To give you a few ideas to begin with, here we provide a few fun, simple fundraising tips that students can do on their own or as a class. This list is a useful tool for finding tried and true fundraisers, but feel free to be creative!

Fundraising Card: Fast Food Discount

These are usually specific to just one fast food chain and often are limited to just one or two locations of that particular chain. They retail for $10 and usually cost less than $2, so they're a great moneymaker.

Offers vary by company, but they usually provide a matching main item with purchase of the same. For example, at Burger King, you might get a free hamburger. At Subway, you usually get a free soda, chips, or cookie with each sandwich purchase.

The cards are limited in duration and number of uses. Usually, they are good for up to one year and restricted to roughly ten uses. Again, the offers vary by chain, so check the details closely.

Participating national chains are:

-McDonalds
-Burger King
-Subway
-Dairy Queen
-Pizza Hut
-Dominos Pizza
-Papa Johns Pizza

Flapjack Fundraiser at Applebee’s Restaurants

This is a great way to raise funds. Visit http://www.applebees.com to find a local Applebee’s near you.

Boxtops 4 Education (must have school approval)

Sell Cookie Dough

Contact Otis Spunkmeyer about selling their cookie dough to fundraise.

www.spunkmeyer.com/Talk-to-Otis/Interested-in-Sponsoring-a-Fundraiser

Golf Tournament Fundraising

Make arrangements with a golf course to have a fundraising golf tournament. Arrange for reduced green fees to be paid by your organization and solicit donated prizes for winners. Arrange for volunteers to handle registration, watch holes, and act as referees regarding rules of play.

Charge $25 -$50 or more per 2 person team (to be paired with players of similar ability); $50-$100 or more for foursomes. You'll need to arrange the golfers into 'flights' using established handicaps or other criteria. Sell boxed lunches and have donated door prizes.

If your city hosts a professional golf tournament, arrange to provide volunteers for crowd control, ticket takers, shuttle drivers, etc. The golf league or host club pays your organization instead of hired help. Volunteers get to watch the play before or after their work shift.

Target's Take Charge of Education Fundraising

Every time you use your Target Visa or Target Guest Card® at a Target store or target.com, Target will donate an amount equal to 1% of Target Visa and Target Guest Card purchases made at Target and target.com, and 1/2% of Target Visa purchases made elsewhere, to the eligible K-12 school of your choice.

Thanks to the Target School Fundraising program, more than 114,000 schools have been able to pay for computers, playground equipment, field trips and uniforms for students whose families couldn't afford them. (Details at target.com. Click on the Target Guest Card link under Financial services).

Penny Drive Fundraising

Each class or team competes against the all others. Each class decorates a large jar for their collections. The jars are set up in some accessible place, perhaps outside the school office. Be sure to arrange proper safeguards as necessary. The idea is to earn the most money for your class.

Dollars count FOR your class. Once the competition gets going, you can raise quite a bit of money in small change, adding pennies to your own jar or silver to competitors. It's great fundraising fun! Every class comes out a winner. Last place classes get ice cream cones as prizes. The Second place class receives a sundae with whipped cream, syrup, bananas, the works! The class in first place wins a pizza party and sundaes!

Fundraising Variation 1: A school 'penny war" with the classrooms competing against each other. Jars are placed outside of each classroom at the start of the day and end of the day, with someone monitoring of course. For every penny added to the jar a classroom would receive one point. Every nickel, dime, quarter, added and the class lost points according to the value of the coin. A dollar in the jar and the class lost 100 points. Kids are allowed to place coins and dollars in any jar they want, so they could make a classroom with the most points that day lose points by placing everything but pennies in the jar. Points are posted every day and the money collected in the office at the end of the day where student helpers wrap pennies, nickels, dimes and so forth. At the end of the nine week period, the class with the most points wins a popcorn/movie party. This can be done in elementary schools but for secondary, it works best if the competing classes are all homerooms. Easy way to raise money for the school, with no cash outlay.

Fundraising Variation 2: You put one jar in a room for each grade. The jars are used to collect monetary contributions. For every $.10 you award one link in a chain. Each link is a strip of paper cut out and then the ends are stapled forming a circle. Each grade must have a separate color, so that when you hang the chains they can see what grade is winning. It is a great way to make money and the competition level is usually real high.

Fundraising Variation 3: Have the whole school bring in their spare change and keep track of it somewhere (maybe 5 gallon water jugs in the back of the sanctuary). Think of a way to get people competing for weight (pennies are better) and/or for amount (dimes are better). Allow people to put in bills, but take them to a bank and get change. Have a huge change counting party. (A goal may be 5 pounds of change per student, or the teacher’s weight in change).

