| Name |
Description |
Cost |
Effort |
| 50/50 raffles |
50/50 raffles are great at crowded events like sporting games. In a 50/50 volunteers walk around the crowd and sell tickets. Once the money is collected and counted, one ticket is chosen and read aloud. The winner is whose ticket matches the number, and the individual splits the winnings with the organization hosting the event.
For best results, plan for the raffle to be held during tournament and/or championship games where the crowd tends to be larger. Also if there are multiple periods in a game, volunteers could sell tickets not only at the door, but in the bleachers or on the sidelines as well. |
Low |
Low |
| American Publishers Magazine Fundraising |
American Publishers provides schools and organizations with the ability to tap into the vast popularity of magazine subscriptions. The Magazine Publishers of America estimates that in 2009 there were 310 million magazine subscriptions being delivered across the country. Magazines are popular, profitable and convenient choice for fundraising! Remember, every subscription sold raises much needed funds for schools and organizations! |
Low to Medium |
Low to Medium |
| Annual Gala |
These lavish affairs are staged regularly to raise the profiles of nonprofits and help fill perpetually-tapped coffers. Look beyond the tuxedos and sequins and you'll find a veritable army of worker bees putting forth a major collective effort that may take up to a year to organize. If you've been asked to host such an event, remember to recruit plenty of hard-working volunteers and allow plenty of planning time. |
Medium to High |
High |
| Bake Sale |
Feed your organization AND your community! Have classmates, parents, and volunteers donate baked goods to be sold at school events or (with permission) in the school cafeteria.
It may help to create a master list of "Who's Bringing What?" so that voluteers will feel more obligated to contribute and are more likely to remember.
|
Low |
Medium |
| Bingo Night |
Sell Bingo cards and offer the winners donated gifts from various local business. This is extremely easy and turns a 100% profit.
As with many fundraisers, a bake sale on the side is always an option (refer to "Bake Sale" fundraiser idea). |
Low |
Low |
| Boosterthon Fun Run |
The Boosterthon Fun Run experience combines a fun fitness event, an interactive character program, and a highly profitable school fundraiser. It’s all wrapped up in an unforgettable experience that is fun for students and hassle-free for schools.
With the Boosterthon Fun Run, there is nothing to sell and no door-to-door. Students help their school simply by gathering pledges from friends and family. Sponsors can pledge a per-lap amount or flat donation toward that student’s Boosterthon Fun Run. |
Low to Medium |
Medium |
| Boxtops For Education |
Box Tops for Education has helped America’s schools earn over $400 million since 1996. You can earn cash for your child’s school by clipping Box Tops coupons from hundreds of participating products. Box Tops also offers easy ways to earn even more cash for your school online. |
Low |
Low |
| Candy Jar |
Fill up a large jar with candy and have children guess the amount of pieces in the jar for $X per guess. The student with the guess closest to the amount keeps the candy.
Either present the jar in class or have student volunteers carry it around school, assigning a different student for each day of the week.
For better results you might also reward volunteers with extra credit on a test! |
Low |
Low |
| Car Wash |
Choose a location that's accessible to a fair amount of traffic. If you can find a store or business with a large parking lot, ask permission to use it for the day. Have lots of colorful signs and balloons to draw attention to the car wash. If you want, it's convenient to host a dog wash as well, or to have other smaller fundraisers available (such as a bake sale) so that customers can have something to browse while having their cars washed! |
Low |
Medium |
| chromebooks in our Classroom |
|
|
|
| Coupon Books |
Go to local businesses and collect coupons for their products that can be sold as fundraiser products. |
Medium |
Medium |
| Dance |
Let students dance the doe into your fundraising pockets! Sell tickets and have students work tables with baked goods and school spirit products at the dance. Get a dance committee going and encourage students to get involved. Have them brainstorm different themes (Halloween, spring fling, winter ball, 80s, disco, etc.) to boost participation. Letting the committee put an appropriate music list together will save money, rather than hiring a DJ. |
Medium |
Medium |
| Dance the Night Away |
Host a night long dance where students obtain sponsors that will contribute a specified amount for each hour a student dances. Charge admission to the students without sponsors.
