Connecting Schools With Great Fundraising Ideas.

Does the idea of a dance marathon make you think of sock-hopping teens in a high school gym from the 1950’s, swaying together to that new sound of rock and roll for hours? Well dance marathons are popular around the country, and they are an excellent way for schools to raise money and for students to show school pride while being involved in a high-energy fundraiser. TopSchoolFundraisers.com is fortunate to have two schools, the Washington University of St. Louis and Indiana University to share their tips on what makes a dance marathon successful.

The Washington University at St. Louis Dance Marathon, called St. Louis Area Dance Marathon has been running for nine years. “In the first year, the dance marathon consisted of about 100 dancers who each raised approximately $100 each. Last year more than 600 dancers took part in the event to raise a total over $123,000,” said Meredith Pierce, Director of Communications.

The Indiana University Dance Marathon was established in 1991 — 2007 will be their 17th year. Jill Stewart, a former Indiana University student established the marathon in honor of her close friend Ryan White, a Riley Hospital for Children patient who contracted HIV during a blood transfusion. “Ryan helped raise the level of consciousness of an entire nation towards the plight of those suffering from the AIDS virus and other infectious disease and our marathon and the center were started in his honor,” said Carly Dachis, Director of Public Relations for Indiana University.

A Dance Marathon Needs Volunteers In Many Different Roles

The dance marathon executive board has 23 full-time students that volunteer their time year-round to plan and execute all dance marathon-related activities. “We need about 100 volunteers on the day-of to help us run our dance-a-thon. They help us with check-in processes, security (of belongings and of participants), set-up and tear-down,and food service, as well as other smaller tasks for which we need a few extra hands during the day,” said Greg Perlstein, Executive Director for the Washington University at St. Louis Dance Marathon.

Interviews are conducted for new Executive Board Members during the end of November. “We start meeting as a board in January. A lot of people do not realize that Dance Marathon is a year long event. During the spring semester we are busy not only goal setting, bonding and planning for the fall and the event, but also fundraising. We try to get most everything planned before Fall semester starts. When Fall semester comes around we do not have to worry about administrative or planning details, we can simply execute our plans,” said Pierce.

The Indiana University Dance Marathon has a hierarchy and everyone involved has a different role and a position that is important. “The first is the Riley Kids. The Riley families will attend our marathon and share their stories throughout the weekend and all our efforts and goals relate directly for them. Second is our dancers. Our marathon will expect to have 1,000 dancers (2006 exceeded that number). Our dancers stand and are awake for 36 hours and are the foundation of our event. Without them, our efforts would not be as strong and successful as they are. Dancers must raise at least $400 to dance however most raise much more. Third is our Committee Members- Indiana University Dance Marathon has 375 hardworking committee members divided throughout 15 different committees. Most members have danced before however it is not required to be on a committee. Fourth is our Directors. There are 15 directors who lead each of the committees; we are divided into 4 focus groups, each led by a VP on the Board of Managers. Fifth is our Board of Managers- includes: VP of: Communication, Internal, External and Finance. Sixth is our President which is a student-held position,” said Dachis. “Separate from the dancers and committee members we have two other new positions: Ryan’s Angles and Security. R.A.’s are short-term dancers intended to motivate our dancers and help out and participate throughout the time they are on the floor. Security is committee members and other volunteers ensuring the safety and structure of our students during the 36 hours.” said Dachis of Indiana University. continue reading

1 Comment »

Today I came across not one, but two artwork related fundraisers. Children’s art is made into unique gifts and part of the proceeds go back to the school. How cool is that?

The first one is Art to Remember. They will take the kids pictures and print them on pillows, calendars, coasters, keychains, mugs, and a lot more.

Kids are proud to see their works of art showcased on our products, especially when given as gifts to family and friends. ATR also keeps students safe by eliminating door-to-door sales.

The other one is Original Works. They have lots of items too, even Christmas ornaments, quilt blocks and a night light.

Once the artwork is completed, the school/organization assembles an Artwork Package for each student. This package includes the artwork, order form, full color brochure and a customized letter describing the program.

I haven’t personally used either of these programs, but check out this forum discussion for some comments from those who have. From just reviewing the websites it looks like a good program, great idea. Only thing that is not on either site is what percentage the school earns. The products themselves should priced affordably so parents, nanas and others can afford the items. There should also be a good percentage of commission going back to the school. Check it out but be sure to ask about the profit percentage!

