Your edible catalogs are they the same thing ie cookie dough, hoogies and such?
We tried selling salsa with salsa fundraising and it worked out great. they have 19 salsas with 50% profit and free shipping.
We now do that and a carnival as our only fundraisers.
We also found that having too many or multiple at the same time does not work and by limiting the # of selling fundraisers prevents burnout.

We’ve found the same thing, not much patience anymore for selling stuff. Our walk-A-thon and carnival are the biggest money makers now. We do a lot of publicity that it’s a carnival-fundraiser and walk-A-thon fundraiser so parents give more generously. We also ask our families to bring their friends and family to broaden our community.

What worked for my school was selling scented pencils. They're called "Smencils". They're a great product that the kids love! You get a 50% profit. The kids sell them for a $1. There are 10 different smells. Some on the top of my head are bubblegum, rootbeer, watermelon...etc. We went through herecomesmoney.com. They have free shipping, which is a plus.
Hope this helps!

My daughter's elementary school (just under 1,300 students) has used Boosterthon Fun Run for two years now and we raised $100K this year (the school keeps 52%). It was educational, every child participated and got a fun run t-shirt (regardless of whether or not they got pledges), the company was a joy to work with and it was clearly very lucrative.

My son's middle school sticks to catalog sales, which have been declining over the years. This year, the kids offered not only the catalog items....but also local discount cards for a flat $10 and the fundraiser exceeded our expectations by $5K (for a total of around $20K).

Each school supplements their budgets with book fairs, restaurant nights, etc. But these are the main fundraisers.

I agree, times are tough for those selling fundraises.

We held a Gold Buying Fundraiser and raised $3,600 in 4 hours.

It was so easy. We didn't have to invest any money or spend weeks coordinating 40 different tasks. All we had to do was notify parents that we where holding a gold recycling event where they can bring in those "orphaned Earrings and broken, tangled and unwanted necklaces", and the company handling the valuing, Star Refining, purchased these pieces on the spot. We had about 30 people show up and the company ended up purchasing $18,000 worth of this scrap gold in 4 hours. This is the only fundraiser that I've ever been involved with where the supports went home with money instead of having to spend it.

When the event was over, our Library received a check for $3,600, which was 20% of the dollar amount purchased. It sure beats those fundraisers that I've been involved with where we all spent so much time and money hoping for a decent return.

We where also able to incorporated a "learning moment" for the kids in this event by teaching them about the recycling aspect of this gold party.

We all still like the traditional fundraisers that everyone is used to, but as a quick and easy way to add maybe 2 or 3 no hassle, definite money making fundraisers, to our schedule, it works for me.
If anyone wants their number, it's Star Refining 877-782-7696

I was just voted in as president of the PTSO. Now I am new to all this PTSO stuff but my wife is a teacher so i hear a lot from her. There is a lot of stuff I would like to change, but we'll se how it goes. The school has a "fall festival" every year and as far back as i can remember it has always been the same and it needs to be changed. So that is what I am setting out to do. And not really to make more money but so that families can have fun. The school is K-5 but most of the game are for the little kids. There needs to be more for the older kids to bring them in. I can be here all day with some of the stuff that has been said. One where the gentleman brought up parent spending more just make their kids happy. Well thats the parents fault. If you have the money to spend, dont come or set a limit. At our fall festival they sell tickets for .25 each and all the game take one ticket. Armbands are $5 and are good for unlimited bouncys. I do agree about the cheap prizes, which I want to do away with and get better prizes because most of the that cheap stuff goes right in the trash so its a waste of money to buy. Id like to make it more like a county fair. I have even thought about seeing what it would cost to get 2-3 fair rides. I want to get kids and parents from other schools to look at our fall festival and to come as well, not just our students.

I found out a few weeks ago that the schools biggest fundraiser was "worlds finest chocolate". I dont know how much was raised because I dont officially take over until July 1 but I was surprised it was the bestest. But the more I thought about it I understand why, its $1 for a candy bar, and most people can afford a $1. I think the community should be kept informed about what the PTSO is doing. I didnt have a clue what I did with the money cause there was never a news letter sent home. The one of the first things we plan on doing. We are going to send a letter to parents, students and teachers and ask them what they like, dont like, want to see changed, want they want dropped, what they want added, any new ideas we can get. You have to look at new ways to makes money. You need to let the community know what you are doing with the money you raise. I found out our account has over $8000 in the right now and I was like, why? That money should have been used somewhere for something. One reason why there is that much at the end of the school year is because they old PTSO has the candy sell the last month of school, which made no since to me because now that money is just setting there but it will be put to use real soon.

As far as fundraiser you have to start looking outside the box and utilizing people talents. I read today about applying for grants to help pay for some of the projects around the school. Our playground needs to be fixed up and needs some new equipment also, so I am going to see if there are any kind for grants that can help with that. One of the things I thought about today, since I am a photographer, is to take pictures of the schools basketball league and give the profits to the PTSO. People dont have to always donate money, they can donate their time and skills. If we cant get a grant to help with the playground maybe someone with a backhoe or tractor and dirty, they can "donate" time to help fix up the playground. Even though we are not getting any money, we wouldnt be spending any money which is just as good as money donations.

Well I could keep going but its 4:30am and I have be up in 3 1/2 hours. So please forgive any typos, misspelling, and not using proper grammer.