Fundraising Ideas
There’s an interesting discussion happening on the Simple Savings forum (paid membership forum) regarding fundraising ideas. I’m amazed at how many different ideas there are out there. No doubt we’re all involved in one group or another that has a need to raise funds for various running costs or projects.
On Friday, I took on the role as President of our school Parents and Friends group (unintentionally I might add). It’s a group I’ve only been involved with for a year so I’m not even 100% sure on the full role the group plays in the school. However, one of the things it does do is raise funds to help with bits and pieces that aren’t covered in other funding (and there’s always plenty of those).
So, my question to all of you is:
What successful fundraising ideas have you been involved with or seen?
In particular, things that are reasonably simple (workload wise) with not too much outlay. We’re not a huge school which puts some of the big fundraising ideas out of our reach.
Also, how many fundraisers does your school hold a year?
Do you think that is too many? Too little?
I actually think our school could do with holding a few more but I don’t want to overdo it either.
Any other thoughts you have on the whole issue of fundraising I’d love for you to share. 
Thanks for your help. :) Oh, and wish me luck. LOL.
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We made a cookbook which worked really well. It was made up of recipes from parents from the school and we just used a basic binder format.
There are lots of online companies that now do fund-raising too like:
http://www.mumscard.com.au/fundraising
http://www.mooo.com.au/fundraising.php
Good luck!!!
We like fundraising outside the school community. So we try to do at least 3 BBQs at Bunnings/Harvey Norman a year. I am guessing you may not have these stores where you live, but is there somewhere, like the local hardware or similar, that might let you do a BBQ outside on a Saturday - we normally raise between $1,000 & $1500 from these.
We are also a small school & struggle with fundraising. Do you or can you do Mangos in December? Not sure if they would ship them to you, but we have found this is a great one. Then there is also Hot Cross BUns, pies & slices & mince pies at Christmas.
Another one is family portraits. A photographer takes family photos, charges a $15 sitting fee & gives one photo with this. The p&c keep the sitting fee & then the photographer keeps the profit from all other photos.
Do you do an art show? Or what about a monster garage/car boot sale where you charge a fee for people to set up & sell their junk. Much easier than a fete - you could also hold a BBQ etc at the same time. And if you school is a polling place, don’t forget that there will be an election this year, so BBQ & cake stall.
Hi Lightening, so wonderful to stumble across your blog. I searched Caravan cooking, and found you. How was your trip last July. Sounds wonderful. We are going on a 5 week trip very soon, and I am currently looking for meal ideas that are easy but yummy. I have all on your list, and also microwave stuffed potatoes, filled with bacon/ham, avocado, cherry tomatoes, sour cream and grated cheese. I have plenty of fundraising ideas which I will do another post for.
As for your fundraising ideas, firstly congrats on the new post. I was for the last 3 years the fundraising co-ordinator at my boys preschool. Some of the activities we had were: Easter - Easter hat parade, then morning tea, selling a hot cross bun and cuppa for $2.00, this was great, we used to get alot of grandparents along to this one. An Easter egg raffle, where the families donate an egg each (some donated games/toys) we would do them up into prizes, then draw the winners after the parade. Last year we had 17 prizes, it was lovely. Mothers Day - One year we had been given a lovely print of tulips and movie vouchers, we also then managed to have donated a beautiful photo frame so we were able to have a raffle. Each year, the fundraising mums went shopping for soaps and washers, pretty coffee mugs with little choccies, gardening gloves and seeds and the children would ‘buy’ something special for mum, grandma etc etc. a note went home 2 weeks before the ’stall’ date and money was sent back to the preschool with the number of gifts to be purchased, this way we could purchase enough and bundle them up with pretty ribbon etc. the children would choose their special gift and then wrap it with their own decorated butchers paper to take home. the same was done for Fathers Day, gifts were coffee mugs with choccies, chamois and choccies, socks and hankies (believe it or not this was a huge hit with the dads of which we were very surprised), gardening gloves and seed packets (another huge hit). we sold the gifts for 5.00 each and were able to most of the time keep our costs down to 2.50 to 3.00 per gift. so that is a nice little profit.
