Hi...I can relate to fundraisers being down. last spring we found our biggest fundraiser cut in half, so we were lucky enough we had set some money aside for a future project to be announced later. that money covered the loss and also got us going this fall. We had done the sale for only two years but it became apparent that most of the other schools, sports , churches, etc was selling similiar product(pizza). So we scratched and went with a catalog sale, it just ended and it's the biggest fundraiser we have ever done.Our school hadn't used a catalog sale in about six years...so in reality it was a new product. I learned from last year to budget low on income because last year EVERYTHING was down. This year we have made up our whole budget already=) Im sure you can cut out a few things , it will hurt alot but maybe it will also make families see how important those funds can be.We really pushed if every family buys one item... I know we cut field trip funds for this year based on last years shortfall and the teachers are wondering how they can help get it back!!We were lucky we had backup money but it made us realize that we really needed to look at the direction our funds was going in..down. We cut things out and kept the ones we felt were more important, are we going to spend all the money we just made...not until after our candle sale and easter candy sale. We are afraid of being way down on them..so we wont count our chicks before they hatch! Good luck!

Do you keep using the same fundraisers? Our kids do not sell anything but kids the other schools in our county do. I used to say "You can never have too many candles." Then I had a kid wanting me to buy one every other day. Before that I had chocolate burn out (yes, that happens to me, if have an odd taste anyhow). As of last year one organization I used to be in was still selling the same thing that I sold for it 14 years ago. My point being...maybe it is time for a change. If your fundraiser is an event, then maybe it is time to tweak it up a little.

I think fundraising is down in general because of the economy. One suggestion might be to re-evaluate your future fundraisers ... look into switching your smaller fundraisers to larger fundraisers with a higher profit margin. Do you have a budget (projection) for the year to keep track of profits/losses?

We have just completed our major fundraiser and our profits were down by 47%! We are use to making 22000+ (before our 50% profit) and this year our profit was only 6527.00. I'm scared of what will happen to the programs we wanted to bring in and all the things we do for the kids that we never ask money for (carnivals, books, etc). Any suggestions on how to boost fundraising. The rest of the planned fundraisers for the year are small and will probably only take in a few thousand combined. Help!