Although I have not done any of these things myself yet, I have been saving lots of fundraising ideas from the list for the future! Please check with Safety Wise and your Council on any of these. Not sure what is safetwy wise and what is not. Some of the ideas came from a non-GS source. Fundraising – http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Pointe/9385/fundrais.htm ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ My wonderful group of parents has come up with some great ideas for funding our Savannah trip. However, I am not too sure how "do-able" a couple of the ideas are. It seems to me that I have read about troops on this list holding events such as these. If you have, could you please e-mail me? 1. A babysitting day - or afternoon - so parents can Christmas shop. 2. A New Year's Eve babysitting overnight. I am concerned about being able to meet safety standards for both of these, but they seem like great ideas if we could make them work!! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Here's an idea although I don't know whether or not it will pass Safety-Wise. We did it for a school fundraiser, not for Girl Scouts. First, you need a prize. When we did it, we had two tickets to Universal Studios that were donated by an employee. Buy Charm's Blow Pops at Sam's or Costco. You can get them for about $6.00 per 100 lollipops. On half of the lollipops, put a red dot on the bottom of the stick. Get a sheet of styrofoam and stick as many lollipops as you can into it making sure that half have the dot and half are plain. Make simple entry forms to be used for a drawing. Now, sell the lollipops for 50 cents each. The buyer gets to pick one out of the styrofoam. If they get one with a dot, they get to put an entry into the drawing. Either way, they get to keep the lollipop, so they can't lose anything. I would think that because you're selling something for the 50 cents, it's not a raffle which is prohibited by Safety Wise. You're not charging to enter the drawing, so it may pass. But I could be wrong, so definitely run this buy your service unit/neighborhood before you proceed. When we did it, we were at a craft fair from 9:00 - 3:00 and we made $231.00. ***************************************************** Another idea that somebody gave me is to have a "sack sitting" booth at your local mall duirng the holiday shopping rush. The girls would set up a table, and charge to watch peoples sacks/bags/packages/bundles/peck-lach...whatever you want to call it...while they shop. All you need are watchful eyes and some space, preferable in a corner. The leader that suggested this to me had done it last year and the girls made $350.00 in an afternoon!! You could also add a gift wrapping station and you'd have a one-stop booth that everyone could use. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Here's what I have done, or have planned to do: 1) Sold caramel apple suckers at local parades. When they first came out, this was a great seller!! We are planning to sell popcorn next year, along with possibly decorating hair bands with ribbons in patriotic colors. ?? 2) Another group made "ties" and sold them at a parade. All they did was sew a piece of material as if you are making a hair scrunchie. They sewed it lenthwise and turned it right side out. Then they just used a pinking shear and cut the open ends so they wouldn't fray. People tied them in their hair, around their necks, on their belt loops... They were a big hit! 3) We are planning to plant flower seeds ahead of time, decorate pots, offer baked goods and drinks with a rummage sale in the spring. 4) This December, we are holding a Saturday babysitting day so parents can Christmas shop. This has great potential -- I will let you know how it goes, since many asked about it earlier. 5) Wrapping gifts at our Younkers store. We are also selling discount coupons from their store. (yes, council approved!) 6) Possibly delivering Easter baskets?? Haven't looked into this one too deeply yet.... 7) Our council told me of one girl who held several mother/daughter gingerbread house workshops, and made enough to pay for her wider op. 8) In Iowa, we have a .05 deposit on cans. Several organizations hold drop-off times for people to donate theirs so the group can redeem the cans and receive the refund. 9) Wal Mart will match our profits if we hold a bake sale at their store. The only downfall is that we now have to hold it outside the store. Hope this helps someone! I look forward to seeing more ideas from everyone else, since we are Savannah bound in 2002. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Garage sale Had a garage sale and asked the school families fordonations of stuff to sell. Made over $800. Also sold hotdogs, chips, pop andcookies. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Two years ago, my son was in a grade school team that went toworld. They sold frozen popsicles, Freezee Pops, the kind that come 25 or100 to a box and you freeze them at home, during the school lunch hour. Someof the popsicles were donated, we sold them for 50 cents apiece and didthis 3 or 4 times. Great profit and all the school felt like they werehelping to send on some of their own. (We cut off the ends with a scissors aswe gave them to the kids to reduce lunchroom mess.) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Pink Flamingo Caper Concerning fund raising......have any of you heard about thePink Flamingo Caper? Your only initial expense is the cost of about 30 ofthose plastic pink flamingo yard decorations. You start out selling"insurance" to your friends, family, and neighbors. For $10.00, they are insuredagainst the appearance of these birds in their front yard. If the birds doappear because they didn't take out insurance, then for $10.00, theywill be removed and for another $10.00, placed in any yard of their choice,aslong as that person has not purchased insurance. You can also pay to havethem put in any yard that isn't insured ! It's really hysterical....our youthministe r came up with it as a fund raiser for our World Changers group. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Theballet group that my youngest daughter is in got together and had a car wash. Instead of setting a price, we asked for donations. We made $250.00 infour hours. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Luminaria -- In this part of the country, people will pay forluminaria around Christmas (once again, too late for this year, but whatabout next?). Basically, they are size 10 (?) paper bags, fold overthe top to keep them open, fill with a coffee can of sand, and thenplace a small votive candle inside. (net $100 -- but we only do ourchurch) ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Krispy Kremes Last season we had the thrill and honor of going to World Finals inTennessee. Our team decided to sell Krispy Kreme donuts. Thatended up being a SUPER fundraiser. The team ending up selling I likeabout 400 boxes of donuts in just 4 hours. They made an easy $600 in no time atall. The team sold them in a large neighborhood, but the best luck camefrom selling them at the Post Office, Banks and at the Police and FireStation. All these folks obviously LOVE donuts!! It was a great fundraiser and alot of fun too. Hope this helps. Every $600 helps!!! