4cboysmommy
Full Member
Posts: 213
Sept 13, 2014 1:19:39 GMT
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Post by 4cboysmommy on Oct 22, 2014 11:21:07 GMT
Our PTO usually one does one fundraiser a year which is coupon books and then the rest of our funds come from boxtops. This year the fundraiser was a flop. They changed companies and I guess people didn't like the new version. Either way, we need to come up with another way to make some money since we are quite a bit short of our budget.
I suggested that maybe next year when the beginning of the year letter goes out to put something in there about making a one time donation. Has anyone ever done that? Do you put an amount or just ask for any donation?
Have you done any fundraisers that have been successful that don't require a lot of start up money? I would prefer some kind of event instead of buying something. We can't do bake sales or anything since all food has to be store bought now.
Any suggestions would be helpful. Thanks!
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grinningcat
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 4,663
Jun 26, 2014 13:06:35 GMT
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Post by grinningcat on Oct 22, 2014 11:27:22 GMT
One thing my niece's school did was host a couple dinners, once was a big pasta night and the other was a big pizza party. It seemed successful and busy. They partnered with restaurants in the community.
But I know my sister would tell you that she'd prefer the one time donation thing, even though the kids like the dinners (and to be honest, she'd probably end up doing both). I would prefer the one time donation thing as well, but I'm not keen on the level of participation that is seemingly demanded by parents in schools these days. So I'd be all over doing a one time donation and being done with it.
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4cboysmommy
Full Member
Posts: 213
Sept 13, 2014 1:19:39 GMT
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Post by 4cboysmommy on Oct 22, 2014 11:34:35 GMT
I agree with doing donations. Not only is it easier, but the school would get 100% of the money. I figured it out and if you take our budget divided by the number of kids, it works out to be about $5 more than what you spent if you bought the coupon book and we only get 50% profit on them.
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Post by coaliesquirrel on Oct 22, 2014 11:35:15 GMT
Our school's biggest fundraiser is a kid's night out on a Friday in early December. It's 5 or 6 to 9pm, and I think it's maybe $10-$15/kid. The teachers give their time to stay and run the activities, and it's held at the school - but the kids are assigned to a teacher other than their usual teacher, so it's not like *school*.
They just did a "just donate" fundraiser that I'm going to say wasn't real successful, as only 100 of 500 cards were returned, and the total take was $1200 ($100 of which was our donation). They'd painted up 30-square cards with that scratch-off stuff and put amounts underneath, so you were to have people scratch and then donate whatever they scratched off. Each card totalled $100, so you could just skip it and do that instead.
We also sell trashbags, which is pretty easy since most people need those.
ETA: I should probably add that our school is a Title 1 school (very high % free/reduced lunch), so I understand why the "just give us $$" was not as successful as it might otherwise have been. As a Title 1 school, I think it's probably a necessity that we have several smaller fundraisers a year, as many families are not in a financial position to make a large contribution all at once.
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Post by cakediva on Oct 22, 2014 12:33:01 GMT
Our best fundraiser has been our Family Fun Night. We are heading into our 5th year I think.
Instead of a bunch of small sales fundraisers, we have one night for all families to get involved. If you were going to spend $50-$60 on fundraisers anyway through the year, then why not have fun with your family while you do it instead?
We have a BBQ, bouncy castle, silent auction, cupcake sale, dunk tank (with staff members in it), face painting, stuff like that. Last year we had a bunch of carnival type games (bean bag toss, stuff like that). We sold tickets, and each event was so many tickets. When they played a carnival game, they got a ballot to win a bike - we bought two to raffle off. We also had money donated by our local Knights of Columbus chapter, and used that to purchase a TV to raffle off.
We typically end up raising between $3000 & $5000 each year!
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Post by lbp on Oct 22, 2014 13:33:16 GMT
Our biggest fund raiser was renting the local Bingo hall on a Saturday night! There are some serious Bingo players out there. We made over 12,000 one year!