other fundraising things were, guessing competitions, ie little matchbox cars in a kitchen glass storage jar or little girls elastics, bangles, and clips. they had to guess the number of items for .50cents per guess. an adult guessing competition was wine corks and beer tops in a huge beautiful glass vase for 1.00 per guess and we were donated a bottle of wine to put with it. (you do have to do alot of asking for donations, but some local businesses are just wonderful with their support). we have also held a silent tender, however, that is HUGE time input, if you would like more info on that i can email you privately. we had a disco, it was 10.00 per family to enter, there were prizes for best dancers, best dressed mum and dad, and kids, the fundraising and management committees made funny face biscuits which we sold for 50cents each. we made fairy wands, bandanas and pirate pencils to sell. little girls beaded bracelets were a huge hit at the disco also. we had pie drives, melamine plate drive (the kids do an artwork piece on a stencil, it all got sent away and the plates come back) family photos. oh i think that is about all. i am happy to provide you with more info if you would like it. sorry i am a bit of a chatterbox here. all the very best with your fundraising. it can be a bit daunting, but its lots of fun to see the bank account grow and watch the staff spend it on wonderful much needed things for the preschool/school. oh and book clubs are another good one too.
I think one of the best and easiest was the car boot sale….. each car or car with trailer was charged a base price and then sold their own wares.. we sold a heap of baby gear and kids toys and decided we wanted to go home with an empty boot/ trailer so i ended up selling some things very cheap.. it was such a fun day and a great way to get to know other school families who were set up next to us….One of my friends used to wrap all those little nick nacks that kids accumulate eg hungry jacks toys/gimmicks and use for a lucky dip.. it was a real hit with her store.
there were some prerequsities set though like only selling 2nd hand things, no new crafts etc.. but you could change this to your own ideas..
there was a sausage sizzle/drinks sale a and a cake stall alongside which always sells well.. and of course advertising ahead of time helps..
We miss those sales and we used to plan ahead for them so that we had a home spring clean ready for the sales.. most times we let the kids have all or a portion of the sales.. and bought our tent with the income made one year..
Thet kids also learnt alot about money and selling and all the highs and lows when someone looks but doesnt buy..
We also used one of those kids labels fundraisers which went well…
Personally i dont actually like fundraisers.. as most times you are expected to buy as well as sell or make or give.. and with time contraints i would rather give them $20 instead of buying items i dont really need. I know this takes away from the community spirit but i cant do it all and be involved in everything.
Fun topic for blogging Lightening… you have got us thinking now..
L
The Big Kid’s school is having their giant carnival/fete thingame in a couple of weeks. Uber-Mummy is organising it all! And no, that’s not me, lol! This is their Mega Fundraiser… they’re aiming to raise about $15,000 for grounds work. But they do the Entertainment Book, umm fundraising chocolates, ummm odd casual dress days with sausage sizzle and drink.
Actually, the best most fun fundraiser that I fully and actively participate in is a wine drive! One of the local bottle shops has his own branded cleanskins, and they send out a sheet with the names of say eight whites, six reds and a couple of sparklings, and one orders what one fancies. I pass the list around my family and my friends, because we’re all wine swillers, so it’s ace getting pretty good quality wine for fairly cheap prices and helping out the school (justification!)
Our school (large - over 800 kids) did a walkathon last year which apparently was a better fundraiser than the giant fete the year before (over $15,000)!!!
The great thing was that it took next to no time to organise, compared to the fete, which was many many hours of parent work beforehand. Kids were encouraged to get sponsorship from family members and close friends only. No multi-street door-knocking! Local companies sponsored prizes. Every child who raised over $5 went into the draw for a prize, and there were junior and senior prizes. Classes made posters which also went into an art competition. Parents provided a sausage sizzle lunch on the day and a fruit shop donated fresh fruit.
A great day was had by all and exercise/healthy eating were encouraged. A win all round.
My best advice to you as a previous fundraising co-ordinator is to go for the simple ideas that won’t take too much of your own time - it can really suck hours and hours out of your life otherwise. Have fun!