Need some Fundraising Ideas!!!

[MdGymMom01]

What are some good fundraising ideas that any of you have done that are fun and very effective. I know about the traditional ones--the car washes, Joe Corbi's Pizza, etc., but have any of you done a more unique one that brought in a lot more money than you thought it would? I am looking for some ideas!!!!

 

[AlexsGymmyMom]

Hi.
Our gym is having a trivia night. Not sure how popular they are in other states but they are HUGE in Missouri. Also, during the trivia night there are silent auctions for baskets of items donated and usually have a theme like Sports or scrapbooking or just about anything really. I have never organized on myself but I have gone to a few and they are really fun!! Everyone brings food or snacks and (alchohol). I'm sure that they make quite a bit of money as each table costs aprox. $120 - $160 and about 6-8 people per table. I hope I made sense. Here is a link to some information about putting on a trivia night.
Trivia Night Fundraiser

 

[bogwoppit]

I agree with the silent auction, we have one at school every year and we raise a mountain of cash. The hardest job is going around asking for the donations, but it does work. One year we had a live auction too.

Usually a local hotel will donate a meeting room, which adds a bit of cachet to the event. Wine is served and it is adults only. The oldest teens get to help, but no little kids. This turns it into a social event for adults.

 

[T.Gymnastics]

cookout. nuff said. so much fun.

 

[gymnastics07849]

My town's cheerleading squads did a sock fundraiser right around the time school starts and raised $1,000.

 

[gymkat]

If you have professional sports teams in your area, you could work at the concessions stands. We have several major events near us, and we can make about $100/person/day.

 

[gym law mom]

If you have professional sports teams in your area, you could work at the concessions stands. We have several major events near us, and we can make about $100/person/day.

Yes, older daughter's marching band has done this for 3 summers for the local minor league baseball team. It does take alot of committment and people to work it. This year they're hoping to make close to $30k. Thing is with those you need to get your name in about a year in advance.

Silent auctions do well, but as Bog said the big problem is getting the donations and with the current economy you might have to look at bids starting/ending lower.

We've sold Pizza Palz for several years(Old Chicagos). Good for 6 mos nationwide on any pizza they have. This was the one thing I never had trouble getting anyone to buy, but they do limit the number they give out to an organization.

Again, marching band----we had a connection(that seems SO important in these things) at a Village Inn. Worked a deal that for every pie sold from the Monday before Thanksgiving to New Year's Day, the band got 20% of the sales----did quite well. Also had a lunch at Outback Steakhouse---sold tickets for $10 for a complete lunch(set entree etc) with beverage and dessert. We would have kept doing it, but the local restaurant pulled out.

 

[kaci]

We held a multi-family rummage sale. All girls on the team (and their families) brought in any items that they no longer wanted. Let's be honest, we all have something we don't need We had 32 families involved so we had ALOT of stuff! We asked that everything each girl brought be pre-priced(reasonably). One parent offered her house (which was on a great busy corner lot) to hold the rummage sale. When there was about an hour left, we ran a "sale", anything you could put it a grocery bag for $5. That helped clear out alot of the remaining items and got us a little extra $$ when things were winding down. We had it one saturday morning from 7 am until noon and we made over $1300. The girls on the team (and their families)divided into 2 shifts, so no one was stuck there all day. I would recomend having some dads on call to help with heavy furniture items It took no time to put it together, cost us absolutely nothing and the leftover items that didn't sell, we donated to goodwill...Good Luck!!:fluffy:

 

[MdGymMom01]

Love these ideas!!! Thanks everyone!!!

 

[AlexsGymmyMom]

Our gym also does concession stands, and a beer booth, at Verizon Wireless Ampitheater during the summer concert season. I know that the parents earn approx. $50.00 each working at the concerts and they also split tips that are recieved.

 

[Gymdad2]

There are lots of good ideas out there for fundraising, and we have tried a lot of them over the years. To evauate how well a fundraiser worked for us we divided our net profit by the number of person-hours (cant' say man-hours anymore) involved to see what our hourly rate was. We did the professional sports team concession for a couple of years until we found out we averaged $7.00 an hour when taking into account the drive time (45 min. each way), set up and teardown/cleanup time, etc. Direct selling (cookie dough, flowers, gift wrap, all that stuff) is harder to measure because of the time involved, and vaires a lot from sale to sale, but it does better. The only problem here is that you need to keep finding new customers. Grandparents and neighbors can only bake so many cookies.

The best return we get is from hosting a meet -especially if you can get a state meet. We have been has high as $25.00 an hour from a meet.

IMHO the success of any fundraiser depends on the committment of the people involved. No matter how good the product or program is, you have to have the involvement of the whole group to make it work. There is one other upside to fundraising, and that is it does bring the parents together. Working as a group for a common goal tends to build gym friendships and team spirit and support that can't be measured in dollars, but that will be very important to the team. Good luck with whatever project you decide to do.

 

[Ashley*Gymnast]

my gym did a cartwheel-a-thon one year. the gymnasts got friends and family to agree to donate "x" amount of money for each cartwheel they did in an hour. at the end of that hour, the gymnast with the most cartwheels got like a prize basket, it was a lot of fun.

 

[Shan126]

We have done a leotard resale. Gymnasts donate their gently used leos they no longer use and we resell for like $5-10 each. At such a low price, people buy a lot of them.

 

[cathiann]

We do a leotard sale twice a year and it typically does well each time too. We've also bagged groceries at a local grocery store--last year we did it right before Thanksgiving and made over $1200 in one day! Other fundraisers are selling things: Butterbraid, Poinsettias, and flowers/plants in the spring. Our biggest fundraiser is meets we host though--we have one of our own and then we bid to get a State meet or qualifier--none this coming year though!

 

[lifesentencegymmie]

A movie night might be fun...everyone could get comfy on the floor on mats and you could rent a projector and show a movie on the wall...and you could also sell popcorn and snacks

 

[toriluvsgym0618]

mayb hav like a gymnastics show at ur gym, charge addmision for like a couple of dollars, and hav the girls make up there own routines and stuff. sell food, drinks, candy, ect. that wud sound like fun!!