Fundraising

[jkpescador]

Anyone care to discuss fundraising for schools? Is there an expert on board? My friend works at a school and they need to raise money for a trip.

[Miulang]

Re: Fundraising

I hate school fundraisers myself. I'm tired of cookies, linguica, sweet bread, candy, etc. And I'm sure the parents are just as tired of having to help the kids find customers, too.

When I was a Girl Scout, my parents ended up buying most of my allotment. It's a pain to have to go ask friends and family to buy stuff which most of the time they don't want or can't eat. Then if they have kids, they expect you to reciprocate by buying stuff from their kids.

Find out what it would take to be one of the schools that benefits from the Foodland/Sack'NSave "Shop for Better Education" program. Everybody buys food, so all those people would have to do is make sure they tell the cashier the code for your friend's school as they present their Maika'i card. Collecting cans and redeeming them for the deposit is also a way to earn money without having to ambush or shame someone into helping a school.

Do the kids have a specific goal in mind? I know the kids at Molokai High got some money from John McAfee to buy band uniforms. If the goal was something more tangible (computers, AV equipment, etc,. there are foundations that will grant money for specific things like that. And then, there's always the car washes.

Miulang

[lavagal]

Re: Fundraising

Anyone care to discuss fundraising for schools? Is there an expert on board? My friend works at a school and they need to raise money for a trip.

The $64K question, that's for sure! Outback Steakhouse is the best corporate partner for fundraisers. They set up, they serve. We sold our plates at $8 each and it was a sellout with 500 sold. Outback donated it all. I don't know if we had to pay for the foam clamshells or what. We also sold bottled water on the side and had juice available for the kids. We combined it with a show put on by the kids and a learning fair where the kids showed off their accomplishments class by class.

Anything that involves selling on behalf of the kids is crazy if you ask me. We did a portagee sausage-pound cake-sweet bread fundraiser with each kid assigned to sell five of each at $5 a piece. It was a nightmare keeping track of all the ticket numbers and the vendor required that the numbers be all accounted for.

Look into "Charitable Ventures." They collect cans on a school's behalf. Restaurants, who have to recycle, as do condos, may be happy to have your cans collected by CV in your school's name.

good luck!

[lelei]

Re: Fundraising

Anyone care to discuss fundraising for schools? Is there an expert on board? My friend works at a school and they need to raise money for a trip.

Check out http://www.escrip.com . I coordinate this for my son's elementary school and it's pretty painless once the initial setup is done. It involves families registering their grocery cards and/or credit cards via telephone or online. The participating merchants tally monthly purchases, then contribute a percentage of the sales directly to the school through escrip. Safeway is the only Hawaii grocery participating. Our school sent out registration forms to families and I "power registered" everyone who bothered to reply (most didn't). Macy's is also a huge contributor, but we ask families to register their Macy's cards on their own. You can also register via telephone or online. Escrip also has a recycling program (with free shipping) and other options. I can't remember exactly what else they have.

Our school has about 140 participating families and we make between $140-$220 each month. Not bad for free money. No selling. We just ask families to shop as they normally do, but have their cards registered so the benefit is to the school. There's no extra escrip "member's card" to carry and no need to mention anything to the cashier. Everything is handled through escrip's organization. Another plus is that your neighbors, relatives, coworkers, etc. can also painlessly contribute. We still do the traditional fundraising, but can't complain about an extra $2000 from escrip!

Hope this helps

[adrian]

Re: Fundraising

In my HS Junior year, 3 of us had to raise money for a trip to a tech summit, so starting in our Sophmore year, we started to sell popcorn, opened up a snack shop (with principal approval), M&M candies, xmas cookies (the fresh kind, where you needed to pick them up on a Saturday), and even sold some CAT5 cables (its amazing what tech people need).

Just be creative, and the key is spreading your product as far as you can (we only sold in the school campus, but if we extended into the community, then we could have sold much more)

[craigwatanabe]

Re: Fundraising

I used to be the fundraising chair for Hokulani Elementary School for three consecutive years, this is what I know, what sells, whatever:

First what kind of parents are typical at the school?

