Connecting Schools With Great Fundraising Ideas.

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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I read an article this morning about a high school in Basking Ridge, NJ, that recently had a car wash to benefit the athletic program.

Nothing unusual about that.

But as I read the article, a couple of things stood out to me.

First of all, the car wash raked in $3,400 in just a few hours. Which is not too bad for a car wash. In fact, $3,400 is a car washing record for this school. With car washes, there’s minimal planning and not too much overhead, when you compare it to other fundraisers such as a carnival or walk-a-thon. So, I’d say that this fundraiser was pretty effective, which I like.

Secondly, since the fundraiser was a benefit for the entire athletic department, each sports team sent representative volunteers to work the event. Over 100 students showed up to help the cause. That’s also very impressive.

But the thing that I took away from this article was that it proves it is much more effective to organize fundraisers around causes that people are passionate about. Each one of these sports team representatives believed in their sport. They knew there were funding problems within the athletic department and without some serious fundraising efforts, their sport may be eliminated.

Therefore, these students felt motivated to sacrifice their free time to save their sport. This was a personal cause for each one of these students. I’m sure the coaches didn’t have to twist very many arms to get student-athlete to sign-up for a shift. continue reading

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When planning your school carnival, you may find yourself in a situation where you’re having trouble coming up with enough volunteers, due to the high number needed. At this point, you may consider recruiting older children, perhaps middle school or high school age to fill the gaps.

I think this is a fine solution to your problem, as long as you are able to give the student-helpers strong direction and supervision. While this may be a stereotype against young people, many of them do not have extensive experience in customer service or even a work history whatsoever.

Be very clear in your instructions and expectations.

As a precaution, you should be very clear with them that while they are on duty, their first priority is the entertainment of the children. Therefore, no cell phones or other electronic devices may be used while they are “working”.

Also, instruction should be given on your expectations for how to talk to customers. Each worker should greet the children and their parents with a friendly hello and continue to be polite and welcoming throughout the families’ entire experience.

Ask the student helpers to put themselves in the place of the parents.

Explain to the student-helpers that if a parent feels his or her child is not being made to feel welcome, the parent may start to develop negative feelings about the entire event. As a result, that parent may spend less money at the carnival and could even leave early, before other money-spending opportunities, such as the basket auction, have even begun.
I would also insist on having a dress code for all the volunteers. If you apply the restrictions to everyone, the teens won’t feel singled out.

To be fair, I have worked with many young people who have had vastly superior customer service skills than most adults. So, please don’t get me wrong. Teenagers could be a terrific asset to your carnival. I’m only advising you not to assume too much and be prepared to teach some things that you might actually take for granted.

Your Turn

Do you have any ideas on the subject of letting teen-agers work for your school carnival?  What’s your experience been like?  Please share with us in our comment section!  Thanks!

Photo by: St Peter’s Community News

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Anyone who’s been reading this blog for a while knows that one of my favorite websites is PTO Today. They have so much useful information. I learn something new everytime I visit.

I especially love their message boards. People directly involved in school PTO management and volunteering share wonderful ideas. If you have never visited that site, I highly recommend that you do.

As an example of the great stuff they have, here are just a few of the awesome ideas for concession stand sales that you can find on their message boards. I hope you enjoy!

 

RE: Concession stand food ideas

I ran a high school athletic concession for 10 years. Every year we hosted all the district, state, regional tournament. Plus we did the PIT which is where the NBA scouts come and look at the top senior college players in the country. I have found simple is better. To many choices to much left overs. We sold chic-fil-a sandwiches, bar-b-que sandwiches, slices of pizza and hot dogs for our hot items. Chic-fil-a and the local pizza place delivered. We sold the major candy bars that were popular in area(snickers, m&M plain and peanut, 3 muskteers, twixs, skittles, reeses, and kit kat), bottle soft drinks (fountain and cans make to much of a mess), popcorn, slim jims, nabs, moon pies(huge hit, low in fat and you get chocolate). I sold all the candy for the same price to help the volunteers speed things up. How big was our concession stand? During PIT we served 5,000 people before the game, at 1/2 time and after the game. We even set up a separate area for people who just wanted drinks with no food items..We served all 5,000 people in 15 minutes. We set up 4 lines in the school cafeteria and ran it like a buffet line. They picked up what they wanted and took to the cashier for check out. This allowed my volunteers to continue to stock the shelves of food. In a 4 day period I would net $10k. Good luck.

RE: Concession stand food ideas

I live in Tennessee been working in baseball park concessions for many years, I’m certainly going to try the walking tacos next season, at our park pickles are total profit. We sell at least 3 five gallons jars of pickles a week, we sell the pickles for 75 cents each, then we take the juice put it in one ounce cups with lids freeze it and sell it for 25 cents and never have enough. My mother works at a restaurant and I use the juice they have left over. Our older players like the juice boxes, apple is our big seller. Extreme airheads are our best candy seller.

Re: Concession stand food ideas

Don’t forget pickle-cicles. We sell out everyday. I buy the small plastic medicine sized cups at the dollar store for one dollar I get seventy cups. As my pickles sell I use the juice to freeze in the cups for pickle-cicles. I sell for 25 cents each. continue reading

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This is a guest post written by Nate Jaehnig.  Nate is the owner of AZ Bounce Pro in Arizona, which rents inflatables for school carnivals in his local area.  With his experience in this field, Nate has become very knowledgeable about how many people can actually participate on individual inflatable per hour and how this effects your overall carnival income.  Not all “bouncy castles” have the same earning potential, so read carefully to make sure you are making wise financial decisions. – Jim Berigan

The primary goal of almost every school carnival or fundraiser event is to raise money for a specific cause or organization. Many carnival organizers do not realize one of the best and most effective ways to raise the most amount of money at a school carnival is by maximizing throughput at each ride or activity at their carnival.

What is ride throughput? Throughput is a simple measurement of the number of participants a certain ride, game, or activity can register per unit of time. Throughput is typically measured as a number of participants per hour. It is the single factor that can have the greatest impact on the profitability of a fundraiser or carnival.

You want throughput to be a high number in order to maximize profitability. A high throughput also results in shorter and faster lines at each activity!

When you are assessing which rides or activities to have at your school carnival, throughput should be at the top of your list when evaluating your ride choices. How many participants can you register per hour on any particular piece? Should you go for the inflatable slide or the sumo suits? Throughput will be your guide when you need to make decisions about which activities you want at your event. continue reading

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