<p>Our Parent Association does a poinsetta sale. People order (and pay) in Novermber, then pick them up right before the holiday break. </p>
<p>Our school also does a magazine sale. I like the magazine sale, as their prices are comparable to the best offers I see for the magazines I buy anyway. And you can provide the info on your current subscription, and they just tack what you buy on as a renewal to your current subscription.</p>
<p>Fundraising things that work for us…</p>
<p>Spelling Bee…need 30 teams, $300 each… raises $10K, is one night event, free admission, all the real work is in lining up teams and having a spelling list… each team has a name and they wear appropriate costumes, 5 or 6 teams spell off in each round to the winning round…</p>
<p>I have always thought it would be fun to have a Math Bee for elementary students, Spelling Bee for middle school and Geography or Trivia Bee for high school… brand each one and do they every year… great community building events…</p>
<p>Galactic Bowling… local bowling alley offers up a midnight bowling session, 12pm to 2 am and we sell the tickets… closed to the “public”… we sell tickets at $10 each, we split the proceeds with the alley… kids do group invites on Facebook to publicize and on average we net $750 to $1,000</p>
<p>Hypnotist… we use the HS theater for this… $10 admissions, $20 for families… hypnotist costs around $600 for a weeknight, $1,000 if weekend… can clear $1,000 easily if you publicize it correctly…</p>
<p>Dinner Dance, Silent Auction… our education foundation hosts an annual event… it nets the organization around $60K and up depending on the economy… </p>
<p>YardSale… another annual event… nets around $4K per year… lots of upside potential here… first one was a dumping ground… they have gotten much more careful about what they accept…</p>
<p>Gift Wrap… our elementary school does Sally Foster gift wrap every year… we get 50% of the proceeds… big potential here… easily generates over $75K for the school…</p>
<p>Magazines are sold by our middle school…I don’t know the revenue, but it is a big event for the middle school…</p>
<p>It is very tough to make something out of nothing…but our local library has done that, where they started a annual Beauty and the Books Crafts Sale… all handmade, donated items are on display in the library for a month… silent auction with final night reception. This generates around $7K or more depending on the items and the year… I could easily see a high school having a sale like this with art items made by the kids… </p>
<p>Good luck…</p>
<p>I don’t have kids in the local schools anymore- but I am wondering how other districts handle PTA fundraisers.</p>
<p>Our district had been forcing all money to go through an adjunct" charity", ( which is a PITA- cause you can’t use the money right away- not to mention it is often for stuff the district used to pay for) but lately they had demanded that almost 4% of money raised be taken off the top for " administration" fees.</p>
<p>This is after a state audit found that our district already is *extremely *top heavy with administrative staff compared to other districts.
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<p>I’ll add to Maineparent’s spelling bee idea - the local Literacy group here has a team Scrabble competition each year to raise funds for their programs, and it has always been well attended and VERY competitive.</p>
<p>If you can find the manpower to do a lot of legwork, golf tournaments can be great money makers too. You sell hole sponsorships, entry fees, closest to the pin chances, etc.</p>
<p>It’s just that it takes some work and coordination up front, along with plenty of help the day of.</p>
<p>LOL, how’s about every current member of the School District’s Board of Trustees must auction off one evening of their own time. Each winning bidder gets to meet at a simple diner for dinner with one Board member, who has to hear all their ideas about how to improve the district.</p>
<p>I’m wagering that some PTO parents will jump for the chance. And how could the Board members say no?</p>
<p>paying3tuitions, while I find your suggestion very interesting, I’m thinking of this board member in a neighboring district who has been known to fall asleep in board meetings. ;)</p>
<p>Thought of a couple of other fundraisers that I have heard about.
One local elementary school did a tour of chicken coops in the neighborhood. Remember this is coastal Ca and chicken raising is a novelty. I think they did quite well. Plus it doesn’t cost anything to run. The same elementary school did a calendar taking photos of a local landmark decorated for different months of the year. It helped that the landmark they used was a bronze dog statue in a neighborhood front lawn that traditionally is decorated by the family in residence for each holiday.
Other tour ideas- garden tours or home tours if you have a nice area of town.
Yesterday at pickup I was handed a flyer by the baseball or softball team of a casino night to raise money for turf.
Also all the schools my kids have attended have in the fall a no show fund raiser. Basically you just send in a donation. The elementary school called it the Imagine Fund. Imagine what education your kids could have if you donated a dollar a day of the school year. They tried for 100% class participation even if it was just a few dollars per family. The HS tends to ask for less.</p>