Non-Firearm Related, brainstorming session

[BigBear]

So, I teach in a rural small town. School is Title 1 (low socio-economics). I already have four fundraisers set up for next year, but I'll need more ideas. We usually only clear about $3K for the all four fundraisers.

Why? This is year 6 for me at this school. The whole program is growing and people are starting to take it seriously. You know the past three years I've done the Appleseed Project as a whole school and that's garned quite a bit of interest in what we are doing. So now, since I'm a music teacher, I'm going to be a little more precision focused on my classroom. Therefore, I want to try to take the kids to Disney in California. They have a studio session there where we get to sit next to professional musicians and record some music, learning how the studio works along the way. It is a trip I was blessed to go on in high school 20+ years ago that I still remember vividly and I learned A LOT. Of course, my parents were .mil and I went to a 6A high school where everything was paid for by an awesome organization/sponsorship.

Total trip would be about $44K. (34ish kids at $1200 a piece)

Ideas?! The basic car washes, bake sale, etc have never been good for us. We are a small rural school out in the sticks. No big business around, not a lot of traffic. Closest "city" around is Pueblo at a 30 min drive.

Thanks,
Bear

[newracer]

The booster club for my sons football team hosted a casino night and silent auction as a fund raiser. It raised almost $30,000 and it was the most fun I have ever had at a fund raising event. It did take a lot to organize though.

[TFOGGER]

Carnivals are usually pretty good for the kids, maybe do an adult date night dance thing to get the parents in. Barbecues are usually good fundraisers as well.

[StagLefty]

Small community-how about a charity pot luck supper ?

[Erni]

Hit up some banks for sponsorship?

[Buff]

Go Fund Me?

[izzy]

My GF donates to this every month, worth a look.

https://www.donorschoose.org/

[BigBear]

what percentage of the money that needs to be raised will actually come from the students?

We (I) am hoping that the kids could raise around 8-900 themselves through mowing lawns, whatever. I just want to have a backup in case they don't reach the $1200. They DO have a whole friggin' year to plan as the trip is not till MAY. They live at home, no bills, etc... but, it is a poor community so my expectations may be too high.

The booster club for my sons football team hosted a casino night and silent auction as a fund raiser. It raised almost $30,000 and it was the most fun I have ever had at a fund raising event. It did take a lot to organize though.

Casino night... intersting!! More details!??!?!?!

Carnivals are usually pretty good for the kids, maybe do an adult date night dance thing to get the parents in. Barbecues are usually good fundraisers as well.

We do a school carnival for homecoming, so I doubt that would fly, but good suggestion.

Small community-how about a charity pot luck supper ?

Pot luck/spaghetti dinner concert is already one of the fundraisers.

Donations to sell on Ebay? If you can't get parents to help sell on Ebay, try an Ebay valet or other service.

http://cosprings.craigslist.org/cps/5596095562.html

Interesting, I'll research.

Hit up some banks for sponsorship?

Yeah, how do I go about doing this. Everytime I ask corps for help with Appleseed, I get told to pound sand.

Go Fund Me?

I've been looking into this, not sure how to keep it all legal and stuff since it's for school.... more research needed on my end.

My GF donates to this every month, worth a look.

https://www.donorschoose.org/

Yes, I've looked at that one, but it's very controlled. Can only ask for certain amounts and things through a catalouge. I'd have to figure out how to be specific, like say 10 disney tickets or something... again, I just need to do more reseach, THANk YOU!!!

[Tim K]

I've got more experience fundraising for non-profits than I'd like. We've been involved with an NP for 10 years now, and the organization (it's quite small) has raised on average about $75,000 a year.

Your goal is huge. Just to be perfectly honest, it's a lot of money to try to get out of what I assume is a small target audience. The problem with multiple small fundraisers is that you're typically asking from the same people over and over again. Giving fatigue is a big problem.

In my experience, if you want people to give big dollars (hundreds, not singles) you have to inspire them for your cause. How you do that is something only you can answer, but you could consider playing some sort of concert and inviting everyone you know. Make it free, and make it clear it's a fundraiser. During or after the music, you give your story, just like you did here. Get people excited about the opportunity to build into the lives of their kids and other's kids. Large attendance is key. Get the kids involved in inviting people. Get their parents involved. You need to expand your circle of acquaintances as large as you can. Set an attendance goal of a MINIMUM of 200.

Make it a big deal. Figure out how you're going to sign people up, maybe you advertise a limited number of spaces and take reservations. Maybe the venue is small so seats are limited. Send our invitations by mail to the people on your list and ask them to RSVP. Follow up.

Make the event something people would really enjoy. Get some other acts if you can and put on a family friendly concert with a spirit of excellence.

Finally, I'd give it a theme. Music from the movies or something. Call it the first annual, setting yourself up to do it every year. Maybe next years theme is a Prince tribute. You get the idea. You'll want to take more than one group, right? Provide a superb product and you'll get return customers (or givers, in your case).

Bake sales and car washes are a pain in the ass, a ton of work, and low yield. Our experience is that it's more effective to do one big bash and go for the big bucks.

[newracer]

Here are the basics of the casinos night:

There was a $50 entry fee that got you $100 in casino chips, food, and non-alcoholic drinks. Alcoholic drinks were available at additional cost. Additional chips could be purchased, $50 per $100 in casino chips. They hired a company to run several blackjack and poker tables, two craps tables, and a roulette table. The top three chip holders at the end of the night won cash. I think it was $500, $250, and $50, might have been more. I am guessing there were 150-175 people there.

For the auction they simple got people to donate items to be auctioned off. The big item was a football singed by the entire Denver Broncos team from last year, it went for $5000.