Box Tops for Education will cost you nothing except postage to send them in. I believe this is a great money raiser for all organizations, especially ones that have a demographic who may receive some sort of public assistance/food stamps. Parents/Guardians have to use their food stamps to purchase food products. So even if they are using government subsidy, the BTFE are still valid. There are a few grocery stores in our area that offer a percentage of your purchase in "cash back" to your organization, but if you pay with government funds they exclude those sales, so that's why BTFE is still a great idea for you because BTFE has no idea what payment method you used to purchase the products. You could also talk to your local public libraries or churches (or even local banks) and see if they would allow you to put a collection box in their area to help support your school.

You might also consider some type of collection drive (old clothing or shoes) since everyone seems to have those lying around. I was at the PTO Today Expo yesterday and one of the exhibitors was Shoe Box Recycling. They only recycle shoes but there is another topic on clothes recycling. Shoe Box Recycling provides a box pays the postage to send the box to them. They pay you per pound for the shoes at the rate of 50 cents per pound. Might not seem like a lot of money, but no selling is required.

We usually do Great American as the big fall fundraiser, but this year we tried Mixed Bags. They make all sorts of bags out of recycled pretty plastic fabric. Anyway, it went very well and we even added a spring Mixed Bag fundraiser since they had new products and fabrics. Our school is about 60% hispanic and we're title I. We also do a dessert fundraiser timed to deliver before Thanksgiving. It does well, but I don't think it's the low income families who participate as much in it since those cakes are pricey.
Janine

Our elementary school is a low income / high poverty one with about 70% receiving free lunches daily. We have not had much success with fundraisers in the past few years due to this. Does anyone have suggestions for quality fundraisers which would help us raise a worthwhile amount towards our new playground dream? We have tried restaurant family nights, frozen foods, etc...

Suggestions welcomed please!
Thank you,
Lisa

We have the same, we are 72% reduced or free and we did something for the first time last year.. we had a basket raffle the night of our holiday concert. We sent letters to local and in state businesses and we received alot of donated items. We even had one business (who is just around the corner from our school, and a funeral home to be exact) who's wife donated 12 already made up baskets for our school. She said this was her way of giving back to our school since we are so close.

We will do another one this year.

Thanks!

We as well have over 60% of our 400 student population at a low income level. Having managed the fundraisers for the past couple of years we did two new ones around the holiday break and at Valentine's Day. Holiday Grams and Flowergrams for $1 each. We worked with a wholesale florist and purchased carnations for about $.33 a piece. We also sold personalized wrapped Hershey chocolate bars which were about $.60 each. Holiday time we have done a couple of other options along with the chocolate bar with the profit margin being around $.30 or more. They are more popular every year with parents and staff alike purchasing them for ALL students.

Participate in eScrip - individuals can enter in a credit card number and when it's used at a particular location, your school will receive a % of the purchase.