That's exactly what I was lookind for. Thank you. I'm also wondering what fundraisers are the most time consuming and have least pay back to avoid them. I'm looking forward to the article about soup labels. I looked at the site and have to agree that 900 labels to get a $3 box of chalk when 900 box tops would be $90 seems...whats the word? - insane. Plus it looks a lot more complicated and time consuming
For small amounts of money, you can't beat the boxtops and cartridge recycling. For example, for cartridges -- I pick them up at school whenever I see them in the box. It is right inside the door, I do it when I pick my daughter up. Really takes no time. I print out the list from kashforkids.com, make sure which ones are recyclable, put the ink cartridges in the box they provide, fill out the little form, and drop it at the post office. The whole thing takes me less than an hour each time I do it, and we get between $25 and $50 each time. Doing a big box of laser cartridges takes a little longer because I have to measure the box and wiehg it and e-mail kashforkids for a prepaid fedex label, but I can get more money for those.
Boxtops, you can have a boxtop counting party twice a year, have a few people spend an hour or two, and make hundreds of dollars.
Those aren't going to be major fundraisers but they can't be beat for ease.
Being new to a lot of the fundraising that goes on in schools, I am curious what are the most profitable fundraisers for the effort.
I think of quick and profitable along these lines:
money made minus all expenses (count everything including postage, flyers, bad checks and undelivered merchandise) then divide that number by the approximate volunteer hours (include planning and socializing breaks while working)
Does that make sense?
(income - expenses)/volunteer hours = money made per volunteer hour
For example making your own cookbooks would be:
200 cookbooks sold at $10 each = $2000
Printing for 50 pages, a cardstock cover and kinko's binding = $3.00 each book
Made 300 cookbooks = 300*3=$900
Flyers to get recipes from parents =$7.00
Volunteer hours to collect and type in recipes, make copies, have books bound, distribute and sell books = 100 hours between all volunteers
