Got any fundraising ideas?

[Dave]

So my daughter has been nominated for the People to People program, which would let her travel this summer on a whirlwind European trip that includes England, France, Belgium and Switzerland. This is a great learning experience for her and I really want her to be able to do it.

The problem is it's $6800 not counting money for shopping. Now, my wife and I had been planning on taking a trip ourselves next year on our tax return money but now it looks like that'll be going all to Sammi. Unless we can find a good way to get some money.

Now, this is NOT a request for cash. I don't want you to send me money for this. What I want is ideas for fundraisers that we can do to make some money. Basically whatever we don't raise we have to take from our tax money. We'd like to still go on a trip but if we can't we can't.

 

[Silver Jelly]

I can't think of anything right now, but I'll keep thinking.

 

[Mr_Chaz]

What's the purpose of the trip, is it just sight seeing or is there an overall aim, raising awareness of something or some such?


If you've got local supermarkets that don't have bag packers (not sure what it's actually like in the States, TV likes to lie to us) then you can do that sort of thing.

Sponsored physical exertions. So things like half marathons and such like.

General sillyness. Sitting in a bath of baked beans and some such.

Sponsorship? See if you can sell suitcase/rucksack space for stickers and badges and such like? No idea if it would work, but you could always try approaching local tourist attractions or something?

 

[Dave]

Well, a few ideas I've had would be a spaghetti feed/dance where some dork could DJ. Charge $10 a person.

Stuff like that.


And this is a learning thing, the ability to travel and you get college credit for it.

---------- Post added at 04:52 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:50 PM ----------

I like the baked beans thing, though.

 

[meyoumeyou]

 

[phil]

you could do a yard sale. Those can bring in some quick cash, especially if you are willing to part with nicer things like DVDs you don't really watch anymore.

You could do a raffle drawing. We'd probably get in on that. I'd throw down a dollar for a chance to win a BSG season 1 box set for example.

 

[Steve]

you could do a yard sale.

This is a good idea. You could ask friends and family to donate items for the sale. Everyone has stuff they want to get rid of but don't want to throw away. Also look at some specific fundraising activity, with friends maybe a car wash, or solo maybe house cleaning. That's a lot of money to raise. I don't think there's a quick and easy way to raise that much money. Good luck to you.

 

[ZenMonkey]

I would contact the program and see if they had any suggestions, or could possibly put you in touch with other parents who have successfully raised funds for the trip.

 

[HoboNinja]

My step-brother did People to People 2 years ago and my sister did it this last summer. It is a great program. With my step-brother he went around selling candy bars and the People to People people got them set up with the local baseball stadium to work concession stands to raise money for it but most of it came from my step-mom for his trip. For my sister she got a part time job and came up with about 2k of it and my step-mom and dad covered the rest of it.

I would try the candy bar thing, it isn't quick and doesn't make a lot but it will help. Also talk to some of the other parents at People to People they might know some stuff. Otherwise have her get a job, babysit, or mow lawns.

 

[drawn_inward]

I've seen folks in the neighboring labs setup candybar stations in break rooms. It's all done on the honor system. So, if you don't trust your coworkers, I wouldn't do it.

Just make a flier explaining what the money is for, and leave a stack of Hershey/Crunch/Mr Goodbar bars with an envelope. State to leave a donation for a candybar. You don't have to go door-to-door, and you can usually count of folks to not rip you off.

 

[Docseverin]

Have her get an after school job, it builds character to be able to say you paid for something you wanted.

 

[Cajungal]

When my dad was younger, he towed a wrecked old car to his mom's backyard and painted a bunch of signs that said "1$ per smash." He'd give people goggles, a jacket, and a sledgehammer and let them go at it as many times as they could pay for. He didn't make this huge amount... but $100 bucks isn't that bad for that kind of fundraiser.

It's probably not plausible, but if you happen to have something large that you wouldn't mind being destroyed... and with the right advertising....

 

[ZenMonkey]

When my dad was younger, he towed a wrecked old car to his mom's backyard and painted a bunch of signs that said "1$ per smash." He'd give people goggles, a jacket, and a sledgehammer and let them go at it as many times as they could pay for. He didn't make this huge amount... but $100 bucks isn't that bad for that kind of fundraiser.

Wow...inventive, profitable, and therapeutic. Very impressive!

 

[figmentPez]

When I was in high school my church youth group had an interesting fund raiser. We bought a whole bunch of plastic lawn flamingos, the really tacky ones. I can't remember how we chose starting locations (probably a sign-up sheet at church), but we let victims pay to be able to pick whose yard they went to next. We had a sign made with the flamingos with some sort of pun, and our church name on it, and fliers to explain to people why they had suddenly been invaded by pink waterfowl.

