game(Carolina Hurricanes farm team), and $4.00 from every ticket went to the school. Due to the great turnout here they had a raffle for a free tickets to another game using all the kids names who attended...DS won!

Pizza/Bingo night- This is held on a Friday night in March. Obviously we have pizza(and salad, soda & cookies) and bingo is played. We have a 50/50 raffle here and up until this year we have had raffles for the kids. This year we are trying something new, a silent auction(cross your fingers this works since it was DH who suggested it). Each class is going to donate a themed basket and we are trying to get some big ticket items too(sports tickets, vacation home, ride to school on a fire truck, etc...).

Each grade also holds 1 bake sale a year, which covers the total cost of field trips. I was shocked last year when DS had 2 field trips and we didnt have to pay a dime.

The best part about the events are they are painless, LOL! Theres no selling and very little work involved. You just go out to eat, or go to a hockey game, stuff we like to do anyway, and the school earns money

 

[Rock'n Robin]

We have a very busy fall--first the elementary parents organization (that covers all 4 elementaries) has a magazine sale--then right after that a Sally Foster sale for our own school. Now just last week my kids brought home a reich (sp?) fundraiser with
Easter stuff. I threw it out. We just got done selling GS cookies and I'm fundraised out! They have way too many and either I bother everyone every other week, buy stuff I don't need and choke on the cost, or toss it.
Robin M.

 

[JetMom]

One very big fund - raiser that our schoo; has every year is the Penny War.

There are 9 classes in our school (one each K through 8 ). Each class gets a 5 gallon water jug outside their door. Every day the children put change in the jars.

Each penny is one point. All other coins are negative points. So you put all of your pennies in your class's jar and all of your other coins in the other classes's jars. Standings are announced at the end of the day (so you know who to "bomb" the next day.)

The class with the most points at the end of the week wins a pizza party.

Last year the school raised over $3000 for new library books at the Penny War.

 

[tar heel]

My youngest goes to a new school (this is its second year). If any of you have had that experience, you probably know how poorly equiped brand new schools are -- minimum number of library books, no playground equipment, etc. This is our fourth time having a child in a school its first or second year. We have a ton of fundraisers -- these are the ones so far this year:

barbecue on orientation day when all the kids and parents are there meeting their teachers
catalog sale
fall festival with games, plant sale and silent auction -- this is organized and mostly carried out by the faculty
golf tournament
Daytona 500 raffle
spell-a-bration (kids gather pledges for a 100-word spelling test)
skate night (once a month -- school has the rink and $1 of each admission goes to the school)
parent/child dance and fun night with barbecue dinner
Chik Fila Night (once a month -- percentage of sales receipts turned in goes to school)
CiCi's Pizza Night (same as above)
Recyling of printer/scanner/fax cartridges

We participate in a lot of these fundraisers b/c the $ is so needed -- we didn't do the dance, raffle or golf tournament and usually don't do the Chik Fila and CiCi's.. I don't make any effort to sell stuff to anyone other than myself, though -- if my mom or mil happens to visit while we have the catalog, I'll ask.

I don't remember how much this school makes on fundraisers, but it's a lot. The one that brings in the most $ interestingly is the Spell-a-Bration.

 

[sharbear]

Our school this year did a fundraiser that was easy and made about $5000. They solicited businesses in the area to offer discounts. They were things like $1 off a large coffee drink at the local coffee bar, 10% off a italian grocery store, 20% off copy's at a local copy store, and 10% off bills at a couple of local restaurants. They bundled these discounts on a credit card size card. The discounts can be used for a full year and the card sold for $20. There was no start up cost and it was really easy. I know that I made my $20 back just in coffee. And I partronize these businesses more because I can use my discount card.