In DESPERATE need of Fundraising ideas!
 

Okay, so I go to a VERY small private school in the North Georgia mountains and I've been appointed Fundraising chair. My sorority only has 6 on-campus members and our school itself has under 600 kids. What kind of fundraisers are VERY cheap and easy to do with what little resources we have?

Bake sales.

Car washes.

One year, they sold pinwheels to be put on the front lawn of the courthouse.Very cute!!

I saw this one chapter that did hand dipped chocolate strawberries and other items and it was a huge sale :) it went out fast!

1. NEVER cannabalize your membership! Don't plan to sell something that only members of your sorority would be interested in.

2. If you spend $5 to make cookies, plan on making AT LEAST $7.50. Even better is 100% profit. If you find that unethical, most department stores charge over 200% profit.

3. Try something that you can go to each dorm, sorority/fraternity house to sell, is cheap, and will be wanted. Good things include chocolate bars, half-dozen or a dozen cookies, etc.

4. If your school allows you to set up a table or stand, do so! You'll get everyone on campus that way. Dress nicely!!

5. ADVERTISE! "Bake Sale - January 1st - Student Union Lower Lobby - 8a-6p - benefits (charity) - Held by XYZ Sorority", on posters & in the Student Newspaper.

6. With enough advertising, fresh doughnuts in the morning work VERY well! This can also be done with order forms.

7. Decide how much you plan to make prior to event, and don't stop until you've made AT LEAST that much!

8. You only have six members, you cannot afford to burn out!

9. Plan to hold one of these events a month so people get used to them.

10. There are a lot of ideas for Valentine's Day - sending lollipop messages, rose messages, etc. They're very successful, but very time consuming. If you can use some of your younger (biological) sisters to help, do so!

11. Good luck! :) Feel free to PM me if you feel the need!

Our alumnae association did a candy fundraiser with See's Candies. With only a few of us participating (maybe 9 people?) we sold $1800 worth of candy and, as a result, took home $900.

We did the holiday programs fundraiser for Christmas - they also do Valentine's Day and Easter. I think that the Christmas one would be most lucrative as people loved to buy the items for stocking stuffers or for simple gifts for neighbors, their babysitter and so on.

The holiday items were an easy sell, I simply posted the display sheet on the bulletin board at work. At $5 each for a quality brand name product, the items sold themselves. We didn't have to purchase the candy in advance. We actually took the pre-orders, collected the totals and ordered the number of cases we needed.

There are also boxed candy, candybar and lollypop options. I don't *think* you have to be near one of their locations; but, I did notice that there were a few in Georgia.

Here is the link to their website! http://fr.sees.com/frhome.cfm

.....Kelly :)

50/50 raffle
you sell tickets for $1 each (or whatever), the winner from the drawing wins half the money raised. Depending on how many tickets you sell, the Sorority could raise $20 or $200. Quick and easy!

Love-grams for Valentines day
take orders in advance, on V-day deliver a card & candy or card & single rose to each person's dorm room. A lot of times people will order these not only for their SO, but for friends. you can make a decent amount of $$ as long as you buy the cards and candy in bulk AND charge a fair price. No one will pay $10 for this, i think 3 or 5 max.

I think read on another thready that you went to Young Harris, right? I spent many days at YH when my friend was an undergrad there (she's a sigma beta sigma).

At any rate - here's a thought - I just checked the chick-fil-a website, and saw that the closest chick-fil-a is in Dahlonega. What about doing a early morning biscuit run, and selling them one morning in a heavily trafficked area? The only problem with this would be that you'd have to pay the money up front, and it could get expensive. When I was in high school, the football team would buy chicken biscuits on friday mornings and sell them outside the cafeteria for a little bit more expensive than what they wouls pay for them. If you buy enough (say, 100 of them) the store might even cut you a price break.

If paying up front is not an option, perhaps you could do a reservation sign up. I dont know how well this would work on your campus, but maybe Monday-Thursday, students could pay you guys for the biscuits, and Friday morning they could come pick them up from you (providing proof of purchase - maybe with a raffel ticket or a check off list).

Yeah, I know, it's probably too complicated. I just know I'm a chick-fil-a biscuit nut, and the closest one being 30 miles away - sounds like something students might be interested in, since they cant get them on a regular basis.

carnation sale for valentines day, maybe? In high school we would do a sign up sheet, buy however many carnations we wanted to buy, and which colors, we'd write a note to the recipient and they would be delivered to that person in one of their classes.