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Chuck the Chicken One year we did a raffle called "Chuck the Chicken". OUr team got a rubber chicken and built a slingshot type of contraption and shot the chicken (Chuck) out onto the football field from under the goal posts. Beforehand, they sold 1,000 squares on the field for $1.00 each. (you could sell them for more and give a bigger prize) The winner of the contest (square where Chuck landed) received $100, and the team got therest. Variation: a.k.a. cow pie bingo! you need one field and onecow, sell boxes(like chucks) then where ever the cow "leaves a pie" thatbox wins ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ One of our most successful things was a bake sale! We held itduring a school activity (with the administration's blessing, of course),had kids staff it, and asked for donations only. When you price an item,you limit what someone will give. If you ask for donations, they willoften throw in a $5 bill (and many times, it will be more) for something youwould have priced at $1.50! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Hi, someone asked about fundraising. Our girls are going to Savannah for a week in June 2001, so we are in our 3rd year of fundraising for this. We have done a lot of things. Some of these may not be available in all areas, but it may stir some ideas. 1) Of course we have had the cookie sales, also other bake sales (especially good just before the holidays--cookies and brownies seem to be the big sales). 2)But we also sold Red Wheel items (frozen cookie dough, pies, muffin batter, etc) Schools in the area use them to great advantage. http://www.redwheelfundraising.com/ is their main website. You make about 40%-45% on these. 3)Then we also have sold bulbs in both the fall and spring. We go through Van Bourgondien whose website is www.dutchbulbs.com and email is blooms@dutchbulbs.com. You make 50% on it and they usually send extras too. You do have to pay the 50% to the company when you order. We just advance the money out of the troop funds or a leader's credit card and then reimburse. You get the bulbs in about 2 weeks. I just finished sorting our latest order. 4)We are presently selling from catalogs from Cherrydale http://www.cherrydale.com/ The sales from it seem to be going very well. 5) Another troop in our council who is going to Georgia with us has sold from Current, and other catalogs 6) We have also had troops doing fundraisers through many fast food places in our areas, check out things like Taco Cabana, Weinersnitzel, Arbys, Panchos, etc. 7) Carwashes at the above mentioned places 8) the Albertsons here let you sell hotdogs and cups of drink outside their stores here so long as you buy the basics from them at cost 9)Albertsons here also lets girls pump gas for customers for a donation only fundraiser 10) Bookstores like Barnes & Noble and Bookstop let groups sign up for days from Thanksgiving to Christmas to do gift wrapping inside their stores for donations. (they supply wrapping paper and tape) So hope this gives some ideas. Judy Thomason, Tejas Council, Garland,TX ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Our Unit has just finished fundraising to send our girls on a Pack Holiday, $85.00 per Brownie - parents paid $20 and we raised the rest. They had a great time over the 4 days. Our major fundraiser was a fertiliser drive - General Purpose, Blood and Bone and Lime. We had delivered to all the mailboxes, order cards (if you live in a larger city you could just opt to do a suburb)with tear off Post Paid replies. These cards are paid for by advertisers who advertise on one side of the card. This means that you know how much Fertiliser is been ordered and you aren't left with any unsold. You find a wholesaler - someone who supplies the retailers (Fertiliser Company) who is willing to give you a good price - shop around, the one we used gave it to us at cost and had it delivered for free, regardless of how much we ordered. One costing we had charged us cost plus 30%, charged for delivery and 25% more if we didn't order over 1000kg, so it always pays to look around. You sell them in 20kg, 10kg and 5 kg lots, alot of our customers are elderly and they like the 5kg bags, and when you get your fertiliser delivered, you rebag them into 5kg lots so that you only have to buy one sized bag. Finally, you deliver on one day - Cash On Delivery. For a population of 5000 people, delivered 2000 cards, we made a profit of $2700. As you get better at it, you could add Rose Fertiliser, Citrus or Nitrophoska Blue. This is just a general outline - it involves some organising and co-ordination but isn't very hard to do, and it turns into an Annual Fundraiser. If you need to know more, just drop me a line and I can explain it more fully - its a good one to get Dads involved with. Johnnita Houghton New Zealand Brownie Leader mosaic@voyager.co.nz ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Hi Debbee - we are a Cad/Senior troop raising money so that we can head for Pax lodge in 2002. In fact today was one of the first fundraisers we did. We are doing 2 candle parties (Parti-Lite Candles). They give us 20% of the sales. Not bad today. We made about $250.00. We are giving credit to the girls that brought the orders or the persons to the parties. Some girls do not seem to do anything and put other priorities in front of Girl Scouts. The ones who do everything (especially leaders kids were starting to feel slighted and did not think it was fair) so we decided that those that put time and effort into something would reap the benefits. We also have a fundraiser planned for early December which hopefully we will make about $1000.00. We sell booths to other troops and have it in an elementary school parking lot. This way we split the cost of the advertising and can also have a captive audience since we do not allow anyone to sell food, except us. We serve a hotdog, drink and bag of chips for $2.00 (we make $1.00 per meal). I would love to hear what other things that people tell you about. Please forward anything to me that you receive. Thanks. YIS:) Lisa Tighe Girl Scouts of Broward County Years ago my Senior group (this was a council wider op) sold poinsettias at Christmas time. We bought them from a local grower at wholesale prices, cleaned up the pots, wrapped them in foil and sold them at 200-400% profit. Our prices were competitive with local florists and supermarkets. We displayed samples at local churches after services (with the pastor's permission) took prepaid orders and delivered them the following week same time same place. Three of the churches even bought their altar displays from us (big