Library fundraising is a great way to earn money for your school library fast.

It is an unfortunate truth that schools in the US have it harder than ever at the moment. There are so many different costs that come up time and time again, from school repairs, to resupplying old books, tables, and chairs, to undergoing general school maintenance. And more often than not, the school budget just isn’t large enough to cater for everything that needs doing within the school, meaning that when one department needs an important upgrade, it may be left waiting for months or even years before being attended to. If your school’s library is in need of some extra funding, whether it be for new books or computers, or it needs to be completely refurbished, why not look to library fundraising to help you get there a little faster.

Library fundraising is a great way to earn money for your school library fast. But it isn’t just about the money. Holding a fundraiser can be a fun and exciting activity for students at your school, and you may find that many of them leap at the chance to help out in some way. There are plenty of things that need to be done to pull off the best event, from deciding on a suitable product to sell, to making posters and banners and handing out flyers to promote the event, to actually getting down to business and collecting donations from people. As long as you plan out your event thoroughly before getting started, you should find that all of this is quite easy to do, and with so many young helpers involved in making your fundraiser a success, you can step back and take a broader look at its development.

If you want to make things even easier, you might like to go with one of our great library fundraising products, like our High School Fundraising Scratch Cards or our Earth Candle Fundraising package.

No Comments »

Your school is not alone in fundraising; you have the support of parents, teachers, staff and school alumnae that are always there to lend a helping hand. Schools are special places and there are often many people that are happy to help support your mission and good works. But there is often another partner that is available to you that some schools don’t even reach out to: local businesses. Local businesses are typically very concerned about schools being successful because good schools mean a strong community. A strong community means that their business will do well. So aside from being a caring person that wants to be active in their community — it just makes good “business sense” to support the local schools.Perhaps you are wondering how a local business can support or get involved with your school. Here are some examples of local businesses that partnered with their schools with successful results. Whether community service or fundraising based, you’ll see that joining hands with local businesses can mean great rewards.

The Parent Teacher Organization of Franklin Elementary School in city, state raised $25,000 to install a new playground for their children. Funds were raised over a two year period through several different fundraisers.

Franklin Elementary School PTO of Sterling, Illinois purchased a 40-by-40-foot structure with four slides, a rock wall, climbers and a bridge. They found their community very supportive of their efforts. The Wal-Mart Distribution Center donated food, McDonald’s and the Candlelight Inn donated coolers, drinks and ice for volunteers that come to install equipment for the day. What a great way for local businesses to support a school!

The Hudson Elementary School of Tempe, Arizona partnered with the Symphony of the Southwest for an entertaining and musical fundraiser to benefit the school this fall. The Hudson Elementary School PTA sells individual tickets to the Symphony of the Southwest concerts. They collect more than 35% of the sale price as a school fundraiser. The tickets are also offered to the public at a reduced price, less than 20% the original price. What a lovely way to support your local school, and have a great evening at the same time!

Cathy Bentley, owner of Capitola Coffee Roasters in Capitola, California has a unique fundraiser for local schools. She has a coffee fundraiser that allows students to raise 50 percent of the price of each bag of coffee they sell. Students at the Mar Vista Elementary School in Aptos and also at the Mountain Elementary School in Soquel have raised funds through this java based fundraising program.

You may be wondering, how can you get your local businesses involved with your schools? Get out in the neighborhood and introduce yourself to your local businesses. Ask local businesses for their partnership with your events. Invite them to your programs, plays, fairs and special events so they can see how wonderful and unique your school truly is. Just like on the playground, in order to make a friend you need to go over to the other person and ask them if they want to be your friend!

1 Comment »

If you are part of a Christian church, you may know about some of the good causes and charities that people within the church like to support. If you feel like you haven’t done as much as you can to help these causes yourself, then you may like to try Christian fundraising to do your bit and rally up support from others in your church.

This is a great way to raise money for people in need, whilst doing something positive that involves everybody at your church. What’s more, there is no age limit on helping out with Christian fundraising, meaning that children and whole families can be a part of this positive activity.

So you’ve decided to hold a Christian fundraiser to support a certain cause or charity. That’s great! If you want a Christian fundraising solution that is quick and easy to set up, while at the same time is affordable and something that the church can fund, then why not go with one of our Christian products to sell at your event?

Our fundraising products come in all shapes and sizes, and there will likely be something for everybody to get excited about selling.

Whether it’s our Journey of Faith Candle Fundraisers, which offer a beautiful selection of candles with a Bible verse, or our Faith Lollipop Fundraisers, which are great for children and adults with a sweet tooth, you should have no trouble picking something that you like.

