s/o fundraising by your kids that you are proud of?

[SKL]

A girl in our AHG troop (with the help of her mom's email account) offered to attach scout patches for $5 per uniform.  What a bargain!  (I was very behind on the patch attach front!)  I mailed my kids' current and past uniforms with a check that included a tip.  :)  Just got them back today, and sent an email to thank them.

 

Her mom explained that this young lady (a Pioneer level, so I guess age 12-14?) was saving up money to fly to Colorado to visit a family that had moved away from the neighborhood.  She has saved the money for the ticket, and is now working on spending money.  She will be making the trip herself.

 

I'd be proud on several levels.  Now I'd like to hear some other examples.  Anyone?

Edited May 25, 2017 by SKL

[Dmmetler]

My DD has raised about $150 for snake conservation and advocacy through Amazon sales and about $500 in booth sales for her books so far, as well as several hundred dollars for animal shelters, women's shelters, and scholarship funds by donating baskets with the books, stuffed animals, and homemade jewelry. It's been a cool ongoing project, and she's gotten to learn a lot by doing it,

 

Obligatory link, just because

https://smile.amazon.com/s/ref=dp_byline_sr_ebooks_1?ie=UTF8&text=My+Python&search-alias=digital-text&field-author=My+Python&sort=relevancerank

[wintermom]

I met a young dancer who was selling home-made gourmet dog biscuits on-line and dog walking to raise money for her dance group's trip. Awesome idea!

[Rebel Yell]

BabyBaby earned $100 to pay for her black belt test at age 10. We had paid for all previous tests ($25+, each going up slightly over four more levels) I have an absolutely priceless photo of her at the front desk turning in her little envelope of cash :wub:

 

Our rule was she had to work and earn the money. No using birthday gifts, no using savings, no money from Grannie towards it without legitimate work, although reasonable but slightly generous compensation was allowed.

 

She carried heavy bags of mulch and potting soil and did some related gardening, helped a granny move by carrying boxes and furniture, a few odd jobs for us, and I'm not sure what else, possibly pet sitting?

Edited May 25, 2017 by Rebel Yell

[KungFuPanda]

Our local HS soccer team bagged leaves for donations. This may not sound impressive, but in my tiny front yard I can easily collect a dozen bags of leaves per week in the fall. Each week you miss gets you further behind. They sent about a dozen kids with 2-3 leaf blowers and my yard was done in about 15 minutes. I was thrilled to give them a generous donation. It was win-win.

[Carol in Cal.]

My daughter's chorus did a book wrapping table at a local big box bookstore at Christmas time.  They wrapped customer purchases for free, but had a tip jar.  They probably raised more in tips than they would have gotten if they had charged, and it helped fund their trip to a music festival.

 

Also, not fundraising but actual retail, DD self-published a book of poetry, arranging with artists she knew to also design the illustrations and book cover art.  Then she set up a self-study marketing course with her high school, to sell it.  Several bookstores carried it, and one of her poems was set to music by a local composer and performed by her chorus.  It was really quite remarkable.

[Donna]

This year my dd14 produced a (mostly) Irish music CD to raise money for an orphanage in Bangkok, Thailand.  She has participated in a fundraising concert in NYC for the past four years for this orphanage (including making some of her own crafts to add to it) so was very familiar with it and has been very impressed with the work they do there. She was inspired with the idea for a CD fundraiser while visiting friends in Boston and it took her two years to plan and put everything together. (The first year she did a lot of talking to people about how to go about it, funding ideas, and made lists of people she'd like to include, etc...but from June last year until March, she worked hours each week.) 

 

She invited young (all under 21) musicians from Ireland, Canada, and the US who she met through her musical travels to donate a track for the CD then she worked with another friend who helped with the graphic design and with someone else who helped her mix and master the CD. She then ran a successful Indiegogo campaign to raise the money to print the CDs (more like a CD pre-order campaign). She learned a lot about music production, mixing/mastering, graphic design, advertising, making decisions, and dealing with people. 

 

She released the CD in March and so far, has raised almost $1500 for the orphanage. She is now working on planning two CD release parties (one near us with musicians from the US who participated in the project and another in Ireland when we visit for a festival in August).

