What are your favorite fundraisers to run and/or attend?

[Carrie12345]

I’m on a newly formed fundraising committee. I have a million ideas, but need to start narrowing them down.  I’m looking for feedback to help determine which ideas might pull in the most manpower to run an event (or take the least manpower) and which ideas are most likely to pull in the most attendance/participation from people who don’t already actively support the organization.

I am trying to stay away from things like restaurant nights.  We’re pretty far from most places that do that, so it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. We want to engage the community and get their money. 😉 

[catz]

One of our favorite fund raisers our dance studio used to do was called the style pile.  They would collect clothes for a few weeks, sort and organize, clean out their costume shop and have a sale.  And they'd charge like $20 to fill a grocery back full of clothing.  They would have people volunteer to make food and have some snacks available at the sale and made it a bit of a social event.  

The pit falls of that was adequate advertising and warning ahead of time.   And this really only works well for kid/teen oriented groups.  One of our youth theater groups has done something similar.  

Edited September 1, 2019 by FuzzyCatz

[DawnM]

In scouts we did various fundraisers.  I hate door to door sales and sitting outside of grocery stores sales (aka: popcorn!)

But the fundraiser I liked the most was the yard sale fundraiser.  We had everyone bring things they were willing to donate for the sale, and even advertised to neighbors and friends and got even more donations, and held sales.  We made thousands. We used the sales for camp for the boys and things for the troop.

[teachermom2834]

When my ds played travel baseball the only one that made any sense for us was the team garage sale. We had a great location and everyone brought stuff and it was huge. How it worked for us, though, was that although we all came together to create a giant sale and share advertising but it was still an individual fundraiser. So what we sold came off our team fees. So we weren’t really donating anything. Not sure how great of items would come in as donations if individuals weren’t profiting. I still donate to these sorts of sales for charity because I am anti-clutter and give stuff away for my own personal peace (and I hate trying to sell stuff on my own) but I know many people don’t want to give away something they could sell themselves.

I like food fundraisers where I am saving myself meal prep another time. Like a takeaway dinner that replaces a family meal is much more interesting to me that say a special or dessert item that I wouldn’t have bought anyway and is a big splurge. I also will buy stuff like a bag of onions. I use them and I would have to buy them anyway. But cookie dough? Nah that is just like asking me for cash. The men’s group at our church sells smoked pork butt twice a year. I pick up that and I have dinner for a couple nights and my money goes to good charities. I don’t do the restaurant fund raisers because my family rarely eats out and the charity would only get a small amount of profit so that is not worth it.

I would love to pay someone to rake leaves in fall. Lol.

Bake sales at our church make a ridiculous amount of money I think. People love to bake to donate and then people are willing to pay for treats after mass. Maybe because we don’t usually have donuts or anything so it is a treat.

At our last church the youth group would do a car wash during mass. People would drop off their keys and parking location on the way in and come out to a clean car. Over the course of a weekend (four masses) they would make a lot.

[TCB]

We have a yearly yard sale for our robotics team and we have found it most effective to not price the items but to ask people to donate what they want or what the item is worth to them. We do sometimes put minimum donation notices on big ticket items, but have found that this method almost doubles the amount we make from the sale.

[Janeway]

The one where, the first year, the kid sells things. Then the second year, the parents are offered to donate money or the kids can sell things. 

 

But to seriously answer your question...a camp type thing for kids. Your teens take my kids for a few hours and have some good clean cut fun doing tons of activities. The kids have so much fun they beg for more. If the kids just sit around while the teens try to get their act together, not so much. 

[TCB]

6 minutes ago, Janeway said:

The one where, the first year, the kid sells things. Then the second year, the parents are offered to donate money or the kids can sell things. 

 

But to seriously answer your question...a camp type thing for kids. Your teens take my kids for a few hours and have some good clean cut fun doing tons of activities. The kids have so much fun they beg for more. If the kids just sit around while the teens try to get their act together, not so much. 

Yes we do a Lego Robotics camp too, which is a great fundraiser, but it is an absolute ton of work!

