You might try asking area merchants for gift cert. that are "buy 1 get 1 free" instead of just "free". For example we have a local diner that offers a buffet, we buy a g/c for a free buffet and they donate 1 to us. Sometimes business's are more likely to donate when you are buying something.
Hi,
We started giving out door prizes last year-we our fortunate enough to receive a sample box for each of our schools from our fundraising company that we do our fall fundraiser with (we cover 2 elementary centers, a kindergarten center and a middle school). We use those samples as prizes, combining some such as gift wrap and bows. Any candy samples left after our open house we use at meetings. We also gave away $25 to the class with the most in attendance and if the teacher is present they get an extra $10 dollars. (we were lucky enough to have a good fundraising year)
I cant say that it made more people come each month-but it seemed that the people who started coming in the beginning of the school year came for just about every meeting.
Our PTO tried a similar raffle with a twist that kinda backfired. Rather than give a prize based on a random draw, we wanted to give a prize to the class with the most parents in attendance at each meeting. Well, after a couple of meetings, it was obvious that the "PTO" parents were concentrated in 2 classes (out of 28). It was a little awkward and didn't boost attendance like we had hoped.
A random raffle of gift certificates sounds like a better idea.
Our PTO has each officer (there are 8 of us) bring in a donation from a local business for each meeting. We raffle these eight door prizes at the end of each meeting. At the end of the year we recognize the companies that have donated to our organization, by advertising for them and thanking them in our end of the year news letter.
The door prizes have BOOSTED attendance at our meetings.
I agree...go your local merchants and ask! Most will not turn you down. Ask for free oil changes, massages, manicure, drycleaning, bowling games, etc. The hard part is asking. Our fundraiser chair handles the "asking". So she can keep a record of who donates. This way we dont have several reps going to the same places and them getting upset with us. We keep a database with all the companies, names, tel numbers, etc.
