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School Fundraisers Ideas

Booster club and PTA leaders know well the challenge of coming up with new and successful school fundraisers ideas. Many parents and volunteers spend hours researching the Internet and talking to other team leaders trying to come up with a list of ideas that they can use throughout the school year without being repetitive.

Leaders should ask the students and members of the club what they think would be a good fundraiser and add these to their list of school fundraisers ideas. Children have some of the most creative ideas that may sound outrageous at first but soon prove to be successful ideas that raise a lot of money. These ideas along with proven successful ideas can be cataloged into a folder and kept year after year for consulting purposes.

Some of the more successful and fun school fundraisers ideas include the following:

  • Product Sales: Product sales are always a fundraising option. The key is finding the right product with the right price. There are several types of fundraising sales including point of sale where the product is carried around and sold on the spot; these products include candy bars, popcorn and lollipops. On-the-spot sales have their advantages and their disadvantages. Having the product in hand is often an easy way to push a sale while at the same time there is the possibility of having product ruin, become stolen, or remain unsold.

    Catalog sales are easier to manage and don't require students or parents to carry products around. On the other hand, if the products in the catalog are not commonly used or used often then the sales will be hard to come by. Choosing a catalog sales product like Fun Pasta that offers an everyday product like pasta will result in more sales than seasonal products like wrapping paper.

  • Service Fundraisers: These fundraisers are often both fun and hard work. They involve very little in terms of organizing or supplies but they require community awareness of the project in order to be successful. Typical examples include car washes or dog washes held on a Saturday morning in a local business parking lot in order to be more visible.

  • Ticketed Events: Organizing school dances, trivia contests or sports events such as powder puff football, to raise money are fun ways to raise money and get the students and community involved. These require more planning and have overhead costs involved but should not be left off the list of school fundraisers ideas.

  • Cookbooks: This fundraiser creates a useful keepsake that family and friends will enjoy for years to come. The recipes come from the student's family and other volunteers who want to supply recipes for cookbook. Once the recipes are compiled, there are companies on the Internet that will put them together and ship them to the school. The school can either presale the cookbooks or purchase a set amount and sell them after they arrive.

These are just the beginning of the many ideas that can be used to raise money for schools. Team leaders need to keep in mind that the projects they choose need to be well accepted by both the community in which they are going to be sold and by the students who will be working on the project.

The success of school fundraisers has many different factors that can influence it. Team leaders can take the first step by choosing projects that are known to be successful and that they feel comfortable implementing in their school based on the student's ages in the school. Creating a list of ideas to refer to is a good way to get started for the new school year.