[City Mouse]

The most successful (raised the most money in a short time) for my DH’s Venture crew has been making then selling bbq(in Texas so it was slow smoked not grilled). There was a larger organization that would lend a large smoker in a trailer. A local store would let the group set up in the parking lot for 2 days. Local business would would provide meat at a large discount -Chappell Hill sausage at cost. A chicken processing  place would donate bulk chicken leg quarters, and brisket was gotten cheaply somewhere. Some of the group would stay up the night before cooking all the meat. The other people would take turns the next day selling, serving, and delivering. They took pre-orders from business such as car dealerships and individual as well us lots of walk up orders. 

Besides being in Texas where people will follow the smell of the smoke to find fresh bbq,🙂 it worked well because the group was made up of kids old enough to do a lot of the work including driving around to pick up donated meats and deliver large pre-order. I don’t know that this would work in a group of younger kids where only parents could really do the work.

An easy one that our local BSA troop does is selling Christmas trees. We have a source for free trees, so one weekend the kids get together and go cut down a bunch of trees, then they take turns after school and on the weekend at the lot selling the trees. It is a big deal here. As soon as November gets here, we start hearing “When are the Boy Scouts going to start selling trees?”

[PeachyDoodle]

Pit-smoking fundraisers are big around here as well. Most of what I see done is chicken. (We are in a big pulled-pork area and my guess is that wouldn't sell well since there are literally a dozen restaurants within driving distance that already do it.) My parents' church does bbq chicken at least once a year and adds sides like baked beans, potato salad, and rolls, along with homemade dessert, for dine in or take out. 

A lot of churches around here also make homemade chicken pies. Youth groups often sell Christmas trees and pine needles in the spring or fall -- they will often deliver and/or spread them for you for an additional fee.

(For some reason, churches are apparently what pop to mind when I think of fundraising, but these would translate to other groups I think.)

I am most likely to participate in a fundraiser selling some type of food that can replace a meal, either immediately or in the future (like a chicken pie or lasagna that I can freeze). If I'd be buying it anyway, I'm usually willing to buy from a good cause, even if it costs a little more. 

[Pen]

I would appreciate regular car washes with dates announced in well in advance .  

[Murphy101]

Honestly I'm the worst.  I dislike nearly all fundraisers.  Unless over 50% of the funds taken are to the cause, I'm usually not interested. Unless I see I direct correlation between the event and the goal, I'm usually not interested.

So for example, I'm completely uninterested in almost all "Walk for the ___" fill in any medical condition ever.  Extremely little of the funds raised goes towards an research.  No one is ever being cured of anything bc of those walks/runs.

Some things we have found helpful at our parish. And dinner and auction.  Everyone buys a ticket for a simple Mexican buffet dinner at the parish hall, and donations are made of items to auction off.  About 5-10 items are cash auctions, but the rest, people can bid on with tokens they get when they buy their tickets for the event.  The food and prep is also donated, so it's all for the cause.

For young people, rent a teen is popular during the summer and again during the holidays.  Pay so much in donations and get so much manpower for yard work in the summer, or for decoration set up and winter work before the holidays.  It's not as expensive as hiring pros, but it's a respectable amount.  You have to have at least a dozen or so worker bees who can do the work decently though and at least two approved adults to tag along to fulfill safety with minors supervision rules.  

Pancake breakfast is always popular too.

[wintermom]

3 hours ago, Carrie12345 said:

I’m on a newly formed fundraising committee. I have a million ideas, but need to start narrowing them down.  I’m looking for feedback to help determine which ideas might pull in the most manpower to run an event (or take the least manpower) and which ideas are most likely to pull in the most attendance/participation from people who don’t already actively support the organization.

I am trying to stay away from things like restaurant nights.  We’re pretty far from most places that do that, so it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. We want to engage the community and get their money. 😉 

What exactly is the goal of "engage the community?" Is the goal to increase awareness of the organization as it provides a service to help support certain people or illness? Or is it to increase participating in the organization itself?

I agree with a PP that at least 50% of proceeds should go directly to the organization.  My mil is so tired of most fundraiser items that she just offers cash, but this is for her own grandchildren. Most people don't feel motivated to give cash unless it's a cause that is meaningful to them. 

I also prefer knowing exactly what the fundraiser is going to fund along with a tangible goal (e.g., $2000), such as a set of musical instruments, or a new roof, rather than simply "xyz program." 

