Need Fund-raising ideas for Son's SpEd School!

[MEM]

My son attends a special ed school north of Boston and the PTO is looking for unique fund-raising ideas. Stress on "unique".

They are familiar with the Innisbrook gift wraps, the cookie dough and similar fund-raisers but find that communities are over-whelmed by students all selling basically the same thing.

Any novel ideas to share that worked at your children's schools?
Thank you!

 

[barrysprot36]

HI, I don't know if this will work in the US but here in UK our son goes to a Special School and we use the following:

One of our great fund raising events is a "Bric-a-Brac" sale. All parents and staff were asked to send in any unwanted, good condition items except not clothes. We have one of these events every term and advertise it in local paper and around local community.

On average we make about £700 ($1300 on today's rate) for a few hours work of setting the stalls out and manning them for two hours.

Another good fund raiser is a "Race Night", these can make double the above amount and are a good social event. Extra income can be raised on the night through raffle and food to eat (IN the UK this is usualyy 'Pie and Peas'!)

Hope this helps you.

Caron

 

[SueOKW]

Our kids make and sell stuff.....

When you say cookie dough, do you even mean the large canning jars filled up with sugar, flour, salt, baking powder... etc? You know - cookie mix without the wet ingredients? They learn to measure etc - and they put them all together in baskets etc and sell them.

Another really cool idea was T-shirts. My memory isn't 100% but if you are interested I will find out - - somehow they had tshirts that they decorated - perhaps with hand prints? The part I do remember is that they ran my son's wheelchair through some paint and he rode over all the shirts so they had tire tracks on them too.. . i heard those went like wild in the Jr. High. I think they were shirts with the Jr. High name on them already.

 

[jennydep]

I haven't actually done this, but Krispy Kreme has fund raising ideas. http://www.krispykreme.com/fund.html This is something I would be likely to buy!! YUM!!

 

[MEM]

Our kids make and sell stuff.....

When you say cookie dough, do you even mean the large canning jars filled up with sugar, flour, salt, baking powder... etc? You know - cookie mix without the wet ingredients? They learn to measure etc - and they put them all together in baskets etc and sell them.

Another really cool idea was T-shirts. My memory isn't 100% but if you are interested I will find out - - somehow they had tshirts that they decorated - perhaps with hand prints? The part I do remember is that they ran my son's wheelchair through some paint and he rode over all the shirts so they had tire tracks on them too.. . i heard those went like wild in the Jr. High. I think they were shirts with the Jr. High name on them already.

The cookie dough is actually prepackaged by a bakery in plastic tubs and sold frozen -- you can make as many cookies as you like. In our community, people feel overwhelmed by cookies and candy so we were looking at different ideas. I do like your t-shirt idea. Thanks!

 

[MEM]

HI, I don't know if this will work in the US but here in UK our son goes to a Special School and we use the following:

One of our great fund raising events is a "Bric-a-Brac" sale. All parents and staff were asked to send in any unwanted, good condition items except not clothes. We have one of these events every term and advertise it in local paper and around local community.

On average we make about £700 ($1300 on today's rate) for a few hours work of setting the stalls out and manning them for two hours.

Another good fund raiser is a "Race Night", these can make double the above amount and are a good social event. Extra income can be raised on the night through raffle and food to eat (IN the UK this is usualyy 'Pie and Peas'!)

Hope this helps you.

Caron

Great ideas! I'm not sure I know what a "Race Night" is?

 

[barrysprot36]

Great ideas! I'm not sure I know what a "Race Night" is?

A "Race Night" in the UK is an evening where people bet on really old horse races (usually American!) shown on a large video screen. I'll try & explain.

Usually there are 8 races; 7 being normal races where the people bet on either horse, jockey and owner with pre-arranged bets ($3,$2 &$1 respectively) The race is then shown and the takings for those races go to the school. The prizes for winners are donations from local buisness & friends of the school e.g. lg bottle spirits for winner, sml spirits for owner and wine for jockey.

