I personally think a walk-a-thon, run by your volunteers only, is a great one. Don't go through one of the "brokers" that are out there. All there is to it is sending out flyers, a pledge sheet (pre-pay), and collecting "prizes" such as free cones from the local ice cream parlor, board games (purchased cheap/on sale/donated) and giving each child a t-shirt if they raise a certain amount. (I'd give it to them just for walking).
The day of the event, have the PE teachers set up a "track", play some music and have the kids walk with their class.
You really don't need many volunteers, as little as 2 or as many as will help.
I prefer that we get most of the money collected, at least 90%.
Do you do the home and garden party through a the company or an individual seller? I know some one who sells and she hasn't mentioned fundraisers to me.
We just finish a candle fundraising from Home & Garden Party. We had just 42 students sell candles and we received $1500. Your profit depends on amount of candles. Our percentage was 50%. The candles are 10oz and come in 17 favors and burn approx. 50 hours. The parents that did order have ask about reorders. Their web site is www.homeandgardenparty.com
Just my thoughts on SchoolCash/SchoolPop. It's a great idea - but it would need to work. I have ordered lots of things and tried to get signed in and thought I was - but still haven't been credited with SchoolPop. In checking out the boxtops website - I found that they have mostly the same companies but get a higher percentage and it's a much easier site to use. I believe next year I'll do more BoxTop Marketplace promotion.
nonsequitur--I agree with you that your formula is a good one to look at. And I'll echo Critter's comments on the catalog fundraiser--excluding the time of the kids and their parents doing the "selling," our volunteer time of about 100 hours in the fall got us close to $20,000 in net proceeds this year. Nothing else comes close!
The next best thing we have had is bingo--2 bingos using your formula get us something like $30/volunteer hour.
We rejected Market Day as a fundraiser because the net proceeds/volunteer hour were about $10--similar to your cookbook example.
We publicize grocery store receipt programs at the beginning of the year--too soon to tell, but we'll probably get a few thousand from that with very little effort. Online shopping malls (like Schoolcash.com, now schoolpop.com) don't require a lot of effort, but we haven't made huge amounts of money from them, either (i.e. less than $400 in a year).