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wellway
Prolific Pea
Posts: 9,203
Jun 25, 2014 20:50:09 GMT
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Post by wellway on Oct 22, 2014 13:46:25 GMT
How well would a quiz night be attended?
The schools I've been involved with always have one, usually it's a curry and quiz or jacket potato/chilli and quiz with a bar to get drinks. Always well attended and enjoyed. Usually ten rounds of ten questions a round. Two rounds are usually on the tables when you arrive because they are pictorial or word games. Although one parent said at one event they attended they ate the first round - they were suppose to identify the different pieces of cheese not eat them!!
You can make the rounds as silly, serious, tricky as you want. The spoken song lyrics usually causes groans. There are quiz websites so only effort would be to put the quiz together. No major outlay in terms of money.
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julieb
Pearl Clutcher
Posts: 2,845 
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Post by julieb on Oct 22, 2014 13:47:21 GMT
My sister has, in the past, organized a fundraiser with Spirit Cups. They are awesome. We have had them for over 5 years and they look brand new and are dishwasher safe, etc. I've given them as gifts and they are a big hit. Something different and they will even make them in the your logo, colors, etc. My sister never had an issue with them. Very accommodating and when she gave the wrong cups to someone, the company sent her new cups at no cost. They also send samples. Spirit cups |
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Post by LavenderLayoutLady on Oct 22, 2014 13:51:11 GMT
Best fundraisers my kids ever did was walk-a-thons. The kids find sponsors to donate a dollar for every lap they walk (for us, a lap consisted of walking the four city blocks around the school). Then on the day of the walk-a-thon, the whole school does it together.
The kids have a form that states how many laps they walked, and they take it to their sponsors to be paid the donation. Then they bring it to school.
Very, very little outlying cost, especially if you can get businesses (or parents) to donate bottled waters.
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Post by melissak on Oct 22, 2014 14:00:19 GMT
My daughters school does a "scripts" fundraisers. It is a website that we go onto and order gift cards for face value. The school than gets a percentage of the sales. Some of the companies let you buy the cards on your phone and use them right away. So I was going to eat lunch at Panara knowing I would spend about $15. I bought a $15 gift card on my phone and used it right than and there. There is no extra cost to the parent since they would normally shop at the stores.
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Post by cmpeter on Oct 22, 2014 14:21:24 GMT
Our elementary school used to host a big auction as their primary fundraiser. However, it took countless hours and volunteers to pull off. They switched to a fun run through Orange Ruler. We have since graduated out of the school, but I have heard they make enough money from the fun run, that they no longer need to do the auction. Orange Ruler |
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Post by *christine* on Oct 22, 2014 14:23:43 GMT
Our eighth graders have a graduation week at the end of the school year where they will go on three field trips (amusement park, movies) harbor dinner cruise and an after graduation party that costs about $30k for all the kids. Each family will have to contribute to any activities their child participates in, but the cost is offset by fundraising.
We have a calendar that the kids sell to friend and family, it's $5 each. Each day of the calendar is a raffle, and the prizes were donated.
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Post by underwatermama on Oct 22, 2014 14:25:02 GMT
Our elementary (at least when I had kids there) did a "pass the hat" pure donation fundraiser in September. They sent out an envelope along with a letter that explained how this one donation would cover everything (and what it covered) and we would not be getting candy fundraisers, etc during the school year. It must be successful since that's all they ever did. I think one year they did Sally Foster, but it was promoted as totally optional, for people who liked to get Sally Foster stuff.  |
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peabay
Prolific Pea
Posts: 9,975
Jun 25, 2014 19:50:41 GMT
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Post by peabay on Oct 22, 2014 14:26:29 GMT
We have exceeded our budget expectations for the year by hosting a "non-event fundraiser." Just write us a check. We find 1. more people participate and 2. people are more generous then they'd be with wrapping paper, scrips, coupons etc....
We have earned 2000.00 more than we budgeted for already. We sent home a flyer at the beginning of the year and have a small section of our weekly eblast devoted to it with a Paypal link.
