Hit me with your best fundraising ideas

What an amazing trip!!

Have you checked with any food places near you... most likely would be chains. A lot of them do fundraising nights. On a normally slow night or time, they will offer the portion of the proceeds to benefit a specific group. My son works at Menchie's frozen yogurt and they host them... here's the link to how it works. I know other chains do it too, like Chipotle. The only effort would be to set it up and then spread the word. No selling.

I have seen this done successfully (as long as you can get permission, liability wise) at this time of year as shopping days. They had a catchy title, but I've forgotten it. But it was a babysitting day so parents could do holiday shopping on the weekends without the kids. Usually one of the activities was simple crafts that the kids could then wrap up and give as a gift.

 

my youngest came up with a fundraising idea a couple of weeks ago. A charity worker came to the church and she took the leaflet to the school head and asked for permission to do a fund raiser. Her idea is to have a drawing competition with an entry fee and she is going to write to some professional artists to get some signed artwork to have as prizes.

 

One of the gals I used to work with had a daughter in cheer; I remember her collecting recycling bottles and glass, not really a fund raiser, but everyday everyone throws away recyclables, so why not let someone collect to take down?

What about having a rummage sale? Car wash? Wrap Christmas presents? I'm not good with fund raising ideas

The major turnoff in fund raisers done by companies is very little of the proceeds actually goes to the cause...

 

They have a charity present wrap in our town centre every December. The shopping centre donates the gift wrap and gives them table space. Each day a different charity has the desk to raise funds. Volunteers for each charity wrap presents that people have just bought for a small fee.

 

Oh man...that's kind of hard to compete with :/

 

One of the things I've seen is a spaghetti dinner. Spaghetti is really cheap, and feeds a lot! In Utah the scouts use the Elks lodge, in Massachusetts they used a church house. They invited everyone from the community, and then the kids and leaders/parents did the work. Spaghetti, garlic bread, and salad.
The families donated the food, bit you might be able to come up with store donations?
And they charged per adult, per kid, or per family (2 a, 4 c).
They had a dessert table afterwards that you could buy a cake, pan of brownies, etc (like the school bake sales).

 

They always pulled in a nice profit with the recyclables! And like you said...it's 100% all their money!

 

Ohhhhh yes!! I forgot about spaghetti dinners! After the Haiti earthquake a coworker asked if I'd like to help out with is churches spaghetti dinner and make up some thank you cards they could fill out and give to the people who donated auction items! It was a lot of fun!

 

What fun!!! DD and I are signed up for a 2020 Girl Scout trip to New Zealand, Australia, and Hawaii. There is a special travel troop that plans 2 to 3 trips a year. Here are some of their ideas:
- concessions at hockey games, football games, etc. Local colleges hire groups to run concessions. Our local arenas for the hockey games, concerts, etc. only let adults participate and require training (serving alcohol) but they pay $15 hour or so.
- wrapping station. Our Girl Scout troop has done this at a mall for 4 years. It requires a lot of people to work if it runs every hour the mall is open. However, we made $12 a hour last year doing this.
- host vendor fair or craft fair. Vendors pay a fee to participate. You arrange space, advertising, etc. and keep the fee.
- host a Badge in a Day for some of the younger levels. Participants pay $10 or something and earn a GS badge. Older girls and parents provide activities, etc. required to earn one or more badges
- Flock my yard, Egg my yard - people pay to have the girl's deliver pink flamingos (or Easter eggs or ??) in the dead of night to either their own yard or an unsuspecting friend. Helps to include a sign for free advertising.
- electronics recycling
- host a Dad/Daughter dance for the younger scouts to pay to attend

 

- Luminaries - again people paying to have a batch of luminaries placed and lite in their yard
- Home Party - get one or more of the home business people (Tupperware, Thirty One, etc.) to create a fundraising party. This takes lots of word-of-mouth advertising, but the girls earn the profits.
- Pet Picture day - great for pics with Santa (our vet does this) or Easter bunny, etc.

 

Maybe a local business would let them have a gift wrapping table during the holidays. I've seen places do that before and then you would only be out the wrapping paper and tape to get it going.

I am trying to think what they could do during the holidays since it is such a busy time and people always need help then.
- hosting a cookie exchange. $5 to participate or something
- addressing Christmas Cards for people
- Vendor/ Small Business Market where people who have the home based businesses pay a small fee to have a table

 

Maybe host a bingo or something like that? It's very common in my country, but I'm not sure if it's a universal thing. Every senior centre or most other get togethers love those nights. You can ask stores for some prizes and then charge players some money for the bingo cards they play with.

Perhaps a charity run/swim/whatever. My students had a charity project this week and this is one of the things they did. Let people sponsor then for the amounts of laps they could swim. Great money maker for them!

Also fun: a dog walking service

 

I didn't have time to read everyone else's ideas, but I did want to pop in one of my own... our church/school just did a "walk-a-thon" a few weeks ago which was a huge success! They made over $12,000 and it appealed to me and my family members because they didn't have to buy any junk food that is overpriced and could just give money directly and do as much as they wanted to. The best part was that it was all profit. The school broke down the school day into about 45min sections and took turns walking laps around the school.

Leaf raking could be a good one too, but that takes a lot more effort, but is also good profit.

 

quiz night with raffles, silent auction etc. I went to one last week that had $10 admission, byo food and drinks etc and raised $4000.

 

I know Sarita had some amazing ideas when she was working for the TFL museum, will ask her and get back.
I know I got all excited when I started reading as I thought you would be bringing her over...then saw is two years time LOL
Lets hope you can come back way before that!!!!!!!

 

I love the idea of the badge nights. The girls (with the help of their leaders) would plan some events for the younger girls. Charge a fee and sell snacks. Money going towards the trip.

Do any of the members have a church that might help with the logistics of a babysitting night or some sort of community event. That might help with the insurance angle.

What about a babysitting club? The girls could pair up to babysit and the money earned would go towards the trip.

Krispy Creme, Panaras, Panda Express, etc. all have fundraising programs. Not to mention, hitting up a local pizza place

 

I love the ideas for Bingo, and the Walk-a-thon! I hope you find something awesome to do, and come back to share!