 

A very unexpected consequence from her project was being invited by the orphanage director, the musician friend who runs the NYC fundraisers, and the Irish embassy in Thailand to visit the orphanage and do some performances...she and I leave for Thailand in two weeks and she is very excited to meet the children she has been watching grow up virtually for the past few years.

 

 

 

(Music for Mercy is available for digital download on CDBaby but you miss the great artwork and bios of the musicians. If anyone is interested in ordering a copy of the CD....you can pm me for ordering details.)

 

 

 

 

 

 

[2_girls_mommy]

My older two babysit.  DD14 has had two jobs this week. She will be buying a new swim suit for summer, has some Starbucks money because I won't spend that much money on a cup of coffee, and is putting the rest in her bank account after keeping a bit for slushie money at camp. 

 

Mine are both scouts and do things there. I was really proud of dd12. When she was 10 she raised money for her bronze award project by doing bake sales. She did simple ones for low prices, and it was a hit. She baked cupcakes from mixes and sold them for fifty cents a piece at co-op during lunch. One time she did a Kool aid sale and sold cups for the same. Each of those raised about fifteen dollars. And then she did one bake sale at church after service. From those she raised a hundred dollars and also had a toy drive. She used the money to redecorate the church nursery. She bought new toy baskets and a couple of nice toys. We cleaned all of the old ones and threw away broken toys. Some people donated nicely used toys. Some gave new. And she inspired the church completely with what she was doing. Others bought new rugs. Someone repainted, and a carpenter donated new cabinets. It got a complete overhaul based on her wanting to clean up the toy area. 

 

This year her group raised funds by putting their spare change into jars which inspired others to donate as well. We just bought enough for 21 gifts bags of small goodies to donate to the Children's Hospital. 

[Carrie12345]

Mine haven't really developed unique ideas for raising the funds, but they fundraise for the fire department, bake for our co-op, and are now figuring out how to raise money to help support an Envirothon team in a competing school.

[KatieJ]

One of our daughters was raising money for a trip to Spain her senior year.  She did whatever she needed to do.  The one I remember the most was a single male friend of our's who paid her to do his dishes and iron his shirts.

 

He bought new rather than do the ironing or wash the dishes.  She was over there ( while he was at work) for hours.  She earned every penny.

[zaichiki]

Years ago my oldest two got together with some friends and held a lemonade stand at a busy intersection, switching off in groups of three or four to keep it staffed most of the day, for a week. The group made hundreds that week and donated it to the local humane society. They did something similar a few years later for Alex's Lemonade Stand: https://www.alexslemonade.org/

 

Dd has also participated in a number of fundraiser concerts.

 

 

[Renthead Mommy]

As his Life rank service project, my 14yo and some of his friends made survival braclets.  He then sold them and took donations to raise money for the Hilton Head animal shelter to help them with repairs after last fall's hurricane.  He raised over $500. 

 

He's worked at the shelter walking dogs with his grandparents when we go back to visit.  We are too far away to do anything else after the hurricane and he wanted some way to help. 

[wintermom]

I'm really impressed by the fundraising initiatives described in this thread!

 

I just got an e-mail from the dd of a friend I haven't seen in years asking for donations to pay for her salary for work at some organization this summer. Just a call out for money so she can get paid $2000. No explanation of what the organization does, how she'll be contributing, or why she needs a magic amount of $2000. Lots of details on how to give money, though. This just seems strange.  :confused1:

[Tammi K]

My son an his skating partner raised money for travel to Nationals.  Her parents and I both agreed strongly that they were not to get money without effort - some exchange of goods or services were required.

 

They did a variety of things:  sold concessions at  high school hockey games ( received a percent of profit), picked and sold apples, held a 'name your price' garage sale, sold Subway discount cards.  Off hand, I can't think of other things right now. but everything provided something to the donator.

[hopskipjump]

Not my kid, but a friend of ours raised money for a mission trip by baking and selling homemade pies. She took pre-orders and made them all by scratch. She did this three years in a row to fund her trips to the same area of the world, where she worked hard while she was there, and I was amazed at her work ethic (before the trip and during) each and every time. She is a remarkable young lady.

