Booster Clubs play an important part at a school. The Booster Club earns money and pays for certain things at the school from providing extra equipment (jump ropes, balls) for the classrooms to holding a school carnival. Children look forward to the events that the Booster Club does but to do these things, you need money. If your Booster Club has hit a slump and you don’t know how to revive it and earn funds to bring your club back to what it was, you should consider doing an easy fundraising idea that won’t give you a huge headache. Elaborate fundraiser ideas or catalog sales are all well and good but if you are starting at the bottom, go for something simpler as you’re more likely to get people to help you with something simple first and then you can ask their help for a bigger fundraiser later on.
This article will help you out by suggesting several easy fundraising ideas your Booster Club can do any school year.
Easy Booster Club Fundraising Ideas #1: Grams
Grams are a favorite of mine because the kids really love them. Grams are where children can pay $1 (you want to make them affordable to the kids so they can actually buy them) and write a message on a piece of cardstock to send to a friend or teacher at the school (or to themselves). Usually you include something to go along with the card such as a small goody bag filled with a couple of items, a decorated pencil, and a sweet treat of some sort (if your school district permits it). There are several times to sell grams. There is Halloween (Spooky Gram), Christmas (Winter Gram), Valentine’s Day, Easter (Spring Gram) and a End of the School Year gram (allows kids to write a parting message to their friends).
If your school has several concerts and events during the year when kids perform, sell Performance Grams at these events. It allows parents to send a message to their child saying how proud they are, how much they love them and so on and then you deliver it to their child during school hours. It’s a nice bonus for both parent and child.
Easy Booster Club Fundraising Ideas #2: Box Top Drive
Box Tops for Education by Betty Crocker is one of the most popular fundraising ideas a school can do because it’s very simple to do. One unexpired box top is worth ten cents so image if the kids at your school brought hundreds upon hundreds of box tops in, the earning opportunity is great for something that you only have to sort and send in.
That being said, many schools don’t take full advantage of Box Tops. You can send home a note or two with students once or twice a year to remind them to bring in box tops and sure, you’ll get a few. That is not the way to go though. You are not keeping the Box Tops fresh in the students mind. Make it a competition between the classrooms and you’ll see more box tops. Send out monthly reminders.
At my children’s elementary school a few years ago, the results for the Box Tops were kept on a wall in the cafeteria. That let students see what classroom was in the lead, how many they needed to bring in to get their class in the lead, etc. Children and parents alike stopped by the board weekly when it was updated.
Incentive ideas are pizza parties for the top earning class (or ice cream, etc). To make it even more fun and thus make kids want to bring in even more box tops, let a student win something in each class. You can order personalized magnets from Vista Print.com for an affordable price. Personalize them and have them say “I was the Highest Box Top Earner In My Class!” with a picture of a medal or something along that lines on it. Also you can give a goody bag to the highest earning child or give three to each class for first, second and third place. Children love having the chance to win something and they will bring in more box tops if they thing they can win.
Easy Booster Club Fundraising Ideas #3: The “Non” Fundraiser:
A friend of mine in another state’s school has a “non fundraiser, fundraiser” where a very nice letter is sent home with all the students. Attached to that letter is an envelope that the child has decorated with crayons or stickers. The letter asks for any donations that the family can manage. It can be nothing, $1, $5, $20, $50, $100, etc. The amount in the envelope does not matter. The letter also asks for the students to return their envelopes back to school by a certain date, with money or empty. The teacher’s collect them and for every class who has all their envelopes returned, they win a class ice cream or pizza party. The donations are anonymous, so none of the students feel left out if they can’t bring any money in. My friend said that last year her school “raised almost $4,000 and its 100% profit and there’s zero overpriced junk to buy!”
Easy Booster Club Fundraising Ideas #4: Recyclable Drive:
Not every parent is able to donate money or buy something that their kid is selling so why not have a recyclable drive? Everyone has a few recyclables lying around they could get rid of. Kids could bring in plastic bottles (with a 1 on it) and aluminum cans (though you may want to request no alcohol bottles or cans) on a certain day and volunteers could sort them and take them in and bring cash back to the Booster Club.
Easy Booster Club Fundraising Ideas #5: Water Bottles
Kids love buying stuff. If you are trying to raise some money quickly, ask parents and local businesses to donate bottles of water. Then sell it to the kids for a dollar each at the end of lunch and after school. You can also do this with other items but water is pretty affordable. Set up a trash can so that you can have it go hand in hand with your recyclable drive mentioned in #4.
