Speaking from experience (I introduced this program when I was a DOD at my school about 7 years ago) it was well worth the "fee" that we paid (not sure how much it was after so many years). Our school got the training and special attention it needed (plus the pre-fab documents) to pull off our first RFE and now, 7 years later, we have raised in excess of $100K (it might actually be more). And we are a small (200 students) inner city school! But more than that, this "fundraiser" has become a part of the culture of our school. It brings people together in so many ways. I would pay the fee, let Jim Cole and his team guide you and then let your school reap the wonderful rewards! And to those who question why there should be a fee at all, know that Jim has worked hard to perfect his system and it is well worth it. And you really get what you pay for!
We did the Race for Education in 2012 and 2013. We raised almost $70,000. The commission that we paid to the program was well worth it. They walk you through every step, hold your hand, and keep you on task. The second year we did it completely on our own and did not have to pay the commission. We grossed almost $32,000, but it was challenging to stick to the timeline without having someone there to remind us when to do things. I highly recommend this program and formerly signing up.
We did RFE for the first time last year...on our own and raise $15,000 after expenses of stamps, envelopes and letters to donors. It was a great fundraiser and each student was given 10 labels to fill out with names and address of potential donors. If they return the sheet of labels, they were given a RFE tshirt that we designed. Each class had a different color tshirts. Yes, we will be doing it again this school year.
We are using Race For Education this fall for the first time. We are a city school and we know parents will not donate books of stamps. One of our teacher's will be asking a few companies to donate postage for us. She also knows someone who can donate the cardstock we need. We decided to do a walk-a-thon this fall because our last fundraiser just caused too many problems. I hope this walk-a-thon isn't a big flop!
We are a k-8 school of 1003 students and are going to do this fundraiser next fall and was wondering if there was anyone that has done this before and asked for a donation of a book of stamps. If you did, how did you go about it. We will be spending alot for postage if we cant find another way.
