Parents Fundraising?

[JessMom]

So parents, what are your favorite and most successful fundraisers?

We've done . .

Leo rummage sale
Costume rummage sale
Comedy club night w/ Chinese auction
WonderCloths (cleaning cloths - we sell them for $5 / $3 profit)
Bake sale

We plan to do . . .

Cookie dough sale
50/50 Sheets
We are looking into a rollerskating session.

Not a fan of selling candy bars - so much effort - but we're looking into a few places that have a 1 case minimum for the parents that REALLY want to do it.

What have you done? How's it go? Was it worth the effort / work?

THANKS ! ! !

 

[taximom]

We have an annual spaghetti dinner and auction including both silent and live items. We usually raise around 3500 -4000 for one evening of work. Each competitive parent is asked to bring sauce, pasta, salad or a dessert for the food and an auction item of $50.00 value. We invite family and friends and enjoy the evening. We usually have approx 30 families in our competitive program.

Good luck!

 

[Azgymmiemom]

wow...kinda surprised that you don't like the candy bar sales...maybe it was the type of candy? we are currently in our second order of the world's finest candy bars...we ordered a bunch of cases, everyone took some, and they all sold out in a three day weekend. made $800 for our team. We got about triple the order in to do it again, and I think they are almost all gone, too. Very easy...every one likes chocolate and they are only a buck-plus the profit margin was great. I took my dd into her dad's work(all decked out in her competition gear), went into the managers' hang out, and she sold about 40 of them in 5 minutes. In fact, we had a salesman chase us down on the way out to the car and he said, "did I miss the candy bars...?"

we also took a case the last two sundays to church with us, and she sold out both times...they are asking for more!

we also did the donated rummage sale and we made about $1200.

we are starting a popcorn sale...not sure yet how that will go...

and we are going to try the christmas gift wrapping thing...I heard about that one on here last year, I think

So far, we've raised enough money to practically pay off every kid on the team's next season's meet and coaches fees. Pretty good, If you ask me!

 

[Gymdad2]

We have found that holding one or two (bid on state if you can meet the requirements) to be by far the biggest and easiest fund raisers. It may take a couple of seasons to get your meet well-established, but once you do, its easy, its fun and it brings in lots of cash!

 

[gymgramma]

pizza cards, candles, Christmas wreaths, bags of apples from a local farm

 

[snowbound]

We did a comedy night last year, but the comedians that were supposed to be pg-13 were actually very raunchy, and a lot of people were upset. Others loved it. This year we are selling raffle tickets. Each one is $10 and the winner gets $2500. I'll let you know how it goes!

Prior to last year we had something we called "night at the races" where you "bought" a "horse" for $10 and they assigned numbers to them, then they played a race video and the number of the horse that won got $50 they did dinner and chinese auction at the even too. It was extremely successful, but they had done it for years and people were getting tired of it.

Hope this helps!
Snowbound

 

[bookworm]

I don't know about anyone else but I HATE fundraisers of any type...just tell me how much I owe and I'll pay it....although now that I'm thinking of this topic, I have always enjoyed the Girl Scout cookies but I consider that more under the heading of "grocery shopping" !!

 

[jdf]

Put me down in the overwhelmed by fundraisers column. Between school, girls scouts and the gym, if I partipated in all of the fundraisers so far,( and I did do a few), I would have supemarket scrip, wrapping paper, yankee candles, nuts, magazines,fall flowers, poinsettias, 2 sets of raffle tickets and a book of discount shopping coupons. Still to come are the spring flower sales, girl scout cookies, pizza dough, and who knows what else. Since only a fraction of the profits go to the school/team/club, I would rather pay my own way. Except for meets- I love having a meet close to home, and although I do think it is alot of work, it is a great fundraiser.

 

[Panda-girl's Mom]

I think hosting a meet is the biggest fundraiser but takes the most work. Our gym is small but we usually host one state meet per year. We also have an adbook that we sell at meets. I found candybars easy to sell at work for a dollar. Our team also has a picture day that all profits from the pictures goes towards the team so all those recreation kids that get pictures profits the team we also sell leotards which profits go towards the team. I think every little bit of fundraising helps with the gym/meet costs it takes alittle bit of work but I think it is worth it.

 

[snowbound]

We only do one fundraiser a year, plus our home meet. Something that we sold at meets one year that made tons of profit was notebooks. a mom printed gymnastics graphics on her computer, (one large per page) then laminated them and put them on spiral notebooks. They sold out during the first session.

snowbound

 

[lilgymmie7]

At younger DD's gym, they don't do any fundraising. Their annual 'huge' meet pays for all fees, meets, leos etc. At this gym, they like to change up all leos and warm ups every two years, so the not having to pay for meet fees and coaches fees is very helpful! This year the profit gained was big so they paid for all team leos and warm ups as well! Thus far we have two years banked because we have worked the home meet twice and both years DD was too young to compete. Hosting a large meet I would have to say is the most profitable. But everyone has to be on board to help. Our Booster Club parents are phenomenal and extremely bussiness savy!

 

[Gymdad2]

I agree with JDF. There are too many groups competing for fundraising dollars, and how many times can you ask your neighbors, friends and family (plus yourself) to contribute to another fundriasier? Putting on a meet is the way to go because you are bringing in outside money. Not only are we getting meet entry and admission fees, but we have had lots of success getting corporate money for our meets by selling program ads, banners and sponsorships. It adds up to an awful lot of cookie dough and candy bars.

 

[bookworm]

My kids' elementary school (small private) used to do a fundraiser a month until the finance committee figured out exactly how much they were raising with the various fundraisers and assigned each family that amount (has been $150 for the past 10 years) and you can pay it in one check...end of fundraising, yeah!!!

 

[cher062]

The best fundraiser I've done is a pancake breakfast. Applebee's in our area will do them at the restaraunt on Sunday mornings. They supply everything (all food supplies, kitchen staff, dishes etc, tickets to sell, posters to hang, just everything) We have to sell the tickets, hang the posters and do the advertising to get people to come. We also have to supply the bus staff to clean tables off (kids can do that for 10 and up), the person to seat the people (again a kid job for about 10 and up), reset the table (kid job) and serve the plates of all you can eat pancakes (adult job per the restaraunt), dishwasher (adult job per the restaraunt), someone at the front door to sell walk ins.

the tickets are $5 each and the restaraunt gets either $2 or $3 i forget exactly for every ticket served that day. customers must have their tickets to turn in at the door. Any ticket sold that the people don't come to the event we get the whole $5. The "cut" Applebee's gets really just pays for their costs. It's really a great one to do.

Oh I forgot the restaraunt is just a few blocks from 2 local churches and both churches are community friendly and will hand out flyers for the event at mass. So they go to mass then off to breakfast and help us out at the same time.