Bouncing off what Amanda said I know an org on my campus did a breakfast in bed thing.

What is even better is sending order forms home to the freshman parents. Breakfast in bed during midterms.

I read on some board somewhere that a group did a pancake breakfast at midnight. My chapter is going to try that this semester.

But they're so tasty! :p

EVEN HER USER NAME IS SHOUTING AT US

In some states, you can go to jail for holding an illegal lottery (at least, that's the case in Oklahoma).

That's not legal advice, that's just the word on the street.

I hear that if you sell them something (e.g. a piece of candy) and they also get a raffle ticket, it's fine. They got something for their money - who's to say they wouldn't have paid $1 for a dum dum?

My high school did that. Sold 25 dollar calendars... and a complementary raffle ticket

we do a raffle every spring, where we go around to area businesses and ask for donations (discounts on restaurants, gift certificates... we even got a harmonica from the music store lol but just ask for anythingggg) and then we do a raffle using the prizes and sell tickets i think for like 1 dollar or 5 for an arms length and sat in our student union and went around to professors, and other greek chapters. we used it for our philanthropy, the american cancer society... the first time we did it- we got crappy prizes and didn't raise much but the last few years have been successful, so don't get discouraged

another thing we do is we sponsor the homecoming king- and we ask guys to participate (its a big deal to do so) and they go around and collect change for the american cancer society and the guy that raises the most is crowned homecoming king...

we also threw parties lol but with 6 sisters thats kind of hard to do....

good luck!!! pm me if you have questions :)

You have to watch out for raffles and movie night fundraisers. A lot of schools don't allow them, and with movies, I believe you can't officially charge at all but you can have a suggested donation.

Seems this member is gone?

But for others, ASA does a teeter totter thon!

We do a Hot Tub a Thon with a fellow Sorority on the lawn in the winter at the house.

Steam is coming off and takes great pics!

Gather either money, canned goods, and get some freebies like the hot tub and food!

Have a sheet of plywood to put names on!:D

So, get print and TV and Radio media to help, it is news worthy!:)

A Local Charity is greast and they will push it too!

I've seen fundraisers where the campus community can "rent" a sister - to run errands, wash cars, clean houses, etc.

If there are any theme parks nearby, you can work concessions (same thing for athletic events & concert venues).

And the best time to sell candy (or any other food) is during Midterms and Finals!

One year, they sold pinwheels to be put on the front lawn of the courthouse.Very cute

If you have extra rush or social shirts laying around, which most chapters at north georgia do (I know I went there and my SAE chapter had always had a few extra) then you can try to sell them online to recapture some of the money lost.

We did a "best legs" competition. All you could see from the contestants were their legs. There was a curtain draped from their hips on up, so unless you could recognize either their legs or their shoes, you had no idea who you were cheering for.

We did groups of 4 at a time. Each sorority and fraternity could enter up to 3 members. Since this was a while ago, I can't remember how much we charged.

Judges were non-Greeks and included faculty as well as independents. This was a lot of fun and always brought in quite a bit of money.

One of the Fraternities, sold Singing Telegrams on Mother's Day. They would call your mother (grandmother, aunt, etc) and sing the song of your choosing. I think they charged $5 per call.

Fundraising Ideas
 

hey!! well another idea that we just used and we were able to get all the money profit from it was a yard sale you guys can get somewhere busy and have the girls look around their house for stuff they dont need...



SL

What about sponsored events - it's surprising if you have a few hundred people that all raise $5-10 or more how much you can end up with. We did this as an annual event and raise thousands.

How about auctioning off or doing a garage sale of all those unwanted items - text books, gifts, electrical goods, clothes, etc ?

U can try selling candy bars, if U have a Sam's Club or Gordon Food Services u can go there and buy a box of candy for like $25-$30 and most of them have anywhere from 40-51 bars that U sell for $1 each. That can bring in money for your chapter, you also look into like Krispy Kreme i know they do fundraiser stuff, also.

Something For The Brothers-Fraternity
 

If you are in need of capitalization, why not combine car washing, soda pop and pizza. I do not know to many brothers that can not resist beautiful sisters , food and pop. You could have your cake and eat it to.

