Fundraising for Elementary Schools, High Schools, Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, PTA, PTO, Travel Teams

So you've decided your organization needs a fundraiser, what do you do next?

Well, the first thing is to determine your fundraising goal, are you raising hundreds of dollars, thousands of dollars, or tens of thousands. The one thing to remember and what I recommend is to stop raising money when you reach your goal. The last thing you want to do is over fundraise within the organization thus deminishing your returns in years to come.

Once you've determined your goal, you need to look at the fundraisers where you can raise 75-90% of the money needed for the organization, this will be your base fundraiser. This fundraiser is active to almost everyone in your membership base and is usually a fundraisier where you make at least 50% profits. Think of candy sales, cookie dough sales, wrapping paper sales, Girl Scout Cookies, and Boy Scout Popcorn.

Next comes the all-year fundraisers. These take the form of major companies wanting to help out schools and communities and usually can raise a couple of thousand dollars throughout the year. Think Box Tops, Campbell Labels, Meijer Rewards, these are fundraisers where you are purchasing things you already do and clipping labels or flashing a card to get the reward.

Finanlly, comes the fill in fun raisers, usually netting hundreds of dollars. These are car washes, restaurant nights, present wrapping. These are great if you are coming up short on the fundraisers above or need something to fund a certain event, 5th grade party, Band trip to nationals.

When picking your fundraiser always look at the time it takes your organization to put on the fundraiser vs the reward you get out of it. Gift Cards or Scripts are a great fundraiser if you have a large base who is willing to buy gift cards for their everyday purchases. We ran this through my school's PTA, and brought in about $1000 over the course of the year. However, it burned out the people who were doing this week after week, in addition, to make that $1000 pushed about $100,000 through our organization which you have to declare as income. That level puts you in the "must hire an external auditor" thus cutting our profits in about half. In this case, the reward was not worth the effort.

Favorite ways to Fundraise

Box Tops for Education - If a company taped a dime to a package, wouldn't you take it off and put it in your piggy bank? That's exactly what this is and the trick is to getting your organization to do this in mass. At the school where I was the PTA President, our program brought in about $3 per child. We partnered with a local McDonalds who gave us Free Happy Meals, and for every 25 box tops a student brought in, we would give them a Free Happy Meal. In my family, we have a special box where we put all of the labels and about once a month we gather them all up and send them in. Getting Grandparents and Aunts and Uncles to help as well also gives it that extra boost. This fundraiser needs a coordinator to fill out the paperwork and send in the box tops. The coordinator will spend about 4 hours per month.

When running a Box Tops program, run a Campbells, and Tyson program at the same time. Box Tops will be the most profitable, but as long as they are collecting labels, people will normally do them all.

Meijer Community Rewards - Here's another company that rewards you for buying the things you normally buy everyday. This program was better when they allowed any purchase to qualify, but now it's limited to a Meijer Credit Card, Any Debit Card, or Cash. Sign and receive a Meijer Card you can put on your keychain, designate who you want to receive your earnings, and just show your Meijer Card everytime you shop. The PTA at our Elementary School would earn about $100 a month, all year long. The best part was, as people graduated, they kept using their Meijer Card and we kept earning donations.

Restaurant Fundraising: There are two types of restaurant night fundraisers, those that require you to bring in a form identifying you as part of the organization fundraising, and those that don't. These two restaurants don't require a sheet, and give a % of every sale during your scheduled time. The restaurants usually do this on a Tuesday or Wednesday and not on the weekends. You help them generate traffic to their restaurant, they help you with a donation. Our particular Wendy's provides us with a costume and we'll get one of the PTA officers or even the school principal to dress up. We'll also have someone dress up in our mascot costume. At these events, we'll also have a tattoo station or face painting run by the PTA. Of course, not all restaurants participate, so ask the manager, and be flexible with your days. More Restaurant Night Fundraisers: Chuck E Cheese, Sweet Tomatoes, Fudruckers, Dominos Pizza, KFC, Boston Market, Chipotle, Chili's, Max & Erma's, Subway, Sonic, Steak N Shake, Panera Break, and Pizza Hut - One-day during theweek, usually need to present a form when ordering. Special tip: Try to have on a night before a day off.

Profitable ways to Fundraise

Charity Car Wash - 100% profit, what else can you say. Find a gas station, church, or other organization that has a hose and a bucket. Get a lot of people to help wash cars and charge $5 (which is less than most car washes) and your setup to go. Put people on the streets in bathing suits to attract your donors and watch the cars roll in.

