When I began my journey as a parent several years ago, I didn’t realize that I was also beginning a never-ending search for simple fundraising ideas. In truth, I had no idea that one of your main responsibilities as a parent would be to continually come up with fundraising ideas.
Even after resigning myself to the fact that fundraising would be a regular part of my life, I still had no idea that it would be such an adventure.
You see, I have three kids at school selling everything from pies to pizza. We are involved in drama, football, basketball AND I sit on a hockey table that is self-funded solely by, you guessed it, fundraisers.
I’m trading raw materials with friends, “I’ll take that cake and trade you the cookie dough… well, we’re even.” My family members don’t even answer their phones anymore, they are afraid to buy more things they don’t need.
We’ve done them all!
Let’s see, there are the sales of gift wrap/special items/trinkets. If you ask me, these types of fundraisers are overused and overpriced. Every time I turn around, my son has another catalog! In this economy when I can buy wrapping paper for $1.00 at the local dollar store, why would I want a $9.00 roll of wrapping paper? (So what if it’s better quality, it’s just ripped off the gift anyway.) Actually, I’d rather write the school a check and then try to sell these things.
Of course, we’re so tired of selling stuff anyway, that half the time, I just place a good-sized order for my own family (reluctantly, of course).
Case in point: My daughter recently came home and mentioned that “The Cookie Dough Guy” said that if they wanted enough money for their field trip to the Boston Museum, they were “encouraged” to sell at least two cans of cookie dough. (for $14.00 each!). I spent $28.00 on two little tubs of cookie dough. I could have gone to BJ’s, bought a LARGE tub of Tollhouse cookie dough for $6.99 AND bought my daughter’s admission to the museum for less than that! Why didn’t they just ask for the money for the tour? It’s stupid!
And, how about those stands at craft fairs or festivals?
Okay, if you’re ever asked to “man a booth for a couple of hours,” be very cautious. Our organization signed up for a booth at our community’s Summerfest in June. I signed up for the early shift (I was finishing my shift and enjoying a fun-filled afternoon with my family). Yes, first mistake. Funny how your “replacements” never seem to show up to replace you. So, there I was, 6 hours later “managing the booth”. If that wasn’t annoying enough, all of a sudden, the skies turned dark, the wind picked up, and we were in the middle of one of those horrible thunder and lightning storms. Everything was blowing wildly; the canopy was about to take flight. And the rain fell in torrents. Needless to say, we made very little money that day. (Even putting the
Leaving the “severe storm factor” aside, the event was not very profitable because, although there was a lot of traffic, there was also a lot of competition).
Oh, and let’s not forget one of my favorite “simple” fundraiser ideas, pizza and cake kits.
Okay, yeah, they’re pretty decent sellers, but the logistics of the whole thing are insane. First of all, you need to agree on an EXACT delivery time with the company because they need to keep the products frozen. Then you need to let everyone know when the EXACT delivery date is and pray that they actually come to pick up their products. And when they don’t. . .well, let’s just say it was really nice that I had a spare freezer in my basement to store some of those oversized boxes. And, don’t get me started on how I had to make thousands of phone calls to those people who didn’t show up on our EXACT deadline.
But, my favorite adventure of all time was “The Bottle Drive”. The most basic of simple fundraising ideas. You basically collect people’s trash and exchange it for money. Piece of cake.
That’s what we think too. The conversation went something like this: “We’re going to do a bottle drive!” “Yes!” “On New Year’s Day.” “Great idea!” “All those New Year’s Eve parties! We’re going to make a lot of money!”
It became an obsession. I’m at the supermarket and I meet Mike. He says, “Hey, we’re having a New Year’s Eve party, you and John should come by.” Great, I’m thinking. Give your address to one of the drivers to collect your bottles in the morning. I’m so engrossed in it, I actually find myself eavesdropping to find out where everyone is going to celebrate.
So it’s New Year’s Day and with maps in hand and directions to all those parties that took place the night before, we jump into our trucks and head out. Did I mention we live in Maine? We had been hit by several storms in December and today we were in for a Northeast storm, as they are affectionately called. (In case you’re unfamiliar with the term, this basically means that the snow falls in unassuming little crystals at a moderate but relentless pace until suddenly you realize you’re completely trapped.) However, that was not going to deter us. . . don’t worry, just bundle up and start early.
Here’s a curious concept… an early start on New Year’s Day. Granted, not everyone spent New Year’s Eve the way I did: in our pajamas, huddled by the wood stove, going to bed early so we could get an early morning start for the bottle drive. At 9:00 am, if you had a party, you are NOT likely to be moving, let alone cleaning your house. So many doors were left unanswered.
Finally, one neighborhood showed promise until we saw… the Boy Scouts. We couldn’t believe it. They were also organizing a bottle drive! (It’s amazing how quickly a group of teenage hockey players not so thrilled to be up so early on a weekend can move when trying to outrun the Boy Scouts.)
My friend and I decided, enough of this door-to-door stuff, we’ll hit the local restaurants and pubs. We hit the mother load at our local Thatcher’s. We are cool! Our hopes were high. Then we hear, “Sorry, you need to talk to the manager and they won’t be working on New Year’s Day” or “We have a lot of bottles in our back shed, but unfortunately the plow guy hasn’t gotten us out.” the last storm Come see us in the spring.
Okay, this was getting daunting. We exchange cell phone calls and meet at regular intervals at the local redemption center. The snow was falling faster than the snow plows could clear the roads and we realized that it was becoming too dangerous to have vehicles on the road. With an army of twelve trucks, we returned to the redemption center only to find that it had closed due to weather!
What do we do now?
“Bring them to my garage” (What, who said that? Me? Note to self: you’re too accommodating.) Of course everyone thinks it’s a great idea!
Before I know it, my garage is full of stale smelling beer bottles, my hands are sticky and cold, I’m exhausted, my husband is ready to divorce me AND my car is now outside covered in 18 inches of heavy snow and wet because there is not enough space in my garage!
Over the course of the next week, my husband and I packed up the bottles and made several trips to the redemption center. Wow! We made $350 for 15 people, spent a cold and snowy day driving all over town. There has to be an easier way to raise funds!
