We have a carnival in the Spring and have added a silent auction to it for the last couple of years. We use some homemade games and some rented. The teachers help by selling tickets, and the families each donate sodas, candy, and baked goods for refreshments, prizes and the cake walk. The silent auction items are all donated by school families or locla businesses, so are pure profit. We do invest in some baskets, ribbons and cellophane to "dress up" the packaging of the items. A list of the items is prepared and distributed ahead of the Carnival so families can preview them. We also presold discounted Carnival tickets to alleviate long lines. The presold tickets were kept in each families' envelope until the day of the Carnival and they would pick them up at a special booth. The silent auction works well at this even because during the 5 hours while the kids are eating and playing the games, there is a lot of time to peruse the items and keep bidding. Good Luck to you!
To supplement your major fundraisers, you could have a "Family Pizza Day" at a local pizza parlor or title it something else at another local restaurant. I called and spoke with the managers at several of the restaurants in our immediate neighborhood. We set it up where if the families stated they were from our school when they ordered, those receipts were kept separately and at the end of the day, totalled up and we were given a donation of a percentage. This usually was 20% - 25% of the days proceeds. I asked to have it include lunch, dinner or take out for one specific day. We also did it for every Tuesday in one month and that kept it going even longer. We made the flyers and got them approved by the restaurant, then distributed them with our weekly bulletin and made signs to remind the families. It was a great way to bring the families together and eat and enjoy each other. An added benefit, there was no CLEAN UP as there would be if we had put it on ourselves! We usually made from $150. to $250. each time. Also we were able to use Scrip for these days, if the restaurant agreed to it. Many times the Scrip is sold at the corporate level and the event is sponsored at the local level. That increases your donation amount . Good luck!
Ours is a small school too (380 students) compared to others in our district but our PTO keeps pace with "the big boys" financially by cutting out the middle man in almost all of our fund raising efforts. We do hold two scholastic book fairs, a silent auction (local business/parent/staff donations) and an annual spellathon / mathathon (students collect sponsors for spelling / math personal challenges). The last two events have been pure profit.
Our school sold candy bars through Genevieve Fundraisers. We raised $6000 in one month. This is a great company to work with and one of the easiest fundraisers I have ever had. They are based in Massachusetts. The profit was 50%!!! Each student signed a permission slip to sell candy bars. Each box contained 30 bars at 1.00 each. Any unwrapped candy could be returned no questions asked. Good luck.
My godson goes to a small charter school in Ma with about 200 other students. They sell school spirit cards (local discount cards) in the fall and make like 5 - 6 thousand (70% profit)
There is also catalog sales which would give you at least 40%, one of our smaller school 187 students sold over $6,000 ang made a profit of about $2,400
E-mail me if you want more info on that @ This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Good luck
We're in the middle of planning our first annual auction. We're not that big of a school either. only about 170 students. Read the article on this site it has some good ideas. Veronica.
