January 26, 2016
Fundraising Ideas Part 3: Activities
CASH FOR TRASH
Breakdown
This is a great way to help others while raising money for your trip! Collect bottles and cans and redeem them at a local redemption center. And don’t stop there! Other organizations will pay for empty ink cartridges, old cell phones, used clothing, shoes, toys and more.
Tips
- You’re not just raising money, you’re helping the community. So make sure to contact family, neighbors, and local businesses!
- Keep participants motivated by offering rewards to those who reel in the most donations.
- Talk about teachable moments! This is an opportune time to teach volunteers the importance of recycling and living green.
Resources
SCHOOL SITTER
Breakdown
Set a classroom aside for a day care area during Parent-Teacher Conferences, Meet the Teacher Nights, PTA meetings or Open Houses. Parents will be eager to donate money in exchange for childcare, and your volunteers are bound to have lots of fun!
Tips
- Have your volunteers come up with a list of activities to do before the big day. Make sure you have all the necessary materials for each one!
- Accept donations from family, friends and colleagues for toys you can keep in the room. Afterwards, you can store them away for next time, or donate them to a good cause! There are even recycling companies out there that will give you money in exchange.
Resources
- Kids’ Activities — from Care.com
- Babysitting Ideas — from Pinterest
- Babysitting Games — from Babysitting.net
HANDPRINT MURAL
Breakdown
A great way to celebrate diversity in your community, and raise some money besides! Prep a wall at school, buy several different colors of paint, and charge for each handprint. In the end, you’ll have a masterpiece for everyone to enjoy for years to come!
Tips
- Create an assembly line with your tour participants to help move things along. Assign volunteers to collect money, keep the paint buckets filled, facilitate handprinting, and clean up.
- Want to promote school unity? Choose paint that matches your school colors!
Resources
- #handprint mural — See how this school created their handprint mural!
- Pinterest — Or view other cool handprint mural ideas here.
RENT-A-STUDENT
Breakdown
All teachers have some sort of busy work they just can’t find the time to get done. Problem solved! Have your travel group create a sign-up sheet with their names and when their free periods are. Teachers can then “rent” a volunteer for a class period on a designated day. Grade papers, re-arrange desks, or clean the classroom! They will be happy to donate to a good cause, and get something invaluable in return.
Tips
- Include the skills, interests and specialties of each student on the sign-up sheet to help teachers decide who they would like to rent. No use having a French student grade a stack of Spanish quizzes, after all!
- Contact other members of the school staff to participate. Janitors, cafeteria workers, secretaries, guidance counselors and nurses could use the help as well!
- Why limit your services to the school? Start a community outreach, offering help with snow removal, lawn mowing, cleanup and more!
CAN YOU SPARE A DOLLAR?
Breakdown
Here’s a quick fundraiser that requires almost no planning on your part! Simply print out copies of the Can You Spare a Dollar? sheet, found in the Resources section below. Hand them out to your tour participants. Their goal is to find donors to sign each square on the sheet and donate at least one dollar. Set a deadline to have the sheets filled out by, and voilà! You’ll have an extra $25 per tour participant.
Tips
- Collect more money per tour participant by adding extra squares to the sheet.
- Motivate your participants by offering a prize to the first person to reach their goal!
PENNY WARS
Breakdown
Use your students’ competitive edge to your advantage in this week-long fundraiser! Get ahold of a container for each grade in your school. Label each with a grade level, and leave them in a supervised area, like the cafeteria. Throughout the week, students should put pennies in their grade’s container. Each penny is worth one point. However, they can also put other coins or bills in other grades’ containers. Nickels deduct five points from the grade’s final total, dimes ten points, quarters twenty-five points, one dollar bills one hundred points, and so on. At the end of the week, have your volunteers empty the containers and calculate each grade’s final total. The winner gets a special party and, more importantly, bragging rights until the next Penny War!
Tips
- 5-gallon water jugs from Poland Springs are the type that work best, since they are large and close up near the top so nothing can be taken out of them.
- You can also use smaller containers and calculate daily totals instead, then post them each day to keep everyone motivated!
- Advertise, advertise, advertise! Penny wars work best when everyone is excited and looking forward to it, so post flyers and make announcements in the weeks leading up to it!
Resources
- Penny Wars Sample Promo
- Canva — Design posters to spread the word!
Category: Travel Tips
