[JuniperMama]

Hello! This is my first post in this forum.

My DS is only 2 so we're mostly over in toddler-land but I have a question for the parents of "big kids"...

I am the Managing Director of a non-profit arts preschool. As is pretty much universally true of schools, tuition doesn't begin to cover our operating costs. I am in the process of writing our '06-'07 budget and really need fundraising ideas that are school friendly.

What fundraisers does your school do? How successful are they? What do you love/hate about them?

All ideas are GREATLY appreciated.

x-post in learning at school

 

[chel]

here's a couple my dd's school does

"scripts" - selling gift cards where the school gets 5-20% of the purchase amount
gift baskets raffle (get donations from area business)
schoolwear -selling t-shirts, sweatshirts
bookfairs - scholastic book sale (done at the school's open house)

 

[StillForest]

Some of our more successful ones were:

* Making stationary out of kid's drawings and selling them to parents before December holidays.

* Spring and December plant sales.

 

[kirstenb3]

I'm on the board at my DDs preschool, here are a few of the things we do for fundraising....

Recycling: printer cartridges/toner, cell phones

Scrip program: Parents sign up cards on a website and the school earns a % each time the card is used (grocery card, credit cards, etc)

Book Club, Candy sales, Coupon book sales.

Family yard sale: School families donate items..

Silent Auction/Raffle Dinner: Raised $3500- for the school. Parents night out (nightcare at the preschool), dinner, silent auction, music, wine & fun.

I'll add more if I can think of them.

Kirsten

 

[MOM2ANSLEY]

Sally foster....I don't like it b/c every one sells it and I don't wanna pay $10 for a roll of paper

Promotional sales....candy gifts etc....Don't like it for same reasons

I do like .....penny drives.....kids all bring in pennys for set amt of time and at the end of fund raiser the class who collects most cash wins a prize....party, movie day etc....Love it....simple, low cost, minimal effort

Another local school sold coupon books , seems like a good idea to me....
get local businesses to pay for printing costs by "selling" coupon ads to them and then familys buy books for about $10 (over $75 in value)

Cookbook?????????

Our volunteer fire dept does a fund raiser where a small donation will allow you a free sitting fee and a free 8 x 10 ....The donation goes to fire dept and the photographer doesn't charge for their services (they make their $$$ by selling photo packages....and a % also goes to the fundraiser.

Ditto on school shirts, etc...this is a double b/c it advertises your school.
and a rummage sale is good too

 

[kewb]

Scrip
Organize a golf outing
Have each classroom create artwork as a group project and auction them off at a dinner.

 

[aussiemum]

Not sure what 'level' US pre-school kids are at (Aus pre-schoolers are age 4-5 & are pre-reading), but we do a number, shape & colour-a-thon fundraiser which is quite successful. The kids collect pledges from friends, family, neighbours or whoever, & then after giving them a few weeks to learn colours, shapes & numbers, they are tested. They then go back & collect from sponsors based on the number of facts they got right. I hope i explained that clearly.... You can also do an 'Obstacle-A-Thon', where the children get pledges based on how many rounds of an obstacle course they can do in an hour.

We also have done mother's day & father's day raffles, where every child gets a set number of tickets to sell- prizes we try & get donated from local businesses.

Christmas hamper raffle, where everybody in the school donates an item or two (usually christmas-y type food, toys, etc.) & then every child sells tickets. This one can be adapted to fit just about any cultural holiday.

 

[LovemyBoo]

My ds' school does this - Original Works - and I love it! The kids do several drawings in art class, the parents pick the one they like best and place their order. They do it around Halloween so the stuff is ready for the winter holidays.

 

[JuniperMama]

This is great you guys. Thank you! Please keep 'em comin!!! I so appreciate all your ideas!

 

[mommy68]

They've had all kinds of fundraisers at my kids schools/daycares over the years. I usually don't participate and just donate money to the owners from time to time.

I much prefer doing that since I don't need any of the stuff they sell usually (especially candy and overpriced gift wraps).

I will say that I do like the Scholastic book sales the most. That's really the only one and even that is very overpriced so I don't buy that much when it comes around. Oh and my son once had a box top labels collection at his old school. The kids brought in box tops from certain food labels and donated them all year. Something that has to do with donating but not necessarily giving my $$ then I'm all for it.

