Fundraising Ideas for School Class

Education & Academics High School
1

Hello Creative and Resourceful Mom's,

My question is: Do you know of any ingenious fundraisers for a high school class to do? My daughter is a sophomore at a very small rural school. (Less than 100 total enrollment) They are in need of raising funds to apply toward several projects on their horizon, i.e. homecoming floats, Prom, Sr. Trip, Graduation speakers etc. Because the school and community are so small and rural, selling anything is never a good fundraiser. Every group at school sells something for something and most fundraisers are just not profitable enough to make them worth their time. Carnival and Concessions are out as they are reserved for the Jr. Class; Snack Cart for the Student Council, Spirit Wear/Items for the Booster Club and the list goes on. These ideas need to be fairly inexpensive as their fundraising attempts to this point have not been very successful. Thanks so much for your input. Janet M.

2

When I was a cheerleader we washed windows! The other school groups sold school sweatshirts, hats, etc. But because we only invested in a little soap and elbow grease, we made 100% profit! It was fun and easy and almost everyone we contacted was more than happy to have someone else wash their windows!

3

I like the window washing idea. How about raking leaves or shoveling snow (I didn't look to see where you are located. Sorry if that's not applicable). Our youth group always did really well with garage sales. GL! My class in high school was horrible with fundraisers, too, so I feel her pain. I hope they can get it figured out this year!

4

What about a 50/50 raffle? We used to do them at every varsity game. But you could also do it at other events. You sell raffle tickets at the door for a buck each. Then at half time we pulled a number and that person got half the money we pulled in. Some people will by multiple tickets..it's only a buck. And if you sell 100 tickets, they get 50 bucks. It's a good deal for whoever wins and they know it, so they will buy more tickets to get more chances at the money. You can do it at sporting events or they could do it every day in the lunch room. Kids usually have a couple bucks burning a hole in their pockets, and if they did it every day for a week, the kids who missed out the first day would probably want to get in on it the next day.

Hope you find something that works for your kids!

5

Well, here's an idea to think about if the class (and the parents) are committed to raising funds. Instead of selling products, they could sell themselves. If the students would offer their services to the community, doing anything they are able to do that someone might need them to do, they might be able to raise both money for their class and interest in the school. Yard work, housework, errands, child and pet care... there are a number of needs that a student could fill. The parents would need to be just as committed because they may need to provide transportation! It also isn't as convenient - time and energy-wise - as selling food, so it would call for quite a commitment. Someone would need to work out the details, and the legalities would need to be gone into. Hope this helps.

6

My sister teaches family and consumer studies and to raise funds for their annual FCCLA conference trip they made burritoes to sell. I know you said you didn't want to sell things, but this may different enough for people to be interested in. They made 10 packs of burritoes, both beef and bean and breakfast types and sold them for $20 a pack. You could get all one kind or half and half. They wrapped them in foil put them in a gallon size baggie and had a little warming up in the microwave or oven paper with instructions included in the bag. The kids helped make and assemble the burritoes and then put the packages together. It was great for people to take to work and sell too. They make great lunches!

Good Luck!

7

http://www.kaypiercefr.com/index.htm

you can contact them about it. They will send info to you and the school. the great thing about this program is that u can email the link to family and friends all over the world to order and it will be shipped to them! Check it out!

8

My daughter's school sent home a survey asking which fund raiser the parents would be most interested. It included a paragraph explaining why they needed the money. I checked the box that said I'd rather donate money and not be bothered by any fund raising. I liked that 100% of my donation would go to the school.

I guess alot of other parents picked that box, too. A month later they sent home a flier asking each family to donate atleast $25 and assuring us that they wouldn't be bothering us for money again. I'm sure they asked for more than they needed incase some families didn't donate. I gladly sent the check.

Unfortunately, the PTA wasn't included in the "don't bug me for more money" and now they're doing fund raising, too.

9

Kids have money, more than we did at least. If your school doesn't have a vending land, you could do before school snack sales... A little bit every day for candy bars, soda, popcorn, right in the entryway. You've got them at school and popcorn smells SOOOO good in the morning. Or energy bars. It's a slower way to do it, but you catch a few every day!