bucks). In the spring we did the same thing with flats of bedding plants. This money made a BIG dent in our budget for 45 people for a 28 day cross country trip to National Center West in Wyoming (no longer exists). Julie Daytona Beach, FL Lifetime, Thanks Badge, IoT, N.O.V. We raised a lot of the money needed for a trip from Pennsylvania to Savannah by selling sandwiches. We took orders about every other month. If you do them well, you will have continuous repeat orders. Here's how we did it: A local supermarket with a bakery was our source of supply. We would take orders, collect money up front so we could pay for everything, and place our order. We ordered the large Kaiser rolls from the bakery and had to round them up to the next dozen. Don't even waste your time with the cheaper or packaged ones. These cost us about 25-30 cents each and are worth it. We took orders for chipped Ham/Swiss cheese, Ham/American cheese, Turkey/Swiss cheese, and Turkey/American cheese. We used to only sell ham sandwiches, but discovered that there was a complete untouched market out there for turkey. Our orders usually ran about 2/3 ham and 1/3 turkey. I ordered 1/4 lb. of chipped meat per sandwich and 2 slices of cheese per sandwich. They would slice the long Swiss cheese and cut it in half so that it was about the size of a slice of American cheese. We bought the little mustard and mayo packets from a food supply store. We used the large glad sandwich bags with the fold-over top and used little dot stickers to identify the sandwiches. The girls wrote up H/S, H/A, T/S, T/A - enough for each one sold. The day of the event, I picked up the materials and took them to the church. We set up long tables, covered them with clean shower curtains, and had an assembly line. The first girls cut the rolls in the kitchen, then put them onto the first table. We would work on both sides of the table - one side was doing turkey, the other ham. The first girls would put two slices of cheese on the roll (1 on top, 1 on bottom), then push them toward the weighers. We had adults weighing the meat. You can buy some small inexpensive scales for about $30. from office supply stores. Postage scales aren't too good - they just aren't accurate enough. The weighers pushed it on to the baggers, who had in front of them the bags for the sandwiches they were making. They inserted the sandwiches into the bags, inserted 1 pack each of mustard and mayo, closed the bags, and pushed them on. The next person took them to another table and kept the kinds together and started packing orders. The girls brought coolers that we could pack into. We usually worked with only one kind of cheese at a time on both sides of the table. Sometimes we ran a little over with meat, but usually we were pretty close. I always bought enough meat to finish out the dozen rolls. Someone always took them to sell. We got $2.50 per sandwich for several years. All of the girls were graduating last year, so we did not increase the price, but we could easily have gotten $3.00 or more. The profit was always between $1.00 and $1.30 per sandwich. I always credited them with $1.00 per sandwich, in case the meat went up. We never differentiated on the price between the Swiss and American, although the Swiss is more expensive. Our order usually was between 200-300 and we could do that in about 1 1/2 hours. One time we had 600 to do and it took us about 3 hours. Your first sale may not be huge, but repeats are bigger. One troop in our area contacted 10 businesses in town and asked them if they would take 10 sandwiches per month. That was a quick and sure 100 toward their trip to Switzerland. It was a small town and some opportunities were limited. The cleanup is minimal - they take the shower curtains outside and shake them - I then take them home and wash them in the washer. A little sweeping and rearranging chairs is about all that is needed. After they do this a time or two, they all just start - when the rolls are cut (long serrated knives work best), they just move to another job. Our fee to go to Savannah was $500. per person - we did it in two years. Some other things we sold were cookies (of course), fancy breads - a local baker did them - we got $3.00 per loaf - paid $1.50 per loaf, frozen pizzas. I really didn't want to spend all of our time fundraising, so when we did these sales, they all pitched in. Good luck! Cookie Grugan Hemlock GSC - central PA Debbee, Our troop did a badge workshop last year for Cadettes, on the positive side it promotes leadership for the girls of your troop while planning and executing the workshop. The negative side is there is a lot of planning and work involved. You can make a decent profit if you have a large number of girls turn out for the event, pre-registration would be good to have an idea of numbers. We kept ours small, 35 girls, so our profit was less than it could've been. I just wasn't ready to take on a huge group of Girl Scouts with only 5 girls in my troop. It was a great learning experience though, and my troop had a ball! Good luck, Kathi Camden Co, NJ ================================ PS An idea for a fundraiser we found to be great - babysitting a group of kids for the whole night on New Year's Eve. The troop arranged for a large room at a church for the kids. Then they charged $25 per child for babysitting kids from 6pm-8 AM the next day. The kids had to come after dinner with their own snacks, pjs, sleeping bags, favorite toys, etc. The girls brought videos and games and took care of the kids all night. We had a few adults there to oversee the girls, but they did all the work and we just sat and visited, then went to sleep in our own bags. The girls took only children 4 -10 (fewer potty problems and no older bullies that way) and signed up 40 children. Since the room was donated, they grossed and netted the same - $1000! I know it's past New Year's Eve, but maybe this will give you an idea for another babysitting event or something similar. They took the American Red Cross babysitting course in preparation for this and really enjoyed it. ==================================== Our biggest fundraiser was t-shirts. We sold bright yellow t-shirts with butterflies on them. We used a registered vendor for the shirts. The girls came up with wonderful reasons why the troops should buy the shirts, "The bright color will help you find your girls in a crowd, alternative to the uniform, butterflies are fun...". We were able to advertise the shirts in our council newsletters, which really helped our sales. We kept the cost reasonable, $10 for child small through adult XL, and $12 for 2X and 3X adults. Some of the team building ideas we used were the MnM one and the group easter egg hunt. The MnM one is you pass around MnMs and have the girls take some. Then for each MnM they take they have to tell one thing about themselves. I was at a conference for work that used this but it was for every blue MnM tell something about your family, brown vacation, orange