School Fundraisers

[Bicycle Bill]

One of the schools in my hometown did a toilet in the yard and another did a flock of pink flamingos.

Basically as the homeowner you wake up in the morning to either a decorated toilet or a flock of pink flamingos in the yard with a note that explains that the school club has chosen them to be a donor and for a small donation the items will be removed immediately. I'm not sure how much money they raised.

That kind of sounds like Extortion.

But I LIKE it.

They do something like that where I live too. You can pay to have a friend's house "flocked" with plastic flamingos.
You can also buy "flocking insurance" so that nobody can do it to you....although no true Parrothead minds plastic flamingos, do they?

-"BB"-

[comemonday]

Carwashes. My sister's kids' school wouldn't set a price but make it a "donation".... she thought they made more money that way, since if it's a set price... ie.. $5.... they'd take their change from a $10, but most would just give them $10 or $20.

[buffettbride]

Pancake Breakfast....I was the fundraising chair for my son's high school marching band booster club for 3 years. PM me and I'll give you the details. 110 kids (who I might add didn't have a minimum sales expectation) pre sold about 450 tickets year-after-year....you can clear $2,400. Not bad for a Saturday morning.

That might be doable. Did you get donations for the pancakes and syrup and stuff? How much was the up-front cost?

[citcat]

Chili suppers, catfish fries (in the South) too. You go around to the groceries and Walmarts and see what they can donate, make sure you put their names somewhere (whoever donates).

Yeah, we did the car washes and the suppers and firework sales and all that stuff. For my kids, I usually did a lot of the work. It's like all organizations: some work their butts off, some do a minimum so they can say they were there, some come to play. Just the way it is.
AND I'M SO GLAD I DON'T HAVE TO DO THAT STUFF ANYMORE.
Oh wait, I'm the prez of a Parrothead club, we do fundraisers that are a LOT of work. But we get to party afterwords.

[thebeachbumm33]

Our school system uses the School Tool Box http://www.schooltoolbox.com/store/sponsor it saves alot of time for the parents, it also saves parents 25 to 30% of the actual cost if you were to shop for it yourself, the PTA makes a good profit, and the teachers like it because they know every student/parent who participates at least starts the year with what they need thier class.

[Hockey Mon]

Our school said enough with the fundraisers and asked people to make a donation at the beginning of the year. They said, which is true, that they would not ask for any money during the year. It's been sort of nice.

But, Mal, to answer your question, you could sell...er....uh...mulch? No wait, that's the Boy Scouts. Ah crap, I got nothing. Except bus tokens.

Unfortunately, donations only go so far. Girl kid's school is facing a $165k shortfall for things like textbooks (there's more but I don't remember from the meeting), etc. compared to last year's budget. We recently had a copy paper drive because the school ran out of paper.

Damn, that sucks. Sorry to hear. Good luck.

[buffettbride]

Our school said enough with the fundraisers and asked people to make a donation at the beginning of the year. They said, which is true, that they would not ask for any money during the year. It's been sort of nice.

But, Mal, to answer your question, you could sell...er....uh...mulch? No wait, that's the Boy Scouts. Ah crap, I got nothing. Except bus tokens.

Unfortunately, donations only go so far. Girl kid's school is facing a $165k shortfall for things like textbooks (there's more but I don't remember from the meeting), etc. compared to last year's budget. We recently had a copy paper drive because the school ran out of paper.

Damn, that sucks. Sorry to hear. Good luck.

I often wonder if school districts outside CO are experiencing the same thing. Crazy budget shortfalls. Layoffs. Closures. It's all-around unpleasant .

[buffettbride]

The school just launched the Scrip program. Haven't really tapped into it yet, but it seems doable if you are a planner. Essentially, you purchase gift cards through the Scrip program to retailers where you normally shop. A portion of the purchase price is donated to the school in the form of some going to the school and some going to an individual student account. So, I can fund my Starbucks habit and help the school at the same time.

[Hockey Mon]

Our school said enough with the fundraisers and asked people to make a donation at the beginning of the year. They said, which is true, that they would not ask for any money during the year. It's been sort of nice.

But, Mal, to answer your question, you could sell...er....uh...mulch? No wait, that's the Boy Scouts. Ah crap, I got nothing. Except bus tokens.

Unfortunately, donations only go so far. Girl kid's school is facing a $165k shortfall for things like textbooks (there's more but I don't remember from the meeting), etc. compared to last year's budget. We recently had a copy paper drive because the school ran out of paper.

Damn, that sucks. Sorry to hear. Good luck.

I often wonder if school districts outside CO are experiencing the same thing. Crazy budget shortfalls. Layoffs. Closures. It's all-around unpleasant .