No Comments »

Friday I wrote a post about an article supporting public schools fundraising from alumni. It’s interesting that the same article talks aboutother kinds of fundraisers that most schools are doing already (car washes, sales, etc.)

Jane Heimerdinger works for a college prep school and is president of the Association of Fundraising Professionals in Hawaii. She talked about how school fundraisers can also build teamwork and a community spirit:

However, while ‘Iolani doesn’t focus a lot on candy sales or car washes, Heimerdinger sees value in them. “There’s a certain spirit about those hands-on fundraisers,” she said. “They’re a point of rally for our parents and students. There’s a camaraderie that goes on with selling spam musubi and shave ice at volleyball games.

“The result might not be as much money as you want, but one of the spinoffs is working together as a team, having a common goal and working with teachers, administrators and students to raise money through those common efforts.”

All schools need those kinds of activities to hold them together as a family, she said. Banding together to address a current need — painting a gymnasium, for example — gives students experience helping with their schools, helping to build that philanthropic spirit.

“It’s very beneficial and unifying,” Heimerdinger said.

It kind of depends on the fundraiser - catalog sales and candy aren’t much of a team builder. ;)  Some of the real team building fundraisers are events like sports tournaments and school carnivals.  Parents and kids benefit as it’s a fun family time activity.  Mom & dad get to know others parents and teachers by doing things like working a concession stand together.   But once the parent does their 1 hour duty, they can enjoy the event with their kids!

No Comments »

So will high school graduates give back to their alma mater? Maybe after college and paying back the student loans. LOL. It is rather a good idea. Though I imagine staying connected with graduates could be a challenge.

While alumni relations has always been of importance to colleges, a development professional from Hawaii believes this could be an excellent strategy for public schools:

“There should be a lot more private giving for the local high schools,” said Kelvin Shoji, director of development for University of Hawai’i athletics.Shoji notes that often when people are asked where they graduated from, they’ll name their high school rather than their college.

“There’s a tremendous amount of affinity for your high school, so you’re looking at your alumni,” he said.

Alumni associations can do more than just track former students down for reunions. They can encourage the alumni to give private gifts, fund scholarships or make annual pledges.

Foundations across the nation focus on building affinity with people who have benefited from their programs and encourage them to help provide the same opportunities to others, Shoji said.

Here’s the full article: Public school fundraiser? Try alumni

I really like that this is a long term strategy. Though I think that it would take a lot of staff and school board commitment to accomplish. Traditionally schools don’t have a funds development department or even one person. Private K-12 schools do of course. So it sounds like public schools should take a cue from private schools and colleges.

No Comments »

My son’s school had a raffle this year that was so successful that next year the school might just implement this raffle idea as the only fundraiser.

Our school like most schools has an auction/dinner fundraiser every year. An event that a handful of parents work on all year long for weeks and weeks and the rest of the school parents put in a pretty good share of time too. This year was one of the most successful ones because we also implemented a raffle that raised a quarter of the whole event!

The truth is I think that raffles rule! But you have to do it in a smart way. Here is what we did:

Since kids are great raffle tickets salespeople we wanted to make it fun and rewarding for the kids to sell the tickets. We made a list of all the coolest raffle prizes that our kids would love to receive. The #1 thing was a Unicycle (we have a circus performing arts class that all the kids take), after that we came up with a Tamagotchi , a skateboard and tons of beanie babies!

What we did is organize in effect two raffles, one was the fundraising raffle and one was the “kid raffle”. You cannot buy raffle tickets for the “kid raffle,” you can only earn them. For every 10 tickets that a kid sells they get one free kid raffle ticket. Naturally, the kid raffle’s main prize was a unicycle (which we got donated) and the rest of the prizes were bought by us.

The kids went nuts!!! We gave each child a packet with all the instructions and got them psyched… We made an executive decision that no kid will go empty handed at the end of the raffle and we bought beanie babies for all of them (we got them on eBay for a dollar each).

In order to try and inspire people to buy more raffle tickets for the regular fundraising raffle we awarded those who spent a lot of money with loads of tickets. One raffle ticket sold for a dollar, 6 for 5 dollars all the way to 500 tickets for $200! The thinking for the high amount is that many family members, friends and grandparents live far away. They would be happy to support junior’s school and cannot attend the fundraiser BUT they can buy raffle tickets… and would make junior really happy because the more tickets they buy the more the granddaughter receives free “kid raffle” tickets.