embarrassing moment, yellow what you are proud of, and I don't remember the rest. The easter egg hunt was funny. The girls were divided in teams. We had 2 girls per team. Each team was assigned a certain color easter egg. We blind folded one girl and she was the person trying to find the egg. The other girl was the caller. She had to tell the first girl which way to go to try and find the right color easter egg. It was fun. ======================================== Here are the WONDERFUL results of my request for Fundraiser Info. While I am not "endorsing" any of these ideas, I SO appreciate EVERYONE's imput and advice. If you can think of any other ideas that are not included here, please send them to me right away. We are meeting with our parents tomorrow night to get the ball rolling! Thanks SO much!!! Debbee Hi Debbee - we are a Cad/Senior troop raising money so that we can head for Pax lodge in 2002. In fact today was one of the first fundraisers we did. We are doing 2 candle parties (Parti-Lite Candles). They give us 20% of the sales. Not bad today. We made about $250.00. We are giving credit to the girls that brought the orders or the persons to the parties. Some girls do not seem to do anything and put other priorities in front of Girl Scouts. The ones who do everything (especially leaders kids were starting to feel slighted and did not think it was fair) so we decided that those that put time and effort into something would reap the benefits. We also have a fundraiser planned for early December which hopefully we will make about $1000.00. We sell booths to other troops and have it in an elementary school parking lot. This way we split the cost of the advertising and can also have a captive audience since we do not allow anyone to sell food, except us. We serve a hotdog, drink and bag of chips for $2.00 (we make $1.00 per meal). I would love to hear what other things that people tell you about. Please forward anything to me that you receive. Thanks. YIS:) Lisa Tighe Girl Scouts of Broward County Years ago my Senior group (this was a council wider op) sold poinsettias at Christmas time. We bought them from a local grower at wholesale prices, cleaned up the pots, wrapped them in foil and sold them at 200-400% profit. Our prices were competitive with local florists and supermarkets. We displayed samples at local churches after services (with the pastor's permission) took prepaid orders and delivered them the following week same time same place. Three of the churches even bought their altar displays from us (big bucks). In the spring we did the same thing with flats of bedding plants. This money made a BIG dent in our budget for 45 people for a 28 day cross country trip to National Center West in Wyoming (no longer exists). Julie Daytona Beach, FL Lifetime, Thanks Badge, IoT, N.O.V. We raised a lot of the money needed for a trip from Pennsylvania to Savannah by selling sandwiches. We took orders about every other month. If you do them well, you will have continuous repeat orders. Here's how we did it: A local supermarket with a bakery was our source of supply. We would take orders, collect money up front so we could pay for everything, and place our order. We ordered the large Kaiser rolls from the bakery and had to round them up to the next dozen. Don't even waste your time with the cheaper or packaged ones. These cost us about 25-30 cents each and are worth it. We took orders for chipped Ham/Swiss cheese, Ham/American cheese, Turkey/Swiss cheese, and Turkey/American cheese. We used to only sell ham sandwiches, but discovered that there was a complete untouched market out there for turkey. Our orders usually ran about 2/3 ham and 1/3 turkey. I ordered 1/4 lb. of chipped meat per sandwich and 2 slices of cheese per sandwich. They would slice the long Swiss cheese and cut it in half so that it was about the size of a slice of American cheese. We bought the little mustard and mayo packets from a food supply store. We used the large glad sandwich bags with the fold-over top and used little dot stickers to identify the sandwiches. The girls wrote up H/S, H/A, T/S, T/A - enough for each one sold. The day of the event, I picked up the materials and took them to the church. We set up long tables, covered them with clean shower curtains, and had an assembly line. The first girls cut the rolls in the kitchen, then put them onto the first table. We would work on both sides of the table - one side was doing turkey, the other ham. The first girls would put two slices of cheese on the roll (1 on top, 1 on bottom), then push them toward the weighers. We had adults weighing the meat. You can buy some small inexpensive scales for about $30. from office supply stores. Postage scales aren't too good - they just aren't accurate enough. The weighers pushed it on to the baggers, who had in front of them the bags for the sandwiches they were making. They inserted the sandwiches into the bags, inserted 1 pack each of mustard and mayo, closed the bags, and pushed them on. The next person took them to another table and kept the kinds together and started packing orders. The girls brought coolers that we could pack into. We usually worked with only one kind of cheese at a time on both sides of the table. Sometimes we ran a little over with meat, but usually we were pretty close. I always bought enough meat to finish out the dozen rolls. Someone always took them to sell. We got $2.50 per sandwich for several years. All of the girls were graduating last year, so we did not increase the price, but we could easily have gotten $3.00 or more. The profit was always between $1.00 and $1.30 per sandwich. I always credited them with $1.00 per sandwich, in case the meat went up. We never differentiated on the price between the Swiss and American, although the Swiss is more expensive. Our order usually was between 200-300 and we could do that in about 1 1/2 hours. One time we had 600 to do and it took us about 3 hours. Your first sale may not be huge, but repeats are bigger. One troop in our area contacted 10 businesses in town and asked them if they would take 10 sandwiches per month. That was a quick and sure 100 toward their trip to Switzerland. It was a small town and some opportunities were limited. The cleanup is minimal - they take the shower curtains outside and shake them - I then take them home and wash them in the washer. A little sweeping and rearranging chairs is about all that is needed. After they do this a time or two, they all just start - when the rolls are cut (long serrated knives work best), they just move to another job. Our fee to go to Savannah was $500. per person - we did it in two years. Some other things we sold were cookies (of course), fancy breads - a local baker did them - we got $3.00 per loaf - paid $1.50 per loaf, frozen pizzas. I really didn't want to spend all of our time fundraising, so when we did these sales, they all pitched in. Good luck! Cookie Grugan Hemlock GSC - central PA Debbee, Our troop did