I know you wanted fundraising suggestions. I'm just so tired of all the pressure to buy stuff to fund my nieces and nephew's sports teams for no apparent reason other than they'd like more money.

[Guest]

The ones I like best are the ones where a group of teens provide a day or an evening of activities for younger kids (with a few parents to supervise)-DD did them with a high school dance team and a high school cheer team at different schools. Usually the kids learned a short routine, played games, made a craft, ate pizza, and then got to perform with the teens at a halftime show or other event. The kids get sponsors for t-shirts that go home with each kid and are worn for the performance, so that is covered (and I think might have even gotten donations or a reduced cost for the pizza/snacks as well)-all sponsors have their company name/logo on the back of the t-shirts. It is relatively low overhead, and parents pay a decent amount-usually it's about $100 for a day long event, or $50 for an evening. This is usually done to pay for travel to nationals, new uniforms, or something similar.

As a piano teacher, I am more than willing to donate a 4 lesson gift certificate to local auctions, particularly music related-usually I end up getting a new students out of it, so it is good advertising for me, as well as a way for me to support a local group. Those are common here-although I think they mostly raise money from people already involved in the organization. I did several last year for choir trips and band trips-I particularly like supporting music related organizations since usually those parents are the ones who are more than willing to continue preschool piano lessons for their younger child!

The other thing that has worked fairly well is to hide Easter eggs-parents pay the group to come before the kids wake up and hide filled eggs (or at a set time when they are out of the house) so that the kids are surprised and the parents don't have to do it. Buy the empty eggs in huge quantities the prior year, and everyone participating brings a bag of non-peanut, non-chocolate stuff to fill them with (here, chocolate is a REAL mess because it is hot enough to melt it by March/April), stuffs eggs, and people cover their particular part of town. If you plan in advance, you can buy the non-candy stuff the year before. It means getting up super early and driving your carload of teens around to hide eggs, but it pays well. I think the rate last year was $30 for 25 eggs, $50 for 50 eggs, and $75 for 100 eggs, with $5 for a special prize egg. This, again, usually covers Nationals.

Edited September 1, 2019 by dmmetler

[Murphy101]

What wintermom said.  I hate buying more stuff and most of the food isn't in my budget/dietary restrictions and takes a huge chunk of the proceeds.

if you want to engage the community, then service geared fundraisers are the way to go.  either go to them so they can see the work done, or bring them in to see where it's done and what is needed.  I donate every time for those.  Make it affordable for everyone to engage..  I can't afford a $100 dinner.  I can afford $20.  So, both end s of the financial spectrum need to be considered.  And 50/50 raffles are great.  Buy a ticket for a $1 or $5 and at the end of the night, the charity gets 50 and a winning ticket gets the other 50%.  In a big crowd, that alone can generate several $100.

[Carol in Cal.]

Some that haven't been mentioned yet that have worked out pretty well:

1.  Wrap presents at a local Barnes and Noble at Christmas time.  You can't charge for this, but wrapping books is fast and easy, and you put out a tip jar and do really well.

2.  Instant Superbowl Party:  Pre-order marinated tri tip roasts to grill or oven roast.  Kids do the marinading and make hearty side salads.  Pick up is the day before the Superbowl.  Very lucrative and because of the pre-orders there is no waste except for folks who just don't show up, in which case the extras go home with the kids.

3.  Wrapping paper sales--I don't know who sponsors this but it pops up every few years.  The paper is double sided and heavy and very high quality.  I'm always thrilled to be able to buy some.

4.  Sales of cooperative games from Family Pastimes--obscure and really engaging games that are not competitive but that still make you want to play.  The great thing about these as presents is that they are not super common in stores in the area, so no one has them unless  you gift them.

[athena1277]

2 hours ago, Carol in Cal. said:

4.  Sales of cooperative games from Family Pastimes--obscure and really engaging games that are not competitive but that still make you want to play.  The great thing about these as presents is that they are not super common in stores in the area, so no one has them unless  you gift them.

I looked this company up but I don’t see anything about fundraising.  How were you able to sell these as a fundraiser?

[Carol in Cal.]

17 minutes ago, athena1277 said:

I looked this company up but I don’t see anything about fundraising.  How were you able to sell these as a fundraiser?