 

As opposed to our cousins/nephews who went on two different "mission trips" and just asked us flat-out for money. And never sent a thank you note OR bothered with a phone call or emailed "thanks." Grrrr. They sure posted a lot of pictures of them waterskiing and jet-skiing, etc while on those "mission trips" though!

[Sarah CB]

When dd was 12, she and three friends decided they wanted to raise $10,000 for orphans in Sudan. They held a garage sale, organized a walk-a-thon, had bake sales - I can't remember what else, but they did raise $10,000 that year.

 

A couple years later, dd baked pies (she makes the best pastry) to raise money to travel for a Taekwon-do tournament. I think she ended up making more than 50 pies in one weekend. She enlisted a few of her friends to help. 

 

My two middle boys play music to raise money. They busk, but they also play chamber music for a corporate event each year. Next year, ds (17) wants to use the money to help fund the school's dry grad night so he's looking at expanding and playing a few different corporate parties.

[DawnM]

My kids did a lot of yard sales with scouts:

 

Collected the items via a truck and hauling things for hours out of various homes, often elderly homes

Sorte and priced in the warehouse for 3-4 days

Worked on a Saturday from 5:00am-7pm at the actual yard sale

 

It ended up netting around $5/hour, so it was worth it.  The money went into their scout account for camp/trips/etc...

 

Scout BBQ;  that took about 20 hours for DH and 20 hours for my youngest, he is my only scout left.  I worked about 5 as I had other things that weekend.

 

When they were young they used to go to garage sales with me, buy things to resell, and then use the proceeds for the backpack/school supply drive for the people who couldn't afford them.  They did an excellent job and one year raised $200 and were able to get 20 backpacks.  The guy selling them wanted $15 each, but after my boys explained what they were doing, he let them have them for $10 each.

[FriedClams]

My kids started a neighborhood lawn business and mowed lawns all of last summer to pay for black belt testing ($350/ea). We live in the Deep South so it was hot, hard, sweaty work. They more than covered their fees and banked a lot over their fees. Since we were moving they brought in some other friends and turned over their clients to them. They are still mowing and will likely pay for their first car/some of college with their earnings.

[Clemsondana]

Years ago, I was asked to fill in with a music group that I had quit because I didn't want to deal with arranging childcare for my toddler. The director said that they would pay their daughter to watch my kid during rehearsals. Their daughter was trying to raise money for a trip and they wanted her to earn it, but they didn't want her bothering other people. They were willing and able to fund the trip but wanted her to earn the money.

[Guest]

Ours found there is no market for some things. Locally what works is spaghetti dinners and selling food, which only can be done with the scouts or other nonprofit. Beyond that, they sell merchandise that can't be bought locally. The solar phone chargers did well. Lawn care, leaf raking, snow shoveling,etc -- no one wants those services as they have family members who do it for free. Busking does not work..people are happy to listen, but they aren't lettng loose of a quarter. They will take a free Cd of the performers though.

[Rebel Yell]

I'm really impressed by the fundraising initiatives described in this thread!

 

I just got an e-mail from the dd of a friend I haven't seen in years asking for donations to pay for her salary for work at some organization this summer. Just a call out for money so she can get paid $2000. No explanation of what the organization does, how she'll be contributing, or why she needs a magic amount of $2000. Lots of details on how to give money, though. This just seems strange.  :confused1:

Some college-age people I know have worked as full-time paid staff at Christian summer camps. The pay is fairly low, especially considering it is way more than a 40 hour week... Anyway, I have gotten letters asking for support which would basically be donations to the camp organization as each paid staff member is requested (not required) to raise donations to cover their pay. But the letters always detailed that far better than I just did- it was clear that it was a tax-deductible donation to the camp, she would get her salary regardless of what she raised in donations, and donations in excess of her pay went into the general fund for staff salary or camp needs.