In my opinion, the only reason for having a raffle that compliments an auction/dinner is to be able to squeeze money from people that are not going to be at the physical event.

In order to solve the problem of filling in your name and number on each ticket we offered a “free fill in service” for those who bought $40 worth of tickets or more. We devised a system at the end to make this easy for us to do. I can’t tell you how many of my friends added $20 bucks just so they won’t have to fill out 30 tickets…

Out of about 50 kids (we are a very small school k-6) we sold about 6 $200 deals (which also included 2 free tickets to the main event, a $50 value)..

Some kids sold hundreds of dollars worth of raffle tickets just by approaching their church members or even at the local market (naturally, we made it clear that kids do not sell on their own and must have an adult present). What I found is that people will be happy to give 5-10 bucks to a local school not really caring what the raffle prizes were.

This was a way to get money from school supporters who could not attend the dinner event for whatever reason.

We ended up raising over $6000 with this raffle which was huge for us. I am already thinking of ways to refine this system in order to make it even more successful next year.

When I think of how much time and energy goes into doing the fundraiser dinner and relatively how little time was involved with the raffle I wonder if it is possible to stretch these ideas and make it the main event.

I think that the key to the success was having the secondary kid raffle. Because once you charge up the kids they not only do a great job but most of them love it too… And also I think that people are quite tired of buying from those catalogs stuff that they really don’t need or want and would prefer to just give the full amount of money to the school….

If you were given a choice between buying overpriced $8 gift wrap (which the school only sees $3) or buying 12 raffle tickets for $10 which all goes to the school what would you choose?

About the Author: Frustrated with the usual unorganized school fundraisers Suzanne Wouk turned to the internet in search of a better way. To her amazement and delight, she found so many new and exciting ways to fundraise that she started the site FundraisingMom.com in order to share the information and ideas with others.

1 Comment »

The Entertainment Book is a book of coupons produced specifically for a specific geographic area.  These popular books are published in over 150 city metro areas in the United States and Canada. Most of the coupons are 50% offers, or Buy one get one Free.

School fundraising with coupon books provides a great value to your supporters.  If you like dining out, this book is a must have. There are hundreds of coupons for 50% OFF or Buy One, Get One Free at local and chain restaurants. You’ll find everything from Fine Dining to Fast Food, and any kind of cuisine you could want.

The coupon books also really help a family on a budget with $5 off each and every month at local grocery stores. We bought the book two years in a row from our church’s preschool who sold them as a fundraiser. Last year our family saved at least $200 using the Entertainment book!

Because I have seen this coupon book WORK both as a consumer and as a fundraiser, I highly recommend it.

Benefits of the school coupon book fundraiser from Entertainment:

• No upfront cost means instant profit—you pay only for what you sell.
• Use Entertainment.com and offer books to out-of-town family and friends in more than 150 major metro areas.
• Your local representative helps you make the most money with the least effort
• Go from kickoff to wrap-up in as little as two weeks
• Free planning and promotional materials
• Free prize program to motivate and reward sellers
• Provide a great money-saving service to your supporters
• More support online at Entertainment.com

These books are normally sold between September and January. For more information about this fundraiser go to the Entertainment website or call 1-888-231-SAVE (7283).

No Comments »

Many high school marching band booster clubs host tournaments, contests or exhibitions These are often practice performances for marching bands as they prepare to compete in regional and state contests. They are also usually a fundraiser! The marching band booster club raises funds from ticket sales, concessions, t-shirts and other fun things like raffles.

One Ohio based company is sponsoring a really big two-day school competition event this weekend (Aug. 17 and 18, 2007). In addition to marching band exhibitions there will also be football games and cheerleading spirit contests. Eight area football teams will compete during the event: East Liverpool High School, Harrison Central High School, John Marshall High School, Linsly School, Magnolia High School, St. Clairsville High School, Wheeling Central Catholic High School, Wheeling Park High School.

“Our primary mission with the Wheeling Hospital Football & Band Jamboree is to provide a new and positive experience for the youth of our community,” said Bill Ihlenfeld II of Scholastic Sports Marketing. “The Jamboree will also serve as a fundraiser for nonprofit organizations and the involved Ohio Valley schools.”

from WTOV Channel Nine

No Comments »