It's been a while, but they used to have a place on their website for setting up fundraisers.  If they don't anymore, you could write to them and ask if they are still doing this.  It's a fairly small, family run company in Canada and I imagine that they would respond one way or another.

[Loowit]

I prefer one day things that don't take up weeks of door to door/store front (popcorn and candy sales).

We have done well with things like garage sales, car washes, restaurant fundraisers, etc.  This year we have a parent setting up a fundraiser to sell wreaths.  I am not sure what I think about that.  We can sell online, but I don't want to do door to door.  We used to do really well with Christmas trees, but we can't do that one anymore for various reasons.

[regentrude]

I hate and won't participate in any fundraiser that sells overpriced items where the organization gets only a percentage of the proceeds. Candles, wrapping paper, cookie dough....  I'd rather write a check so that all my money goes to the cause.

The fundraisers I like are the ones that offer services that I wouldn't splurge on otherwise. Some local groups offer leaf raking. Very happy to pay for that generously. Or window washing. 

Also like quality entertainment related to the cause: a choir concert as choir fundraiser, a theatre performance as theatre fundraiser, etc.

Edited September 1, 2019 by regentrude

[Carrie12345]

4 hours ago, wintermom said:

What exactly is the goal of "engage the community?" Is the goal to increase awareness of the organization as it provides a service to help support certain people or illness? Or is it to increase participating in the organization itself?

I agree with a PP that at least 50% of proceeds should go directly to the organization.  My mil is so tired of most fundraiser items that she just offers cash, but this is for her own grandchildren. Most people don't feel motivated to give cash unless it's a cause that is meaningful to them. 

I also prefer knowing exactly what the fundraiser is going to fund along with a tangible goal (e.g., $2000), such as a set of musical instruments, or a new roof, rather than simply "xyz program." 

I know you wanted fundraising suggestions. I'm just so tired of all the pressure to buy stuff to fund my nieces and nephew's sports teams for no apparent reason other than they'd like more money.

I didn’t want to list the type of organization right away because I wanted to hear the ideas first, lol. It’s our volunteer fire department. 

There are departments in the area that do monthly breakfasts, weekly bingo, annual tricky trays, specific dinners... There’s a lot of “competition”. Our department doesn’t do much at all, and one of our biggest money makers is cancelled (out of our control) next year. Which is why I’m now heading up the new fundraising committee. Sigh. 

Also, we need members. 

[mom2scouts]

I know a group that does really well selling mums in the fall. 

[Miss Tick]

Seems like the volunteer fire department would be naturals for barbecue. Maybe a dunk booth. Chopping down Christmas trees with their axes is another stereotype that springs to mind. They don't want to do the (cliché) calendar? Can you sell firetruck rides for birthday parties? Do you make money filling swimming pools?

[lynn]

Our pto did good with a puppy stroll.  Everyone likes to show off their pets.  There is a fee to participate in the stroll around the school trac and a fee for the pet costume contest.  We had some vendors who donated door prizes.  There was good community participation along with students, parents and teachers. It was a fun event.  The costumes....people go all out for their pets.

[wathe]

Our Scouts do very well with Apple Day.  The Scouts give away apples and accept donations. I love this fund raiser! 

Parent's perspective:  It's time limited (one weekend a year).  Requires only 1-2 hours per family - each beaver/cub/scout/venturer takes a shift at the door of a grocery store or other busy business.   We really do give the apples away - not everyone donates, and that's fine.  The kids are really doing the work themselves, and  I'm not stuck trying to shill overpriced junk to friends, relatives and colleagues who don't want it (I'm looking at you, popcorn).

Organizers perspective:  It's time limited (one weekend a year)!  It gives our organization great visibility in the community.  The youth get to practice interacting with the public and talk about their scouting adventures.  Great value for time spent - this fundraiser is really quite lucrative.  Some folks are very generous!

[wathe]

Do you do a boot drive?  It's a thing here - one weekend a year the firefighters stand at the entrance of parking lots and solicit donations to "fill the boot". I think they do well with this.

[wintermom]

19 hours ago, Carrie12345 said:

I didn’t want to list the type of organization right away because I wanted to hear the ideas first, lol. It’s our volunteer fire department. 