 

[JuniperMama]

I know its difficult to talk about fundraising when families are already paying tuition. Its important to us that we keep the tuition as managable as possible which is why we make the rest up with voluntary fundraisers so that families who can participate do and those who can't are not obligated to. Unfortunately, I don't know that its possible to pay high quality teachers and run an excellent program solely on tuition without it being a very expensive school. Its a difficult quandry - I struggle with it all the time. I hate budget writing time for this very reason. I don't want parents to feel that we always have our hands out for money and yet we also want to provide them with consistently excellent programming for their children and when we raise tuition to help meet costs, parents balk. Quite a dilemma.

Anyway, I really appreciate your ideas. Please let me know if anything else comes to you!

 

[EFmom]

I hate pretty much all the fundraisers with a passion, and usually just toss the junk that comes home ASAP. What I wish our (public) school would do is to just have a direct solicitation letter sent out at the beginning of the year. I would be more than happy to send in a check for a few hundred dollars. I don't object to supporting the school at all. I know that you are working with a private school, where people are paying tuition. I'd still rather have a direct solicitation rather than a bunch of fundraisers. I'd rather just have the tuition for the school be increased over having fundraisers.

But I'm not buying overpriced crap, like wrapping paper, candles, chocolate, trinkets, etc. I'm not having my kids peddle the overpriced crap to neighbors, friends or relatives. Corporate America can sell it's own overpriced crap and they don't need to do it on the backs of my children.

I don't have time to bake stuff, do carwashes, etc., and I'm not inclined to go to expensive events. I'd rather just give the school the money it needs.

 

[stormchaser_al]

Here is a few my dd's school did the last two years.

http://www.classiccookie.com/content...sing/index.cfm

http://www.sallyfoster.com/sally/home.jsp

Another fundraiser my daughter's school did was sell booklets that had coupons to all of the various restaurants and stores in town. They sold the booklets for $10 a piece and there was over $200 in savings in them.

The high school and middle school here also sales a card that the local business have agreed to give discounts on off of merchandise purchase.

 

[echodonn]

At my old teaching job we did:
Original Works
Ten THousand Villiges (a in school shop at christmas time but it's crafts and instruments made by artesians in other countries who struggle to get paid a fair wage.

 

[saffronblue]

at out school one mother bought a really nice bicycle, and then sold the raffle tickets at the winter concert when all the families were there to see their children perform. They spent $300.00 on the bike and made $800.00 on ticket sales, repaid the mom, and still had a good income. You could ask the bicycle shop to sell you the bike at cost and they would get a thank you mention at the ticket sales table...

 

[[email protected]]

a friend of mine did this one - the kids in class helped make a quilt and she put it together. it's very easy to include kids these days with the fabric crayons, fabric markers etc.

depending on the nature of the families, barefoot books does a fundraiser thing; havent seen their toys firsthand but the books are great

we have a chain called panera bread that has sandwiches, coffee, baked goods -- non profit groups can buy certificates from them for half cost

supposively some of the dunkin donuts will let non-profits buy the ground coffee at a discount and then they can sell it for the normal store price

one of the schools had a sale of "homework coupons" but there were restrictions in terms of how many could be used in a timeframe etc.

not through a school, but a local parenting group had great luck with a group yard sale. every purchased a space for $x

i think one school had a raffle for being "principal of the day"

 

[3timesamama]

I sell soy/veggie candles and we have a really profitable fundraiser program. Your group would sell the candles at my usual price and I give you $5 for each candle sold and our company will ship the candles directly to you. With fall almost here it's the perfect time for a candle fundraiser since most people are buying them anyway. My kids' school is really excited about this!
I can mail you a fundraiser packet with more info, a profit chart and candle samples if you'd like. Just pm me if you want it.

 

[pear]

I like silent auctions. My daughters dance studio does this at each recital and the kids' school does this as well. Parents always donate such nice items to the auctions and local businesses do as well. Its easy and the school just keeps all the money. I like the school yard sale as well.

I also like when the school just asks for donations of cash or specific items. That way all the money just goes to the school instead of some paltry percent.

I hate all fundraisers that use kids as salespeople. When my dd went to public school I wrote a note that she was not to be subjected to the product sales assemblies or be sent home with product catalogs.

I will admit that when I was in high school I sold Tupperware and my drama class did a fundraiser with it.