Fundraising for preschools, mothers groups & kindergartens

[deccydoo]

Hi, I am wondering if anyone has any ideas on fundraising for my preschool? I know that there are a few programs out there for labels and stuff, but i am keen to get some ideas and opinions on what the good ones are and if there is anything that i can look at on the net? thanks DeccyDoo

[mrsmac]

We have done the usual choclate ones and last year a toothbrush/toothpaste one through Colgate. The one where all the children draw a small picture of themselves and it goes on a Tea towel is a good one too, I still have the ones from my DDs.
Sydney's child often has good fundraising ideas too.

[BellyBelly]

Boscastle make delicious pies and other pastries just in time for winter. They are great quality but I think Melbourne only? You'll have to check their site. I suggested it to our kinder last year and it was a hit, they are doing it again this year. My kinder also does a mango drive each year (yum!) where you get a tray of mangoes. There are websites designed for people looking for fundraisers, like fundraising directories. There are sooooo many things to choose from, everyone is doing fundraising these days!!!

[Trillian]

Pie Drives are fab, as are the mango ones and you can do cherries too. Look for things that give you a big profit margin - most of them only give you max 15% of what you sell - some even as low as 10% so it isn't worth the time to organise it. Every year our preschool does a walk-a-thon and an art show and it's money for jam - no outlay so everything is 100% profit. With the walk-a-thon the kids get sponsorship and go for a walk to the park and with the art show, yiou have a day where the parents and grandparents etc are invited for morning tea and an 'art show' of the kids paintings which they do in class anyway - they lap it up and there isn't many paintings left.

[sandrag]

Hi

I have been keeping my eyes open for fundraising ideas for some time now of which most seem to be too much hard work and not a lot of fun. Anyway i was pointed in the direction of boscobear- a website that sells some great kids wall art, personalised labels and lots of other fun stuff - well i love it. Anyway i have requested some more information on fundraising so i will post back to let you know how it works. I think the trick is for this sort of thing is to find a good fun product that appeals to a wide range of people and has good commission. Beware there is a lot of rubbish out there, i have a couple more sites to check out so i will be back later hopefully with a couple more ideas. Let me know if any one else has some good ideas.

Sandy

[briggsy's girl]

bulbs!! might be getting late for this year, but garden express do bulb fundraising and you get 50% of the money

cookie dough - not sure of profit margin but YUM

spc bulk packs - not sure of the profit again, but huge sellers around here - cant wait for my niee to ring and say its on again!

[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.

[Rouge]

Please be aware the mods are watching this thread very closely. If it appears that any members are using this thread for spam purposes we shall remove said posts immediately. Please refrain from posting links. If you wish to discuss ideas thats is fine, but if you are posting "questions" purely to promote a business, it will not be tolerated.

[Kailz]

Krispy Kreme does a great one -- Buy a dozen for $10 and sell them for whatever you want (usually $15). They also have cards where you pay $15 for it, and for every dozen you buy you get one dozen free. And also vouchers for $15 where you take the voucher into a store and get a dozen free.

Tupperware does something too?

[mrsmac]

25% is great from what I have seen with other fund raisers. We have done Krispy Kreme too but with more stores around now I don't think that would be as easy to sell. We also do a BBQ at a local hardware shop- have to book in advance but its a good money maker.

[feeb]

Mattel factory shop in derrimut do preschool fundraisers its only way peopel can get access to the shop is via a fund raiser not sure of profits bit a frineds organising one now for her soms play group.