I am hoping that you will be able to help me. I am helping my son's school plan a fundraiser. There are a million options out there. What have you done that went over really well? Did you sell a food item that was a good tasting product? I would love to know about some successful fundraisers that you have done.

TIA!

amy

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Amy B.

I fun a dog rescue and we have fund raisers a few times a year....the best one we have done so far was baby blankets. Granted the majority of our profits came from people buying them for their dogs but still. We had our volunteers and their children make any type of baby blanket they like whether it be knitted, quilted, tied or simply just sewn.
Another successful fund raiser we had we sold home baked dog treats, again dog oriented I know, however you would be amazed at the market out there. And another (yes dog themed) was a doggy wash as opposed to a car wash. The kids had a blast...the dogs not so much.
Good luck to you and the kids! Fund raisers can be so much fun!

Yard sales!! Yard sales are always great, anf you get to dejunk!! And buy all sorts of cool stuff!!!

Personall;y, I never buy food prducts, or candles or the other stuff kids come around selling, because it's too too expensive. The only exception is candy bars. I'll spend $1 per candy bar, but not $25 for some of these pies and cakes the kids are always peddling.

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"And the state of his bathroom -- I'm not one to gossip, but there are things crusted on his sink that have not simply developed intelligent life but have in all probability by now evolved their own political systems." Cain describes Abel in in SANDMAN #70

Here at work we did fundraisers to raise $$$$$ in October to purchase food for the local food pantries. We did bake sales, luncheons, raffles, etc......the event that brought in the most $$$ was a 50/50 drawing. The average collection for the 50/50 in a week (about 60 people) was $400-$500 every week. So, the winnder got around $200 each time.

How much money are you hoping to make?

I really dislike a bunch of small fundraisers...it's like salt on a wound to me. LOL Our last school did a big dinner dance, silent and live auction every year and it brought it hundreds of thousands of dollars. So that's large scale and it's a TON of work. But there were no other fundraisers throughout the year, which was great.

Smaller scale, our preschool used to do a 'Kids Sale' every year in May, and it brought in $4 to $5K each year. Everybody would donate their gently used items and it would all get sorted out, cleaned up and sold really cheaply. One year we priced all clothing at $1...didn't matter what it was...it was all $1. It does take volunteers to take in the donations, sort everything, clean toy items etc and you need a large room to store everything, plus a place to have the sale.

Another small one that my neices preschool does is cookie dough. I always buy a TON! LOL! It's preportioned cookie dough in about 6 available flavors. You get 4 dozen little cookie dough balls for $12. They're great - it's so easy to just cook 4 cookies or 2 dozen! There are a couple of different companies that offer it...

Main Street Gourmet

Then there are always all the usual suspects - Entertainment Books, Plant Sales, Bake Sales, Popcorn, Candy etc

My neighbor boy sold Little Caesars pizza kits. I really liked that. I also like the cookie dough.

I don't like to buy candy, trinkets, or wrapping paper. I also don't like to buy magazines.

Up until last year our school sold Entertainment books, which I usually buy anyway.
Now they did Gold Canyon candles last year and who knows this year.

Thanks for all the great ideas. I am going to look into them and see what we can do.

We do a dinner and silent auction in the spring, so I am looking for something different fro the fall.

Thanks again!!!

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Amy B.

The big ones in our area are Little Ceasers (??sp) Pizzas (cookie dough, etc), and Sally Foster gift wrap (small gifts, candy).

Last year, the boy across the street (I think he was in 10th grade then) sold grass seed and fertilizer for a fundraiser for his school. I didn't even know DH had bought any until the boy showed up with a big wagon full of sacks of stuff for the lawn. It was the craziest thing I had ever heard of, but apparently they made a ton of money.