We did this last year, and it did have some difficulties...Specifically, many of our 'families' are difficult to identify because siblings might have different last names. The school directory wasn't out in time to help with this problem...
I would recommend you start with the freebies you can get locally ifyou have time to call around or visit. Things like gift certificatesto restaurants, golf courses, movie theaters, museum passes - that sortof thing would go over well. If you go this route, you may not get allperfect items but anything you do get is a freebie to a supportivefamily. If you can get in touch with the right folks at the righttime, you may get a great response from someone and that perfect topprize - You just never know.
Of course, you can always buy some products. There are a lot of itemswith a very high value and exciting stuff out there. I'm sure manyitems would even be on sale. Things in the digital realm seem to be abest bet for helping families out and getting them excited. Digitalcameras and HD camcorders are very popular these days and if you wantto spend a bit more you should consider a video gaming system or a LCDTV.
I really think it's best not to give out cash for several reasons but Ihope this helps. This seems like the perfect opportunity to plansomething with your fundraising company if you are using one. Theywill generally purchase these things for you and ship them to you whenneeded most times there is no cost to you. Let me know if you have anyquestions and good luck out there!
What we did for our fall giving drive was a raffle of sorts. For every $25 donated (and it didn't have to all come in one donation - I waited until the drive was over and just divided each students total by 25 to get their entry numbers) a student got one entry for a drawing for a three month family membership to our local new YMCA. The people at the YMCA were happy to donate and it seemed to draw a little more interest. We did consider using budgeted expense money to purchase a Wii and some games but one vocal board member suggested trying to get the donation so we did and it worked out fine. I still think that I will likely purchase something different next year but use the same raffle style to get a winner. Another suggestion we had after the fundraiser was over was to have weekly prizes that were smaller - like restaurant cards.
We haven't had any "family" prizes but I was thinking that a nice "family" prize could be a gift card to the local grocery store and/or restaurants.
Ask the grocery store for a donation of a gift card then you can always add to the denomination to make the value more. Or you could go to another local grocery and ask for a donation and combine the two.
Or maybe even ask few local restaurants for gift certificates to combine!
Do you offer any type of "family" prize with your fall fundraisers? Something for the top selling family in addition to the smaller prizes?? If so, what have you found that works?