If there are a lot of blue collar workers then candy out of the box sells. Why because a lot of blue collar workers work either in a shop or in the field as laborers and they don't have the luxury as office workers, to go to the vending machine in the breakroom for a snack until lunch so they pack whatever they can in their lunch boxes or shirts. In the morning before they head out or go to their shops, they usually congregate in their union/breakroom for some morning coffee. This is when you hit them on the fundraiser. Tell em, "Eh come braddahs please kokua, dis for the kids" Blue collar workers are usually soft on kids and will dig deep into their pockets for the keiki. But you gotta catch them before they leave to their job sites.

Middle class white collar professional types prefer the Entertainment book. Believe it or not this fundraising vehicle nets the most return per item sold. That's why it's so popular. It sells well just before Christmas because buyers use them as last minute Christmas gifts for those unexpected holiday guests that come bearing gifts and you don't have anything for them.

Undoubtedly the best selling that I've seen is the Zippy's Chili tickets. Tell them the equivalent of four tickets equal one bucket of chili and Zippy's usually will fill one bucket instead of four quart containers. This selling approach has net me four sold tickets per person.

Huli Huli or Koalamoa chicken are also a good fundraisers however beware for the site setup. Our church set up the cooking area upwind of the preschool's playground area and after the event was over, the grease-ladened smoke left a film of grease all over the climbing structures and we had to degrease the whole playground. What makes chicken fundraisers undesirable to buyers is the need to remember when to pick up their order. Where I used to work, all of us agreed that if we sell chicken/kalua pork/whatever fundraisers, the seller has to pick up and distribute the product to each buyer to make the donation eaiser for the buyer.

The supermarket fundraisers are no brainers but never brought in much per school year so use it just to suppliment your main annual fundraiser.

Fun runs are another great way for a school to make money. It is such a great way that Hokulani Elementary eventually used the Fun Run as it's major fundraiser. How does this work? It's a 30-minute walk/run around a course set at the school or adjacent playground. You have parents volunteer as track observers making sure the kids run in their designated track. Usually the younger kids run in an inside smaller diameter track while the older run on the outside larger diameter track.

Parents are stationed to encourage and provide wet towels or cups of water as the children run. To make the event interesting, use a popular radio DJ as an emcee to push the kids along. If you know someone who can mix music have them mix appropriate music into a 30-minute continuous music track. You tell the kids when the music starts you start running. When it stops complete that last lap to the finish line.

This kind of event is typically free of costs and is an easy way for parents to get involved in their children's school.

When I did the Fun Run I was the emcee (radio guy) and mixed the music to begin and end in 30-minutes. Usually our PTSA invited a local dignitary such as the District Representative or Council Member to fire the starting pistol. The kids loved it and this event also satisfied the DOE's requirement of creative movement thru physical activity. It was a win win situation.

So how does the fundraiser work? You have each donor pledge so much for each lap completed or they can pay a predetermined amount. Hokulani's student body was just about 300 (K-6) so with a predetermined amount being $25 per donor, we got at least $7,500.oo in only 30-minutes. On average each student in this small school got at least four donors so our one day donation to the school was typically $30,000 for a 30-minute event that can be held in the course of one school morning.

This kind of fundraiser sure beat the hell out of car washes, ticket selling, and other solitications. The way we got the kids to get larger donations was to intice them with a 1st/2nd/3rd prizes. The 1st prize typically being a Game Boy or a Playstation whatever. But everyone attending the fun runs were winners as we would either buy or solicit donations for ice cream or pizza for a post run treat for the kids.

Lots of people support interactive fundraisers such as Fun Runs as it promotes good health (except for the ice cream or pizza) by running or walking for 30-minutes, get's the parents involved in a fun non-invasive way, attracts local dignitaries (helps them at the voting polls), and is relatively inexpensive.

For the kids it's fun, for the parents they don't have to sell tickets and they fulfill their obligation to support their kids in school, for the school it makes money, for the community it's a visual demonstration of how their community school is actively supporting the kids thru education and exercise.

And for the fundraising committee, it's not a big hassle coordinating an event like this.

You make big bucks with little expense. You don't exhaust your pool of core parent volunteers because of the painless tasking, and the event from set up to clean up runs about the length of the morning with the actual event running only 30-minutes.

This fundraiser has proved to be Hokulani's best so far and is a proven winner with huge payouts.

[jkpescador]

Re: Fundraising

Thanks for all the insight/ideas!

[MadAzza]

Re: Fundraising

Anyone care to discuss fundraising for schools? Is there an expert on board? My friend works at a school and they need to raise money for a trip.

