I was going to suggest the coupon books or the scripts as well.
Our local grocery store does donate to the local schools if you purchase X amount in participating products. A coupon prints out at the check out. The coupons have to be put in the slot for the school that they want to support. This is a Hannfords program.
What about recycling programs. You can do lot of different things via terracylce that will pay you for trash.
Also Funding Factory recycles ink cartridges and cell phones.
Campbells labels for education is an option as well.
Some programs make more sense to order from the catalog then take cash options. However it gives you a resource for stuff as needed.
If you don't run a book fair that is a possibility as well. This way they can purchase something they need/could use vs expensive food.
I'm not sure if you charge for membership but we add a local discount program to ours as a way to encourage more participation. The board goes door to door asking local business to give a % or something free to members. It does not have to be large some are a 5% discount some are a free coffee when you buy a breakfast sandwich. It gives the members another reason to join.
I help at a Title 1 school (low income) and we need programs that don't cost parents a lot of money.
One of the best programs we use is eScrip. If you have a VONs, Safeway (or other) club card the grocery store will donate a % of the sales to the school for those that sign up. Check out www (dot) escrip (dot) com they also have an online mall, and recycling program.
Boxtops actually work. We send out 10 (=$1) collection sheets each month and it can bring in $100s.
Check out Goodsearch (dot) com You can earn money for the school just with searching the internet via Yahoo. They also have an online mall feature.
Target Red Card - a % of purchase goes to the school go to target (dot) com and see their Take Charge of Education Program.
Jamba Juice has a PTA program - go to www (dot) jambajuice.com and look under their community program.
Raffles are a good idea too if you contact local businesses and request donations. It is a good incentive to donate if you publicize the donation on the flyer and at the event and provide certificates of appreciation to the business after the event.
We did something similar to the mom-to-mom. We did a clothing exchange. The families would donate clothing and get a ticket for every piece that was donated and then use the tickets to "purchase" more clothing. if they wanted more clothes than they had tickets for it cost $0.50 each. Most of the time they wanted more than what they brought in. So we made a few hundred dollars, but the benefit to the families was incredible because most of them can't afford to purchase new clothes so the gently used clothes were perfect for the growing kids.
We also gathered catalogs from our mom's who have stay at home businesses and in November started a catalog party. Just in time for Christmas. This was another few hundred dollars, but we got good PR from this because we only allowed mom's of students to showcase their business (Pampered Chef, Avon, etc)
The best fundraising we have done in our low income school has been a coupon book , they are done by CCI they are 10.00 each every thing is by one get one free , most of the book is food so parents get their mony back the first time they use it in most of the time, we do well with this one. Just saying.
We are a very low income school and the second lowest school district in colorado.. With that being said i cant justify selling any type of food, drinks etc because most get food asst of some kind. People do have cash but not alot of it.
The best thing we ever did was open up a school store. It is hard to get parents to staff it everyday but it has worked out... I never sell anything over $1.00 and the kids come every day with handfuls of change they dug up lol... We make about $60-$100 a day depending on the time of month.
Im also thinking of many new creative ways. We have an extremely small budget.
Oh also check out the skating rinks near you. We just started one and for $5 bucks they pick up the kids in a bus, skate, free piece of pizza, and they handed out hundreds of free ice cream and cotton candy coupons, and took them home all for $5!!! That was a huge hit and it was the easiest $400 we ever made.
Box tops are a great fundraiser--- they are on so many things-- and again bring in the community-- have drop boxes made and see about putting them in local stores. (hardware, grocery, churches) And at 10 cents each it does add up fast.
McDonald's will let you hold a restaurant night every three months and they include anything that come in to eat- find other restaurants that include anyone that eats there- not just bringing in a flier or having to say your here for the event-- this will also bring in outside funds.
We have found that Mom-2- mom sales have been really beneficial for us-- each sale brings in approx. 3,000.00. It doesn't have to be parents that rent a table or come to sale-- out of 132 tables at our sale - only 20 are actual school families-- and if you are a lower income school- this can help your families as well- a great way to purchase slightly used kids items at a lower cost to them.
We are always looking as well for better ways to earn money for kids.
