Connecting Schools With Great Fundraising Ideas.

School supplies– from pens to paper and curriculum materials–are essential to learning.  With the economy and budget cuts it has been tough for many schools to provide the supplies needed. The Tools for Teaching contest sponsored by Catalogs.com and eNasco.com can help teachers face this challenge. Participants have the opportunity to win up to $2,500 in school supplies for their classrooms.

All you have to do is go to the website www.catalogs.com/teachers and answer the question: “Why does your class deserve to win a gift certificate from eNasco.com and how will you put the school supplies to good use?”

This contest runs through runs through Wednesday, September 30, 2009.  Tell all the teachers you know to sign up for this contest.  They could win some great materials to outfit the class for the school year!

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One of the most reliable types of school fundraisers is the product sale. A product sale is an event in which a school hooks up with a company that provides an item that students try to sell to friends, families, and others in their social networks. Each company has their own formula to split the revenue between themselves and the school.

Some common examples of items used in product sales are: cookie dough, chocolate, wrapping paper, magazines, and popcorn, although virtually anything, as long as it’s sellable, can be used to make a profit for the school.

Product sales are popular for four main reasons:

1. They are simple to plan and execute. The companies have really made these things fool-proof for both the school administration and the parents.
2. Over the years, people have grown to develop an expectation that they will have to sell something to raise money for their kid’s school, so they are already pre-disposed to participate.
3. School administrators generally don’t like to spend too much time thinking about creative fundraising ideas, so product sales have become “no-brainers”.
4. Product sales are very reliable financially. You can take the number of students participating in the sale and get a fairly accurate estimate of what you can expect to bring in.

Even though the actual planning and executing of a product sale are relatively easy to navigate, there are still a number of questions that you should ask either yourself, your product sale representative, or the people in your community before making a commitment to one particular product or company. Failure to ask these questions or questions like these put you at risk of having a substandard fundraising event. (more…)

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In this country, there is a wonderful relationship between schools and athletics. This is especially true of football. Football teams, both in high schools and universities, often provide the face of school spirit and a offers a common gathering space for the educational community to relax and enjoy themselves.

But, a football program is expensive to operate, and especially at the high school level, a significant fundraising effort is needed to provide essentials like uniforms, travel expenses, practice equipment, and assessment tools like video cameras and computers.

To address these specific needs, most schools have developed an active “Boosters” club, which is made up of people who have a strong love of football and school and who have committed themselves to making sure their team has what it needs to keep winning.

Last year WCVD Newschannel 5 in Boston published a report entitled “Student Athletes Forced To Pay To Play”, in which they highlighted a difficult situation at Hamilton Wenham Regional High School. Due to a serious budget shortfall in this district, they have been forced to adopt a “pay for play” policy, in which individual players and their families have to come up with the money to pay for all the season’s expenses.

According to the report, “It costs $282 per student for cross-country, $398 for golf, $409 for girl’s soccer, $508 for field hockey and $969 for football.

“Football started at $1,400 per student, but was reduced through private fundraising and gate receipts to about $969 per student,” Athletic Director Don Doucette said.

Obviously, this is a situation that most schools would like to avoid. But, that means a serious effort at raising large amounts of money must be made. And, it must be more than a few individual and separate fundraisers throughout the season. Football fundraising should be a sustained, coordinated, and multi-pronged attack that is carried out year round. The alternative to this aggressive approach is unfortunately seen in the fee structure above. (more…)

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Every spring high schools all across the country throw a grand party and dance known as the PROM.  It’s a rite of passage for any teenager. Get dressed up, dance and have a great time!

One of the first things your prom committee will do is to create a prom budget.  This will help you know how much everything will cost and how much money will need to come in to pay for the event.

Many schools also charge a entry ticket for students who go to prom, but that is usually not enough to cover the costs of putting on the event.  So of course that leaves us with fundraisers for prom. Most of the time the students have fundraisers for prom starting a year or more in advance.

There are a lot of ways that high schools raise the money needed.  Usually the prom committee is in charge of planning the event and the fundraisers.  Sometimes parents help with raising money too.

List of Prom Fundraising Ideas

1. Have a prom dress sale to get rid of your old dresses and make some big bucks at the same time!  You can accept any kind of formal wear, weddings too, to attract even more buyers.

2. Speaking of fashion, how about a fashion show fundraiser?

3. Parents could have a night of fun all to themselves with a wine tasting fundraiser.

4. For a more elaborate adult-only fundraiser, a second chance prom could be a lot of fun.

5. Have a talent show at the school carnival (even if your high school doesn’t have a carnival, see if you can do this at a local elementary school!)

6. You can have a sale to raise funds for prom such as a candle fundraiser or cookie dough sale.

7. One school held a volleyball tournamet to raise fund for prom.

8. Have a dress up day at school or a sporting event in dress up – one high school rugby team played a game in prom dresses to raise funds!

9. Another great competition would be a video game tournament like Wii sports
or DDR.

10. Work with a local restaurant which will donate part of the proceeds to your group. Chik-fil-A, Pizza Hut, Ben & Jerry’s Ice Cream, Marble Slab, Ci Ci’s Pizza and Sonic are just a few of the ones that offer this.

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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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