There are departments in the area that do monthly breakfasts, weekly bingo, annual tricky trays, specific dinners... There’s a lot of “competition”. Our department doesn’t do much at all, and one of our biggest money makers is cancelled (out of our control) next year. Which is why I’m now heading up the new fundraising committee. Sigh. 

Also, we need members. 

That sounds like a very worthy and well-known "cause."  What exactly are the funds or actions needed for extra support? I'm a city gal and from Canada. I really have no idea where the volunteer fire dept financial supports come from and what their needs and responsibilities are. Is public education about this kind of information needed or is this pretty much already known?

 

[Selkie]

The volunteer fire departments around here have dances each year which are very well-attended. The dances are held outdoors in the summer or fall and have a band. People buy tickets to the dance and then they buy food and drinks while they are there, too. There is usually a raffle with a prize of $500 or so, and the winner almost always donates it back to the fire dept. 

They also do boot drives.

[happi duck]

Around here, "Fill the boot" is exclusively an MDA fundraiser.

Our food pantry held a rummage sale.  A local church let them use their space.  Besides selling things the checkout area had a donation jar.  Every time someone donated extra to the jar they ran a bell and everyone clapped.  It was fun!

With a rummage sale or a car wash could a fire truck be on site?  That could be an additional draw to the event.

Eta: Another thing the pantry did was a well advertised bag sale on the last day.  Something I thought was smart, on the last day of the sale they were open for the morning then closed for an hour then opened the bag sale.  I've worked other sales where people shop and lurked until the bag sale starts.  Closing and reopening solves that.

Edited September 2, 2019 by happi duck

[JennyD]

Our neighborhood association (not a HOA) runs a holidays lights carriage tour every December.  We contract with a horse-drawn carriage business and sell tickets for half-hour tours of the neighborhood.  Over the eight (?) years that we've been doing this a lot of residents on the designated streets have gotten very into decorating and some of the houses are amazing!  We also simultaneously run a competition for the best-decorated house.

It is a huge amount of work but also quite lucrative, especially if the weather cooperates.   We make money both through ticket sales and by selling ads to local business for a book about the neighborhood that we hand out to riders.  There are 2-3 people who put in countless hours for months getting everything set and selling ads, and then it's all hands on deck (maybe 20 people taking shifts) for the two nights themselves.  

 

[Carrie12345]

56 minutes ago, wintermom said:

That sounds like a very worthy and well-known "cause."  What exactly are the funds or actions needed for extra support? I'm a city gal and from Canada. I really have no idea where the volunteer fire dept financial supports come from and what their needs and responsibilities are. Is public education about this kind of information needed or is this pretty much already known?

 

I absolutely think public education is needed, and I’m working on plans to tackle that. There are so many people who assume our firefighters get paid (they don’t) and are at the station prepared to help (they’re not.)

Most money comes from taxes and a few small grants, but it’s definitely not enough to provide everything the members and community needs, equipment or education/training-wise. My family (and the others) spends a lot on equipment and supplies to keep my husband and dds safe and prepared.  We’ll always continue to do that because duh, but every bit helps. 

[brehon]

VFDs around here use BBQ as their main fundraiser. There are a lot of VFDs where I live and each of them seem to do quite well getting donations for the BBQ dinners from the communities. 

[Melissa B]

Favorite - Chipped races - 5K / 10K / Triathlons

Don't Mind - Christmas Wreath / Winter Holiday Plant and Gift - only the fundraisers where the company sends your orders directly to the addresses you provide

[Carrie12345]

13 hours ago, Medicmom2.0 said:

 This year the fire department got a car donated to them by a local junkyard.  It was still in relatively decent body shape. We removed all the windows then charged $2 for 30 seconds of putting on FD safety equipment(bunker gear, gloves, and safety glasses) and using a tool to break the car.

That’s one I recently came across and definitely isn’t done by anyone else in our area. I’d like to look into that. We have a junk yard that already donates cars for training purposes, so I’m not sure if that means we have a great hook up or if it’s asking for a bit too much. But I guess we can find out, lol.