If they can't afford basic supplies, if the parents have to supply toilet paper and Kleenex, if the kids have to sell cookies just to be able to buy notebook paper ... why on Earth would anyone think they can afford a trip? What trip is necessary for a child to take with a class?

I think it's ridiculous, and I am feeling cranky so I'll stop posting now until I get out of this funk.

[jkpescador]

Re: Fundraising

If they can't afford basic supplies, if the parents have to supply toilet paper and Kleenex, if the kids have to sell cookies just to be able to buy notebook paper ... why on Earth would anyone think they can afford a trip? What trip is necessary for a child to take with a class?

I think it's ridiculous, and I am feeling cranky so I'll stop posting now until I get out of this funk.

I never said anything about basic supplies. I don't know what you are talking about.

My friend teaches a media class. They've won awards for their productions. He wants to take them on a trip to the mainland to further their education. Many schools have trips and they use fundraising as a way to pay for the trips.
http://starbulletin.com/2004/05/08/features/story1.html
http://www.hmsa.com/tva/winners.asp
http://islandmovie.k12.hi.us/2004/

Chiefess Kamakahelei Middle School

[MadAzza]

Re: Fundraising

I never said anything about basic supplies. I don't know what you are talking about.

My friend teaches a media class. They've won awards for their productions. He wants to take them on a trip to the mainland to further their education.

That sounds really cool and all that. It'd be great if the school system could afford it. I just think, if they can't cover the basics with my tax money, then they can't afford extra trips! It's insane to even consider! The students can further their education right here. They don't have to go to the mainland. I don't think it's necessary and it bugs me that they are planning these extravagances while expecting their students' parents' coworkers to pay for it all. I'm sick of it.

I'm not really a huge bitch. I'm just tired of throwing gazillions of my tax money into the school system (and I don't even have kids), and they always want MORE MORE MORE. JMO, YMMV, etc.

(Add smileys as needed. I refuse.)

[craigwatanabe]

Re: Fundraising

That's why fundraising is so important because childless taxpayers are paying for services they won't benefit from so if a school wants to send their students on a trip, those monies don't come from YOUR pocket, it comes from the pockets of the parents who will benefit from it.

And it's not that the school cannot afford the trips, it's the DOE that cannot afford basic school supplies for it's schools.

This kind of fundraising has been going on for decades. When I was in the 6th grade back in 1972, we went door to door selling Fold-a-Notes to generate the funds for our Camp Erdman trip. None of that came from taxpayer money as most fundraisers continue today.

It's not the school that is fundraising, it's the school's PTSA which is a separate entity with it's own 501c3 charitable vehicle. So don't worry, none of these trip monies come out of tax dollars. And it won't come out of your pocket unless you decide to be charitable.

And finally, when a child comes up to you and asks you if you'd like to support their cause, please don't berate the child. I've seen kids get verbally attacked by rude people telling them to leave them alone and stop harassing them. It's hard enough to fundraise by point of sale.

If you don't like the fundraiser, all public school PTSA meetings are open to the public and you can voice your concerns at those meetings where you will be heard.

[alohabear]

Re: Fundraising

What kills me about fundraising is that a "RICH" school like Kamehameha has their sports teams holding car washes and food sales to go on a trip....Auwe!

[jkpescador]

Re: Fundraising

What kills me about fundraising is that a "RICH" school like Kamehameha has their sports teams holding car washes and food sales to go on a trip....Auwe!

What about the Punahou Carnival?
Now that's fundraising when you can generate that kind of money.

[pzarquon]

Re: Fundraising

What kills me about fundraising is that a "RICH" school like Kamehameha has their sports teams holding car washes and food sales to go on a trip....Auwe!

Maybe because a good number of the students of Kamehameha come from low income families and attend on scholarships?

More importantly, maybe because trips are unique and special opportunities, and because planning and raising money for such trips are an important part of the entire experience?

What kind of education would it be if everything was given to you?

[MadAzza]

Re: Fundraising

And finally, when a child comes up to you and asks you if you'd like to support their cause, please don't berate the child. I've seen kids get verbally attacked by rude people telling them to leave them alone and stop harassing them. It's hard enough to fundraise by point of sale.

Oh, heavens! Of course I wouldn't berate a child. I *buy* all of that fundraising stuff because I'm a big old softie and can't say no to anyone. Plus, I likes the cooookies!

However ... I somehow managed to get a decent education without ever leaving my state, and *in my opinion* our educators should focus on educating right here in Hawaii.