Fundraising Variation 4: Divide your group into two teams. Give each team a large container and tell them that the group with the most pennies in their container one or two weeks before the event will be declared the winner. The losing team must serve the winners at a special dinner in their honor. The two teams can get pennies from anyone (people in church, school, parents, friends, etc.). You could also do this with nickels, dimes or quarters.

Door To Door For Pennies Fundraising

Go door to door asking for pennies for whatever your group is trying to raise money for. If they try to give you any coins other than a penny, refuse but say that you will gladly take paper money. Most people are confused at the fact that you will only take pennies, but then smile and usually give you some form of paper money. It is best to carry a bucket for the coins, but be aware someone might just give you a big bucket of pennies, so have a place to put them for the time being (like in a car or somewhere where they will not all be seen). When you get enough pennies (about 5-6 ice cream buckets full), take them to the bank. Most banks will let you change coins to bill for free, as long as you have an account there. You will most likely make the most money on the paper money, but the pennies may make up a good number.

Skratchers

The Skratchers card is a booklet that folds into 3 and fits into your pocket- really simple for your fundraising participants to carry around. On the outside of the card, we can print your group name and or logo (design one yourself or use an existing one!). On the inside of the Skratchers card, there are 50 scratch dots, each one of them containing hidden donation amounts ranging from $0.50 to $3.00. On the center panel, there is a full coupon pad with 30 coupon sheets with exclusive coupon sheets from your local area (this is where it's really important for you to get involved!)

How Does Skratchers Work?
I recommend you order one Skratchers card per fundraising participant. i.e. If you have 20 players on your team, simply order 20 Skratchers cards. They will approach friends, family, close neighbours (always in groups of 2) and the parents can bring it to work with them as well. They will ask them to SCRATCH 2 or more circles, to reveal their donation to your group. IN RETURN for their donation, they will receive a full coupon sheet containing up to 10 exclusive offers at local merchants in your area. THAT'S RIGHT, for giving a token donation of $1 to $6, they will receive discounts at popular local merchants where they will receive even more back than what they originally donated. And that's a sign of a great DIY community fundraiser- when your group can make a lot of money, help out your local merchants, AND deliver top value to your supporters.
www.skratchers.com/free-fundraiser-sample.html

Language Classes

Buongiorno! That's hello in Italian, in case you were wondering. There are times when knowing a foreign language comes in handy, whether it's to communicate with people of different backgrounds in your own communities, or to get around when you travel outside the country. One way to raise money for your cause on an ongoing basis is to offer language classes.

The first and most important thing you'll need is someone who speaks another language. Does a member of your organization speak Spanish or French? Do they know enough to be able to teach basic vocabulary and sentence structure? If so, you're halfway there. Anyone who takes a basic language course like this doesn't need to come out speaking like a native. Just learning some common words and phrases such as hello, goodbye, thank you, what time is it, etc., can help people communicate. You'll also need a space to hold a class.

A school cafeteria, or even classroom is ideal because it has tables and chairs already. Ask one of the local schools if it's possible to use space in their building. Help students further their studies by recommending books or courses with which they can continue to learn after your class. And remember, a lot of middle and high school students are required to take foreign language classes. Tutoring is another great fundraising option that will not only help your cause, but will help students and parents out as well.

Sponsor my As and Bs

Instead of paying a student for their good grades, help them raise money for your group by getting a good report card. Find sponsors who will pay a certain amount for every A or B on their report card. Maybe have a bonus for an all A report card. This will be great motivation for students to study hard and keep their grades up. Work with the teachers and see if they will keep a running total so each student knows where they stand. Provide tutors to help those students who need it. Allow each student to photocopy their report card to send it to their sponsors along with envelopes so they can collect the money. Have each student send a thank you note to each sponsor letting them know what your group will use the money for. Throw a pizza party at the end of the fundraiser for all the students to thank them for all their hard work.

Other Ideas

Email Newsletter: Sell subscriptions to a personal newsletter/blog about your trip Local business percentage of the take – arrange a fundraiser with a restaurant or shop to get a percentage of a day’s sales

• Write a support letter/email
• Corporate sponsors
• Yard work, dinners, car wash, dog-walking, garage sale, homemade meals, make a cookbook
• Booth or table: with items for sale, jar for donations
• Silent auction, raffle
• Birthday donations
• Pet wash – “doggy dip”, golf tournament, gift wrap, tournament snack bar

Launch a free blog using Blogger. For your first entry, write a brief statement (1-3 paragraphs) that reflects who are you but also considers your audience. Remember that people other than just your friends will be reading your blog so you will want to write in a clear professional manner that demonstrates why you're good investment. Here's a great example.

Some questions you should address in your post are:

Who are you? Why do you want to go abroad?
What do you expect to gain from the experience? How/what will you give in return?
Briefly, why do you need help with financing your experience?

How are you contributing to your own tuition? Show that you are working hard to make your study abroad experience possible.