Kathryn Beich - There are the ones that make you the most money. 50% of what you bring in you keep and the kids like it because there are prizes. Find an organization that will divide up your orders for you, the last thing you want to do is separate out each order. Some companies will even ship to your donors door, which leaves you with less work. You will need a coordinator, and I would also suggest a kickoff during an assembly to get the ball rolling. The kids do most of the work by calling their relatives and going to their neighbors. Parents can also take the order form to work.

The Bakeless Bake Sale - Not everyone likes to buy items from a catalog or participate saving box tops or going to a restaurant on a particular night. For these parents it is necesarry to run a bakeless bake sale. The bakeless bake sale is just as it sounds, nothing to bake, just a well worded plea for a donation that satisfies a donors need to participate and contribute to your cause. (Thanks to mneil for the suggestion.)

More great Fundraising Ideas

Campbells Labels for Education - Same concept as Box Tops, Redeem points for merchandise.

Market Day - Monthly fundraiser, Order on-line or receive orders by a specific date, and pick-up is on a certain day. Most everything is frozen, so be sure to have pick-up on the same day the order is delivered or you will need a freezer to keep the product in.

Otis Spunkmayer Cookie Dough - Profitable, Order Forms

Tyson A+ Labels - Same concept as Box Tops, redeem labels for money.

Old Cellphone or Old Inkjet Cartridges - Programs allow you to turn in old or used products for cash.

Girl Scout Cookies: At $4 a box nowadays, this is getting harder. The best place is still the office, tack that order form to the wall and everyone who passes usually signs up. Of course, you have to have relationships with your office mates, or it doesn't work very well. I've never been one to go around and ask my co-workers, as they do have their kids, grandkids, nieces, nephews, neighbors, and everyone else asking them as well. The latest is setting up a table at a local supermarket (yes, you need to get their permission) and selling as people come out. Who can resist that 7-year old in her girl scout or brownie uniform?

Boy Scout Popcorn: Something I've gotten into recently, its about the same as the girl scout cookies, and uses all the same tactics. Again, who can resist the 8-year old boy in his cub scout uniform? By the way, don't forget to put out a donation bucket for those that don't want to buy, and see the kids and remember when their kids were in scouts and decide to put $1 or $5 into the bucket.

Another way to encourage the scouts to fundraise, is to provide an incentive. Our cub scout pack creates a pie contest. Every scout that sells $500 or more, is allowed to push a whip cream "PIE" into the face of a uniformed leader. This is great fun for the scouts and parents.

With the explosing of poker over the recent years, I knew it wouldn't take long for those innovative folks to start holding Texas Hold'em tournaments as a fundraiser. This is an offshoot of what once was called Vegas Night. The nice thing about this fundraising idea is that you can raise a lot of money in one night with a minimal amount of effort and capital.

Here's what you need to know:

1. Make sure you know the gambling laws in your state, anything to do with gambling including a raffle usually requires some sort of permit when raising money. Make sure you get that permit, as the last thing you want is the police breaking up your fundraiser and confiscating the money.

2. Get someone knowledgable in Texas Hold'em to create the rules for the night. The questions you will need to answer are, what is the initial chip outlay, are there any rebuys, how often do the blinds go up, when are their breaks, how do you keep the tables balanced, how do you determine who sits at what table and what position each player sits at, who is the final judge in case there is a disagreement, are there dealers or are the players dealing, what happens when a card is flipped up on the deal, and what to do when you run out of time at the end of the night and still have players left.

3. Make sure you have enough poker chips. This will be a factor in your cost of the fundraiser.

4. You won't be able to do this at a school. The best place is an American Legion Hall, Lions Club, or Veterans Hall. There will be a rental hall fee which is another cost to your fundraiser.

5. Supply cards, potential two decks per table. Make sure the decks are different colors so the cards can't get mixed up.

6. Have the people you are fundraising for supply food for your guests. If you wish, you can sell beverages, but it may be best to supply free non-alcoholic beverages.

7. Have fun, as it is all about the charity..

One recent Texas Hold'em fundraiser I went to had 50-60 players at an entry of $75, did a 50-50 raffle, and had re-buys up until the first break. The tournament lasted 6 hours and had 3 players left at the end and paid 5 places. All-in-all everyone had a great time and we raised over $2500 in one night.