Our school is involved in a fairly new fundraiser that I had previously never heard of. It is an online toolbar that you download to your computer. You then link it to your school and you earn money when you use the toolbar to search and shop online. I was a little intimidated at first because I thought the 'toolbar' thing would be confusing since I am not very tech-savvy, but it was actually really simple. It is nice because a lot of the parents at our school have computers and shop online already so we earn extra money, and it doesn't require extra work. Also it is free to participate, so my feeling was, free money for my school? Sign me up! Anyways, you should check it out and see if it will work for your school, the site is give2network.com. Good luck! I hope this helps.
I am the new PTO president at my daughter's middle school. Every year they have a basket bonanza. They grossed over $6000 last year. Some of us were assigned to ask local businesses for contributions. Be it money or gift certificates, or whatever they were willing to contribute. Also, alot of the families and homeroom teachers made some baskets with themes of their favorite Major League teams, or NFL teams which included a pair of tickets to a game. We did extremely well. You might be interested in doing that. It's just a suggestion. But, it will bring in a lot of revenue. Good Luck.
Try a spell-a-thon! I pushed for it for years and finally our new principal let it move forward. It was so easy and made lots of money. We only spent a couple hundred $ on the envelopes. I have hated the catalog sales where we only receive a portion of the $ earned. This was clear profit. and it is educational!!!!!
Many PTOs have had success at sponsoring a Family Night Out program at their school by featuring a local entertainer such as a magician. They sell tickets at a low, affordable cost and split the proceeds with the entertainer. The PTO can also piggyback other fundraisers, such as selling advertising space in a simple program, as well as sell candy and concessions during the show. There's no inventory to hassle with and can be an event that people actually want to participate in - a win-win for everyone!
I just took a quick glance at the online fundraising site. I don't see how you can earn up to 40% if all the merchants are giving a small percentage. Actually that site looks like an affilate site and they are gving their commission to the non-profit organizations.
If there's a fundraising company out there who actually gives a large percentage away, would anyone consider doing an online fundraiser?
I contacted a company who does customized fundraisers and asked them if they plan on doing an online shopping fund raiser. They said it's an idea, so I am just wondering if anyone out there would be interested in something like that. Because, I am very interested no more dealing with all these catalogs, envelopes, money and the whole headache in those kinds of fundraisers. I sugguested to that company if we would sign in and shop 24/7 for 365 days and earn a percentage for every sale that would be wonderful, so we can tell all our family and friends all over the United States to shop there, so our school will earn the profits.
Let me know what you guys think? This is a great website to share ideas.
Contrary to the name a Penny Party has nothing to do with pennies. It is also called a Chinese Auction. At our school we ask parents to donate "themed baskets" and any new or unused items. We also solicit various businesses - both local and national - for gift certificates or samples of their products or services. We wrap the "baskets" in clear wrap and incorporated any individual donations into a prize. Example - gift certificate for a local pizzeria with a bottle of wine. Admission to the party is $5.00 - this is pure profit. We sell numbered raffle tickets of 25 for $5 - 75 for $10. The guest walks around the display tables and inserts their tickets into the prize of their choice. They can put in 1 - 5 or all 25 if they really like it. When everybody is finished - about 2 hours - we start pulling the winners for each individual "basket". We also open our kitchen selling pizza, hot dogs, wine and beer which we also try to get donated. Some of the larger gifts that are donated are raffled off at $1.00 a chance. We are a small school and can only fit about 125 people in our hall after all the baskets are arranged and displayed but we usually see a profit of about $2,500.00 every year. Hope this helps.