[importswim]

13 hours ago, Medicmom2.0 said:

 

Most financial supports come through taxes, but it’s mostly just very bare bones.  We fundraise primarily for equipment and new apparatus.  Our state is always giving unfunded mandates—equipment we now are required to have by the government but they also aren’t giving us the money to get it.  Fundraising helps with that too.  Plus the equipment we have all has expiration timelines and then we have to take it out of service and buy new. Turnout/bunker gear, for example, is only rated safe for 10 years.  It all adds up. Everyone wants top notch service, but doesn’t want to pay extra taxes for it.

This is a very meaningful graphic. If I saw something like this printed on a poster at an event it would cause me to give more (if I could!) Of course firefighting gear is expensive, by the nature of what it needs to do, but I've never thought about how expensive. OP, you should put this up whatever you do!

[Bambam]

A favorite with my kids was a chili meal fundraiser. We cooked in shifts (browned the hamburger one day, compiled everything the next day - the day of the fundraiser). The kids did some of the cooking (the older kids). Host families signed up (signupgenius) to bring sour cream, chopped onions, chips, crackers, cornbread, ice, drinks, cups, bowls. Kids did the serving. We sold tickets ahead of time. Some families signed up to set up the venue (Extension office) while others signed up to clean up while others helped with serving. 

Because it was a 4-H event, the kids formed teams and each team met in someone's home to make a dessert. We had the kids present their dessert to the gathering like they would have for the Food Challenge judges. Each dessert was cut into small pieces so that everyone could sample a little of each. 

The kids loved this one. It wasn't that much work for any one family because we all pitched in and signed up (unusually group because everyone was willing to help and do their part). The dessert food challenge part turned out to be way more fun than anyone expected - extended family and friends enjoyed seeing the kids do their presentations. 

[TechWife]

Having outside companies host sales on site and donate a portion of the proceeds to the organization has been a great fundraiser for our hospital volunteers. Some of them are specific to the hospital environment - a uniform company and a shoe sales company. Others that are popular are department store pop-up sales (Belk and Dillards). We are hosting Home Goods for the first time in October. The retailer usually has two or three of their own employees on site to help customers and to do checkouts.

Our neighborhood swim team has food trucks come during swim meets and they donate a portion of the sales to the swim team. This replaced the swim team running it's own concession, which was labor intensive and raised less money.

 

[KungFuPanda]

On 9/1/2019 at 7:56 AM, Carrie12345 said:

I’m on a newly formed fundraising committee. I have a million ideas, but need to start narrowing them down.  I’m looking for feedback to help determine which ideas might pull in the most manpower to run an event (or take the least manpower) and which ideas are most likely to pull in the most attendance/participation from people who don’t already actively support the organization.

I am trying to stay away from things like restaurant nights.  We’re pretty far from most places that do that, so it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. We want to engage the community and get their money. 😉 

My personal favorite are the ones where I buy dinner out and the fundraising entity gets a cut.  I just think that's an all around win.

The most lucrative one I know about is done by the fine arts boosters at our local high school.  Parents get trained up to work concessions at Camden Yard.  They keep all the tips.  Apparently they really rake it in, but it does require adults willing to attend the training and staff the booths at games.  Kids can't do it because some concessions serve beer and they don't always know which booth they'll work.  If this doesn't exist locally, maybe you can start something similar.

Maybe you can set up regular concessions somewhere? (I don't know what you're fund raising for and schools probably won't allow junk food sales.) I do a small fundraiser at my coop each year and you can easily sell sodas for twice their bulk price.  People will pay for the convenience.  I only do it for two weeks, but we make a decent profit.$50

 

EtA:  I think the best fundraisers draw money from the larger community.  The WORST are the ones where the parents of the kids that you are raising money for are recruited to work to plan AND attend AND pay for an event.  I don't want all of that work and stress when, in the end, my just giving $50 to the charity would have the same benefit.

Edited September 3, 2019 by KungFuPanda

[raptor_dad]

My standards for a good fundraiser, are that it needs to raise 10-15$/hr per person and it shouldn't be a complete ripoff for supporters. So BSA popcorn is out.  I think lucrative and community engagement are different goals.