I'm not sure, but in later years we may have expanded to bees, lawn gnomes and other tacky yard oranments. Of course this was in a fairly uptight suburb, where not very many people have any sort of lawn decorations besides plants and rocks, let alone something plastic. It's also not something that would work during the Christmas season, with other decorations already being on lawns, but if you can wait until spring...

 

[Silver Jelly]

When my dad was younger, he towed a wrecked old car to his mom's backyard and painted a bunch of signs that said "1$ per smash." He'd give people goggles, a jacket, and a sledgehammer and let them go at it as many times as they could pay for. He didn't make this huge amount... but $100 bucks isn't that bad for that kind of fundraiser.

Wow...inventive, profitable, and therapeutic. Very impressive![/QUOTE]

I know I would have spent a couple of dollars on that car...

 

[Math242]

HEHEHE that's exactly what i wanted to post

 

[Dave]

Yeah, yeah. I've seen it.

What I think is funny is that I have a friend who works for the NSA. He's looking into the organization for me.

 

[doomdragon6]

Aw man, I would totally pay like $10 for 3 minutes to smash on a car.

If you can find a shitty car nobody wants and take it to a place full of youths, hell yes you can raise some money.

 

[Bubble181]

[icarus mode on]
Belgium, aye? I know a couple of ways to make money...
[/creepy mode off]

Fundraising parties can be a good way of earning money; but you can't organise them alone. If you can find a couple of other parents in the region, with 5 or 6 people collaborating you can throw a big party and raise some serious cash.

Smaller scale, the raffle sort of thing can surely help. ALso, things like carwashing etc. Or standing at crossroads and performing some sort of art thingie and asking the cars for donations. You'd be amazed how effective that is (I've done it before, and I raised more per hour than I earn now by a LOT).

 

[HowDroll]

Might be totally irrelevant, but does she have any savings bonds? A few people in my family gave me a few savings bonds over the years, and by the time I cashed them I had about $1000 to put toward my trip to Europe last year. It can be easy to stuff them in a drawer and forget about them, but having spent them on my trip, I can't think of anything better that I could have put them toward.

 

[Dave]

No savings bonds.

 

[LittleSin]

The university up here does the car smashing thing. I think they get decent money for it ...apparently engineering students love to beat the shit out of stuff.

You could by a peice of art work from an indie artist at a reasonable price and attempt to auction it or hold a raffle. Thats how my cousin got her money for her Europe trip. My uncle, an artist, painted a large canvas and the advertised an auction...quite a few people turned up.

 

[Gared]

The best fund raising idea I know takes a lot of work and would definitely require getting in touch with the other People to People... people. This is what we did for band fundraisers for when we would go on major trips. I've noticed a trend toward drama (the discipline, not the llama) from your daughter, so if there are other like-minded and talented students in the group it would work perfectly.

What we did was hold a concert and dinner, but instead of the normal crappy spaghetti dinner we made it a fancy dinner and charged $50 - $100 per head. We served French Onion Soup, Salad, Salmon en Papillote, Rice Pilaf, Steamed Asparagus, and a Chocolate Raspberry Truffle Cheesecake for dessert. The parents did the cooking, the students benefiting from the fundraiser served as waiters for the evening, and at the end there was a concert by those same students. This was where I learned that even though my mom did almost all of the cooking while I was growing up, my dad was the chef in the family, as that's his menu.

Like I said, it takes a lot of work, and you would have to coordinate with other people to bring it off, but we raised something like $6,000 in a small town, with a music department that consisted of approximately 100 students. Damn it Dave, this really makes me wish I could be out there and help you put something like this together, it would be awesome.

 

[JCM]

Well, you could have a local Republican party/NRA dinner, I heard that gets the cash rolling.

 

[Bubble181]

Hold a "Halforum" donation drive, and transfer funds without anyone noticing. :-P

 

[Morgoth]

The best fund raising idea I know takes a lot of work and would definitely require getting in touch with the other People to People... people. This is what we did for band fundraisers for when we would go on major trips. I've noticed a trend toward drama (the discipline, not the llama) from your daughter, so if there are other like-minded and talented students in the group it would work perfectly.

What we did was hold a concert and dinner, but instead of the normal crappy spaghetti dinner we made it a fancy dinner and charged $50 - $100 per head. We served French Onion Soup, Salad, Salmon en Papillote, Rice Pilaf, Steamed Asparagus, and a Chocolate Raspberry Truffle Cheesecake for dessert. The parents did the cooking, the students benefiting from the fundraiser served as waiters for the evening, and at the end there was a concert by those same students. This was where I learned that even though my mom did almost all of the cooking while I was growing up, my dad was the chef in the family, as that's his menu.

Like I said, it takes a lot of work, and you would have to coordinate with other people to bring it off, but we raised something like $6,000 in a small town, with a music department that consisted of approximately 100 students. Damn it Dave, this really makes me wish I could be out there and help you put something like this together, it would be awesome.

I was going to mention Dave throwing on some fishnet stockings and working the corner, but this idea is much better.