<p>I’m not clear why you are wanting to do this. The students clearly have no interest in making it happen. If this were truly the highlight of their high school years, you’d have no need to start this thread. </p>
<p>If I were one of the 10 parents, there is no way I would write a check for a thousand dollars or even a hundred dollars if my kid were not already working hard towards this goal. The director may be low energy but perhaps she also realizes the futility of trying to get kids to work hard for something they don’t want.</p>
<p>The kids are willing to work very hard (last year they worked at Sonic for tips for 9 hours straight, in the winter no less). </p>
<p>I think the problem is that the teacher expected the kids to come up with all the fundraisers on their own, but didn’t communicate that to the kids until recently. (Good way: On day 1 of school, tell the kids how much money they need to come up with and work out a budget. Bad way: In December tell the kids oh my gosh we don’t have any money and we need $10,000.) All the other groups to which my kids belong have booster clubs; the parents come up with the fundraising ideas and tell the kids what they have to do. This group is a subgroup of the choir and doesn’t have its own booster club.</p>
<p>You mentioned your son is an officer. Can he host a brainstorming session at your home? Without a booster club, it seems the best shot at raising this money is going to be to do things the kids are excited about. </p>
<p>Spelling it out that if they don’t raise this money this event will not happen may be just the motivation they need as I find with my teenager that sometimes he tends to “hope things will work out” rather than face the facts. </p>
<p>Someone in my town is offering a service I had not heard of before. For a set fee, they will come to your house, set up and decorate your tree and/or put it all away after the holidays. You could offer other holiday specific services like wrapping gifts for a set fee per hour and so on.</p>
<p>Takes a lot of work, but my s was an originator/MC of a ________ High School Idol contest. They student leaders auditioned acts, selected 20 they deemed “most entertaining,” and arranged for local radio personalities to serve as judges. After the acts were narrowed by the judges, the audience voted via paper ballots for the winner. Various prizes were solicited from local merchants. The turnout that year and all subsequent years has been a sell-out, and the top money maker for the select chorus. It’s a great event. Students turn out to support their favorites, complete with posters, etc.</p>
<p>missypie, does the high school have a good jazz band? Two of my boys are principals in the high school jazz band, and a couple of years ago one of the outstanding senior year jazz singers performed with the jazz band. It was fantastic!</p>
<p>I really don’t know the history of using professional musicians instead of students. I suspect that the reason lies with the number of songs they perform at the show (in excess of 20.) A professional ensemble can pretty much sight read all of those songs; most students would need to practice the songs quite a bit.</p>
<p>As it turns out, sales of Entertainment Books is one of the choir program’s big annual fundraisers. That’s another thing that makes it so difficult. The choir already does fundraising for its trips, so these kids already do all those projects, for the “big choir.” But jazz choir gets none of that money so they have to do more fundraising for that group.</p>
<p>missypie - what problems does she have with some of these suggestions? I suggested getting advertisers/sponsors - all the local companies advertise in the production programs or have sponsor acknowledgments at the school productions around here - why would she have a problem with that?</p>
<p>What ideas does the director have? The problem with performance or selling stuff is that it’s still bleeding the same families. You want some fresh money. I know some small fund raisers that are but a drop in your bucket so they won’t help much.</p>
<p>Christmas Carol cards is an idea. People can order a caroling troupe to visit a home, a party, a hospital room, etc. Also Christmas caroling in some neighborhoods with a tin cup for donations will bring some money.</p>
<p>I just recalled that S’s choir had fundraisers throughout the year to pay for their spring tour. They would have coffee houses. Dim lighting, lots of small tables close together, baked goods, and coffee/tea drinks. Entertainment by chorus and anyone who wanted to perform in a cozy setting. Even got some teachers and parents to perform. Charged admission and sold the goodies. Had 4 during the school year and are now a tradition at the school.</p>
<p>Also, our school sells grocery store cash cards. I believe that the school a portion of the sale. Can’t remember how much. Something like $20-50 per $2000 sold. Since people have to shop for groceries anyways, the cards are great since they are for the face amount so no one is out any money. Also Burger King, McD and some other such places will have a special night with a % of profits going to an organization. You then print out flyers to urge all the kids to go there that night. Maybe have the choir do some singing at the place and have a hat out for tips. We made $600 one night and $200 another with that one.</p>