a badge workshop last year for Cadettes, on the positive side it promotes leadership for the girls of your troop while planning and executing the workshop. The negative side is there is a lot of planning and work involved. You can make a decent profit if you have a large number of girls turn out for the event, pre-registration would be good to have an idea of numbers. We kept ours small, 35 girls, so our profit was less than it could've been. I just wasn't ready to take on a huge group of Girl Scouts with only 5 girls in my troop. It was a great learning experience though, and my troop had a ball! Good luck, Kathi Camden Co, NJ From: Johnnita Houghton Subject: FUNDRAISING IDEAS Hi Debbee Our Unit has just finished fundraising to send our girls on a Pack Holiday, $85.00 per Brownie - parents paid $20 and we raised the rest. They had a great time over the 4 days. Our major fundraiser was a fertiliser drive - General Purpose, Blood and Bone and Lime. We had delivered to all the mailboxes, order cards (if you live in a larger city you could just opt to do a suburb)with tear off Post Paid replies. These cards are paid for by advertisers who advertise on one side of the card. This means that you know how much Fertiliser is been ordered and you aren't left with any unsold. You find a wholesaler - someone who supplies the retailers (Fertiliser Company) who is willing to give you a good price - shop around, the one we used gave it to us at cost and had it delivered for free, regardless of how much we ordered. One costing we had charged us cost plus 30%, charged for delivery and 25% more if we didn't order over 1000kg, so it always pays to look around. You sell them in 20kg, 10kg and 5 kg lots, alot of our customers are elderly and they like the 5kg bags, and when you get your fertiliser delivered, you rebag them into 5kg lots so that you only have to buy one sized bag. Finally, you deliver on one day - Cash On Delivery. For a population of 5000 people, delivered 2000 cards, we made a profit of $2700. As you get better at it, you could add Rose Fertiliser, Citrus or Nitrophoska Blue. This is just a general outline - it involves some organising and co-ordination but isn't very hard to do, and it turns into an Annual Fundraiser. If you need to know more, just drop me a line and I can explain it more fully - its a good one to get Dads involved with. Johnnita Houghton New Zealand Brownie Leader mosaic@voyager.co.nz ----------------------------- Judith Thomason Subject: Chat: fundraising--long Hi, someone asked about fundraising. Our girls are going to Savannah for a week in June 2001, so we are in our 3rd year of fundraising for this. We have done a lot of things. Some of these may not be available in all areas, but it may stir some ideas. 1) Of course we have had the cookie sales, also other bake sales (especially good just before the holidays--cookies and brownies seem to be the big sales). 2)But we also sold Red Wheel items (frozen cookie dough, pies, muffin batter, etc) Schools in the area use them to great advantage. http://www.redwheelfundraising.com/ is their main website. You make about 40%-45% on these. 3)Then we also have sold bulbs in both the fall and spring. We go through Van Bourgondien whose website is www.dutchbulbs.com and email is blooms@dutchbulbs.com. You make 50% on it and they usually send extras too. You do have to pay the 50% to the company when you order. We just advance the money out of the troop funds or a leader's credit card and then reimburse. You get the bulbs in about 2 weeks. I just finished sorting our latest order. 4)We are presently selling from catalogs from Cherrydale http://www.cherrydale.com/ The sales from it seem to be going very well. 5) Another troop in our council who is going to Georgia with us has sold from Current, and other catalogs 6) We have also had troops doing fundraisers through many fast food places in our areas, check out things like Taco Cabana, Weinersnitzel, Arbys, Panchos, etc. 7) Carwashes at the above mentioned places 8) the Albertsons here let you sell hotdogs and cups of drink outside their stores here so long as you buy the basics from them at cost 9)Albertsons here also lets girls pump gas for customers for a donation only fundraiser 10) Bookstores like Barnes & Noble and Bookstop let groups sign up for days from Thanksgiving to Christmas to do gift wrapping inside their stores for donations. (they supply wrapping paper and tape) So hope this gives some ideas. Judy Thomason, Tejas Council, Garland,TX ileadgirls Subject: Re: Fundraising idea Here's an idea although I don't know whether or not it will pass Safety-Wise. We did it for a school fundraiser, not for Girl Scouts. First, you need a prize. When we did it, we had two tickets to Universal Studios that were donated by an employee. Buy Charm's Blow Pops at Sam's or Costco. You can get them for about $6.00 per 100 lollipops. On half of the lollipops, put a red dot on the bottom of the stick. Get a sheet of styrofoam and stick as many lollipops as you can into it making sure that half have the dot and half are plain. Make simple entry forms to be used for a drawing. Now, sell the lollipops for 50 cents each. The buyer gets to pick one out of the styrofoam. If they get one with a dot, they get to put an entry into the drawing. Either way, they get to keep the lollipop, so they can't lose anything. I would think that because you're selling something for the 50 cents, it's not a raffle which is prohibited by Safety Wise. You're not charging to enter the drawing, so it may pass. But I could be wrong, so definitely run this buy your service unit/neighborhood before you proceed. When we did it, we were at a craft fair from 9:00 - 3:00 and we made $231.00. ***************************************************** Another idea that somebody gave me is to have a "sack sitting" booth at your local mall duirng the holiday shopping rush. The girls would set up a table, and charge to watch peoples sacks/bags/packages/bundles/peck-lach...whatever you want to call it...while they shop. All you need are watchful eyes and some space, preferable in a corner. The leader that suggested this to me had done it last year and the girls made $350.00 in an afternoon!! You could also add a gift wrapping station and you'd have a one-stop booth that everyone could use. Please post all the fundraising ideas to the list. I know there are many of us who are looking for good ideas. Paula Barnett ibid Andersons Subject: Re: Fundraising Here's what I have done, or have planned to do: 1) Sold caramel apple suckers at local parades. When they first came out, this was a great seller!! We are planning to sell popcorn next year, along with possibly decorating hair bands with ribbons in patriotic colors. ?? 