Hold the dance in a gym or a space where games can be set up as well as the dance floor (badminton, volleyball, basketball) |
Medium |
High |
| Dancing With The Stars |
Pair up students with teachers or administrators for dance partners. Invite the school body to the event and charge each person $1 to vote for his favorite couple. A week prior to the event, place jars with photos of the dance partners on them and have students vote during lunch period as well! |
Low |
Medium |
| Dinner Event |
To organize a successful fundraiser dinner you need to plan well, and know your donor base and the community the fundraiser ultimately benefits. Doing a good amount of footwork ahead of time can save everybody headaches. |
Low to Medium |
Low |
| Display My Art Program |
Display My Art program enables schools and organizations around the country to raise money for their important needs while building students’ self-esteem and inspiring their creative abilities. Showcasing each student’s art work on our products demonstrates to them that their work is worthy of being transformed into a permanent keepsake. |
Low |
Low to Medium |
| Dog Wash |
Nobody wants a dirty dog. Charge customers to clean their beloved animal buddies. You can also sell pet treats as a bonus fundraiser! |
Low |
Medium |
| Fall Festival |
Fall festivals are a time-honored way to raise money for churches, schools or other organizations. Because they include fall-themed fun, including games and food, they often become a cherished community event that draws together people of all ages. Maximize your event’s fund-raising potential by expanding it to also include a pumpkin patch, bake sale and book fair, in addition to the traditional food and game booths. |
Low to Medium |
Medium |
| Fruit Sales |
A fruit fundraiser can provide a successful, and continuous, continuous project, but will require good organization, and coordination with a fruit supplier. |
Medium |
Medium |
| Funding Factory |
Save the planet...save some money!
This website allows schools to earn new equipment or cash through recycling old printer cartridges and cell phones. Why waste? Make haste in savings. |
Low |
Low |
| Golf Tournament |
Hosting a golf tournament is a high-profile, and often very lucrative fundraising concept. Golf has a reputation for being the game of people with lots of money and leisure time. And while it has gained in popularity, and is by no means only a "rich man's game", there is certainly a tremendous opportunity for raising big dollars here--and also an opportunity for tremendous publicity.
A great advantage of hosting a golf tournament is the connections you make. It's not unusual to find local celebrities, businesspersons and politicians on the golf course, and these are people that you definitely want to be aware of your organization's overall mission and needs. |
Medium to High |
High |
| Gourmet Lollipops |
Purchase boxes of gourmet lollipops in an assortment of flavors and colors. Sell the lollipops one-by-one at an understandable price, and make a 50% profit from sales. |
Medium |
Low |
| Hat Day |
Have a happy hat day! Charge students a small sum to bring hats to school for a day. Or extend this to a week-long fundraiser and give each day a separate theme. |
Low |
Low |
| Hershey's Candy Bar Fundraising |
HERSHEY'S puts the fun into fundraising with our easy-to-use candy bar fundraiser program. From school groups to athletes to church organizations, HERSHEY'S provides sellers with an opportunity to raise money for their group or organization.
HERSHEY'S offers everyone's favorite candy bars at great values, helping organizations reach their fundraising goals simpler and sweeter than ever! With a candy bar fundraiser from HERSHEY'S, you will have the option to sell an assortment of HERSHEY'S candy.
|
Low |
Low to Medium |
| Holiday Flags |
Along with your cause, why not inspire patriotism? Beseech prospective donors to pay a set amount per year in order to have students come by their house on every federal holiday, placing a large U.S. flag in their yard, and then removing it afterwards. Make sure this is announced before each federal holiday so that students remember. |
Medium |
Low |
| Math-a-thon |
Hold a math competition for which students obtain sponsors. The sponsor pays a specified sum for each question the student answers correctly. Grab teachers and obtain appropriate questions. Teachers also make good questioners, give them a podium or a seat at their own table for officiality as they ask questions and examine the answers.
This could be extended into multiple subjects such as History and English, generating a broader range of students and better funding. |
Low |
Medium |
| Movie and Magazine |
Send a card with your school's pictures on it, and on the reverse side offer both a magazine and a DVD (that they choose from a list on the card) for $20. It's extremely easy, and everyone benefits. |
Medium |
Low |
| Pancake Breakfast |
Pancake breakfasts are an easy-to-organize fundraiser involving every member of your team. They can be a wonderful teambuilding exercise. |
Low |
Low |
| Pleasurable Pies |
Students can either bake pies with the help of their parents and school bakery, ask local bakeries to donate pies, or combine the two for a pie party fundraiser. Sell by the piece or by the pie!
Many other refreshments may be necessary and more profitable as additions. |
Low |
Medium |
| Scholastic Book Fair |
Each year Scholastic Book Fairs, in partnership with schools across the country, hosts more than 120,000 book-sale events that give more than 35 million students and their families access to thousands of affordable and educational products, helping foster a lifelong love of reading. |
Medium |
Medium to High |
| School Calendar |
Create a calendar and have students sell it to the local community. Kids can take photos or they can be downloaded off Clip Art Station.
