Fundraisers! - Cleveland,OH

I don't know if this would work for a primary school, but I went to a fundraiser for a H.S. Band where for each person that showed up to test drive a new Ford product, the band received $20! It was fun too. They also sold snacks and hot dogs and had a car wash at the same time, plus a raffle of some automotive accessories.

Texas Roadhouse has a fundraiser with their delicious rolls. They come frozen and you bake them at home. Little Ceasars also does the same thing with pizza and crazy bread. These are both big sellers, especially the Texas Roadhouse rolls. Good luck!

I do fundraising with my Mary Kay business. I do service all 50 states and ship directly to the buyer, with no delivery necessary. I can give you info if you're interested.

One of the largest money raisers for our competitive cheer team was family portraits. We sold $10 vouchers, you got a 8x10 for your $10. You booked your setting, we did Saturday & Sunday, at our location. Then they set up a time for you to come back and view your portraits, with the hope that you would buy more. We received the $10, a percentage of what was sold, and a bonus if we booked a certain number of people.

Avon offers a fundraiser program.

I also like peeler cards. (www.peeltosave.com) or 888-517-0197 pay $10 for the card and it has lots of buy one get one savings at local restaurants. And many other discounts, specifically for your area. You make 50% profit for every card you sell.

I did the PTA thing before i started homeschooling my kids. I really like the book fairs that Usborne books does, and instead of buying things like cookie dough that no one needs, kids always need books and it encourages parents to read with their kids at a young age. Also unlike scholastic (which also does a nice job) the books are more educational in nature.

I hate fundraisers and I am President of the cheer boosters at daughter's high school.

For elementary, the write a check campaign did well....no one likes to go selling something no one wants. Neighbors feel obligated to purchase when they have kids in the middle of fundraising as well.

Some of the better ones in elementary school were the fall and spring Scholastic Book Fair, Fall carnival, and yard sale.

In higher grades you see a lot of Entertainment books (yuck) and cookie dough (yuck).

For our cheer squad, we raise $ to send the girls to competitioin. Training is $5000 plus entry fees. We set a goal of $500 for each girl to sell ads for the football program we publish and sell at football games along with school spiritwear. We make it clear that $500 is each girls' goal and they can sell, donate cash or combination of both.

Good luck

In kindergarten one year, they had the kids do a drawing in black thin marker on a half sheet of white paper. The designs were then printed on cards that parents/families purchased! They were fabulous and sold like hotcakes!

I just finished being PTO President. I think you'll be hard pressed to find a fundraiser that appeals to all. However, I've found a few things you can do that only require minimal effort and can pay off. First of all, register your school for Kroger Community Rewards. Your parents will need to register their Kroger Plus Cards. However, every time they shop, your school will get credit. Then you get a check quarterly. It is so easy and you can earn a lot of money. Similarly, Giant Eagle as "Apples for the Teachers." Instead of money you can earn equipment. Also, many restaurants allow you to hold dinner nights at their establishment and take home a percentage of what they earn in those hours. Ci Ci's Pizza is good about this along with Max and Erma's and Wendys. Good luck.

For the past two years, Reagan Elementary has an event called ROMP 'N STOMP. The kids raise pledges - per step or flat pledge for EVERY step they take during a designated 30 minute period.

All the kids get shirts to wear the day of the event. There are prizes, individual and class prizes like a pizza or movie/popcorn party. Local businesses donate free ice cream cone from Dairy Queen, etc. for some of the individual prizes. Big prizes are a bike, i-pod, etc. for most $$ raised.

There is NO investment except the advertisement and shirts for all the kids. You should be able to get some parent's business to DONATE the shirts w/ their advertising/sponsorship on the back. Depending on the size of the school, you may need more than one sponsor.

On the day of the event, the kids can walk, jog, run, play basketball, jump rope, etc. All kids have a pedometer and the numbers are recorded on index cards at the end of the 30 minutes. The child's name, grade, teachers' name and number of steps are on the card. Everyone has to sit at the end of the 30 min to be fair. It takes a little time, but great if you have lots of volunteers.

collect the cards and then give them another 10 days or 2 weeks to collect pledges. Kids GET EXERCISE AND raise $$ at the same time. NO SALES!!!

Hacienda and other various restaurants have "Give Back Nights". Basically, you pick a night and give out tickets that they can take and you will get 20% of all sales from those tickets. Very little work for the profit that is made!

Another fundraiser is Market Day (an ongoing monthly fundraiser)......people buy their "groceries" from their and pick them up at the school. Lots of opportunity for kids to help (probable with a some adult helps also. Products can be a little pricey, but very high quality!

Our other ongoing fundraiser is the scrip program. People can buy gift cards for thousands of local stores that they already shop in at face value. Then, when they use them, the school profits (percentage depends on the store). We buy those because it is no "new" budget money. I buy gas cards, grocery cards, etc that we are going to use anyway. Then, the school gets a profit whenever I do my "regular" shopping. Parents, grandparents (even out of town relatives, friends) can take part without having to buy things they don't need/want. In this economy......having a fundraiser with things that you don't have to spend "extra" money on is a definite plus! Then, everyone can participate without feeling strapped!

We also do a few other little things, like occasional bake sales, book fairs and a fall fun fair. But, the previous 3 fundraisers are the true money makers for us.

I sell Usborne Books for kids Birth-teens. They could raise money to get books for their classroom/library. The total funds could be matched with my book company. It is called Literacy for a Lifetime. If it sounds like something you might consider , here is my website (ubah.com/T2267). We have awesome books and new things came out this month. You may benefit from the First reader series with 15 books and learning pamphelet. Check out my site. Where do you work? I am in Ohio.