Once you’ve decided on the product that you want to sell at your Christian fundraiser, you will want to make sure that it is well promoted. This can be achieved by spending a little time making banners and posters to put up around the church. Or you may like to make an announcement after the next church service to spark everybody’s interest.

No Comments »

There is an interesting debate that has been percolating in more than just a few school districts lately.

Basically, there are some school districts in this country, with vastly different levels of family income within its boundaries. Some schools within a particular district may receive Title I funds from the federal government to help with low-income families, while other schools in the same district may have a much higher level of income among its families.

The problem is that schools with wealthier families are typically able to raise more money than schools with less well-to-do families. Therefore, the students in these schools can go on more field trips, have newer text books, have more interesting assemblies, and have newer technology.  (The richer schools have more parents who will buy tubs of cookie dough, tickets to an auction, make pledges for a walk-a-thon, etc.)

Well, there have been complaints that the educational experience of the students in the poorer school is less complete than the students in the richer schools, and this is not fair in a public school district.

Therefore, some districts are creating plans to take the money raised by all their schools, put it in a common pot, and re-distribute it equally amongst all schools, regardless of how much each school kicked in. This way, all students will get the same opportunities.

This proposal is not sitting well with many people. In fact, here is an excerpt from a letter to the editor in The Santa Monica (California) Mirror:

Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District Fundraising Efforts: Letter To The School Board

Dear School Board,

I can’t even begin to tell you how disappointed I am with your recent decision to combine the fundraising efforts for the schools into one system. I understand that there is an achievement gap in our schools; I believe that is why some of them receive Title 1 funds. I also understand that many of those funds have been cut, but not all. Will those resources also be allocated equally among all schools in the district?

I work hard to support my school, sacrificing valuable time and resources. And I’m not ashamed to admit that this is primarily because I have two children in the Santa Monica school system. I want to support them as much as humanly possible, which is easy to do when I get to see how my efforts affect their lives on a daily basis.

Would I work just as hard knowing that my time and money might go to other schools in the district? I’m honestly not sure. But the fact that I’m even asking myself the question just goes to show how wrong-headed your decision is.

While I believe that combining some of the resources from the wealthier schools could help, creating a system that equally distributes funds to all schools will only result in an overall decrease in the number of donations. On the surface, it would seem your plan is plausible — a simple and fair redistribution of funds — but this assumes that you’ll receive the same amount of money. Sadly, this is not the case.

The first rule of fundraising is to appeal to the donor’s sense of social responsibility and community. Put simply, people give more to causes that are personal or “hit close to home.” By broadening the spectrum of how school funds will be distributed, the board will have effectively narrowed its fundraising target and legislated a major disincentive to donations, especially with regard to your top-tier donors. Just imagine what would happen if college alumni associations were forced to distributed their donations to all universities instead of the college of their choice.

It’s just that simple.

My friends and neighbors have all expressed that they will not continue to monitarily support the schools in the same manner. We have not only discussed this in the hallways of our schools, but also with incoming parents. In fact I spoke to a friend on Monday about this new effort on the part of the school board. She was planning to move her family to Santa Monica, and has now decided to stay in Brentwood. So I know I’m not alone. Luckily, I am the treasurer of my child’s class, so next year I plan on asking for more money upfront to support our teacher rather than fundraising for the district.

So, how do you feel about this debate? Do you agree that all schools within one district should be able to give all its students that same opportunities, or is it ok for there to be a large gap between rich and poor schools?

I’d love to know what your thoughts are. Please share them with us in our forum!

Thanks!

Photo by: WebWallpapers

No Comments »

Ok, this isn’t going to be a long post with lots of information, but it’s something I really wanted to pass on to you readers.

I came across a web site called fiverr.com.  It’s a site where people offer to perform a service or sell you a product, for the flat fee of $5.  Hence, the name- “fiverr”. (Don’t know why it’s spelled with two “r’s” but it is.)

Anyway, a lot of the stuff that’s advertised on the site is weird and not necessarily useful for a school fundraiser, but I did see a few people willing to make fliers, posters, banners, or any kind of advertisement for only $5!  This is something I have always been terrible with, so to find someone with talent willing to be artistically creative for that price definitely catches my attention.

Now, I’ve never used this service, so I can’t attest to the quality of the service myself, however, there are reviews for each provider, which should be helpful in making a decision.  For instance, in the screen shot below, you can see that this designer has a 99% approval rate.  66 people approved, while only one person did not.  For $5 that seems like a pretty good bet.  But, be sure to check it out for yourself.

Here’s a screen shot of what I’m talking about.

1 Comment »