Just a thought - at our school we did a Friday Night Parent Night Out and did a Quarter Auction. Was a cheap night out for parents, TONS of fun and we raised almost $1000!
at our school we do cake bingo. Each student is asked to bring at least one cake, and for bringing a cake they get a free dress day coupon. Each student can bring as many cakes as they like but are limited on the coupons as they can only be used on Fridays. A count of cakes is taken before Bingo starts, and for the prize you win a cake. They do three rounds of bingo with say 40 bingos, depending on the number of cakes. When you bingo you get a ticket, at the end you bring how ever many tickets you have won and get that amount of cakes. Its very random what cake you get. Last year (2013) there were over 400 cakes donated. We also have concessions and live auction. Plus raffle items and a 50/50. It can be very profitable.
Our principal asked each grade level to donate a prize to our bingo. 5th grade teachers donated a pizza lunch with one friend, 6th grade donated making a fun fall activities with the teachers, 1st grade donated easy bake oven cooking with teacher, another teacher donated a card making session with 2 students, we also had a movie basket with $25 gift card for the movies donated by 3 early childhood classes, lunch with the principal, a one one game of basketball and lunch with the gym teacher.
We'd like to start a bingo night at our school this year also. It sounds like a blast. I'm supposed to look into pricing for the cages, cards, etc. Does anyone have the name to a reasonable distributor and/or some money saving tips?
At campwe charge 50 cents a card or 5 or $2. The prizes are worth $2-3 each game. We did bingo at school last year and it was free, we do enough fundraising. Each student received 1 or 2 cards and the prizes were games/toys/gift certificates that we bought with budgeted money. The kids and families had a great time. There were a few family games with the prize being dinner and a movie (restaurant gift cert., video store cert and micro popcorn). We plan to do it again this year. Since it is just for fun and no money is exchanged, no permit is needed.