For a greater impact, have art students submit their work for the calendar. One way of going about this could be to communicate with art teachers and prospectively have them edit "Calendar Art" into a class project. |
Medium |
High |
| School Carnival |
Carnival here I come!
Although this project will take a lot of time and energy to plan, the experience and payoff are entirely worth it. Carnivals usually have vendors, games, food booths, and rides along with other things. They usually last anywhere from 2-7 days, and are a great way to raise a whole lot of money if done correctly. Expenses are high, but so are returns if you can pull it off! Go for it. |
High |
High |
| School Event Concession Stand |
One of the most under utilized sources of fund raising for schools and sports leagues is the concession stand. Large or small, the concession stand can quickly become a ready source for cash, and an enhancement to any school, sporting or outdoor musical event. If you don’t have a facility, start small. Set up a table and sell bottles of water and granola bars! You’ll be surprised how fast your fund raising efforts will add up. |
Low to Medium |
Low |
| School Sports Competition |
Many students, coaches, parents, and schools participate in sports fundraising initiatives to help provide funding for sports. Whether raising funds for new equipment, team uniforms, or travel funds for competitions. Keep in mind that with every sports fundraising campaign, you are teaching team members about community service and being part of something larger than themselves. |
Medium |
Medium |
| School Yearbook |
Planning a yearbook for your school can be an effective yet costly fundraising project. Prudent allocation of resources is critical, but having a well produced yearbook provides the school community with an engaging capstone to commemorate the year, with the potential to yield high returns for the school. |
Medium to High |
High |
| Sell Magazines |
Sell subscriptions to popular magazines. The more subscriptions you sell, the more money you'll make. Plain and simple.
To attract attention print an example cover of each magazine and a brief description of praise. |
Low |
High |
| Silent Auction |
A unique alternative to a live auction, this could take place with a dinner or dance afterwards. Most auction items are donated by businesses who receive recognition during the auction.
For speedier preparation, have multiple volunteers each visit a separate list of businesses, explaining the auction and asking for donations.
Students may also auction off their own time, for say: sports lessons, lawn work, works of art, etc. Just make sure the students set reasonable limits to their volunteer work.
Free refreshments and a bake sale are superb compliments to the silent auction.
This type of fundraiser has much potential-- create a welcoming atmosphere with decorations and even live entertainment from your music department. Or classical tunes from a sound system would be appropriate for all ages. |
High |
Medium |
| Skratchers |
Obtain scratch cards with teams or the school's logo on it. Have a donor scratch off a couple circles at a time, and the dollar amount under the circle is what they donate ($.50-$3.00). A coupon book with a $50 value is given to each participant. Before you know it, the little circles become money in the pocket.
|
Medium |
Low |
| Smencils Fundraising |
Raise money for your school, team, club or community
group with the most reliable fundraiser there is. Not only
are you raising money, but you're doing something good
for the environment too. |
Low to Medium |
Low to Medium |
| Student Work Greeting Cards |
One way to showcase student artistic talent, while raising money at the same time, can involve creating greeting cards featuring student pieces. This kind of fundraising is flexible depending on whether you want a professional organization to create the cards, or make it into a school produced project! |
Low to Medium |
Medium to High |
| The Goodies Factory, Cookie Dough Fundraising |
As a family-owned and operated business, we manufacture our own cookie dough, and ship it to you direct from our warehouse, thereby cutting out the cost of the middleman. Because of this, we are able to offer not only the highest profits available, but also several personalized services that you will not find when ordering through our competitors |
Low to Medium |
Low to Medium |
| Urban Farmer Seeds Fundraising |
Urban Farmer offers an eco-friendly garden fundraiser for schools, churches, and clubs. Garden fundraising is easy, creative, and a unique way to raise money for your organization with vegetables, herbs, flower seeds, and flower bulbs. Plus we now offer both a spring fundraiser and fall fundraiser to choose from! |
Low to Medium |
Medium |
| Walk-A-Thon |
A Walkathon can bring in good money and at the same time, provide a friendly, healthy, and fun event for your community. |
Medium |
Medium to High |
| Writing Successful Grants Knowledge Base |
Writing Successful Grants Knowledge Base foundation assists education professionals with developing their project, writing the proposal, and using the grant award efficiently. |
|
|
| Yankee Candle Fundraising |
Yankee Candle enjoys offering assistance with fund-raising for non profit groups throughout the continental U.S. We can help with any type of fund drive, from youth and school fund-raising programs to community group organizations. We have over 20 years of experience and feel confident in our ability to help you find the right fund-raising program for your needs. |
Medium |
Medium |
