School Fundraisers - Are You Thinking Outside of the Box?
August 4, 2009 by Fundraising and Fundraiser Ideas
Filed under About Fundraising
Many school fundraisers rely on old yet dependable ideas for school fundraising mainly because they are scared that anything out of the box might fail. These classic school fundraising ideas include cookie dough fundraisers, car wash fundraisers, candy bar fundraisers, and the garage sale fundraisers. Of course, these activities work and are efficient ways to collect money. However, a number of these old ideas can also be considered stale. For example, many donors and organizers think that the cookie dough fundraiser is no longer as effective as it was since it is so used-up. And using stale school fundraising ideas could be the cause of its failure.
This is why it is important to use new school fundraising ideas once in a while. Using new ideas can invigorate both the volunteers and the donors. It can attract attention due to its creative nature. After all, people are naturally attracted to activities that are new and novel - as long as they are interesting and worthwhile.
Scrip
Using scrip as a fundraising method is one of the new ways to collect funds. Scrip is a substitute to money, a form of credit. It is like a gift certificate that can be used as payment for services and products from certain merchants and sellers. The school fundraising organizers buy scrip, and then sell it to the donors. The merchants will give a certain percentage of sales from the transactions where the scrip was used. This type of fundraiser is innovative since it can be done for a prolonged period of time. It is also a less aggressive way to collect funds since they work like cash - the donors are not spending money on products they had no intention of buying; instead, they are merely exchanging their cash for credit.
Discount Cards
A similar form of school fundraising activity is the selling of discount cards. The donors buy the discount cards which are accepted in a particular establishment. The card will serve as a discount coupon. Just like the scrip, this is interesting because the donor will not only help a particular cause with the purchase of the discount card since they can save money in the long with the use of the product. This type of school fundraiser also saves money and time on production and effort since the organizers merely have to create a deal with merchants and companies. The transaction with the companies takes time, but the benefits are bountiful.
Using Traditional Ideas Right
Benefit dinners and concerts are not at all new school fundraising ideas, but they can be innovative and efficient if done properly. Organizers can charge a hefty price for the benefit dinner as long as they do it in a presentable way. The quality has to somehow match the price. School fundraising organizers can also ask well known singers and artists to perform free of charge, or for a minimum fee, in order to collect considerable money from the endeavor. Again, this endeavor might take time to accomplish, but it collects a large sum of money if it becomes successful.
Thanks to Jessi McCafferty for contributing this article to our Fundraising blog:
This is why it is important to use new school fundraising ideas once in a while. Using new ideas can invigorate both the volunteers and the donors. It can attract attention due to its creative nature. After all, people are naturally attracted to activities that are new and novel - as long as they are interesting and worthwhile.
Scrip
Using scrip as a fundraising method is one of the new ways to collect funds. Scrip is a substitute to money, a form of credit. It is like a gift certificate that can be used as payment for services and products from certain merchants and sellers. The school fundraising organizers buy scrip, and then sell it to the donors. The merchants will give a certain percentage of sales from the transactions where the scrip was used. This type of fundraiser is innovative since it can be done for a prolonged period of time. It is also a less aggressive way to collect funds since they work like cash - the donors are not spending money on products they had no intention of buying; instead, they are merely exchanging their cash for credit.
Discount Cards
A similar form of school fundraising activity is the selling of discount cards. The donors buy the discount cards which are accepted in a particular establishment. The card will serve as a discount coupon. Just like the scrip, this is interesting because the donor will not only help a particular cause with the purchase of the discount card since they can save money in the long with the use of the product. This type of school fundraiser also saves money and time on production and effort since the organizers merely have to create a deal with merchants and companies. The transaction with the companies takes time, but the benefits are bountiful.
Using Traditional Ideas Right
Benefit dinners and concerts are not at all new school fundraising ideas, but they can be innovative and efficient if done properly. Organizers can charge a hefty price for the benefit dinner as long as they do it in a presentable way. The quality has to somehow match the price. School fundraising organizers can also ask well known singers and artists to perform free of charge, or for a minimum fee, in order to collect considerable money from the endeavor. Again, this endeavor might take time to accomplish, but it collects a large sum of money if it becomes successful.
Thanks to Jessi McCafferty for contributing this article to our Fundraising blog:
Jessi McCafferty writes about school fundraising and recommends the friendly folks over at http://www.easy-fundraising-ideas.com/ as a great resource for accurate information and profitable school fundraising event ideas Easy Fundraising Ideas is the fastest growing internet based fundraising company in the country. With legendary service and help, they’ll make you the hero! Check out Easy Fundraising Ideas
Try doing an Online Raffle. That is thinking outside of the box. Most schools don’t do online raffles to raise money, but I see it as an opportunity to continue to raise money all the time while events aren’t going on. A lot of web sites exist that do these kinds of raffles for charities and other organizations. Try to research some of those and you can get some inspiration of what to raffle off to students, parents, or anyone in the community.
netraffletickets.com
Change has arrived in fundraising. I came across a website raisewhileyousave.com (RWYS) the other day when looking into Green fundraising oppurtunities, as I am fed up with my kids going door 2 door and selling cookie dough and magazines. I looked into this new fundraising program which is helping parents Save Money while raising money.they are also helping great causes which don’t have any budget to run a fundraiser, as they do all the work for you, by building you a webpage attached to thier website. Thier products are these really snazzy energy saving product kits, which can save parent $100’s of dollars on those bills we all hate to open. I thought I would share this information as we could all do with a little extra cash during this economy Im sure. My friend who is a PTA mom is always complaining about the difficulty of getting new ideas, and the lack of interest they have in the same old boring fundraising oppurtunities. I think this is very clever, as the schools and community fundraisers, don’t purchase anything, the kids don’t need to do anything, the kits save money and help raise money, and apparently they even send the kits out to the parents home, so PTA moms like my friend no longer need to chase moms around the playground to tell them thier products are in the sports hall for collection. we’ve all been there.
GREAT blog! This is great information! I have a great fundraiser idea that my photography company offers. I do a family photo raffle that I have had organizations raise over $10,000 with. Also, a kids art fundraiser that we do. More info can be found at;
http://www.kidsartfromtheheart.net or http://www.mvp-studios.net
You might consider selling apparel with your school name and mascot on it. This is a way to sell something that people can actually use and show their school pride at the same time. Check out http://www.schoolfundraiser4u.com to see some great programs for using apparel to raise money for your school.