Fundraising

[Mom4a_and_c]

Our school has a massive amount of money to raise this year. We are looking for ideas of somethign different. (No more candy bars, pizzas, little junk) What do all of you do at your school?

Marie from Pennsylvania

 

[SC]

fundraising

I know exactly what you mean about having to raise massive amounts of money. I've worked in 2 different private schools in 2 different states, and both were very focused on fundraising. Here are a few things I picked up from where I've worked. I'm sure there are other things, but these come off the top of my head.

- One school required faculty to donate to the fund, even if it was only like $10. That way it's easier to get others to donate when you say that 100% of staff and faculty have participated.

- Students can pay $1 or so to have a jeans day (no uniform).

- My school is selling student art this year, and we'll have an "art museum" day.

- Dances that cost a couple of dollars to go to

- The class that donates the most (or has the most participation) can have their teacher kiss a pig (or big dog or whatever).

- Auction

 

[phoebe611]

fundraisers

Our highschool (seniors I think) did a womanless beauty pageant. They guys got all dolled up. There was a beauty competition, a talent competition, etc. It was sooooooooooo funny. It was planned and advertised well ahead of time so we would have a BIG crowd. There was a fee to get in, then the VHS/DVD copies were $10. It was fun and made quite a bit of money and was something different from the normal moneymakers.

 

[teach4fun]

dinner and auction

we have a big fund raiser that is this next weekend. it is a dinner and auction, we raise a lot each year, we used to have a read-a-thon where the kids would earn money for reading many minutes or pages.

 

[Indiana Jen]

Funds

My school sells trash bags. It sounds crazy but it's something everyone needs. We have a school of about 550 students and this year we raised $36,000. It's the one big fundraiser we do.

 

[mrs f]

trash bags...

Where do you get the trash bags>? And how do you sell them?
I never heard of that.

 

[Indiana Jen]

trash bags

I don't know alot about the whole deal since this is only my 2nd year. We get them from some type of supplier and they come on big rolls. We did kitchen bags, yard bags and big industrial bags. The kids had their order form and just asked people to buy. Each type cost the same amount per roll but the amount of bags depended on what type it was. The kitchen bags had the most and the industrial bags had the least. This is the one big fundraiser we do. It's great since they get it out of the way at the begining of the year and I'm not being asked to buy something all year long.

 

[hescollin]

money

School Carnival.... Save BoxTops4Education... Not a big money maker, but it's easy and adds books to the classroom library. They are worth ten cents each.

 

[Marie2]

Our three big ones

Our three (actually make that four, I just remembered another one) big fundraisers are magazine sale (10,000), auction (10,000-15,000), walk-a-thon (5,000), and a homemade apple pie sale (5,000). Let me know if you want specifics on any of them.

 

[Aisling]

Calendar - and Auction Question

Our service club sells a school calendar to help pay the winter heating bill at the school. We sell "dates" on the calendar for $5.00 a piece. You can wish someone a Happy Birthday or Saint Day or anything else you want. Our eighth graders send greeting to each other. We have a contest for the artwork for each month and fill the blank spaces with school snap shots. A local printer puts them together. We then sell the calendar for about $10.00 each. It's good, because you can be sure than everyone who bought a date will now buy a calendar.

I'd like to hear more about how you do your auction.

 

[Carrie in WV]

Auction

We did an auction this year for the very first time and we raised over $16,000! We are a small school (about 275) and most of the stuff donated was "yard sale" equivalent. We had an auction brochure/program that listed the auction items and we sold advertisements to go inside. If we had started sooner and gotten more corporate donations, I know we would have done better--although for a first event, we were blessed! If anyone is interested I have all of the paperwork associated with the auction because I was on the development committee and had a big hand in drawing up donation forms, volunteer forms, advertising forms, etc.

We found that putting larger items (we had a piano and a phone system) on Ebay brought us in a lot of money, so we are going to keep an account open all the time and list things like vacation packages and musical instruments during the year.

We are in the middle of a magazine sale that typically brings in $10,000.
We are also involved in a gift card program with our Kroger store. After every $5000 purchased on gift cards, we receive 5%--it is a continual fundraiser.

 

[Teach 5]

funds

Our parish festival is our biggest money maker.
We also have a magazine and gift item sale.
Rummage sale
Golf outing
Christmas ornaments with school name & logo sale
Market Day for food & back-to-school supplies
We sell the sweatshirts they wear with their uniforms.
We also sell their assignments books.
On the days that the public school is closed & we are in session, we don't have our regular lunches from the public schools. The parent volunteers make & serve lunches, we make a profit on that too.
CiCi's pizza has school nights you can designate your school & anybody that goes that night says that they want to support your school. You get a percentage of the profits, we usually make $115-$150 monthly on that.

 

[ogteacher]

Fundraisers

Our biggest fundraisers are our Silent Auction and our Home and Garden Tour. Other fun fundraisers have been dance marathons and skate parties. We have also sold poinsettias in the winter and potted garden plants in the spring.

Chris

 

[Robin]

teacher

Our school has raised in the tens of thousands of dollars with Chris Reynolds' company called Beacon Fundraising. It is definately worth checking out!!! Call 877 500 2669. www.beaconfundraising.com Tell them Robin sent you!!

 

[istoleahalo]

$5 per teacher to wear jeans on a friday

$3 per student to wear hat/filpflops/jeans/whatever

Krispy Kream doughnuts...yummm

 

[sw]

Ymmmm

Sell cookie dough.
OR
$10,0000 give-a-way

Sell chances for $100 each. (For this to work, all families have to sell a certain amount of tickets or buy them.) On a certain night, everyone gathers for dinner and entertainment. Before everything begins, three names are drawn and placed in labeled envelopes-the first drawn name wins $5,000, the second $3,000, and the third $2,000. No one knows who these are until the end of the evening. After the meal and entertainment, a few more names are drawn for door prizes. Then the $2000 winner is announced, the $3000 winner is announced, and the $5000 winner is announced. The person who announces the last winner usually has some fun by having all males who bought a ticket to stand, all males who bought a ticket and have two children remain standing, all males who bought a ticket and have two children who are males remain standing, etc. until only two people are standing. The winner is then annouced. On the tickets that are sold, there is a place for the seller. He/she will get $100 for selling the ticket.
This has been done for many years in a poor rural area for a private school. While I have never been in charge and don't know all of the particulars, I do know that a good bit of money has been raised every year for many years. (Many may consider this gambling, so it may not be appropriate for your situation. Many grandparents who might make contributions anyway have used this method of contributing.

 

[Kaf]

Could you please let me know of any auction ideas that yuo all have come up with? I am desparate for something new and unusual. Thanks