<p>A local school wraps gifts (books) at the local Borders for donations, also I saw students selling old books, CDs outside a Trader Joes. Son’s HS does a celebrity basketball game – local radio celebrities play teachers. The gym is packed and they make a lot of money with that one and it’s fun. Good fundraisers (but they take longer) are magazine and gift wrap drives. Sees Candies does good fundraisers for the holidays and Valentine’s Day and Easter. Pizza sales are good – we made pretty good money at son’s elementary school selling pizza after school. Kids are very hungry when the bell rings. You get a good price from the pizza place and sell at a dollar a slice or so. You can sell drinks – buy them at Costco and make good money.</p>
<p>Is there one doting parent who produces something everyone else wants? I was once involved in a school fundraiser with a bled-out community, very poor school that needed funds.</p>
<p>One family had the car dealership in town. That family donated a car (tax write-off) and then raffle tickets were sold by students for $l00 each. It sounds like a lot, but people were willing to donate $l00 to their kids’ school on the chance they might actually win a whole car. And someone did, of course. </p>
<p>Point is: if you raffle, raffle something fabulous, not something small.</p>
<p>Stop n Shop giftcards give the organization 1-5% depending on amount sold. You need to sell $5000 to get the 5%, $250. You can also buy Starbucks giftcards in $20 dollar increments, 5 for $80 at Costco. You then sell them for the face amount, making $20 on each $100 sold. If each choir member sold 10 sets of them (great stocking stuffers, teacher’s gifts, or just to use) , with 10 members, they make $2K</p>
<p>They already do sell ads for the program. They really really need a budget. There was supposed to be an officer’s meeting this morning, but the director cancelled it. I think that with the seasonal gigs they do have and the holiday concert, the director is probably feeling overwhelmed (it’s her first year in charge-she was the assistant in prior years). I guess maybe after the first of the year I can persuade someone to make a budget and a plan. By then, they’ll have a definite figure on what they made in December.</p>
<p>If I had another child that I thought would ever be in the jazz choir, I’d make there be its own little booster club, to make the parents get more involved. Face it, if the teacher isn’t really going to direct fundraising, they need parents to help. Not very many kids have the initiative to plan fundraising events on their own.</p>
<p>Right now, there aren’t even a whole lot of parents who have the initiative to plan & execute fundraising events on their own–so many are stretched pretty thin, especially with the current economy.</p>
<p>I think the teacher in charge is just going to give each parent the bill for the event. If the club isn’t moving now, making a significant dent in the amount needed is not going to be possible. It isn’t going to be easy in any case. I would want at least a quarter of the amount earned by year end, and Christmas is a good time to get some $s when people have their dollars out. </p>
<p>We sold the cutest gingerbread boys and girls cookies. Iced them in concert wear, mittens, scarf and hat and other varients. They literally sold like hotcakes. About 6 of us made about 4 dozen a piece and they sold for $3 apiece (they were pretty pig) at the Christmas fair. 2 for $5, and 5 for $10, a bakers dozen for $15. We made over $500 on that one. </p>
<p>So far this year, we have sold cookies, done bake sales, had a rummage sale, sold used school uniforms, had a booth at the Christmas fair with low priced goods, sold popcorn, had a shopping day at 3 local stores, sold gift cards, sold wrapping paper, had raffles, had a wine and cheese get together where we sold wine, had a school night at a restaurant. We are close to the $30K mark, I understand. Our big fund raiser is in the spring which is the auction dinner party. Catholic schools are great at getting the money out of the parents. And that does not include the causes that are always collecting.</p>
<p>Missypie- Does the choir director even want to have the event. It appears she is doesn’t like any of your ideas but is not coming up with any of her own. $10,000 is a ton of money in any economy. And in a high school with every group trying to raise money you are going to have to reach out beyond your high school community to raise those funds. Plus each kid in the jazz choir probably also has fundraising commitments for other groups in school and out.
Can you get a meeting together with all the parents and choir members and the director to organize the event. It would be better for the kids and parents to know upfront that if we don’t raise the money by a certain date the event can not happen. Someone needs to point that out now to avoid disapointment down the road. One year my son belong to a group that had a fundraising amount required of each participant. If you did not participate in the fundraising activity your parent was asked to write a check.</p>