My son is trying to raise funds to attend a Student Ambassador trip to Japan next Summer. Does anyone have some good fundraising ideas we could use? There is no way we can afford to send him otherwise. Our biggest problem is we are fairly rural, the whole county is only about 20,000 people and it's not a wealthy county. Here's what he has so far: Asking family for $ for Xmas and Birthday Selling scented pencils Selling all unwanted/outgrown stuff on ebay Not much of a start I know.
I do the fundraising for our little leauge baseball teams so mostly I have team ideas but here they are. Raffle off something everyone would enjoy. We done a gas grill and $100 bill with the item being bought from the money collected or donated. BUT be careful on how you word the ticket it is considered gambleing in some states. We worded ours something like: For the donation of $1 your name will be entered to a drawing for xxxxxx to be held xxxxx. Proceeds will benifit xxxxxxx. We have also had chili feeds. We hold it at the local school( my son's has a class size of about 50 kids, so we are from a REAL small town) Talk to grocery stores about getting donations of meat, chili powder, etc. Put an ad in the local paper as to when, where and what you are trying to raise money for. Put out flyers. and be ready to serve chili. Pick up cans to recycle. I bought my first car doing this!! I know aluminum is over .25 a lb here. My 10 year old has done this lots of times to get something he HAD to have. He has also picked up walnuts and sold them. What about asking the neighbors to do odd jobs for a few dollars. Have him explain what his goal is and why he needs the money, When people are apporched by the young wanting to WORK to attain something they are generally going to help. You could bake fresh rolls for the holidays! Make and order form up and presell rolls or cinnamon rolls. Sam's has the rolls that you thaw and let rise, then bake for very little investment. Then bake and deliver. What about a dog wash. Find a parking lot in a high traffic area, post flyers and ads. I would be interested in having ALL 5 of my washed Pet sitting for people that are going out of town for the holidays. He could go by their house feed and water the pets, walk the dogs etc. That all I can think of for right now but I will post with anymore ideas. SC
lots of clubs around here may have a spaghetti dinner or something where you sell a designated amount of tickets ahead of time so you know your profit and what you have to spend. We have stores who would let kids but out donation buckets with a little about what its for on them.
Thanks of the great ideas. We really appreciate it. I didn't think about selling on Craigslist. That might be easier and no having to go to the PO. We've been collecting aluminium cans for about a month and have asked friends to save them for us. I'll ask the lady at the Dry cleaners if she'll let us put a Christmas basket in there to raffle!
When he was 17, my son wanted to go to an elite Civil Air Patrol amp with the Air Force PJ's and he had to fund-raise. It was about this time of year, too. Here's some things he did: *Made those cookie mixes (I can get you some recipes or just google it) in the mason jars. I had some fabric and ribbon he used for decorating the tops. *Used the tiny canning jars and put potpourri in and lace glued inside the ring (no metal top) - so that you could smell the potpourri, in other words. *Sold "subscriptions" for him to do yard work (for spring or summer redemption), babysitting, cooking, "hand" car washing, and such. Gift-card concept really - he sold "2 hours" of whatever job and gave a computer-printed gift certificate for the person to use or give as a gift. (this one was all in the marketing - lemme tell you.) *Made bags of reindeer food (oatmeal with glitter added) that had a cute little story with it about how you sprinkle this stuff on the lawn to attract reindeer. Sold that to parents and grandparents! He had economy of scale on his side.... Only $1 but he had economics of scale and the cuteness factor on his side and sold a LOT of them. *Sold cookie subscriptions and then baked like a mad-man (so did his mama). He hustled out there and sold this stuff like nobody's business. It's almost a shame he's a cop now - he'd probably have made a very successful CEO. Wish your son good luck for me!
Jenna thanks for the great ideas. I need to see if there is a Christmas craft fair here anytime soon. Wyatt would do well setting up a booth. You must be very proud of your son.
I know that Bisquick pancake mix will tell you how to host a fundraising breakfast for a lot of people. If you can get somewhere to host it, and get donations for the plates and syrup and juice that would probably be a big one. I bet the local Volunteer Fire Dept would help host it, or maybe a church. He could also get a few friends or family members to help him host a "Parents Night Out" at the school, for parents to go and do Christmas shopping. If you did it from 6-9 pm, charged $10 a kid, and got a local place to donate pizza, or some kind of food for their dinner, then had popcorn and a movie for the kids he could probably make some money that way! He could also have some snacks available for them to buy. Also, if you asked for garage sale donations he could have a garage sale and the proceeds go to that. Also, in our state (Oklahoma) raffles are illegal, like another poster mentioned. You can sell "chances". So, to be on the safe side, I would sell "chances". If you get any good donations like a nice bike or a quilt, those are always really popular. If your town has a bank, that would be a good place to set up chances, or just ask for a donation. They might be willing to set up a special account for him with a really good rate. Especially if it is a local bank and not a national or regional one. Bake sales are old fashioned, but they are still popular. Especially this close to the holidays. You might try that and also sell coffee or hot chocolate at it, too. Our elementary school also has "penny wars" to raise for United Way. Each class has a jar and the kids are asked to bring in pennies. Silver change or dollars subtract from their jar, so they try and put it in the other classes' jars. It goes on for about a week and it is vicious! LOL! You could provide the winning class with ice cream or a party of some kind. Maybe they could have a pajama day and the winning class gets to wear pajamas to school and watch a movie? Good Luck! Shelly
I just got back from speaking with the lovely gentleman who owns the country store down the road. He was all for the idea of my son setting up a table outside his store. He even suggested good dates for him to sell Christmas stuff and the times he has the most traffic on Saturday. He said to bring flyers and he'll put them up in the store so people know when to come. We've planned for Sat Nov 29th and Dec 6th. Anyone want to come over and help make Christmas crafts and bake?