2) Another group made "ties" and sold them at a parade. All they did was sew a piece of material as if you are making a hair scrunchie. They sewed it lenthwise and turned it right side out. Then they just used a pinking shear and cut the open ends so they wouldn't fray. People tied them in their hair, around their necks, on their belt loops... They were a big hit! 3) We are planning to plant flower seeds ahead of time, decorate pots, offer baked goods and drinks with a rummage sale in the spring. 4) This December, we are holding a Saturday babysitting day so parents can Christmas shop. This has great potential -- I will let you know how it goes, since many asked about it earlier. 5) Wrapping gifts at our Younkers store. We are also selling discount coupons from their store. (yes, council approved!) 6) Possibly delivering Easter baskets?? Haven't looked into this one too deeply yet.... 7) Our council told me of one girl who held several mother/daughter gingerbread house workshops, and made enough to pay for her wider op. 8) In Iowa, we have a .05 deposit on cans. Several organizations hold drop-off times for people to donate theirs so the group can redeem the cans and receive the refund. 9) Wal Mart will match our profits if we hold a bake sale at their store. The only downfall is that we now have to hold it outside the store. Hope this helps someone! I look forward to seeing more ideas from everyone else, since we are Savannah bound in 2002. YIGGGS - Annette in Iowa Kathy Alward Subject: raising funds (long) HI! Following is a complimation from a different list I am on for fundraising. I am well aware that several of the ideas don't meet GSUSA standards but I don't have the energy tonite to edit it - besides sometimes I think it at least gives us some other ideas!! Sorry it's in such poor form, it's cut & pasted from another digest & didn't transfer very well but I figure if you're interested, you'll muddle thru it!! Some of them I have a few more details on - email me & I'll try to help. Hope it helps someone!! Kathy Bottle ReturnsSent the kids canning (door to door asking for returnables -works well ina state with a 10 cent bottle/can return - Michigan - most people hate taking back their cans) Garage sale Had a garage sale and asked the school families fordonations of stuff to sell. Made over $800. Also sold hotdogs, chips, pop andcookies. Advertising Asked local businesses for a donation in return for theirname posted on a thank you ad purchased in the local paper. (the paper endedup donating the ad in return for THEIR name being mentioned!) **Biggest money maker** Pizzas Sold Little Caesars Pizza kitsCake Walk Our regionals had a cake walk and all the proceeds from thecake walk went to any team from our region that went on to worlds. $825 Yard Sale2We had a yard sale at the school which was very well attended and brought in a good return. You can get all the families to donate, and ask for other donations through theschool perhaps. Silent AuctionThe PTA also had a silent auction fundraiser and allowed us to put forward certain items andservices to auction. Variation: we have autioned off different teams props- haveeach team donate one thingConcessionsthis is a little late for you..but yesterday at our regionals..therewas a special concession booth set up, in addition to the cafeteria beign open...and the profits from the concession booth were to be given to the teams that happen to advance to worlds Dinner/Preformances Last year we did a dinner theater. We charged $2.00 over ourcost and had our teams perform. We had three teams from our communitycontinue to state, so there were 3 teams performing. An added benefit to thisfundraiser is that it helps get support for DI for next year. People who havenever been exposed to DI came to the theater and our program grew. Another great fundraiser is the silent auction. We added thisto the dinner theater for additional funds. NOTE: i actually just got home from our chicken dinner, we soldchickens at $6.50 each and we made, in one night $1,500Freezee pops Two years ago, my son was in a grade school team that went toworld. They sold frozen popsicles, Freezee Pops, the kind that come 25 or100 to a box and you freeze them at home, during the school lunch hour. Someof the popsicles were donated, we sold them for 50 cents apiece and didthis 3 or 4 times. Great profit and all the school felt like they werehelping to send on some of their own. (We cut off the ends with a scissors aswe gave them to the kids to reduce lunchroom mess.)Raffle We had a raffle for 2 donated Beanie Babies. At 6 for $5, or $1apiece, Erin and Princess earned us quite 'a pot of gold'.Clean up We cleaned up the gounds at a local grocery store for adonation.Cookout We held a cookout outside antoher grocery. We bought all thehotdogs, hamburgers, etc from them. They supplied us a cash register anda cooler for the soda.Baggers We also bagged the groceries at the cashier line for tips. The team woretheir team shirts and had a good time while earning quite a bit. BeggingWe also sent solicitation letters to all the local businesses. One boy wasabout to start orthodontics, his ortho contributed too. Variation: grant writingPink Flamingo Caper Concerning fund raising......have any of you heard about thePink Flamingo Caper? Your only initial expense is the cost of about 30 ofthose plastic pink flamingo yard decorations. You start out selling"insurance" to your friends, family, and neighbors. For $10.00, they are insuredagainst the appearance of these birds in their front yard. If the birds doappear because they didn't take out insurance, then for $10.00, theywill be removed and for another $10.00, placed in any yard of their choice,aslong as that person has not purchased insurance. You can also pay to havethem put in any yard that isn't insured ! It's really hysterical....our youthministe r came up with it as a fund raiser for our World Changers group. Theballet group that my youngest daughter is in got together and had a car wash. Instead of setting a price, we asked for donations. We made $250.00 infour hours. Hope this helps ! Hamburger feed We had a hamburger feed (May) at the local grocery store. Also,did a car wash (donations) in connection with it and did very well. Setthe record for hamburgers sold in a day.Begging 2 We wrote letters to all the local businesses, organizations wecould find. Chamber of Commerce had a list. After a couple of weeks, wethen went out in force and personally stopped in at businesses that we had notheard from. We were able to collect quite a bit. We talked to several service groups--Lions, Kiwanis, RotaryClub--even gave little demonstrations. Yard work We did some yard work, aluminum cans, painting, etc., prettymuch what wecould. Flamingos2Pink Flamingos (already mentioned by someone else earlier) (netover 3 months: $300) Sugar Eggs Sugar Eggs -- Good for the Easter season. You know, thoselittle decorated sugar eggs that you can look in and see a cute littlescene.