Well, I heard that in Montgomery County Maryland, they are expecting 3000 more students next year, are required by law (federal I think) to spend a certain amount on each student and are not getting more money (from the state I think) to pay for them. I may have the particular details wrong but the bottom line is they need more money by law but they are not going to get it. It's an f'ed up situation. I haven't heard about layoffs and closures here in Fairfax County VA. I'd imagine though that most places are being squeezed with the economy and all.

[springparrot]

The school just launched the Scrip program. Haven't really tapped into it yet, but it seems doable if you are a planner. Essentially, you purchase gift cards through the Scrip program to retailers where you normally shop. A portion of the purchase price is donated to the school in the form of some going to the school and some going to an individual student account. So, I can fund my Starbucks habit and help the school at the same time.

The school I worked at did that.
There were all sorts of gift cards available.
You can buy a card for gas, use it and help everyone
The cards made great gifts too

[springparrot]

Our school said enough with the fundraisers and asked people to make a donation at the beginning of the year. They said, which is true, that they would not ask for any money during the year. It's been sort of nice.

But, Mal, to answer your question, you could sell...er....uh...mulch? No wait, that's the Boy Scouts. Ah crap, I got nothing. Except bus tokens.

Unfortunately, donations only go so far. Girl kid's school is facing a $165k shortfall for things like textbooks (there's more but I don't remember from the meeting), etc. compared to last year's budget. We recently had a copy paper drive because the school ran out of paper.

Damn, that sucks. Sorry to hear. Good luck.

I often wonder if school districts outside CO are experiencing the same thing. Crazy budget shortfalls. Layoffs. Closures. It's all-around unpleasant .

Yup---all the ISD's in this area are having the same troubles....schools closing, teachers losing jobs, kids getting shuffled to new schools.

[Joetown Parrothead]

Golf Tournament: I am the Chairman of the "Shriners Hospital for Children" Golf outing. Last year we raised over $15,000, this year we are looking to do $20,000. Not too bad for one day.

[MammaBear]

Just got an email today from the soccer booster club. They have a very interesting idea...a "Gold Party". I will let you know when i get all the details, but the basic idea is you work with a local place that buys gold so people can bring their gold to sell (single earings, broken jewelry etc) and the club gets a % of the sales.....will be interesting to see how well it works.

[buffettbride]

I'm thinking about a school calendar (there are 11 arts majors, plus one month for school staff/administration). Take a creative picture from each major and it = a month on the calendar. Then, sell the calendars.

I know we have some cookbook fundraiser folks here--how profitable is that?

[ragtopW]

Robbing a bank is out.. right???

[East Texas Parrothead]

I'm thinking about a school calendar (there are 11 arts majors, plus one month for school staff/administration). Take a creative picture from each major and it = a month on the calendar. Then, sell the calendars.

I know we have some cookbook fundraiser folks here--how profitable is that?

We've raised a lot of $$$ for BuffettNews projects ... doing a cookbook takes a lot of time, but now that Morris Press has an online entry system, it's a lot easier.

PM me if you want more info.

Good luck.

[JollyMon66]

Pancake Breakfast....I was the fundraising chair for my son's high school marching band booster club for 3 years. PM me and I'll give you the details. 110 kids (who I might add didn't have a minimum sales expectation) pre sold about 450 tickets year-after-year....you can clear $2,400. Not bad for a Saturday morning.

That might be doable. Did you get donations for the pancakes and syrup and stuff? How much was the up-front cost?

Incoming PM

[springparrot]

I know these are older students, but one of our biggest $$ makers was a fun fair or Spring Fling.
I have been involved in quite a few of them, but they are all about the same.
Booths with things to do---basketball throw, balloon break, bean bag toss, etc....I think the games that needed to be built, were done by Dads. You can also have a cake walk---cakes made by parents. Each game is x amount of tickets to be sold ahead of time. We also had a contest to design a Tshirt that was sold.
One fair, we sold baked potatoes. We bought the potatoes at Wendy's for cost---all were about the same size and prewrapped.
We sold them quite a few different ways....plain, with chili (made by PTO), etc.
We got donations of so much---condiments for potatoes, Walmart, grocery stores, ask everyone and every store. It is amazing what will be donated. If they give you a gift card, use it for plates, cups, whatever you need.
And have a silent auction....again, ask everyone and every store for a donation...we got everything from teeth whitening, to pet check up and resturant gift cards.
Ohhhh and get a puppy/kitten to auction. The kids LOVE it.
We had a basket from each class. Let everyone put tickets in a box for the basket they wanted to win OR auction off the basket in a live auction---we have done both.
Each class can have a theme for their baskets....we have had electronics, TEXAS basket (don't guess you would want to do that one ), whatever the classes decide. One year, the staff basket was MARGARITAVILLE
There is alot of planning, and some $$ spent, but we made alot of $$$$$
Good Luck