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Post by Prenticekid on Oct 22, 2014 14:41:44 GMT
I'm surprised that you can get by on one fundraiser. Our PTO has to pay for all the field trips and special events though, so they have a lot of fundraisers. Coming up: Family Night - where all the things to do will be $1, Family Swim Night at the high school pool, Ladies' Night Out - $10 per person - there is dinner, a dessert table and the gym is filled with direct sales vendors where you shop. The PTO also has food trucks that come to the school and the PTO gets part of the proceeds, and dinners with restaurants like Chipotle and Chick Fil A, where all proceeds spent by people from our school, within a certain time frame, are given to the PTO.
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peabay
Prolific Pea
Posts: 9,975
Jun 25, 2014 19:50:41 GMT
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Post by peabay on Oct 22, 2014 14:44:30 GMT
I'm surprised that you can get by on one fundraiser. Our PTO has to pay for all the field trips and special events though, so they have a lot of fundraisers. Coming up: Family Night - where all the things to do will be $1, Family Swim Night at the high school pool, Ladies' Night Out - $10 per person - there is dinner, a dessert table and the gym is filled with direct sales vendors where you shop. The PTO also has food trucks that come to the school and the PTO gets part of the proceeds, and dinners with restaurants like Chipotle and Chick Fil A, where all proceeds spent by people from our school, within a certain time frame, are given to the PTO. We have membership fees to join the PTSA (20.00 per family) and then our non-event fundraiser. We've raised about 14K so far this year, with a planned for budget of 12K from that fundraiser. Of the membership fees, a certain portion goes back to the state PTA, a portion pays for the phone directories every member receives and we keep the rest to work with, in addition to the non-event fundraiser. It's worked really, really well. The parents love not having to attend another gala or sell wrapping paper or candy or cookie dough. |
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Post by Peace Sign on Oct 22, 2014 15:58:43 GMT
Our biggest fundraiser each year is a water booth at one summer community fair called "Comfest". Comfest is in July and it's always hot but always well attended. We have a booth there and parents volunteer for 2 hour shifts (over a 3 day festival) to sell water to patrons. I'm not sure how we were chosen for this booth, but it's been at least 6 years strong and we always make over $6500 from it.
The next biggest fundraiser is our end of year carnival - teachers run games, you buy tickets, win junky prizes, buy food, and there is a big silent auction too. It raises about $6000 - half carnival half from auction. I have a ton of experience with silent auctions and know this could do so much more, but it's chugging along making it's $3k a year.
I'd rather do these sorts of things instead of bugging family to buy/sponsor stuff. I like the families we go to school with and 3x a year we like to go to school and visit while the kids play. It's a fun time.
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Post by cmpeter on Oct 22, 2014 16:14:14 GMT
We used to make $70K from our auction and held it every other year...it was our main fundraiser. The Orange Ruler Fun Run is held annually and makes enough to cover the funds they used to get from the auction.
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4cboysmommy
Full Member
Posts: 213
Sept 13, 2014 1:19:39 GMT
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Post by 4cboysmommy on Oct 22, 2014 16:26:46 GMT
Thanks for all the ideas. I think that we are going to try the direct donation thing, just not sure if they want to do it in the middle of the year. I think they would get a lot more people to participate. For those that did that, how did you word it? Did you put a suggested amount or just whatever anyone wanted?
I like the idea of a fun run. I will have to look into the Orange Ruler. I think we would get pretty good participation out of that.
Sadly, there isn't a lot of parent involvement in our school. There are about 10 of us that consistently help out and it is hard to pull off anything that requires a lot of volunteers.
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Post by bianca42 on Oct 22, 2014 16:36:13 GMT
My son's school tried something new this year that I loved. I don't know how much money they raised though.
