<p>I am hoping to start a list where people can go to get/post their fundraising results, both pros and cons. Would appreciate mostly national ideas due to all of us being sepated geographically. I know there are local ones that won’t necessarily help anyone else unless they too are from my area. I am a member of two non-profits both having to do with education and am having some luck fundraising for an event in July (golf tournament), but don’t want to miss any good opportunities! We need goody bag stuffers and raffle/silent auction events. Any ideas former PTO’ers??</p>
<p>ULTIMATE LIST</p>
<p>Yes:</p>
<p>Disneyworld parkhopper ($500 value)
Dicks (60 day notice) $50 gc
Shoprite
Derek Jeter
Peyton Manning
Stampin’ Up (Awesome gift basket)
Kuerig Coffee (brewer & 4pack worth $175)</p>
<p>No:</p>
<p>Six Flags
Webster Bank
Apple
Calloway Golf Products
Homegoods
Zappos</p>
<p>This doesn’t really apply to goodie bags or silent auction items, but it’s an excellent low-effort fundraiser: [Scrip</a> Fundraising Programs - GLSC](<a href=“http://www.glscrip.com%5DScrip”>http://www.glscrip.com)</p>
<p>Basically, you take orders from people in your organization/community for gift cards from a wide variety of retailers and other merchants, and receive a portion of the cards’ face amounts from Great Lakes Scrip. My not-for-profit has raised $1600 in less than a year. We do plenty of other fundraisers as well, but this is absolutely the easiest (and therefore my favorite :D). As good as this is, I’m frustrated because we’ve only scratched the surface of what’s possible. </p>
<p>It requires some planning ahead. If my husband buys $1,000 of stuff for his next home improvement project at Home Depot, but uses gift cards he bought at my not-for-profit instead of cash or his credit card, he still gets to spend $1,000 - and my organization receives $80. </p>
<p>Depending on the retailer, you might receive 16 percent (Land’s End), 12 percent (Gap), 9 percent (Barnes & Noble), 4 percent (Amazon), etc., of the face value of each card. It’s a very easy fundraiser once you file the initial paperwork - the hard part is reminding people to plan ahead to buy gift cards.</p>
<p>A good way to get some nice silent auction items: my group does a gift basket auction every December. Each board and staff member takes responsibility for assembling one basket - which means that no one person has to do all the soliciting and assembling. Some of our board members hate fundraising, but everyone can come up with the contents of one gift basket.</p>
<p>Our K-8 school has a huge auction fundraiser every year. Off the top of my head, I remember them getting from American Girl Dolls. I’ll think about where else…
Good list; I’ll have to share it with this year’s auction chair!</p>
