The elementary school down the street did this for three years, with the first year doing well, the 2nd not so well, and the third year was awful. Not sure why, but the first year had a lot of stuff going on within the table sales.

They brought in a string quartet from the high school orchestra to play during the event, had the high school singers, too. If you have the kids play, the parents almost always come, too.

Not sure why it has fizzled out, they even purchased ads in the paper....

###

We did this along with our Santa Shoppe. Kids shopped in the gym, parents in the cafe with the crafters. Ours was very small scale - only 20 crafters. We charged $15 for a space. There wasn't a heavy traffic flow, we knew there wouldn't be and shared that info upfront with the crafters. It was more a service than a moneymaker. Our Santa Shoppe only makes us a couple hundred dollars so this supplemented it and made all the effort a little more worthwhile.

Excellent idea! Thanks for sharing!

I really like that idea. That would be great to do in the beginning of December-right before the holidays. Would you mind me asking how much you made? I have been the Ways & Means Pres this year and only raised about half of previous years. I'm in for another year so I can prove that I can do it! I am really going to think about this.

Hi Everyone,

I thought I'd share a fundraiser that's almost pure profit, and pretty easy to put together. I know some of you have done some thing like this in the past, but I'm going to give complete details for those that haven't

It's a craft and vendor show, carnival, plus lunch and raffle with a couple of added things.

Cost of table to vendors $20 plus gift valued at least $5.00 from the company they represent, if they want to market 2 companies, which a lot do, they are allowed if they can fit it all on one table, and they give another gift valued at a least $5.00 from the other company too.

First of all you need to find every direct sales company rep in your area. There's usually a ton of them, avon, party lite, pamper chef, candle companies, gourmet companies, you can usually do this by a simple search on the web. Or asking around at school.

Goal is to get at least 50 vendors plus some craft people. Plus some local businesses may buy a table. Ask cell phone companies, wedding places, photo studios. Send a flyer home a couple of months before the day, asking parents to spread the word about the event, and also if they know any direct sellers, who would be interested in a booth to call you.

Goal is to get a great crowd without having to pay for any advertising. Usually the local paper will run something in the community section.

Than you have little cards printed up before the event, with the name of every vendor table at your show. You charge $2.00 for adults to get in, but if they go to every table to have the vendor sign the card, they get $2.00 off the price of their lunch. Also sell raffle tickets at this time, a buck each, over $250 worth of prizes, more if you can find some other donations. This helps the vendors feel like people are visiting their booth, so you'll have a great turn out the next year.

You also have a place set up for the kids with games and stuff like a carnival, charge what you want, but you do have to have some little prizes too. Tickets usually 4 for a buck.

You can do anything else to the event, that you think would generate funds. It's a great way to raise a lot of money with a day event.