Fundraising

We raised just over $30,000 in about 18 months, so we became somewhat of an expert on fundraisers.

Types of fundraisers include individual fundraisers and group fundraisers, here are the fundraisers we did.  The key is to think outside of the box, look for something not done in your area.  Chances are the people you would ask to buy items are getting hit up by every youth group in town.  Our experience was that the tried and true dinner fundraisers don’t seem to produce the same profit as they used to.  Make sure to follow your organization rules and regulations along with local ordinances like health permits for food.

Individual:

Benefits the participant solely the more they sell the more they get.  They could use this to offset the cost of their payments into the trip.

- Boy Scout Popcorn Sale –

Done every year with our local council, some scouts participate others don’t want the hassle.  It can be quite profitable for those who participate depending on how much work they want to put into it.

-Flower Bulb Sale –

We did this through a larger company, similar to popcorn can be quite profitable for those who want to hussle.

- Wreath Sale –

This fundraiser was a troop staple for years but it seems as time goes on it is not as much of a money maker.  Several factors played into it; cost, competition (a lot of stores started selling them) and lack of customers.

Group:

These directly took the cost down for entire group.  Every participant had to participate in half of the group fundraisers.

- Scrap Metal –

For us was very profitable would depend on the price of scrap, your donations and how much work you want to do.  Do you want to collect from around towns or have a drop off, cut to smaller lengths, sort out different sizes, etc.. It can be promoted as a green project as you are recycling.

- Raking Leaves –

This was done as a donation not a set amount so it would vary by the spirit of the home owner – profitable, just takes time not a lot of investment.

- Hot Dog Sales –

Usually the ones we did were associated with a couple of stores that had events and needed someone to do a hot dog booth.  Can be profitable some food booths only broke even some made good money.  Depends a lot on your foot traffic.

- Can & Bottle donations –

If you live in a state who has the deposits on soda, beer and water bottles and cans you can make a lot of money off it.  We have a deal with a local redemption center that allows us to drop them off and they send us a check monthly, very little work for good money.  We have 2 drop off boxes along with families dropping off directly at the redemption center.

- Christmas Bazaar –

A day of craft sales and food booth.  We sold vendor spaces for it. Positive fundraiser we made good money, did it 2 years.  This does take a lot of effort to line up vendors, location, set up booths, arrange for food booth, advertising, etc…

- Gift Card sales –

Could be done as an individual but we did as a group.  People could go to a website and buy giftcards depending on the store we received a varying commission that was directly deposited to our bank account.  You need someone to process the gift cards and distribute to group members.  This could make a lot of money if you have people that get behind it as the cards can be used for everyday purchases like food, clothing, gas, etc..

- Christmas Trees –

One of the local families sold Christmas trees and they did a coupon that gave the troop a donation for each tree sold.  This made some money but isn’t a huge money maker.

- Dinner Catering –

One of our families owns a large dairy farm and they host a dinner for their employees and vendors.  They asked us to cater the event, we did raise some good money off of it and did it two years.  This does take some work; planning the menu, prep work, cooking, serving, clean up, etc…

- Odd Jobs –

Someone who we raked leaves for asked if we could cut down a  tree and  get rid of the wood so we said yes since we had members who were familular with that type of work.

- Yard Sales –

Ask your group to donate items for a yard sale.  This can vary in profitability depending on your traffic, weather and items donated for sale.  Look for items you can sell individually via craigslist or ebay that would make more money than in a yard sale setting.

- Picnic Clean Up –

A local company has us annually do clean up of trash, sweep up and take down chairs for a donation.  Not a huge money maker but we usually get a couple hundred dollars for a few hours of work.

- Tarp Rentals –

Another tried and true fundraiser our troop does every year.  We have 3 20 x 30 tarps and 1 10 x 20 tarp we rent out for parties and events.  Not a bad fundraiser just takes some prying to get people to participate in set ups and breakdowns.

- Festival Booth - Cotton Candy, Snow Cones, Popcorn and Marshmallow Shooters -

At our annual village festival we started selling food (Cotton Candy, Snow Cones & Popcorn along with drinks). The profit margin on this type of food is quite well and even for our small village festival we would clear $1,000 to $1,500 profit in a couple of days. This is also a fundraiser that we did for years before the trip fundraising and continue to do after.

We also started to sell Marshmallow shooters for $5 plain and $7 decorated with duct tape. Marshmallow shooters are made from PVC pipe and are easy to do, nice thing is they are non-perishable so if you have left overs they can just be stored and sold at another time. We found people would repeat buy every year.

- Dinner Dance –

We have had a dinner dance for 21 years, started as a fundraiser to send the troop to the National Jamboree and since it was so successful we have continued to do it.  This is a high end Valentines Day dinner dance at $75 a couple; the dinner is either prime rib, chicken cordon blue, or a marinated pork also includes appetizers, desserts, DJ and door prizes.  This takes a lot of work someone has to organize a cooking crew, place to do it, rental of linens, glass ware, door prizes, asking for donations of appetizers and desserts, set up and clean up.  Profitability for us has been very good due to several reasons we have the hall donated, cooking staff donates their time, families donate the appetizers and desserts we get a good rate on a DJ and other donations.  We continue to raise between $2,000 to $3,000 profit yearly.

- Pumpkin Sales –

We started selling pumpkins because a family had about 100 pumpkins left over they all sold out at $2 each, they were mostly small ones.  So next year we grew a field of them and sold out but found a supplier who we could buy from for $.50 each we ended up making pumpkins our largest fundraiser profiting almost $3,500.  We have since gone to buying them from the farmer, the fundraiser depends on the year sometimes we make a lot of money some years not so much.  Depends on the crop and the competetion, we try to sell on the cheaper side to make it affordable for families.