Need Some Suggestions

L., I sell Arbonne and I could set up a few packages for the boys to sell to Grandma's, aunts, family etc and you guys would recieve 20% off each item sold! Let me know if you are interested. They wouldn't have to go door to door just ask family. E.

after hitting up friends and family, why not go door to door? I'm not saying send your son by himself. You or your husband can go with him to each house and stand back, let him make the presentation and try to sell the cards. And why can't the kids stand outside a store? There are always groups of kids selling fundraising items outside of stores.

L.,

We did a fundrasiser for scouts with Baskin Robbins. You may be able to get some businesses to allow you to advertise in their space or offer a discount/coupon to those who make a purchase. We also advertised by having the scout pack come and talk to the patrons while the adults scooped ice cream. It was fun and we made good money for the boys!

-Jen

I would be interested- how can I contact you- Thanks

I have an idea, but it depends on why you don't want them to sell them at a grocery store. Why not try standing outside a Blockbuster Video on the evenings they are the busiest (ie Tuesday, new release day, or Friday, when everyone is renting for the weekend)? I've seen fundraisers at the one I visit, (corner of Gilbert and Guadalupe), and I'm sure they see enough people there nightly to make it a success. Good Luck!

this is an update. i forgot to tell you about a fundraiser we did form my sons bodybuilding team a couple of years ago. Outback steakhouse has a program where they will hold a meal deal during their non busy hours such a s a saturday lunch. they donate the food maybe two types of meals like a chicken dish and a steak dish. the waiters and busboys donate their time and tips. you sell tickets ofr like 12 dollars and get to keep it all. you have to arrange for entertainment. we had a dance group erform, a local high school band, and an old time fiddler. we also had the high school drama class do a small play. this was interspered during the dya so people could come eat at the time when thri choice entertainment was going on. and... of course the parents and friend of the kids that are performing also come and buy tickets because they want to see their kids perform. we started the lunch at 10 and ended at 3. I can tell you from may past experiences, these things dont work. my youngest just graduated form high school and i have been doing fundraisers for many years. IF people buy them, they find too many restirctions. the sales people always tell you that the teams are going to make bookoo bucks but all you do is get stuck. one, they are difficult to sell, especially in this economy. second you have to sell millions of them to make any money. we sold one that had discounts or free food if you buy one at local restaurants. we had a lot of angry customers because a lot oftime they werent honored as stated. or they said it had expired. so first of all i approached my family and friends. then coworkers. thank goodness they wre used to my begging and most of them just wanted to make me stop making them feel guilty. then we did a whole team at grocery stores. if a singel child does it, poeple dont take notice. then we went door to door together. what we found that works better is having meals. pancake breakfast, spagetti dinners, carne asadas ( barbque) . we held them at churches, after services,pre,post and during games, at the school gym or cafeteria. etc. we had one carne asada dinner for example. it was held in the banquet room of a americna legion. the legion members donated all the meat. they aparently get a discount somewhere. al the parents were assinged to bring a dish but you have to specify what kind it is so that all the plates were the same. for example we served beans, potatoe salad spanish rice and slasa and torillas. our local hospital donated all the paper products. we sold it for $5 a plate and $10 deliverd. we did it on payday firday. we started at 11 and took delivery orders ofr all the county offices, and major employers in the area. we deliverd, using parent volunteers and local high school teens that drove. they did it for community servic epoints that go toward graduation. we served until 8 PM. we made 9,000 dolars in taht one day. we also had spagetti dinners in the basement of the church. we asked a church member who has a restuarant to donate cooks and we bought the supplies form him at a discounted price. we only served from 5 to 8 and made 5,600 form that. we live in a tiny community but with a lot of adverising the whole ocmmunity steps up so i dont see why it shouldnt in the ciy.

1.car wash
2.candy bar sells
3.raffle off something cool
4.mow lawns
5.ask for donations from buisnesses
some parents are going to have to step up and be the supervisor. its not safe out there but door to door can be done with parents right there.
p.s. my girls are in soft ball and we earned over $500.00 in donations at a car wash we did in 5 hours.
good luck.

First of all, congrats on getting your group started! Taking the first steps of forming a group can always be a trying process... kudos for giving it a go!

One of the first things can really help getting started is finding ways to get organized early on. Coming up with the tools to manage your members, plan your events and get the word out about everything you do can be tricky.

I'd say the best way to get a jump on this: set up a group home page on a fundraising website. Many of them are free to use and can offer new groups amazing tools to organize, find new volunteers and raise awareness for a cause (regardless of whether you actually want to fundraise). Some require that you have non-profit status to form a group, but plenty others will give student groups, church groups and other groups without non-profit status some awesome ways to help get your group off the ground.

For example, one good site to help new groups is GroupSpaces (www.groupspaces.com). They offer plenty of tools to help get groups off the ground, including some event management functions that let you create events, as well as managing your members. And if you're interested in fundraising for your group eventually, they can link to your account and charge 2.5% of donations received (while some other sites charge as much as 5%).

Another good option would be Empowered.org (www.empowered.org). It is a bit newer than GroupSpaces and their platform is geared more towards social action, but are open to all small groups, regardless of non-profit status. Also, they offer plenty of solid tools to help new groups, and give groups the ability to create specific volunteer activities and events for each group (which GroupSpaces doesn't do). And if you ever were interested in fundraising, they offer specific fundraising campaigns (and charge 1.5% of donations) - nice if you ever go down that road.

There are some other sites worth looking into - MeetUp is another one that helps groups, but doesn't offer as many tools as the other two I mentioned. Anyways, I really think that setting a home would really help jump start the group-starting process.

Hope that helps! Good luck with your group going forward.

Why don't you go door-to-door with them?

What does the membership include? Is it a guest pass or a short term trial offer? And how much?

There are tons of things you can do. I did fundraising for my daughter's school for a few years. One that worked awesome was a chocolate one. You sell the chocolate bars ( give boes to parents) for a 1.00 and you keep .50 and pay. 50 for each bar. Call World Finest Chocolate's 1-866-216-2080 or go to worldfinestchocolates.com and find out about ideas. Best of luck

The dinners work well, but also gift baskets. You can ask parents to donate items for the gift baskets...movie tickets, gift cards, etc. You can choose any theme you like and then sell tickets for a $1..or 12 tickets for $10. You can also ask local business to donate items...for example Home Depot, Lowes, etc. Good luck!

Hi,
Is there a specific reason that you say that you cannot have them stand in front of a grocery store?

If it is a personal preference you might reconsider. My son's scout pack sold their Scout O'Rama tickets in front of a grocery store and did pretty well for themselves.

They all wore their uniforms, which I think helped ;-)
Kind of served a dual purpose too. The boys practiced their "Please and Thank Yous", and they learned how to accept being turned down too.

Other than taking them to work yourself or selling to friends and family, I can't think of how else to sell something so specific.