Who does Fund Raisers, and what do you do?

[honeychile]

Originally posted by PnguinTrax
Our alumnae chapter does two things:

1. We sell a ZTA-specific pink ribbon pin for breast cancer awareness (see my sig link).

2. We contact the parents of the local collegians and (for a fee) provide their daughter with a goody bag during finals week.

Both programs are very successful for us and have allowed us to be major donors to our Foundation for many years.

While I like both ideas, I really love the idea of the goody bags for finals! I would imagine that would be an easily accomplished fundraiser, compared to some others.

One thing I've learned about fundraisers is to be sure not to "canalbalize" your own members. In other words, plan something that won't take a lot of money from your membership, but will raise money from other people.

Our alumnae association made candy for several years - we became known for it, and there were two different companies who would place orders of 50+ boxes each! It was a low maintainance fundraiser. We chose 8 different types of candy, and at least two members made x amount each. These were all brought to a meeting where we filled the boxes on an assembly line (many I Love Lucy jokes here!), then distributed as per orders. The candy itself was those microwaveable discs, melted and then the nuts, raisens, coconut, crunchies or whatever added. And of course, we had our secret "Lion's Roar" candy that everyone loved! I think we made roughly $1,500 profit from each sale.

FWIW, I've been involved in a LOT of fundraisers. The first thing you have to do is decide how much you want to make, the second is how much time you want to put into it.