The last race is like an auction where only the horses are auctioned off. This can be quite competetive between people (all to the good of the school).The toatl takins for this race is then divided between winner and school.

Hope this helps, there are companies here in the UK that run these "Race NIghts" for organisations.

Caron

 

[Earstou]

I've been involved with auctions for three different organizations, and they always bring in a lot of money. Two groups always do silent auctions, and one group had a professional auctioneer who donated their services. Members donate items (new or slighty used), or services ( a cerificate for a dozen homemade tamales, pie of your choice, ect.). Some members make craft items, or artists donate some artwork. We also would go out into the community to solicit donations. Things I've seen have been skating parties, haircuts, meals, animal grooming, and auto detailing. There is even a rock quarry near our school that always donates some crushed rock!
The silent auctions were done along with something else, like during the school carnival or with a meal, so more people attend. Just ask if you need more info!
Good luck!!!!

 

[btass]

www.annies.com

We call it the Bunny Macaroni and Cheese at our house. I looked at the website the other day and it says they do fundraising. I thought that was pretty original and how many kids do you know that eat Mac & Cheese!?!

 

[MEM]

I am going to look into this, thank you. Their website says that they donate product(s) for educational and environmental purposes and the recipients can sell the product to raise money. I can't think of a better recipient than a special ed school running on a shoe-string budget.

 

[cepmom]

Our school has a fund raiser through Papa Gino's. One day a month is Pizza night for our school. The school sends home flyers with the date on it and for every order placed with the flyer, Papa Gino's will donate a portion to the school - I think it is 20%. I think other businesses do this also. (Border's is one I think)

My oldest DD's dance team also sold flower bulbs, although it's best to do this in early fall so they can be planted in the fall for spring blooming. I had never seen that one before.

 

[Schmeck]

Having done PTA for over 5 years, I can tell you that the wrapping paper fund raiser is the biggest money maker, but also not very fun. Yankee Candles has a fund raising program that makes a lot of money too.

School Fairs are still popular here - for Christmas, Halloween, Valentine's Day, etc.

The favorite fund raiser for the kids was the 'cake walk'. Parents donate baked goods, kids buy tickets for $.25 a piece, and as the music plays, 20 kids walk in a circle on mats numbered 1-20. When the music stops, a designated person draws a number out of the hat, and that person wins a cake, or plate of cookies, etc. I know it only raises $5 per item, but the cake walk got so many donations, and so many kids wanting to do it that it ran the entire school fair.

Pizza also sold well by the slice, with cans of soda, but the craft tables were very messy, and didn't raise any money. If anything, they lost quite a bit.

The raffle table (with lots of great donations) was pretty busy too. Tickets were also $.25, and people stuffed the jars with tickets.

Hope some of this helps!

 

[SnowyPrincesses:)]

Ok, here it goes...
The flower bulbs is a great one The company we use is Vesey's. They sell seed packages too. You keep 50% of the sales. They also send bonus bulbs for orders over a certain amount that you can resell or plant at your organization. The orders for spring bulbs need to be in by May. I am in Canada but I'm sure Vesey's is from the states, if not you will find similar companies.
Friendship Soup-----These sell fairly well and are very attractive.
We've used wine bottles(very pretty and elegant looking) and Mason jars( cut fabric to cover top, gingham is nice. tie with raffia)
anyway you buy big bags of dried beans,peas ect. You layer them in the bottles.(the colours look really nice.) Print up your own labels and recipies
I'll look up a sample if you want more info. Sold for 6-8$ each depending on style.
Little one just woke up so I'll give you some other Ideas that have worked well for us in the past when I can get back on. Best wishes everyone.

 

[SnowyPrincesses:)]

An indoor yard sale with books and gift or craft type options. Then you can have your bake table, coffee and snacks for sale and all that jazz. 50/50 draws as well as raffle tickets for donated baskets or silent auctions.
We always have a table with loonie jars-I guess buck jars for you guys... These are different sized jars stuffed with a prize wrapped in tissue paper and numbered. Our prizes included silk scarves and socks, keychains and coin purses. The customer pays $1.00 and gets to pick a number, they then get that jar and it's contents. We had some creative yard sale shoppers donate nice items they had paid very little for. This was VERY popular and apparently addictive to some.