Our troop completely funds dues and camping trips and whatever portion of camp the scouts can cover. Our standard fundraisers are a pancake breakfast and spaghetti dinner that go 100% to the troop. They have a decent community engagement element since we have the photo boards going back to the '20s but really only engage the church and alumni. We also have wreath sales, which are 50% profit and are higher quality than the big box stores. For those 100% of church sales go to the troop and door to door sales profits go mostly to the scouts for camp. Its a pain but I think doing door to door sales and delivery has been good for both of my kids. Our troop gets wreaths from a local distributor but our church's troop(we have separate church and troop for historical reasons) cuts their own boughs and makes their own wreaths with both more work/profit.

For high adventure trips the most lucrative things have been car washes. Our church is next to a busy urban interstate exit so these can be rather ad hoc. "Volunteering" at some Race for the Cure type races can pay ~$9/hr. Working Concessions at Twins games can pay <$10. Neither of those are worth while for our family.

The most high yield thing, money and engagement combined(church wreath sales are the best $ spinner), we've done for the last couple year is concessions at our local Holly Trolley. We set up table and sell cookies, snacks, and cocoa at the local Christmas Trolley ride. We also have a fire and free roasting sticks and marshmallows, though we do sell s'mores kits ;). This opportunity came along since one of our alums was looking for a group to take over concessions and help with set up and break down at the event. It is Sat/Sun the 2 weekends after Thanksgiving. It is really quite fun. Troop parents bake dozens of fancy cookies, We fire up the coleman stoves for hot chocolate. The Cubs and younger Scouts man the booth with an adult to gently oversee the till. The older Scouts man the fire and help the preschoolers roast marshmallows. The surplus adult adult stand around the fire and chat up the kids or adults.  It is always fun. How lucrative it is depends on the weather. Snow always helps.

The Holly Trolley is by far the best  engagement event we have. The preschool./early elementary crowd is great for directly recruiting in to Cub Scouts. But more importantly, chatting with the parents is great for the Scouts. I've heard so many interesting discussions with parents or grandparents there with their kids. Any parent who mentions having been a Scout gets asked as appropriate either "What's the coolest thing you did as a Scout?" or "What was your Eagle project?". Both of those get great answers that get new parents or grandparents involved in authentic conversations with the Scouts. Two examples I overheard are one of the train conductors explaining how he got Eagle before a project was required(pre '65) and a 30 something dad talking about his project planting ~5ft trees as a windbreak at his elementary school in Iowa and seeing the ~40ft trees every time he goes home .

[Guest]

I don't know how lucrative it is, but one of the local high school bands does "touch a truck", where they have a bunch of groups bring their vehicles to the school parking lot, and charge a few dollars admission to preschoolers to come see the vehicles up close and personal. I believe they also invite food trucks, etc to come as well. That might be a good community engagement with some fundraising activity for the fire department, rescue squad, etc.

 

[Wheres Toto]

On 9/1/2019 at 1:05 PM, Carol in Cal. said:

4.  Sales of cooperative games from Family Pastimes--obscure and really engaging games that are not competitive but that still make you want to play.  The great thing about these as presents is that they are not super common in stores in the area, so no one has them unless  you gift them.

Gamewright offers a Game Night fundraiser that we are going to be doing.  They make games like Sushi Go, Forbidden Island, Dragonwood, Rat-a-Tat Cat, Zeus on the Loose, Scrambled States of America, etc.  They send sample games and games to sell, the organization sponsors a game night where people can play and buy the games right there.   Organization gets 50% of the sales.  We're probably doing one in early November to get Christmas sales.

[vonfirmath]

19 minutes ago, Where's Toto? said:

Gamewright offers a Game Night fundraiser that we are going to be doing.  They make games like Sushi Go, Forbidden Island, Dragonwood, Rat-a-Tat Cat, Zeus on the Loose, Scrambled States of America, etc.  They send sample games and games to sell, the organization sponsors a game night where people can play and buy the games right there.   Organization gets 50% of the sales.  We're probably doing one in early November to get Christmas sales.

 

Neat Sushi Go and Rat-a-Tat Cat are two of my kids favorites

You didn't mention it but HISS! was a great favorite for my kids up until age 4 or 5. It's a good early game. (And a great thing to have on hand to entertain a smaller child left waiting for an older child's practice)  They can use it to match colors or just have fun making snakes.

 

[Suzanne in ABQ]

Potluck.

