If you would like to raise money for your child’s school, but you know you have to be careful not to ask too much from the other parents in the community, this is a great idea for you.

FactoryFunding.com is an established business that can help you raise significant revenue without asking parents to keep chipping in. They do this through an effective recycling program that includes ink jet cartridges, laser toner cartridges, cell phones, MP3 players and all sorts of personal electronics. A complete list of the qualifying items can be seen here.

Here is how FactoryFunding works:

Click here to enroll in Jim Berigan’s FREE year-long school fundraising e-Course!

When you recycle your used ink cartridges, cell phones, laptops, and small electronics with FundingFactory, your recyclables convert to cash and rewards that can get your school or nonprofit organization the things you need — for free.

Getting Business Supporters for your recycling program makes raising funds even easier. Schools and nonprofits with supporting organizations in their communities report more than 3 times the cash and rewards earned than organizations without Business Supporters.

We inspect every item we receive to determine whether it can be recycled or remanufactured — two states that account for 98% of the materials we process.

Collectively, FundingFactory participants have stopped 21 million pounds of waste from being landfilled.

Here are a few success stories from schools that have signed up for and have used FactoryFunding.com:

This video is from the West Boylston school district in Massachusetts.  They have raised $40,686 from FundingFactory.com

This second video is from Elk County Catholic school system.  They have raised $24,210 from FactoryFunding.com.

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Funding Factory supplies schools and organizations a way to help the environment while raising money for their cause through a laser and ink jet printer cartridge and cell phone battery recycling program.

We were able to catch up with a participant in the program to get some feedback. Sue, a member of the West Corner Campus Parent Teacher Association (PTA) in Endicott, New York, has raised over $100 since she signed up with Funding Factory, recently. She provided some great feedback on how to use this fundraiser in your organization.

Signup

To sign up for the service, just go to the Funding Factory website. There, you will fill out a simple form to get started. They then send you a starter kit for collection of ink cartridges and cell phone batteries. “The signup process was very easy, and if you ever have questions, you just email your representative,” Sue says. “They get back to you ASAP!”

Getting Participation

Sue says she has a hard time getting people to participate initially, but once they do cartridges come in on a regular basis. Right now, they have about a 10 percent participation rate from the PTA members.

To increase participation, Sue has advertised in the PTA newsletter, and reminders go home with students on a regular basis. She also sends reminders to the teachers and staff at the school to bring their cartridges.

The struggle for participation among so many other activities and fundraisers can be hard, but Sue says you must be persistent. She recommends consistent advertising at meetings, frequent reminder notices and hanging posters.

“Also, ask parents to ask their places of employment for cell phones, laser cartridges and ink cartridges,” Sue says. “I am getting the word out for that, too, and am having success!”
Other Advice

Have a support group. “I have a great group of PTA members who help me when I need it,” she says. “Keep track of donations on a spreadsheet [for simplicity].”

“I will continue to do Funding Factory,” Sue says. “What money I raise for our PTA may not be a lot, but every little bit helps. These cartridges are trash, and to see it turn into cash amazes me! It’s a lot of work, sometimes, but the kids are worth it.”

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Maybe my thumbs are too slow. Or too big. But, for the life of me, I have never been able to become proficient at text-messaging on a cell phone. It takes me a half an hour just to enter in a new contact.

I realize that this makes me incredibly lame, but even though I’m pretty awful at this activity, it’s not that I don’t appreciate it. Because I do. I’m quite impressed by the folks who excel at this. Back in April of 2007, a 13 year-old girl named Morgan Pozgar became the first-ever National Texting Champion and won $25,000 for being able to send a 151 character message in 42 seconds. Amazing. After winning the prize, Morgan reported that she sends over 4,000 text messages per month! That works out to over eight messages every waking hour of the month.

Anyway, the point is, texting has arrived.

So, I was understandably intrigued when I recently learned about an upcoming fundraiser to be held in New Jersey that was using cell phone text messaging as the main hook for raising $100,000. The one-day event is scheduled for February 28, 2008. (There is a great article on the plan here.) The beneficiary for this event is a brain trauma center, not a school, but I think the steps could easily be transferred to a school setting. continue reading

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Mobile phone owners get new phones at least every two years, some more often. What happens to all of those old phones?

A cell phone donation collection can be a good additional fundraiser for your school. continue reading

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