I am sure you have discount soda pop and pizza restaurants in your area. You could charge $ 2.50 for a chees and pep, $ 3.00 for a combo and charge 1.25 for the soda pop.

make the point that you need repairs to property and needs of the sisiters.

Thank You,

Todd

Bake sale, candy sale, etc.. I've been trying to think of a good fundraiser to propose to the brotherhood so we can have a few extra parties this semester, but I'd rather do it without adding pounds to my fellow collegians. Have people actually had success with _____-a-thons as fundraisers (not philanthropy) in the past? How do you convince people you are a worthy cause to donate money to with all the much more pressing causes out there?

REACH THE ARBONNE!

I know you probably mean well, but I'm just letting you know now. Arbonne and everything about it will not be well-received here.

Just sayin'.

I have the same problem at my school! Small, private school. Plus the kids are not very school-spirited.
At our Zeta Days Convention thing one chapter told us about "Kidnapped".
They "kidnapped" every fraternity and sorority's president and gave them a "price" in order to get them back. The price usually wasn't money (maybe you could ask for money though) it was stuff for their philanthropy, for example, if your philanthropy was something about helping the homeless the "ransom note" would have a list of things you'd want to give to your local homeless shelter, such as canned food, etc. So while the frats and sororities are running around gathering said items, your p.o.w.'s are playing games and eating food while at your house. Also, fyi, before you do this make sure it's not a problem for the other greeks and make sure you "kidnap" them on a day there will be a good turn out from them, such as chapter meeting days.

If you need any more ideas I'm sure I have a few more. I'm also our chapter's fundraising/community service chair.
You can e-mail me at ztabriel@gmail.com
happy fundraising! lol

Heree is a surefire winner
 

Water kefir grains! Buy them off ebay, get them from a friend, whatever you have to do.. They sell like hotcakes and grow to double their size in just 24-48 hours. You could sell a few tablespoons of these for about 5 dollars each. If you grow your own now, amass a ton of grains, you can really make a ton of cash. OK so with that said, make sure you use organic unsulphured dried fruit. Regular store bought dried fruit is not good enough, it will hurt the grains. Organic sugar, a giant glass jar, purified water, organic dried fruit, and PEELED store bought lemons is all you need. And the water kefir grains of course.

Hammilton

Maybe a spaghetti dinner at your xyz house. It would provide a way for interested member to come in and meet your chapter with low pressure, and supports to support.

Also, maybe has a chapter you could sell avon or mark and put the processed towards the chapter.

Sponsor some sort of competition and charge entry fees.

Hi, can anybody suggest me about fundraisers ?
Thanks in advance !

The Gamma Phi Beta chapter on my campus had parents weekend this past week. They had gift baskets that they had a silent auction for the parents, i believe they made something like $1,800 in a single night and great PR for their parents too.

I don't know how your organization is about partying. But some at my university throw parties and charge at the door, $5 a head (besides ladies of course) or even promote a few at the local clubs.

You could also host a talent show and charge admission or can goods.

Give http://uearning.com a shot. It's an online fundraising program that apparently has an unlimited earning potential. You can basically have your friends and extended family do all of their shopping through the site and it raises money for a cause by paying commissions off all your purchases. So it's sort of a passive way of getting some good back from the purchases you had to make already. They also have some other products that are good, like selling credit cards or magazines. you could really make a lot of money from that.

actually, the best part is that it doesn't cost anything to sign up. you just set up and start promoting.

Fan Cloth FREE/SIMPLE program to raise money.
 

FAN CLOTH

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we do a pepperoni roll fundraiser every semester. Check around at pizza places in your area and see if any do this. we usually make $1.75 off each one we sell. we take the orders and collect money before hand to use to pay when we pick up the pepperoni rolls. they are easy to sell for aropund $3 and you can ask family/students/bosses/administration if you work on campus

I can recommend a fundraiser that will also give the group a chance to mingle. You can have a get together and serve coffee - my company offers a free coffee fundraiser program - you can have a cup on us coffee and jazz mixer. Guest have a cup on you and purchase the coffee to go before leaving to sponsor your group, there is 50% profit and the coffee has healthy herbs infused in it 100% organic. It's a great opportunity have an upscale affair while getting sponsors. I do not want to advertise here if interested please let me know.