(net $100?) CookiesValentine Cookies -- Too late for this year, but what about nextyear. We take orders, and personalize them with names or otherphrases. (net$400)Food Other seasonal eats -- Hot Cross buns for Easter, cookies atChristmas (net $100), subs for Super Bowl Sunday.Luminarias Luminaria -- In this part of the country, people will pay forluminaria around Christmas (once again, too late for this year, but whatabout next?). Basically, they are size 10 (?) paper bags, fold overthe top to keep them open, fill with a coffee can of sand, and thenplace a small votive candle inside. (net $100 -- but we only do ourchurch)Kisses Kiss A Beast -- Have fishbowls with names of several well known(and willing! ;) people, and fishbowls with names of several animals(check for availability). Collect 'votes' by encouraging people toplace money in the bowls of their choice (always wanted to see the principalkiss a hedgehog? Here's your chance!). (No net yet -- still in theprocess) Variation: our swim team had a kissing booth- in real life,they just handed out hersheys kisses and they gave each person a index card witha lipstick kiss on itWaldenbooksWaldenbooks -- Waldenbooks will donate a portion of their proceeds toyour organization when customers designate you. Severaldifferent options available. (No net yet -- still in the process)Pizza2 Pizza -- Same with some pizza places.Pokemon! Pokemon -- Sponsor a Pokemon tournament. (How desperate AREyou?) (No net yet -- still considering).Pampered Chef I used to sell Pampered Chef kitchen products...they have a fundraiser...a small cookbook that usually sells well....if youknow anyone in your area that sells Pampered Chef.... not as cool as the flamingo caper....oh well..cynthiaVariation: Tupperware! Krispy Kremes Last season we had the thrill and honor of going to World Finals inTennessee. Our team decided to sell Krispy Kreme donuts. Thatended up being a SUPER fundraiser. The team ending up selling I likeabout 400 boxes of donuts in just 4 hours. They made an easy $600 in no time atall. The team sold them in a large neighborhood, but the best luck camefrom selling them at the Post Office, Banks and at the Police and FireStation. All these folks obviously LOVE donuts!! It was a great fundraiser and alot of fun too. Hope this helps. Every $600 helps!!! Chuck the Chicken One year we did a raffle called "Chuck the Chicken". OUr team got a rubber chicken and built a slingshot type of contraption and shot the chicken (Chuck) out onto the football field from under the goal posts. Beforehand, they sold 1,000 squares on the field for $1.00 each. (you could sell them for more and give a bigger prize) The winner of the contest (square where Chuck landed) received $100, and the team got therest. Variation: a.k.a. cow pie bingo! you need one field and onecow, sell boxes(like chucks) then where ever the cow "leaves a pie" thatbox wins Food2 oh also, we got cookie and donut donations from the local supermarkets and sold them along with some home baked goods at a popular school function (I think it was a dance or carnival or something)--that worked well. A local coffee outlet also donated free which we sold--very popular, and they even donated the cups! (Tulley's)Clubs We have always approached service clubs and companies. TheOptimist clubs have always been the biggest supporters with Rotary clubs aclose 2nd. We draft a formal letter to request assistance and what we are allabout. It is usually read at a meeting with a coach or parent attending. Weoffer to bring the team and perform for them.Etc. We also hold a rummage sale, sell flats of flowers and hangingbaskets thru the school etc.We set up the sale of soft drinks and goodies inthe teachers' staff room.Bake Sale One of our most successful things was a bake sale! We held itduring a school activity (with the administration's blessing, of course),had kids staff it, and asked for donations only. When you price an item,you limit what someone will give. If you ask for donations, they willoften throw in a $5 bill (and many times, it will be more) for something youwould have priced at $1.50!CateringWe also served (provided food and staffed) a one-time concession stand for a company that was having a largesale/auction. Because we were willing to work for the money, the owner of thecompany gave a large (several $100) donation above the cost of his employee'srunning tab! That seems to be the prevelent thought, tho, If you arewilling to work for the $$, it will come. Just saying "We're going toworlds. Give us $$." doesn't carry the same weight. When providing food for the concession stand, local grocerystores were willing to donate goods, not $$. This is another example of "wewant to see you have to work a little bit"! That's OK, tho, because ourkids and parents were more than willing to help, and the goods donationskept our supply costs down.When putting ads in the paper... There was a contact number for people to call to get more information, or to make apersonaldonation. FootballOur teams also had an exhibition night with a raffle drawing for a championship football (our high school team is a multiple-yearst ate championship winner). The school coordinator also arranged forseveral of the teachers, administration, and local business persons to takepart in a (then) spontaneous problem. This was one of the most highlypublicized parts of the exhibition, and the part many people came to see!Candy Bars Perhaps the easiest (from a parent's viewpoint!) $$-maker wasthe candy bars! The elementary school principals allowed the teammembersa half-hour each day to sell candy bars. The middle and high schools ran ita little differently, but with the same idea. Our 5th grade classes alsohave a school store each year, and the 5th grade class decided theywanted to donate some of their profits to the cause!SchoolpopMy brother's family's preschool in San Francisco uses this site. Welcome toSchoolpop! This link is not the home link (as my homelink is dedicated tothe preschool) but it should take you to a 'clean' page. -i checked out this page myself and it is really goodTye Dye Yesterday, there was a group in our student union that was doinga really great fundraiser. They were selling white t-shirts for $5 andhad the supplies for you to tye-die them right there. I don't know howsuccessful they were, but this seems like it would be a great booth to have at afair, if any schools or churchs in your area have some kind of springfestival. I was impressed because it seemed like such a unique fundraiser.School Dances Organize a family night or a danceSleepout have a sleepout- donate some of your proceeds to the homeless orother group. note- this only works in cold weather! get people to get pledgesor open it to a segment of people greater than just DIers and have thempay- its ike a big partyPlant Sale Contract with a nursery and you can make big bucks-we usually do$4,000-5,000 a yearHave a run/ walk!sponsor a run or a walk and have people get pledged-variation-pet walk!PowderPuff Anything This year, in conjunction with homecoming, the junior classchallenged the senior class to a powderpuff(females only!) football game. ifyou publicize it you could make a lot of money and its fun =========================================== 1) Sold caramel apple suckers at local parades. When they first came out, this was a great seller!! We are planning to sell popcorn next year, along with possibly decorating hair bands with ribbons in patriotic colors. ?? 