School Fundraising

[earlyexerciser39]

A topic near and dear to our hearts!!

I posted about this about a year ago and looked for ideas and you guys came through!

THis year we are trying for ONE fundraiser only, a walkathon/silent auction. All of the items for the silent auction have been donated and the walkathon is donations that go directly to the school.

We have chosen to just do fun stuff at the walkathon (no participation tee shirts, lanyards or water bottles as we have done in the past). This will be much more cost effective.

We have gotten so sick of doing the "for-profit" companies and only getting 40-50% of the monies raised. Cross your fingers for a successful fundraiser for us this year!

The money raised goes to field trips, assemblies, agendas (used daily as a communication tool) and more. The money is key since the state continues to cut funding to our area schools.

I really do hate asking our school community for money, but do think that it is worthwhile!

What are the schools around you doing for raising money for the kids?

Jenn

 

[LaughingWater]

We're homeschoolers, so I can't comment on school fundraising specifically, but we participate in a fundraiser for my daughter's choir. The silent auction pulls in decent money every year. We feature everything from restaurant and museum gift certificates to homemade items.

The girls and I put together baskets of baked goods last year, and they did really well.

 

[elliemom]

Ugggh, we are struggling with the same thing this year!!!! I am PTA VP and we have had to come up with some pretty easy and profitable fundraisers.
We can't do football tickets ( although check out charitymania.com) for fantasy football. It's an awesome fundraiser. We are a Catholic school so no gambling. We are having a mom's night out for shopping from the vendors like Pampered Chef etc etc. We charge per space and raffle baskets.

We just did a Race for Education event at the school and typically raises about 40,000.

Money is tight for a lot of people so it's harder this year than ever. Especially with what we pay in tuition. But we just sold entertainment books and have a food fundraiser coming up.

Good Luck

 

[Sunshine1528]

Our walkathon/silent auction was huge and we always raised $25 - $30 per year (and that was over 10 years ago !).

Two of our other goodies were:

Scholastic book fairs - great idea for people to purchase educational gifts for their children or others, especially at Xmas time ! (I know books can be expensive, but I always felt they were good gifts).

Nights at the local eateries who would donate a % to our school for the $ spent on a single night. Not sure if the fast food/restaurants are doing it now a days, but the teachers, principal and parents would "serve" (at McD's or Burger King and would go around the restaurants such as Chevy's. Not remembering how much we made, but it was easy as all we did was print flyers for the students & families to present when they showed up for their meal. We were allowed a % for drive thru also.

Now I know that was not always the healthiest, but many fast food restaurants at least have salads or grilled chicken and for most people they would buy it on their own anyway. Especially during times like soccer or baseball season when all the kids were playing on local rec teams.

Just thought of another fun/creative fundraiser: We also did t-shirts and plates where the kids drew on a piece of paper and a silkscreening company would transfer your child's drawing to a t-shirt or dishwasher safe melamine plate. Guess they could do mugs also if you wanted. Fun and great gifts for family, godparents, etc. In fact, I just gave my oldest, who now has his own family, the "Ninja Turtle" he drew one year. Grandparents got them also. Kinda fun !