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Youth Groups are almost always in need of funds. Holding fundraisers to finance important trips like tournaments, museums, and musical events are just some of the needs that have to be met through fundraising. Others include the need for uniforms, sports equipment, art supplies, musical instruments, and more.

There are a lot of different ways your youth group can raise the funds they need. In this article, I will explore some of those with you and try to help you avoid some of the pitfalls. I will let you benefit from my experience and I will help you avoid some of my mistakes.

Let’s start right off with candy. I have tried to use candy as a fundraising tool on more than one occasion for more than one youth group.

Pros and Cons of using candy as a youth group fundraiser.

Pros: Candy is cheap and can be sold for a great profit for your youth group. Everyone likes candy, so it’s a fairly easy sale, especially if you go with name brand candy. The candy is cheap enough that most people have enough money in their pocket to purchase it.

Cons: Candy melts. Trust me on this. Candy melts and when it does, your profits melt with it as you try to clean whatever it melted all over. The members of your youth group eat Candy and when the parents have to pay for all the candy YOU let their child eat, you get phone calls. Trust me on this. You get a lot of phone calls. Candy smells. Trust me on this. Wherever you store the candy will smell like candy forever. Bigger children steal candy from smaller children and again parents end up paying for the candy and you get the phone calls.

Coupon Books are another commonly used Youth Group Fundraiser.

Pros: Some coupon books are filled with free stuff and everyone loves free stuff! Your youth group can raise as much as $10 per coupon book so they need to make less sales to reach their goals.

Cons: Everyone still has last year’s coupon book. None of the coupons have been used. They never have it with them whenever they go somewhere they might have been able to use it for. I have been to a door to sell coupon books and had a guy hand me 7 unused coupon books as his donation. He said if I resold those, I would be able to raise more money than if he just bought one again this year. Coupons expire. They usually have a cost of about $10 to $15 per book, but of course the children in YOUR youth group will never lose any of them and their parents won’t be calling YOU, like with the candy.

Basically, every fundraiser your youth group takes on will come with responsibility and they all have their pros and cons. However, if you look for a product that has the following features, I believe you will have a more successful fundraising opportunity for your youth group.

1. Choose products that do not melt, expire, rot, or otherwise perish.

2. Choose products that do not have a large cost per unit, no matter what the profit. Read the rest of this entry »

The golden key to effective fundraising is an organizations ability to manage relationships. While some may consider this an oversimplified explanation of a complex non-profit business model, our experience has shown us that this is one of the most overlooked, yet lucrative, elements of our fundraising efforts.

The backbone of any fundraising campaign is the appeal to donors for contributions. The problem many organizations run into during this phase of their fundraising efforts is that they have neglected to keep their donors engaged with their organization since their previous appeal for support. The donor no longer feels engaged by, or attached to, your organization in any meaning way. What distinguishes your organization or non-profit from the next?

We advise all of our clients to develop strong relationships with their donors and supporters. In the non-profit sector, these relationships play a significant role in the success of any given campaign. In some cases, these relationships can make or break an organization. Keep in mind that appeals for support are not always of the monetary type. Organizations of every type need support staff, and your donor list is an ideal place to search for new recruits. Read the rest of this entry »

To get the most out of any fundraiser, every participant needs to give their all from start to finish. This includes your team members, parents, coaches, and other volunteers.

To keep everyone’s interest from waning, make sure that you include fun in your fundraiser each step of the way.

Ten ways to put fun in your fundraising:
1- Do fun things
2- Use fun incentives
3- Take pictures
4- Show appreciation
5- Give out fun merchant prizes
6- Build in fun goals
7- Blend fun, food and fundraising
8- Create fun completion activities
9- Say thank you
10- Have a cast party

Do fun things
Don’t make it drudgery to be a volunteer or a participant. Remember that they’re giving up their free time to help.

Plan fun things to do during each stage of the process that will reward everyone. Not only will it be a more rewarding experience for everyone involved, but you will keep your participants and volunteers eager for the next fundraiser.
And we all know there will be another one sooner rather than later!
Make sure they remember the fun, not just the hard work.

Use fun incentives
Offer a Cream Pie Attack party to all sellers or participants reaching a certain level. Have a fun day where key organizational figures do funny things for meeting goals.

Extreme examples include shaving their heads or dyeing their hair blue.

Some safer, less long-lasting examples could be wearing a funny wig, dressing like a clown, risk the dunking booth, and so on.

Be creative and use an idea that is appropriate to your group.

Kids and adults love these types of incentives and they don’t cut into your hard earned cash.

Take fun pictures
Everybody loves to see themselves in a picture. Take plenty of candid shots. Have everybody pose and ham it up for a group photo.

Be sure to post them where everyone can enjoy them. You could even reward your picture posers with prizes for the best smile, the goofiest pose, or the worst dressed.
Read the rest of this entry »

Did you know that school fund raising brings big business to many companies? This is because schools purchase the supplies they need for fund raising in large quantities. The company can easily give a discount because they sell a lot of products at one time. School fund raising is also becoming an important part of school life because it offers schools different ways of fundraising the money they need for the equipment and trips.

Schools are constantly on the lookout for fundraising ideas for their next school fund raiser. They have to be creative to come up with unique ideas so that people will attend the fund raiser and contribute to the cause. Every season of the year brings school fund raising events and some are easier for coming up with fundraising ideas than others.

Halloween, for example, provides schools with fund raising ideas in the form of a haunted house or a costume ball. This type of school fund raiser needs a lot of volunteers and is best for middle schools and high schools. An idea for an elementary school fund raiser for Halloween could include a Halloween party where the children have an opportunity to take part in games where they win prizes.

Quite often school fund raising takes the form of selling items that people need or want to buy. Selling chocolate at Easter, for example, always goes over well as a school fund raiser. Instead of purchasing large amounts of chocolate in hopes it will sell, most schools take orders. The company supplying the chocolate for the fund raiser offers a discounted price along with specials for orders of a certain quantity. They also supply prizes if the school wishes to award prizes for the person who sells the most.
Read the rest of this entry »