I am a Manager with Tupperware. We offer a fundraising program which gives 40% of all sales back to the organization. Our products are well-known and backed by a lifetime warranty, and participation is typically very good because people know they're getting a quality product. I'd love to give you more information if you're interested!

My sister started a business with the hopes of turning it into a school fundraiser. Go to www.capecuties.com and take a look at the cute T-shirts with capes. My daughter loves hers!! There is a section on her webpage regarding fundraisers. All the the artwork is original and created by my sister as well.

Hope you like them!

Hi there!
Our school did a Tupperware Fundraiser. The school gets 40%!!! It is a pretty great fundraiser with a lot of ecofriendly options!

Although I wasn't the representative for our school because I wasn't selling it at the time, it was the driving force to become a representive.

Feel free to contact me for additional information. ###-###-####
K.

Yes. Figure out how much you need to raise. Divide by the number of kids and ask for a check. ie $4000 / 200 kids = $20 per student. Give families the option of writing a check vs 'encouraged' participation in a fundraiser. GL!

I know you have heard from other direct sales companies on here. Pampered Chef offers back 15-20% to the group/organization. You can contact me for more information at ____@____.com or view my website at www.pamperedchef.biz/cilla407.

I know it would be great to be able to get my name out there and for parents to be able to have quality products in their homes that they use on a daily basis.

Good luck in your endeavors.

I am a private Partylite candle consultant, and they started an awesome fundrasing program aout a year ago. The organization gets 50% of net profits (before shipping and tax) and then the product is shipped directly to each individual seller so there is no need for sorting. Partylite has been around for over 35 years and there candles are amazing! They are all a low temp. paraffin base with no lead wicks. They burn clean and completley and the scents are to die for!!! If you would like more information I would love to send you some, just send me a message (I think it's so tacky to solicite on this site so I will leave it up to you :)) Good luck!

Our elementary school is trying something new year in response to the huge positive feedback by parents when it was suggested last year - a Cash Donation Fundraiser. A letter and envelope will go home the 1st week of school... parents (they can ask other friends/family if they want) write a check of however much they want and return it in the envelope within 2-3 weeks. The checks are made out to the school and the school gets 100% of the money.

Another elementary school in our district did this last year and had a record-breaking fundraiser -- more than 4 times more money than the previous highest fundraiser!!

Eww I despise these fundraisers year after year. Here's a thought back in the day when I was a kid (the 70's) my school did carnivals and picnics with sack races, egg and spoon runs, dunking booths. cake walks, duck pond. The PTA got parents to volunteer to run the booths. It was sooooo much fun and left me with great memorys. I can't say that's true with today's fund raisers and what do the kids really get out of it anyway, most get a pencil or some other piece of junk. Our kids shouldn't have to be door to door salesmen anyway. One other thought is a cook book, have the parents all send in recipes. and the sell the books.

A very EASY fundraiser is GoodSearch.com
You sign up the non-profit, then ask the school, teachers, students, parents etc. to use it as their primary search engine. It is powered by Yahoo Search.
Initially, the person has to list your organization as the one being supported. But the computer should save that so any subsequent searches are automatically linked.
Your organization gets 1 penny per search. AND if the person uses the GoodShop.com link to initiate a purchase (at MANY websites...Amazon, Staples, ebay, etc) you get a percentage of that purchase.

The biggest obstacle is getting the word out and reminding people to use it as their primary search engine.

IT COSTS NOTHING but the time to remember to use it.

Good Luck!

What a great list of ideas! Some fun creative ones as well! Another option to consider is a Discovery Toys Read-a-thon Fundraiser which encourages families to read together. Something much more inline with the school's mission than wrapping paper or cookie dough! 100%+ of the profits return to the school to purchase educational materials for the classrooms.
The Read-a-Thon is a great partner to a classic Discovery Toys fundraiser that encourages families to play together. Families can purchase toys, books and games that are fun as well as layered with learning possibilities that build minds and strong relationships. Each purchase earns cash or free toys for the school. A definate win/win! I'm happy to help if it feels like the right fit to explore more. www.toyladyjanet.com

Pizza Hut and Dominos both have pizza cards programs...works like this: you order cards from them at about 40% of what you charge the people you sell them to. The person who buys the cards get so many free pizzas. I haven't checked this in a few years but when I did, the cards sold for $10 each, depending on the quantity you ordered from the company, you paid $4-5 dollars each. The card was good for "buy one get one" after you paid for $10 (and received 10 free) you then got an additional free pizza. You could order all 21 at once or you could get them in smaller quantities. You could also check the pricing ahead of time and get the orders before ordering from the company. The great thing about these are you don't need a lot of space to store or worry about refrigeration.

Another option is having a school/community yardsale. Let others rent table space and/or donate items for the PTA to sell. Kids could help with set up (depending on their ages) and it is all profit.

We have done pennies drives. All school kids bring in pennies from home. The class that brings in the most pennies get an ice cream party. We do bake sales at school with bagged pop corn....this makes a lot money. We Raffle off I pods, bikes. We sell tickets for a dollar all year long and pull the raffles at the end of the year. Good luck I know its a lot of work.....hope your committee is helping you.

The best fund raiser we did was the Boosterthon fun run. The kids had a blast running laps , got exercise and raised money for the school. Enough for a climbing wall and a basketball court. It is an elementary school.
Also they do fundraiser nights at local resturants , Chick fillet , and a local pizza place do them for our school. They have contests between schools , which ever school gets the most sells gets $ from chick fillet