[wintermom]

Some college-age people I know have worked as full-time paid staff at Christian summer camps. The pay is fairly low, especially considering it is way more than a 40 hour week... Anyway, I have gotten letters asking for support which would basically be donations to the camp organization as each paid staff member is requested (not required) to raise donations to cover their pay. But the letters always detailed that far better than I just did- it was clear that it was a tax-deductible donation to the camp, she would get her salary regardless of what she raised in donations, and donations in excess of her pay went into the general fund for staff salary or camp needs.

 

I just looked at the website for the organization. It's not a charity or a summer camp, rather a social reform organization. They have people with full-colour posters of bloody fetuses at Pro-Life marches. These are the posters that completely turned off my children and myself at our first (and last) Pro-Life march.  :ohmy:   

[Rebel Yell]

I just looked at the website for the organization. It's not a charity or a summer camp, rather a social reform organization. They have people with full-colour posters of bloody fetuses at Pro-Life marches. These are the posters that completely turned off my children and myself at our first (and last) Pro-Life march.  :ohmy:

 

Eeew. Sounds like a similar system for raising money to pay full time people, though. I guess it works.

[SarahB82]

My cousin's daughter has Rett Syndrome. Our co-op has a market day in the spring and my 7 year old dipped cookies and pretzels in white chocolate and sprinkled them with purple sugar and I helped tie them up in treat bags. He put them in a basket that explained to take one and leave a donation if you wanted. He raised $45 that day but had a goal of $56 so we paid him a dollar a day to pick up ,30 sticks a day under the trees in the pasture. Now he is growing tomatoes, peppers and sweet potatoes to sell to raise money for Rett research also.

I have helped him. He originally wanted to buy cookies and sodas from McDonald's to see and I explained why that wouldn't be best and we went from there.

[Kareni]

When my daughter was about fifteen her Latin instructor led a trip to Italy.  We were able to pay half the cost, but my daughter needed to supply the other half.  She earned most of the needed funds by buying candy bars at low cost at our local Grocery Outlet and then reselling them.  She sold most of them to students and parents at the homeschooling resource center at which she attended classes.

 

Regards,

Kareni

[cjzimmer1]

My DS raises money for a specific charity ministry that he is passionate about.  Things he does each year, Bake Sales (I've developed some recipes just for him but he does all the actual baking and packaging and selling), he cleans out college apartments just before they flip for the new school year (and let me tell you that is some disgusting work), also there is a huge community festival this weekend.  Everyone who works at the event is fundraising for some charity, so he will spend close to 50 hours this weekend cooking food and selling it with all his "pay" going to the charity of his choice.  

[scoutingmom]

My kids sold over 1500 chocolate bars for 2 of them to go to a scout camp this summer in the States. A couple hundred of those were extra that they did not have to sell to help the group funds. (Our main scout leader sells for group funds for things like gas... they helped sell some of those). Unlike a lot of the scouts, my husband and I have no work to sell them at for them.

 

Sent from my SM-T530NU using Tapatalk

[wendyroo]

When I was a preteen I collected and returned cans from parks, beaches, along the side of the road.  I live in Michigan, which has a 10 cent deposit, so this was fairly lucrative.  I was able to pay for my own summer enrichment camp at Michigan Tech.

 

Wendy

[aaplank]

i was very impressed when a neighbor kid was advertising his services to come and pick up your large outdoor trash cans and recycling bins, take them to his house to power wash, and put some sort of liner in the bottom to help with stink and spills. All for $10.! He's had a lot of takers on this good deal!

 

I also believe he is raising funds for a mission trip.

[TravelingChris]

Our kids did many things over the years. When we lived in Albuquerque,my son's troop picked up trash at the arena after some events and that was well worth it. They also made luminarias and delivered and set them up. My middle daughter has done a number of successful campaigns though only one was money. She collected books one time, a huge non perishable food drive (that one was at our church here and she decorated huge boxes with Alabama and Auburn Colorado and decorations and people donated based on which football team they supported ((falltime)) ) and also a spaghetti dinner for a Venture Crew. My youngest helped with unpacking and sorting popcorn orders in a regional warehouse. She also washed cars with the youth group. I know she did more but can't rememberright now. My son did less because I think we had limited opportunities for fundraising that was allowed when we were overseas. Ohm, I remember one more thing they all did at tines, group babysitting at an event.