10

Have them all find an item at home that can be sold on E-Bay or Craig's List, etc. Then have one person who knows how to sell stuff online help to facilitate that.

They could also visit neighbors and ask about donations of such items.

11

Hi, Janet - I'm a stay-at-home grandmother, and I babysit my 32 month old granddaughter full-time while her parents work. I have been online now for over 20 years, so I've seen a few good deals. What I would like to share with you might be a very lucrative project for your daughter's class, especially if they are online, and most of today's high school students have been computer literate for years.
Go to http://www.SaveMoreOnlineMall.org or http://www.SaveMoreOnlineMall.com

to learn about a fantastic new company that was founded to help children and the needy all over the world. Your daughter's class would have the option to open a mall for their class, and then refer the link to others worldwide, thus going outside your community for customers. There are hundreds of ideas for them on-site for fund raising. For example, I upgraded from the free mall and just sent away for my gas and grocery rebate registrations. When I receive them, I will only have to save $100 in gas receipts and $100 in grocery receipts from my chosen retailers (they also accept food stamp receipts) each month, mail them in, and I'll get two $25 Visa Cards - for a total of $600 a year - to spend as I wish, even on more gas and groceries. The senior class might want to participate, and then use the Visa cards anywhere that accepts Visa to purchase items for their float, gas for the float, etc. The neat thing about this program is that they can also refer others to the program and get cash referral fees for the class, too. You mentioned the need for inexpensive - they can open their own mall for free! Please feel free to contact me for more information, or with any questions, and to let me know what you think about this idea. Jan
P.S. Your daughter's class might want to open a mall for the PTA, Education Foundation, etc. The possibilities are endless!

12

Not sure if these would work in your area, but they are a couple of ideas I've seen put to good use in a couple of small towns here in Montana.

  1. This one is done every year up north to raise money for the town's Christmas decorations. The town got a bunch of really cheap, really ugly plastic lawn flamingos (could use any kind of ugly plastic bird). Then people "purchase" any where from 1 to a whole flock of the plastic buggers to put on their neighbor's, friend's and (dare I say) enemies lawns. The people who have been "flocked" are then under the obligation to either pay the donation fee in order to have the birds removed or live with them for the rest of the year. The insurance company in town even got involved by selling "A-Flock" insurance. They would sell the "insurance" for a certain donation amount and then the people with insurance got a sign to put in the front yard to protect against "flocking".

  2. In the town I grew up in they had a fund raiser every year for the high school athletics association (the football coach was also the chief of police so that might have something to do with this). Parents, teachers, etc... would volunteer to spend time in jail. They would pledge to raise a certain amount of money and then they would have to call up anyone they could think of to "post bail". Once they had raised enough to meet their pledge they were released. Some people ended up spending the night in there, but the town really got behind it and they were provided with all sorts of home cooked meals in the slammer.

Both of these fundraisers really take A LOT of community involvement, so I don't think it's something that would work in a suburban area. But if you live in the kind of town that really gets into it's high school athletics, etc.. then they are great ways to go. VERY little start up money and nothing to sell.

Hope this helps a little bit. Good Luck!

13

Dear Janet,
The easiest, simplest & most profitable fundraiser is the Awaken Fundraiser. It can be applied to Schools, Dance Studios, Animal Adoption, Breast cancer Awareness, just anything.

Your school will make 100% of the profits!!!

Most "fundraising" companies only give you up to 60% of the profits. And you have to do all of the work. But with the Awaken fundraiser you will receive a flyer already designed, made to your specs, to copy, give to students & faculty & they hand out to EVERYONE. :0)
You will have easy to use order forms that anyone can use. Then they are collected, the orders are placed for you & the orders are then delivered for you to the recipents.
But the best part??? You get 100% profit the last day of the fundraiser, NOT once the order comes in.

Your donors will also get their sea salt scrub. Amazing product that men, women, teens, everyone loves. With aromatic, essential, healing natural, botanical oils. People always like to get a little "something" for as thanks for their generous donations.
You can email [email protected] to receive details about the fundraiser.
Take care, G

14

A hot dog/ lemonade stand works well...maybe along with a car wash. Just make sure you get a city permit.

