<p>As the parent of a junior, I am absolutely not looking forward to all the fundraising required for the senior trip, which usually runs between $10,000 and $20,000. The expenses are entirely on the shoulders of the families and the kids.</p>
<p>We want to move beyond the usual bake sales, car washes, wrapping paper sales, raffles, etc. </p>
<p>What are some of the more successful fundraising events and projects that people have found? Thanks.</p>
<p>Have kids get part time work to pay for it. If can’t afford it then don’t do it. It’s a burden for everyone that’s involved. I am speaking from a point of view as a parent also as someone that’s always asked by neighbors kids to buy things I don’t need. I just don’t see it how it’s my problem to pay for your kid to go on a school trip. Sorry to sound like this.</p>
<p>I am curious as to what the per student cost is actually and is this is a school where most families could just pay it or is is a school where most students can’t.</p>
<p>As a parent, I mostly don’t want to do fundraising. Just let me write a check. I know that there is some attitude that this isn’t fair to the kids who need to do fundraising but I can’t help it. (and I am a very compassionate person) I just can’t have my children asking everyone we know to buy something over and over again.</p>
<p>That said, we have found car washes to be an extremely simple way to raise money quickly. I know one girl scout troop that wanted to go to Europe. They babysat and when you paid your wrote a check to the troop. One of our athletic teams sells pine straw and another team offers to spread it for homeowners. </p>
<p>Look for things that don’t require a heavy monetary investment (like selling candy bars) but rather sweat equity.</p>
<p>Both my kids schools have auctions every year. My D’s small <120 kids, montessori school raises between 25 to 30K each year. My S’s much larger HS, about 1500 students, raised over 200K. </p>
<p>Comedy night at D’s school raises between 2-3K. </p>
<p>My S’s scout troop usually has a Golf Tournament and raises about 2K, with about 50 players. </p>
<p>A lot of the sports teams around here raffle off “rolls” of lottery tickets. It is basically 100 tickets, usually the $5 or $10 tickets. Those raffles sell really well. </p>
<p>I am one of those parents who does not want to sell candy bars, wrapping paper, etc. Tell me how much to write the check for and let me be done with it. If I am going to fundraise, I don’t want to put a lot of effort into raising a little money, that is why I like the auction. It is a lot of work, but the sums raised are worth the effort.</p>
<p>I’m also dreading senior year next year. I know I’m in for Brunswick stew sales. They make it in a huge (15 gal?) kettle and sales bring in a lot of money. The senior class also sells school hoodies and keeps the profit. This is a great deal because they are considered a part of the uniform and can be worn in school so everyone buys them. </p>
<p>The good part of all this is that they are, or should be, mature enough to do all this with supervision. I can expect my son to gather yard sale items and drive himself to the location and be helpful. If I have to donate pounds of cooked chicken meat it will be his job to boil and chop. Sure, I’ll buy some and take orders from friends but I hope my days of getting my hands dirty are over.</p>
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<p>Gosh, we must be related, because I fell the same way. Right now there are seniors selling boxes of candy-$60 when you sell the whole box in order to raise $20 toward their trip. I think this is absurd and the only people making any real $ are the candy companies. In the meantime, I have traffic in and out of my office all day from my caseload asking me to buy candy. I went to the COSA and said that I would rather write a check to help offset the expenses of one of my students who I know is in transitional housing and their parents are in a really bad situation.</p>
<p>That said, I went through my child’s k-12 never selling a candybar, magazine or baking a cup cake. I feel that all you are doing is swapping money back and forth and you need to do fundraising where you are getting outside $$, not just the same $ inside the school or from the same parent base.</p>
<p>The schools used to run a one-shot campaign if you did not want to sell anything, you could just contribut $250. You could do this as a one time contribution, pay it off monthly during the school year or any other way that works for you. Our school used to hold a winterfair/silent auction. A all day saturday event where they sold tales to vendors, there were ticket sales they got vendors to contribute anything from merchandise to a service which were auctioned off. the one day event raised about $25 but it takes a lot of work and planning.</p>
<p>Also, since I am not going to prom or the senior trip, Oldfort’s way was the way that worked in my house. Student got a summer job. What ever they saved toward their senior expenses, I matched it because I felt it was on her, forst and foremost to have some skin in the game.</p>
<p>Playing the role of devil’s advocate here. Is there a compelling reason why the students HAVE to do a Senior trip? Personally I would rather just not go if this much fundraising is involved,particularly when the economy is suffering.</p>
<p>2 options that I have adopted in a past: write a check or not participate. There is no magic out there to raise few thousands $$ in this economy even if child works parttime. I wonder why trip is so expensive, though. D went to New Zealand for hiking trip for whole months last May as a college junior and even got 6 credit hours for that. It was definately under $5,000 including all very expensive hiking staff that we had to buy for this trip, we had nothing at home at all and they had very strict list about brand/material and so forth. She had to email pictures of her hiking clothe for approval.</p>
<p>I think 10-20,000 is for the whole class, not for one student.:)</p>
<p>Personally I love the Sally Foster wrapping paper. The rolls are huge, the quality is excellent and I think the school gets half the proceeds. I know not everybody feels the same way but this is one product that I will always buy.</p>
