With the beginning of a new school year, you want to get off to a good fundraising start. Fundraising, like many other things, is pretty much a sales job. You are trying to convince people to give you (the school) their money or for them to ask other people for money.

Therefore, you have to start out the right way. You want to build quality relationships and take things slowly. If you push too hard, right off the bat, you can easily lose the people you are trying to win over.

Because of all this, the fundraising activities you chose to start off with in the fall need to be easy for people to get on board with. They need to be low on the commitment scale, not as ambitious monetarily (which means a greater chance for success), and high with the fun factor.

I would strongly recommend staying away from the fundraisers that require large amounts of volunteers, lots of planning time, and a significant financial investment.

Here are some ideas for fundraisers that are just right for starting off the year.

Bake Sale- Bake sales are great for the start of the year, because, in my experience, so many people will volunteer to bake and donate cookies, brownies and the like. Most people have the ingredients lying around at home and it’s not a big deal to knock out a couple of dozen treats for a school bake sale. I’ve always had the most success with bake sales on Saturday mornings before big college football games. Reserve a spot outside the most popular supermarket in your town right before the big game, and you’ll turn a great profit.

Flamingo Flocking- Flamingo Flocking is a great way to raise some money for your school, have a lot of fun, and build a bunch of friendships. For a complete description of how to run a Flamingo Flocking Fundraiser, click here. But you should know that this type of fundraiser can tick all the boxes when it comes to low commitment and high fun.

Box Tops/Soup Labels – While these two items may seem to be old hat, they are still a great way to get parents into the good habits of thinking about school fundraising. Set up a good receptacle system, get teachers on board with reminding kids to bring them in, and send letters home to parents telling them about the ongoing program. Create monthly contests between classrooms to keep the box tops and labels coming in all year long. Start the good habits in the fall, and they will continue to produce revenue.

Fundraising cards- Another way to get parents working for you in a relatively easy manner is through fundraising cards. Here is a great video description of such a program offered by FastTrack Fundraising:

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When I accepted the job of a school administrator and principal, one of the first things I did was to put out a survey to parents, asking them to tell me what kinds of events they’d be willing to volunteer for.

Hands down, the most popular response I got was “Bake Sales”. At first, I was surprised the reaction was so strong in that particular direction. But, as I started to think about it, the reasons behind the response became clearer.

Now, maybe, I just happened to work at a school with a lot of moms who loved to bake. However, I don’t think so. Rather, I think that volunteering to bake something has many things going for it over other forms of fundraising volunteer gigs.

First of all, I think that most parents have some vague sense of obligation to volunteer for their kid’s school. Unfortunately, most of the volunteer jobs either take too long or are too hard to fit into the family’s hectic schedule.

However, if the school asks a parent to just bake a pie or a couple dozen cookies, that is a much easier undertaking. Most people have stuff at home to whip something up, and it can be done after the kids go to bed. If they don’t have all the needed ingredients, it’s still pretty easy to stop by the store, since they probably need other stuff anyway. Therefore, the parent can finally say “yes” to helping the school, because it is on his or her own terms.

I think another reason why bake sales are so popular is that many moms and some dads see cooking and baking as a competitive sport. They fancy themselves a bit of a whiz in the kitchen, and they don’t mind other people knowing they are, either. So, they take no small amount of pride in their award-winning banana cream pie or their triple chocolate fudge meltdown brownies. Therefore, when I issued the order to go bake something, I was like the starter at the Indy 500, telling them to start their engines. continue reading

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Besides actually baking the cakes and cookies, one of the time consuming things about bake sale fundraisers is designing and creating the bake sale flyers. So today we have some samples for you to download and use.

With Microsoft Works I created two documents that may be of help to you. First is a personalized checklist for all the to-do’s involved in planning and organizing a bake sale.  This checklist can be customized to fit your bake sale to-do’s as well.

Bake Sale checklist (excel)

We all know just how important volunteer involvement is in any fundraiser.  This is the best way to keep track of your bake sale happenings from planning to clean up and all the sweet stuff in between.  Feel free to download and customize this document and be sure to print plenty of copies to hand out to your volunteers.

Bake Sale Volunteer list (excel)

The most important thing to do is advertise as much as possible.  Be sure to keep a couple of  flyers on hand so wherever you go you can ask if they would allow you to post one of the flyers in their location. Reynolds has a variety of templates to boost the look of your bake sale advertisements.  Use the signs as flyers to help get the word out.

Bake Sale Sign (PDF)

Bake Sale Table Sign (PDF)

And finally when it comes to pricing all the delicious cookies, cakes, brownies and other sweets that are there for the sole purpose of raising as much money as possible for your group or organization, go ahead and do it up right with these decorative labels.

Bake Sale Label template (word)

Bake Sale Label template (PDF)

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Yesterday, I wrote about a teacher in San Diego who has taken to selling advertising space on his tests and quizzes in order to pay for all the printing he needs done during the school year. A few days before that, I wrote about the idea of setting up a passive fundraising system in your school, one that operates 365 days per year. I am going to continue this theme of extreme fundraising measures today by writing about a school in Stamford, Connecticut, that is not passively raising money, but rather actively doing so.

According to The Advocate (Stamford newspaper), the students at Stamford High School have taken to operating a bake sale every single day. It takes place in the time before school starts each morning. There are over 70 different student groups that sign up for the time slot on different days. An average morning of bake selling can bring in upward of $200.

The article is quick to point out that in addition to all the sweet morning treats, there are often healthier options, such as bottled water and mandarin oranges. Some groups even bypass food altogether and collect money in other creative ways. continue reading

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There are a lot of bake sale haters out there. You may even be one yourself. I know it’s easy to dismiss the most clichéd, most over-done, most dreaded of all the fundraisers in the known universe.

But, I’m here to defend the lowly bake sale. I’m here to champion the 8’ folding table parked out in front of the grocery store on a Saturday morning. I’m here to beat all the haters back and prove that there is still life in the timeless art of the bake sale.

First, however, let me begin by reminding all the nay-sayers about the profit margin at a bake sale- 100%. Not 40%, not, 60%, not even 75%. You heard right- it’s 100%! You don’t have to share your loot with anyone. No investment on the part of your school. Parents donate the material and labor, while the grocery store donates the retail space and the customer base. It’s the perfect deal. continue reading

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