We have just distributed the prizes for students who participated in the latest fundraiser, and once again, they are JUNK! We have about 50% of our students who earn prizes, and in order to keep as much profit, we purchase cheap items, but each year it is a huge disappointment. What ideas do other PTO's have for providing a reward without breaking the budget?

What about doing a group prize of a movie night, or a game truck, or a BMX show or something like that instead of those cheapo prizes? For my Jog-A-Thon I do personalized pedometers and the kids love them. They are only $1.20 each.

What is a BMX show ? sounds interesting for everyone

I was wondering. I currently am also a direct-sales representative for a company that sells homewares, and we also have a fundraiser program for selling candles. But we don't have any kind of prize incentives for the kids such as the junky things they get from selling the wrapping paper and chocolates and whatnots. So I was thinking of offering each child a small percentage of each candle they sell in a form of a gift card. For example; If a child sells 100 candles and they can receive $0.25 per candle, that would be a $25 gift card. And the child that sell the most candles out of all of the school would receive $.50 per candle. This would come out of my profits, not the PTO, as I do make some money off of each candle sold. Are there any legalites that could be an issue? I have yet to have a school sign up for a fundraiser, and my school doesn't allow parents who have their own businesses as such to start up their fundraiser as they think it would be a problem where other parents would start saying "What about me? I have a fundraiser from my company too."

Anyway, it's an idea you could incorporate somehow into any kind of fundraiser. And I think gift cards are way more of an incentive than a pen that can write in 6 different colors!!! I just don't know if it would be allowed.

BMX shows, carnivals, and other entertainment brought in to the school by the fundraising company as a incentive is nice, but they are not free. My sister school talked to a rep from Great American Opportunities and found out that they would have to sacrifice 5 to 10% of their sales to pay for the BMX show. The show itself only costs about $900. They normally sell about $26,000 through another company, so even at 5%, it would have cost them over $1,300 for a show they could have brought in themselves for $900. It just did not make sense.

I agree, when you go through the fundraising companies for prizes, it's too expensive or just junky trinkets that are useless. It's better to come up with creative ideas (movie nights, etc...) on your own so that profits can be used what they were intened for. Bmx shows are also a lot more through fundraisers and the quality is not that great. It's better to find your own reputable bmx team and save money. The Bmx Pro Trick Team is one that is repuatable and will work with you on pricing. They are located in SoCal but I think they also travel to other states. the site is perfectiononwheelsdotcom.