Fundraising for preschools, mothers groups & kindergartens

[rose]

just a note on spc, you have to pay freight and if you have a small order it is often cheeper to go pick it up yourself or you need to have a supstansial order to make it worth while. Also they have been cutting their list down from what they used to have available. Still check them out, we used to use them but have had a year off due to the above reasons.

I am looking for some ideas too as I am involved in our local Toy Library.

[deccydoo]

Hi All,

thank you for the fantastic information and thought starters so far. Sandy G if you can tell me more about BoscoBear i would be keen to know. They do children's labels? is that all? Is there a website that they have that i can look at? Do you know what percentage sales/commissions they work on? Also what is wall art? Do you design your own children's art and raise money? Sorry so many questions just trying to pre-empt what my group will say.

Triallian, likewise is there any websites that i can look at for the Mango and the Cherry fundraisers. Is there a website that i can look further at that you know of?

thank you!

[Nai]

I head up the fundraising portfolio for our Childcare Centre and the most successful things we have done include an Auction Night, hot cross bun & pie drive and a wine drive.

We did the wine drive before Christmas and raise almost $2K for the centre with really minimal work. There are companies that do it through a website but we did it ourselves in conjunction with our local cleanskins place - this meant that they had their largest order ever and we made a lot of money. Everyone is asking when the next one is

We decided on the activities that we would do by surveying the parent community. I did a survey using Survey Monkey (which is a free online tool) that was emailed out to the parents and from the responses we put together a schedule of events for the year so that parents can see what activities are going on when.

[Trillian]

Not sure how you go about organising the mango ones, but with the cherries, we just rang our nearest cherry grower and they were happy to oblige. I assume the mango ones would be the same, or even if you contacted a local fruit and vege market.


Google 'fundraising ideas' and you will get tonnes of links.

[mrsmac]

We had a "Purple pie drive" not sure if they still exist but it was great.

[bon]

At DS kindy last year we did a freddo frog drive which was really popular and made good money - reason being it was cheap (large freddos sold for $1 each) so it wasn't hard for families to sell them. We also had a 'Ladies night' which involves a meal and a cent auction for various prizes donated by local businesses and families. It was a lot of work to organise and set up though, but good fun on the night. Also the good old raffle - ring around or write to local businesses to see if they will donate a prize or prizes - we had vouchers from our local woolworths, fernwood gym, Australia Zoo as well as gift ware and meat from the local butcher...you will be surprised how many people are willing to help out.

[deccydoo]

Hi All, thanks for the great responses. I rang BoscoBear today, found their telephone number and website they have a 25% commission/rebate program and have labels, removable room art (which is kind of cool on their website, i really liked their jungle fever and farmyard kits) and personalised party invitations (non personalised options are also available. Does anyone know if 25% commission is good? As well as any tricks for young players that i should look for?

I also rang the markets to see if there was a supplier of cherries and mangos that i could talk to. They are out of season (or coming to the end of the season) and suggested manderins? I really am not sure if mandarins are as interesting as cherries and mangoes.