They did a Fun Walk/Run where the kids got people to pledge a flat amount or a per-lap amount. If the kids raised $30, then they were given a $5 credit towards the scholastic book fair and were entered in drawings for 3 or 4 prizes. I felt so much better about giving $10 that went straight to the school as opposed to buying a $10 container of candy I don't want...and then having only a portion go to the school. Plus, the kids were very excited to do something active.
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Post by bwife on Oct 22, 2014 16:50:30 GMT
the 2 most successful fundraisers here are....
A walk a thon. some schools do them during the day, others make them an evening family event. the kids get dontations for their family to walk the 2 or 3 miles and turn in the $$ before the event. At one of the schools if you get some much in Pledges, you get a walk a thon tshirt. the kids usually want those shirts!
The other thing is a Holiday Mart. This is a sat usually the 1st week of Dec. Vendors / crafters pay a fee to come to the school and set up. Most of the schools have a pancake breakfast you can buy when you get there ( or they sell tickets for that in advance) in the cafeteria. Then in the gym and a few other parts of the school is where the vendors are set up. this takes a little bit of before hand prep as you need to divide up the gym and other large spaces in the school to see how many "booths" you can get in there. When you 1st start this, you have to offer the booths cheap as you are not sure how many will show. But most of the schools around here get $35 to $40 for a booth space now and usually have 30+ vendors. A few schools just charge the fee. A few charge a small fee and then ask for a % of the sales the people made. a few of the schools around here also require that the vendor has something for sale for $5 or less so that kids can shop for parents / siblings etc. all of the schools here advertise to the public for this event. I believe the one yr that I helped at our Elem school, they cleared 3K on this.
At our Elem school they used some small fundraisers to fun the 5th grade celebration ( last yr of Elem school here) They would do a Bake sale 1x every other month or so. If you can get some parents to donate the baked goods, this is a good fundraiser. Everything was in bags and everything was 50 cents. So a brownie, 50 cents. 2 cookies, 50 cents. the kids LOVE it! We had a large Elem school and would easily make $300 off of these.
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Post by bc2ca on Oct 22, 2014 17:18:24 GMT
At our WA school, the PTSA had a very active art program in the school, so each class made an art project for auction. These were very heavily bid on by parents. Everything else at the auction was donated and ranged from store gift cards (Starbucks, B&N, Crate & Barrell, etc.) to weekend cabins & catered dinners. Catered dinners would be a family volunteering to provide a sit down dinner at your house, including table service (we had a few foodie/talented amateur chefs in that neighborhood). Because everything was donated, all the proceeds went to the school and it raised way more than we anticipated. We had donated drinks & food and decided not to charge for them, encouraging people to bid on things instead. Another school in the district had a big dinner/dance gala auction the same weekend and broke even on their event, where we made our budget for the next year.
Our school always included an option at the bottom of any fundraiser information sheet the said something like "Instead of ordering XXX products, please accept our donation of $XX.XX to the PTSA".
DS's HS has a $100 challenge at the beginning of the year that brings in at least $50,000 (1/3 participation rate). Depending on the demographic of your school, even a $10 -20 challenge can bring in a substantial amount of money.
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Post by threegirls on Oct 22, 2014 17:27:24 GMT
Our school has a rummage sale. Donations are requested and then are sorted and priced. It is held in the school gym. It's a one day sale and what doesn't sell is donated to St. Vincent DePaul. A few years in a row we had a guy come at the end and buy everything that was left for one flat price.
We also have a very successful Walk-A-Thon. The kids get a special t-shirt to wear. The school also has a festival and an adult dinner/dance. There is also the magazine sale, box tops and script program. Golly, we do a lot of fund raising.
Our school doesn't do this but I think a craft fair would generate some money. Charge the vendors a fee for table space.
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Post by threegirls on Oct 22, 2014 17:32:38 GMT
Oh, I just remembered that one year a business donated a side of beef and a deep freezer which was raffled off. I think the raffle tickets were 5.00 each. That was successful. My husband's business partner won! It's great to have local businesses donate items for a raffle. Just don't make the tickets too expensive. We sell more and make more $ when the tickets are under $20.00.
