I am PTO president at our school and I hate doing fundraisers and buying stuff I don't want in the first place. Last year I came across what I thought would be great and practical. Selling garbage bags and batteries. that is something everybody uses (at least I think so). The prices weren't outragous and its practical. My board said no, so we didn't do it, we chose Fun Pasta fundraising instead. It seems that even though people complain about the dumb stuff or expensive stuff, they still buy that better than anything else.
This is how we run the sale-- and in Michigan-- these are very popular---
We make a contract that sells table space (our tables are 6ft. since that's what we have at school-) and we've made a layout so we know how many tables we can sell- (we are at 125) and we sell out--
OK-- so we sell table space to parents, grandma's, community families, anyone that would like to rent a table to sell children like items or home type business items that help families everyday (like tupperware, avon, etc..) kids items are like clothing, toys, books, etc... ) items that a family has used, they no longer need but would like to sell in order to purchase something new or even shop at the sale themselves for gentely used items. We also sell larger items in a special room -- (cribs, strollers, pack-n-plays, bikes, etc...) we made these items be placed in one large room, to help shoppers compare items, easier to purchase and take out the front door, etc... we have 3 our PTO volunteers run this room- we charge 1.00 per item placed in the large ticket room-- and there is a form that the seller fills out to go with the item.. has the price, if they will come down in price, what's their lowest price...) we usually have 300 items in this room--- then we advertise in the paper, have signs out and post on-line -
The school I teach in is low income, 90% on free or reduced lunch. Fundraisers do not work there like they do in my home district. What does work is candy sales - they are only $1 each and car washes. The school is on a main road and people do drive in. The kids also sell tickets for $5 each. (Probably teachers buy most of them but whatever!) I do like the garage sale idea! We did that at our Holiday Bazaar. The Scholastic Book Fair really brought in a LOT of $ when it was pumped up by staff. The teacherrs showed a video advertising books (provided by scholastic)
Our school has a lot of low income families. Fundraising is always a challenge for us.
Some of our more successful events are:
Movie Nights
Book Fair
Spare Change Drive
Last year, for the first time, we hosted a community 5K. Unfortunately, we planned it on the same day as a major community event (first day of little league,) so many families were unable to participate. We hope to have an even better turn out this year.
Good luck! I KNOW it's hard, especially if other schools in your district have more affluent families! It takes my school three events to earn what some other schools in our district can earn in one.
Hi, I was reading the posts and just wanted to make a comment. Yes, Terracycle is great - as are some of the grants that you can get - HOWEVER you have to have a 501(c)(3) eligiblity. So check with your school district, they may have a blanket one for the district.
One grant that is pretty good is Kohl's Cares for Kids. They will volunteer 5 people to help out at an event AND give you $500.00.
Box Tops works well too.
What about a movie night? You might be able to get donated food and charge either a small entrance fee ($0.50) and small charges for food.
Maybe an ice cream social as well. Culvers did one for us - the cost of the ice cream cups was $1.00 and we provided the topping and sold the cups for $2.00.
Have someone that plays piano or something - maybe someone has a kareoke system that the kids could use - for the entertainment.
