Ways to Raise Funds without Candy

Fundraising doesn’t have to involve the selling of food items of limited nutritive value. Below are some proven ideas for raising funds adapted from Fundraising.com. Ideas with a * have the added benefit of proving additional opportunities for physical activity for the students. Other ideas promote community service.

  1. *3-on-3 basketball tournament – Charge a team of 3-4 players $40 for entrance and ask local businesses for prize donations. If you provide tee shirts for the event, you could raise the entrance fee.
  2. *Car wash, for a donation – You could also sell other items at the car wash (have a small food stand available with coffee, juice, bagels, fruit, etc). One school raised $1,300 in about five hours. Or, you could also hold a free car wash and ask for pledges in advance per car washed (for example, $.10 per car).
  3. *Spring yard work to local community members – One soccer team offered to rake yards and spread compost at a bargain rate. They had 10 players working 3.5 days each and each boy made $240.00. Customers were asked to give a donation for the work and everyone exceeded expectations.
  4. *Walk-a-thon – Each child could get sponsorship for each lap walked (up to 8 laps, $1 per lap). One group raised $1,200 with little effort.
  5. *Basketball toss – A basketball team plays this between the 2nd and 3rd period of the basketball game. Bean bags are individually number and are sold for $1.00. Everyone throws them on the court and the one closet to the center gets half of the money sold. In one season, they raised $24,000. You could adapt this to other sports as well.
  6. Talent show, recital, or lip-sync contest for students – You could ask local businesses to donate items for a raffle. Be sure to include those business’ names in a program as an advertisement and/or thank you.
  7. Administrative fun – Have money jars available for the students to place money into. The school secretary would count the amount in the jars on a daily basis and post the total. At set increments, (for example, $100, $200, $500) the principal and/or vice principal would have to do stunts such as dress as a cheerleader, do cheers, act out a scene from a play, etc. One school earned over $3,300 in one year.
  8. Dinner fund-raiser with a live or silent auction – One private school did this and made over $60,000 within five months to help pay for newly installed lockers.
  9. School event planners – These were sold for $7 each at school registration and included all event dates, such as football games, holidays, national tests, dances, and band events. Fifty percent of the sales were profit.
  10. Bricks or tiles engraved donor names – Bricks or tiles can be ‘sold’ for $50 each or more. One school raised $520,000 with this idea.
  11. G.S.T auction (goods, services, and talents) – Solicit local businesses (or parents or groups of school children) to donate anything they can offer. One school had a number of items available for auction including a week at a time share (airfare not included), a week at a cottage, hair care services, a lawn tractor, furniture, food and restaurant gift certificates. This school raised $20000.
  12. Raffle of gift baskets assembled by students – Choose a theme such as gardening, sports, or arts and crafts. Most items of the baskets were donated. Costs were limited but consisted mainly of supplies for the baskets such as fillers, ribbons, and the baskets themselves, totaling about $400. This school made approximately $3,500 with this fundraiser selling that at a carnival day.
  13. Community job fair – In an urban area, a school could host a job fair. Ask local companies to rent a booth space for a free and solicit free advertisements from a local radio stations or newspapers. One school held a job fair, charged $4 for admission and made $24,000 in the two year they’ve held the fair.
  14. Temporary tattoos – A university group sold these with their logo at home football and basketball games. In the first two months, they raised over $10,000.
  15. Sell seat cushions at sporting events – Sell advertisements on the cushions to 12-20 local businesses for $50-100. You may even be able to give the cushions away.
  16. Plant sale – Ask parents to donate plants for a sale. They can divide their perennials and share them with other families. A garden club makes about $1,000-$2,000 each year from a sale like this.
  17. Raffle – One group sold 1,000 tickets at $10 (or 3 for $25) and the prize was a gift certificate for $2,500 at an electronic store. They expected to make between $5,000-$7,500. Check your local laws governing raffles.
  18. School rummage or clothing sale – Clothing sales can be very successful and are a good way for families to purchase affordable clothes as their families grow.
  19. Holiday Grams – Kids buy and send pencil grams to their classmates. Other school supplies can be used
Resources: Fund-raising.com Idea Bank. Website: www.fund-raising.com/ideabank.html