2) Another group made "ties" and sold them at a parade. All they did was sew a piece of material as if you are making a hair scrunchie. They sewed it lenthwise and turned it right side out. Then they just used a pinking shear and cut the open ends so they wouldn't fray. People tied them in their hair, around their necks, on their belt loops... They were a big hit! 3) We are planning to plant flower seeds ahead of time, decorate pots, offer baked goods and drinks with a rummage sale in the spring. 4) This December, we are holding a Saturday babysitting day so parents can Christmas shop. This has great potential -- I will let you know how it goes, since many asked about it earlier. 5) Wrapping gifts at our Younkers store. We are also selling discount coupons from their store. (yes, council approved!) 6) Possibly delivering Easter baskets?? Haven't looked into this one too deeply yet.... 7) Our council told me of one girl who held several mother/daughter gingerbread house workshops, and made enough to pay for her wider op. 8) In Iowa, we have a .05 deposit on cans. Several organizations hold drop-off times for people to donate theirs so the group can redeem the cans and receive the refund. 9) Wal Mart will match our profits if we hold a bake sale at their store. The only downfall is that we now have to hold it outside the store. Hope this helps someone! I look forward to seeing more ideas from everyone else, since we are Savannah bound in 2002. ============================= << I have heard about calendar sales at various points on this list (as well as candy and nuts), but never hear about them at our Service Unit meetings. Are the sales a Council wide fund raiser? Or can every troop use these fund raisers? >> Joni: Hi! I'm a co-leader in Moreno Valley, California (8 4th and 5th grade Jr.'s). Our girls are only allowed to participate in 2 council fund raisers each year - one being "The" cookie sale and the other GS Calendars and magazines from QSP. QSP is like Publisher's Clearing House - a distributor for magazines. The council receives a cut of the profits and so does each troop. We make far, far less on the magazines and calendars than we do on the cookies, but every little bit counts. Our council doesn't go the Nut/Candy route because EVERY school, sports team and Boy Scout troop in the area uses these to get money (over-kill and barf on candy after a while) :) We just got this year's QSP packet and will sell from 10/2 thru 11/6. Cookies are sold in February and delivered in March. Other fund raisers our troop have used over the years are: lemonade sales at the City 4th of July Extravaganza (33,000+ people!), multi-family garage/rummage sale, booth craft sale at Idyllwild Rotary Thanksgiving Town Hall Festival (sold pins, "Cowboy Cookies" aka cookie ingredients in a jar, Hershey kisses flowers, and raffled off an afghan at no charge), and recycled just about everything. ========================== Hi Joni, my name is Phyllis Vernon and I am a Junior Troop leader in Idaho. A fundraiser that our Service Unit is doing is a Show Your Colors fundraiser. For $21.00 a local Girl Scout will post an American Flag in a person's yard for all the flag holidays. This includes a flag pole made out of PC pipe and an iron stake and a flag. Our Service Unit bought 40 flags and each troop took 4 flags to sell. One of our leaders saw this take place in Utah by Boy Scouts so we decided to do it in Idaho. I will be happy to send you a flyer and details if you are interested in a project like this. I saw your post for a fundraiser and thought I would pass this one on to you. You can e-mail me pektchr@aol.com. Have a good day. Phyllis ========================= We saved for 2 years. Dues last year were $5 per month and raised to $15 per month this year at the girl's request. They had cookie money from 2 seasons of hard work. We got some donations $400 from a Dad who owns a company, $200 from a local fraternal group, etc. They worked at the local Lion's Club bussing tables for the monthly dinners and got tips and $250 donation from the Lion's. One of the co's with my younger group owns her own business and had the teens stuff fliers to mail out and paid them $100. She also hired them to work at her company holiday party and paid each girl $25. My co worked for a Dr. who just built a new office and we volunteered to work his open house for the public. He was impressed with the wonderful job they did and how the older population related to the girls that he donated $250. We had a yard sale. The girls brought me anything and everything from their closets over the past 2 years and I put it up on ebay with profits going into the troop account. We sold glow necklaces at a town Halloween event and blow up animals at a local parade. We're hosting a Tea for Two event in May and hope to make $200+. All in all we raised nearly $7000 through hard work and dedication and devoting most of our activities to fund raising by the choice of the girls. These are teens in high school. =========== I was hoping you could help our troop plan our next troop T-shirt. We are going to have the shirts made early in the year supplemented by last year's cookie money. This year we really want the shirt to promote Girl Scouts. I am modeling the shirt and a poster for our school, after a poster I saw in Okinawa. It said, "There is Nothing to do on Okinawa Except.....(and it was a full page of wonderful things to do on the island, i.e., snorkeling, SCUBA, boating, swimming, golf, etc.) Our shirts will say "There's nothing to do in Girl Scouts except:..." and it will include a list of fun things to do in GS. Or it may say, "There's nothing to do in Troop 535 except...." Either way, each item will be separated by a dot. It will look kinda like the "All I Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten" poster. I need your help with the list. :o). I have created a partial list which includes - Camping, Crafts, Canoeing, Hiking, Badges, Cooking over an open Fire, Camp Tanasi, S'Mores, Swimming, Community Service Projects, Sleeping in tents, Living by the Girl Scout Law, Caring for others, Riding horses, Selling Girl Scout cookies, Ceremonies, Making new friends, Helping others, Skits, Telling ghost stories, Teaching others, SWAPS, Singalongs, Bridging, paddleboating, and serving God and my country. This will be on the front of the shirt along with some awesome graphics of a canteen, lantern, flashlight and a tent. What do you think? Do you have some items to add to the list? I will post a final list on the WAGGGS list in case any of you want to make a poster too. BTW, the back of the shirt will say, "My parents went to Girl Scout registration and all I got was...maturity, self-esteem and confidence". Modeled after the famous vacation shirts...