<p>How many kids actually do this? At our high school, there is usually talk of a class trip but I don’t know when the last time is that they actually had one. It’s more common for half a dozen kids to rent a place at the beach for a week. If they do a class trip, where do they go? </p>
<p>Fundraisers - in our school district, selling candy is no longer allowed for any fundraiser. What’s popular are car washes, cabaret nights (in the cafeteria, kids from performing arts club do little songs, bits from plays) spaghetti dinners, fruit fundraisers, Barnes and Noble days - B & N will give a percentage of the profits back to the organization when customers turn in a voucher with purchase. At Christmas time, our library friends group earned $500 (!) for wrapping gifts at the local LL Bean.</p>
<p>I’m definitely burnt out on fundraising and prefer to just write the check. How far can a class get on $20,000? Is this a very small school?</p>
<p>“I am one of those parents who does not want to sell candy bars, wrapping paper, etc. Tell me how much to write the check for and let me be done with it.”</p>
<p>Oh - I’m right there with ya!</p>
<p>At our overseas school, fundraising was really hard to do. But my older son’s class was trying to raise $3500 to build a classroom in a local school in Tanzania. In addition to bake sales, they sponsored…</p>
<ul>
<li>a Movie Night for elementary aged children (like from 6-10, cost allowed for pizza and drinks + profit)</li>
<li>a Talent Show</li>
<li>a “No-Talent Talent Show” (my personal favorite)</li>
<li>a Dodge Ball Tournament</li>
</ul>
<p>Our hs sells bumper sticks poking fun at their nickname other schools in the district call them.</p>
<p>It is really cute…it has a COW Pi sign and HI!</p>
<p>We live in the sticks. They sell them in magnetic form or regular sticker. Magnetic is 5(costs 1 buck) and reg is 2 (costs 50 cents). They sell out every yr within weeks, especially since every kid wants one for the car, and every Mom thinks it’s cute so she puts it on hers. Figure it out, sell a couple of thousand and you made it all in one time.</p>
<p>We also do the No Talent Talent Show, but that is to subsidize the prom.</p>
<p>The best/easiest fundraisers we’ve done are selling flats of flowers…pansies this time of year (in Texas), spring flowers in the spring. They are actually priced competitvely with the local nursuries. When D was doing this for gymnastics, we put a notice on the community association e-bulletin board and sold a bunch with no effort.</p>
<p>As the parent of a junior, I am absolutely not looking forward to all the fundraising required for the senior trip, which usually runs between $10,000 and $20,000.</p>
<p>I have always wanted to follow Pearl Jam through a world tour, sounds like fun!
But seriously where the heck do they go and why?
My daughter went to Ghana for half a month during senior year, with a global technology class, it cost about $700 and there was additional funding for those who couldn’t afford that.</p>
<p>Ok it does make sense that , that is the total cost, not per student :eek:
What they did- ( I am listing most of what I can think of)</p>
<p>Car Washes, writing letters to organizations, friends, family, explaining what they were going to do asking for contributions, several students are musicians, they performed @ weddings and other events, rummage sales, silent auctions, wrapping @ B & N, it did take a while although they also had sponsorship from community organizations if I remember right.</p>
<p>If you are near a military base, the Officers Civilians Spouses Club is a philanthropic organization. You could write them for a donation, especially if you have a large % (25-30) attending your hs.</p>
<p>I have been past Presidents of 3 OCSCs and we would give anywhere from 250-500 a yr to the hs for things like this. </p>
<p>It might not be a lot of money, but it is worth trying if you have that option.</p>
<p>There’s a concept known as leveraged fund raising–where members tell others about a way to raise funds, and don’t dig into their pockets. ( See [Enjoyable</a> Fundraising;Donations;fund raising;no-hassle fundraising, leveraged fund raising](<a href=“http://www.Max-Opp.org%5DEnjoyable”>http://www.Max-Opp.org) or this Facebook fan page [My</a> Info | Facebook](<a href=“http://www.EnjoyableFundRaising.org%5DMy”>http://www.EnjoyableFundRaising.org))</p>
<p>It’s pretty cool when you can sell a digital download for $1.99 and make $1 out of it.</p>
<p>Watch the video, download the brochure and/or spreadsheet and (if you’re on Facebook) explain why you’re interested or express any concerns or questions in the discussions tab.</p>
<p>If you like what you see, invite others to the fan page.</p>
<p>Alan</p>
<p>We didn’t have senior trips when I was in school. Is this even necessary? What in the world could possibly cost that much? Please tell me that it is $10,000 total, and not $10,000 per kid.</p>
<p>Wow, we don’t do a senior trip, but many of the schools around us offer “Project Graduation” events the night after graduation. The idea is from MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Drivers) and is to lock-in the seniors for a fabulous drug/alcohol-free last night together. There is great food, entertainment (hypnotist, DJ, casino-staff) and really amazing prizes (computer equipment, Ipods, flat-screen tvs). The kids work all year on fundraisers (more effort than selling - ie car washes, talent show) to build up their ‘points’. It’s a huge year-long bonding event for the kids & their parents. Local business donate and most parents either work and/or donate (totally voluntarily - points for both go to your child which they redeem for game tickets/fake gambling money). They do sell a few things senior tshirts, poinsettias & hot tamales (Texas 
and there a large silent auction dinner. Most senior classes raise around $80-90k to fund these events. These are large 500-600 member senior classes, but, of course, not everyone participates. Even if they don’t work at all the seniors can purchase a ticket and attend with a base # of points. An amazing time is had by all!</p>
<p>So since we’re 2 months into this project raising only $10-20k seems so EASY to me :-).</p>