Our organization has an annual potluck, and invites people to "bring a dish to share, and donate what you would spend on a nice meal".  Everyone has a lovely evening visiting with friends they don't see very often, as well as meeting new friends.  Everyone gets the chance to donate to a worthwhile, local charity, and the work on our part is minimal.

Our potluck is all women, but there's another club in our community who does the same thing.  They have a holiday potluck, where they also collect items for the women's shelter, and they collect money, for OUR organization!  So, in essence, most of our funding comes from two potlucks.

[Pen]

Another I really liked was when local school got a Good Will receiving truck to get pick ups at the school parking lot.  That might not be as much help in city situation, but we’re rural, so having a local place to donate (and knowing in advance so as not to have just hauled stuff to city was great! 3 times per year, known well in advance (and including a weekend) would be even better, imo.  

 

I like Ike game night idea a lot— never had a game night fundraiser, but I’d go.  

[QueenCat]

A recent favorite at our church is a Caberet Evening. We had a soloist accompanied by a piano player. Wine and a nice meal. Time to socialize before and after the musical acts. Childcare was available (donations were a fundraiser as well). 

[Pen]

On 9/2/2019 at 1:44 PM, Medicmom2.0 said:

 

Most financial supports come through taxes, but it’s mostly just very bare bones.  We fundraise primarily for equipment and new apparatus.  Our state is always giving unfunded mandates—equipment we now are required to have by the government but they also aren’t giving us the money to get it.  Fundraising helps with that too.  Plus the equipment we have all has expiration timelines and then we have to take it out of service and buy new. Turnout/bunker gear, for example, is only rated safe for 10 years.  It all adds up. Everyone wants top notch service, but doesn’t want to pay extra taxes for it.

 

For things like this, our area has had events with kids and local artists contributing buyable art work and other items  (local farm might contribute a pig) to become silent auctionable items.    

Then a poster like the above would have each item needed be something people can direct contribute to (like maybe one person who can afford to contributes a whole handheld radio amount, but mostly many people contribute $25 or $10 or whatever they can direct toward “gloves” or whatever.  Someone keeps track and visually colors in a line drawing till it’s all (hopefully) colored in.    

If contributions are tax deductible, someone has forms ready to fill out and give to people making contributions (as would also have been done for auction items).  It gets held in grange or school auditorium or somewhere with space and maybe includes some local groups playing music or some entertainment, and maybe some available foods (which can also raise money per glass of lemonade or whatever) . 

They also start trying to make it a yearly event that’s a “thing”.  The Freeport Firefighters Fun Fundraiser  ...

And the Goodwill truck type thing works with much less doing too.  Good will gives back money per pound collected, and only a few workers are needed to man the truck and help move items being contributed.  It can also help reduce people’s excess stuff — instead of asking them to buy unneeded stuff.  

Another is to sign up as an organization that people can contribute to via — can’t recall name, but it’s a place online that one signs up credit cards, or can go to before making purchases at participating companies—.  which then purchases at some places like Safeway or  LLBean (or some local stores as well as National) give a percent contribution to the organization for things people would be getting anyway like groceries or clothes...

 

Could A fire department also give community members  help getting things cleaned up (shrubbery, leaves) and decluttered as both help to decrease fire risk and to take payments that would go to the department? Or would that be too hard, potentially dangerous or too much potential liability?  Or seem too intrusive in lives? 

 

[Pen]

eScrip was Name I couldn’t think of

also check out AmazonSmile

and FedCo seeds has garden seed selling fundraiser.  (But might only be for schools)

Edited September 6, 2019 by Pen

[ScoutTN]

I live in Music City, so singer-songwriter events are my favorites. Usually only small, low-key ones for organizations we really love. 

As far as things to purchase, my daughter's AHG troop sells coffee (and tea and cocoa) and that works well for our family.

Edited September 6, 2019 by ScoutTN

[OH_Homeschooler]

I attended a Trivia Night fundraiser that was fun. I didn't even know anyone there but it sounded fun, so I went. It was at a hotel, I assume the hotel donated the space for the event but I don't know. There was an entrance fee, like $10. There was a cash bar available, and everyone was encouraged to bring snacks to share. You'd have to find a host, the one at this event hosts trivia events regularly.