 

[kdtwiss]

what school does your ds go to? Hope it is not the one my ds goes to - I would hate to think I missed that they were looking for fundraising ideas!

 

[misslauri]

hmm... let's see, we have done the "Rubber Duck Regatta" where people pay $10 for a numbered rubber duck, which are then released into a lake, and the duck that crosses the finish line first wins (1/2 or 1/3 of the total pot). Nice because you can reuse the ducks every year. We mix this with a BYOB (bring your own basket) picnic and run a silent auction and other little fair type booths (face painting, small games, bake sale, yadda yadda). At Christmas (actually, we started around September) we asked families to donate a christmas cookie recipe and printed a spiral bound cookbook (all done at Kinkos) that we sold through the school, and some parents brought them to church, work, etc. We also had kids design christmas cards in Art class and a local printer gave us a very good deal so we had the top ten designs made into cards and sold those through the PTA and school website (also got some press for that one, so a good number of community sales as well). Monte Carlo night was always a big draw, I've never been to another one, but ours went like this. Each family bought a set amount of "play money" (1 real dollar for 5 dollars play) and then used that to buy into the games. (on average, $20 per person to $100 per person). At the end of the night, all the play money was converted to raffle tickets instead of real cash, and local businesses donated goods and services to raffle. We had everything from dinners and haircuts to vacations, TVs and even a car! We set up boxes for the individual raffles and held them at the end of the night. Also, since we weren't using real money, the kids could participate and we had games set up for them, like Turtle races (bet on the fastest turtle, loads of fun) and one of those machines that blows play money around while the kids grab it (best for the older kids). And other fun games with no play money involved (go fish tournament, stuff like that.) A local restaraunt donated catering services so we had a couple of classrooms set up like a cafe.

Anyway, those are some of the things we did. Oh, wait, we also put in a vending machine in the teacher's lounge that sold bottled water with a custom label that we acquired from GFS specifically for fundraising. We also sold the water at all of the events the school had.

 

[TinkTatoo]

Both my children go to a special ed school here in Ireland and we have to raise quite a bit of money through fund raising. One of the things we do is a coffee morning.

It is held in the function room of a local hotel (who provide the room at a very cheap rate)

We don't charge for entry but have a door prize - people make a donation and get a raffle ticket for a lovely hamper of goodies.

We have a home baking stall which has all sorts of lovely cakes, breads and other home baking items.

We also have a Bric-A-Brac stall (as mentioned by barrysprot36 on page 1 of this thread (Hi Caron ) A book stall, a plant stall (some of our parents are avid gardeners) and a craft stall.

As well as this we have a raffle for about 6 hampers and other prizes donated by local businesses. We put loads of posters up around the town about a week before and announce it in the local paper / radio. we also send out invitations to local businesses who sometimes send a check to support the event.

We serve tea / coffee and biscuits and it usually lasts a couple of hours. We raise about €3,000 which is nearly $4,000 and this goes towards the cost of our much needed music therapist.

 

[babybelle]

My son attends a special ed school north of Boston and the PTO is looking for unique fund-raising ideas. Stress on "unique".

They are familiar with the Innisbrook gift wraps, the cookie dough and similar fund-raisers but find that communities are over-whelmed by students all selling basically the same thing.

Any novel ideas to share that worked at your children's schools?
Thank you!

At my daughter's special ed school we have theme nights. We recently had a Scottish Night (near Burns Night) and are having aa American night in June (schools are on holiday in July).

What about soemthing along those lines and as it is Boston perhaps a St Patrick's Night may go down well? I know its not 'unique' but these do prove very popular!

 

[wenbel]

We have a monthly cake raffle at our school. Once a month a class brings in cakes to raffle to the school. The students are able to purchase 8 tickets 25 cents each. This goes very well and we can earn around $100 a month (very small school). We also have had bake sales. Students can by two treats everything is priced 25 cents each.