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Post by ktdoesntscrap on Oct 22, 2014 17:49:23 GMT
I agree with doing donations. Not only is it easier, but the school would get 100% of the money. I figured it out and if you take our budget divided by the number of kids, it works out to be about $5 more than what you spent if you bought the coupon book and we only get 50% profit on them. Being a charter school in our first year we are all about doing the simple fundraisers. Before we start a lot of fundraisers we are asking parents to make a donation. We are trying to raise about $750 Per family. So we are asking for 100 a month (starting in Nov.). Half our students are coming from private or homeschooled families we figure that is less than you would spend so its reasonable. Not sure how it will go over... but I think anyone raising money for anything should do this! There are so many people for whom time is worth a lot more than what you need to raise. |
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Post by ktdoesntscrap on Oct 22, 2014 17:52:04 GMT
I'm surprised that you can get by on one fundraiser. Our PTO has to pay for all the field trips and special events though, so they have a lot of fundraisers. Coming up: Family Night - where all the things to do will be $1, Family Swim Night at the high school pool, Ladies' Night Out - $10 per person - there is dinner, a dessert table and the gym is filled with direct sales vendors where you shop. The PTO also has food trucks that come to the school and the PTO gets part of the proceeds, and dinners with restaurants like Chipotle and Chick Fil A, where all proceeds spent by people from our school, within a certain time frame, are given to the PTO. What is your ladies night out? We do the dinner thing... We also sell t-shirt, sweat shirts and car magnets |
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Post by whopea on Oct 22, 2014 17:58:37 GMT
We have exceeded our budget expectations for the year by hosting a "non-event fundraiser." Just write us a check. We find 1. more people participate and 2. people are more generous then they'd be with wrapping paper, scrips, coupons etc.... We have earned 2000.00 more than we budgeted for already. We sent home a flyer at the beginning of the year and have a small section of our weekly eblast devoted to it with a Paypal link. I want to go to your school peabay! They sound very open to great ideas! The best fundraiser we did was a Night at the Races. It's computerized or simulated horse racing. We served a dinner and had a silent auction with donated prizes from the community. It takes a bunch of planning and a whole lot of volunteers, but in the last couple years we raised close to $20,000 each year. |
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Post by BGsMom on Oct 22, 2014 19:00:07 GMT
Our Elementary school PTO does a huge craft fair every fall. Parents donate baked goods for PTO "SweetShop" and they rent booths to venders. We have over 100 venders participate and they make over $10,000 each year. We also do the dreaded cookie dough and catalog sales. They tried the "just donate money" fundraiser, but they did not raise much. Of course the timing was bad, they held it in between our craft fair (mid-November) and Christmas. They also have several family nights: fall festival, chili cook off, etc.
Our middle school does discount cards for $10 each, you get a discount at local restaurants and stores. The discounts cards brought in about $7500. They also do cookie dough and tumbler cups. Not sure what those bring in.
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Post by Prenticekid on Oct 22, 2014 19:11:21 GMT
It's a catered dinner/vendor show. For $10, the attendees get a pasta and salad type of dinner, there is a dessert table and after dinner you can shop in the gym that is filled with direct sales vendors. The dinner portion is catered by a local restaurant and the dessert table is filled with treats donated by PTO members. The vendors pay $25 each to participate.
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Post by tania7424 on Oct 22, 2014 20:13:36 GMT
Our PTL has eliminated most fundraising by increasing our yearly membership fee to $55 per family. That takes care of the bulk of our budget. However, there has been a push for more PTL sponsored community events, so we are now selling school swag (hoodies, Contigo mugs, Tervis tumblers, bleacher seat pads, stadium blankets, etc) at a 30% profit to cover some of those expenses. We get them wholesale through a supplier who charges minimal markup on their wholesale price.
To raise some of the capital for a playground, we are selling jigsaw puzzle pieces at $15 each, for a 1500 pc puzzle.
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