15

They could come up with something to sell on eBay or on etsy.com if they are crafty.

16

Our school does a Fun Run. You sponsor a student per lap or a flat donation. 100% of the money goes to the school. Our school raised 15,000 over what our goal was! Parents volunteered to mark laps, papers attached to the back of the shirt, pass out water. Someone even brought music. Then they got popsicles after. It was fun.

17

As a teacher, I know that it is very difficult for kids to do fundraisers, esp. in a small town. I agree that selling things is really not that great. Some things that have worked really well in the past are:

1) Have teachers/staff/students at the school pay to have their cars washed/cleaned of snow at the end of the school day. This works great because it is sort of a captive audience. I gladly payed $5 several times to have my car cleaned and ice removed by fundraising kids. The kids just take license plate numbers down and trudge out the lot.

2) Pay for service -- in the spring, several kids went around to local churches, businesses, and schools offering to plant flowers. Basically, the business or whatnot buys the flowers and the kids plant them. Helps if you have a parent volunteer with an eye for plants and bedding layout.

3) Singing telegrams at any holiday -- yes, Halloween, Christmas, Valentines Day...helps if your kids have a little musical talent, but can also be very funny with kids who don't and are willing to make a joke out of it. We did ours during student lunches -- kids just went over to the telegram receiver table and belted it out. Teachers were ambushed after class. Parents were usually done at home during the evenings. Basically how it works is students/parents/teachers buy a telegram for someone they know, and the kids deliver it at the appropriate time.

4) Bake sale during parent/teacher conferences. Or sales of kid friendly dinners during the same. This works well if your conferences run late and they are the only food available.

5) Also popular is on-site babysitting for little kids during conferences and games. Ask your school if they would be willing to let you set up a room and do "drop in" care. Note there are some legal issues you would have to cover with your school, as not all schools are comfortable allowing that. Otherwise, you can do "drop in" care at a house near the school, and advertise it in advance. Pizza and Disney movies usually make even a large crowd of little kids manageable, but parent assistance is a must.

Note that all of the above require only one thing -- free kid labor. In general, that seems to be the most profitable thing in terms of fundraising. Also, since most of the activities involve hanging out together, it really isn't a big deal for the kids if you don't make a ton of money each time.

Good luck and I hope your school manages to raise the money they need.

18

I live in a small mountain town. My favorite is when we can order Krispy Kream donuts from the kids. I'll pay just about any price and it doesn't matter that they are a day old.

19

Dear Janet;
Here is an idea. Our son went on a school exchange to Siberia, in between his jr/sr year. There was 4 students that went from the school. The school where he attended was small also. One of the money makers they had was a prime rib dinner. I organized it with the kids. We served prime rib, baked potatoes, salad, and 1 scoop of ice cream for dessert. My son sold $2000.00 in ticket sales alone. Almost the whole town attended. If you would like more details let me know and I will tell you how we did it and how it worked and didn't work. Your mamasource pal, Lela

20

First of all, congrats on getting your fundraising started! Raising support for a worthy cause can be super rewarding.

One route you might want to consider is setting up a homepage for your group on a fundraising website.

Raising support online is much simpler and more tidy than raising funds via cash or check (most sites can link donations straight to your bank account through a merchant processor). And having a group page gives you a central place to post information, photos and let people know what you do - this helps you promote your cause to friends, family and whoever else you want.

There are plenty of sites these days that help groups meet their goals - here are some good options:

First Giving (www.firstgiving.com) is a solid one. They charge about 5% on donations raised and have a simple structure to set up your page (though you may have to be a certified non-profit to register with them).

If that's the case, another option is Empowered (www.empowered.org). They process about 3.5% on donations raised, offer lots of tools to help organize/fundraise, and I know they support all small groups, regardless of non-profit status.

And you could always try to send up your own PayPal account to link to you directly, but this is a little trickier and a bit inflexible.

Good luck getting your fundraising going, I hope this helps!