Fundraising Ideas Needed

[ASM7]

ScoutParent

About this safety break that you mentioned, I thought you were offering these refreshments for free and had a donation bucket for the troop. If you were selling these items for the specific idea of raising money then it is a fundraiser. We offered the safety break as a courtesy to holiday travelers. All items were donated for that purpose and our donation bucket, we felt, should go to some other worthy cause, because we don't accept money for what we think is a good deed and not even really a service project. I had originally planned for the donations to be for the troop, but on the advice of the posters on this forum, I changed my mind and realized that it would not be appropriate. Please correct me if I misunderstood your post. Thanks

Doug

[mkjaxon]

I have a great idea for fundraising--especially for the Girl Scouts...AVON! Avon sells itself, is 100% money-back guaranteed, and there is no upfront cost. Avon has something for everyone... boys, girls, men and women. There is a separate fundraising department to handle all your needs.

 

I am an Avon representative and would love to help anyone in the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania area to conduct their fundraiser. Christmas is a great time for selling Avon. If you need a contact in other areas, please email me at kimjaxon1218@yahoo.com

[LauraT7]

I prefer fundraisers where you don't have to "sell" any product, or where the product sells itself to the general public.

 

Every time I turn around theres some kid at the door that i don't know, trying to sell me candles, wrapping paper, cheese, candy, nuts, magazines, etc for school, scouts, church, daycare ad nauseum....

 

and the ones who sell all this stuff and get the big fundraising bucks either go door to door (which the handouts say they are not supposed to do - not safe in this day and age) or, more likely, they come from a big extended family or mom and dad work for big companies with offices they can get to buy stuff for their kids.

 

OK - so explain to me how MOM and DAD taking the popcorn order form to THEIR OFFICE is teaching Jr. to "earn his own way" ????

 

I am a single Mom who works full time. The majority of my neighbors are not home, either and over half are non-english-speaking. So who is my son supposed to sell to?

 

Grandma, Mom and Uncle Joe? guess HE's not going to camp under his own steam!!

 

Nope. I'd rather do something that doesn't involve hitting up my co - workers again, or Grandma buying expensive popcorn for the food pantry ( she can't eat it!)

 

One thing I have found is recycling Cartridges. I work for a Title company - we go thru TONS of printed material. I collect the lazer toner cartridges and ship them off for recycling, UPS picks up at my office twice a day anyway, and our troop gets $2 to $15 each for them. I ship a box of 10 - 15 xcartridges at a time - about once a month. minimum - that's $30 a month to our troop. If we can get a few more companies of parents to do this, we could have a regular cash flow! With hardly any effort!

 

there are a number of places on the web that offer this. look up "cash for kids" and "cartridge recycling"

[ScoutParent]

Our computer printer cartridges go into a box at the local bank and the cubscout pack in town receives $ 2.00 for each one collected.

[LauraT7]

Can't remember if I posted these ideas that our troop uses or not - but we've got some good ones:

 

for years our troop has parked cars in the parking lot of our local Ace hardware during the 5 days of our county fair. The Ace hardware owner's sons went thru our troop years ago, and people would fill up his lot - making it impossible for his customers to get into the store during the fair. So the boys keep a designated area open for customers only during business hours and the owner lets us use the rest of the lot (probably space for over 100 cars)for parking. We direct people and accept a donation for parking. we usually net $4000 - $6000 - unless it rains.

 

During the fair parking, we started keeping bottled water in coolers for the boys and people wanted to buy it from us. So we stocked up and sell bottled water for $1 a bottle at fair parking, and at other events around town. At the 4th of July parade, our boys carried the flags in the parade. The ones that weren't in the parade, wore their troop T-shirts, put coolers in wagons and walked along the parade route (in 2's and 3's) selling water. It was a HUGE hit. We bought the water from Sam's Club At $.23 a bottle and sold it for $1. I have a BIG chest freezer and the church has a big refridgerator. So we chilled about 15 cases and I froze a few of them to keep the others cold. We sold EVERY LAST BOTTLE. I think we collected over $400 over the 4-5 hours of the parade route. The boys got to see the parade, and the Troop was visible ( in their T-shirts) to the community, providing a much wanted product for a reasonable price.

 

Our town is the boyhood home of the author of the "Dick Tracey" comics. Every year we have a big celebration, parade and carnival. This year our troop manned a booth - we sold bottled pop, bottled water and snow cones. Snow cones in August are a HUGE profit maker! Our machines and supplies were supplied to the city (which set up the concessions to be run)by a local restaurant, the city set the prices ($2 for each drink or cone) We collected the money, paid the restauranteer for his supplies and the profit was ours to keep! we collected over $1300, the supplies cost less than $200. the only drawback was that it was not made clear to us that any unsold pop was ours - we would not have ordered more on sunday afternoon. We also ended up with leftover sno-cone syrup (opened bottles - they took back any sealed bottles)

 

 

 

[ASM4005]

Patrol Fundraiser:

We had great success the last 2 years during a regional State Fair parade (Sept.) in our town by selling bottled water along the parade route for a $1.00 donation. We loaded coolers into little red wagons and each Scout pulled and sold the water while a parent walked with him to help with the money. The Scouts wore class B uniforms.

This year each Scout(7) earned $78 for his individual Scout account(after paying for hamburgers/drinks at the fair for everyone involved in our group). The water bottles and ice were donated by area merchants and we secured permission to walk and sell from the Fair Board and the Police Dept. We also had a replenishment vehicle (Polaris Ranger)

loaded with extra water and ice that trailed the Scouts during the parade.

We also offered free cold water to every Policeman, Fireman, and Military Serviceman we passed.

[ASM4005]

Something new for us this year. Our Troop is going to host a food concession booth at a 3 day regional air show this July. Lots of planning and red tape(Health Dept.) is involved but the returns might be good. We're planning on offering a large tent for patrons to get out of the sun and sit down. We also plan to have another large tent set-up for heat relief (misting fans) and minor 1st-aide as a community service project during the Show.

 

These funds will be used towards a Troop High Adventure Trip in 2004.

[92_SPL]

Hello,

My Troop does what we call a walk/jog-athon. Scouts have from 1-4 weeks to gather sponsers for himself. These people sign a paper and pledge so much to the scout per lap (we use a 1/4 mile track). This works well because it doesn't cost anything. It helps let other people know about us. And last (but not least) it works on our fitness.

 

92_SPL

David

[evmori]

Check into Krispy Kreme! We are planning to do this. You can sell donuts. Minimum is 50 doz and you make $2.50 per dozen. They also have partner cards you sell for $10 and make $5 per card. Minimum is 50 cards.

 

Ed Mori

Scoutmaster

Troop 1

1 Peter 4:10

[OldGreyEagle]

92, you have a great idea, unfortunatley its against BSA official policy. When fundraising you are supposed to return goods or services for money. A Walk/Jog a thon is glorified begging. Not that that's a bad thing, its just not how the BSA wants funds to be raised.

 

I am not sure what message a youth receives from getting money for himself by going around in circles.

 

Wait, that might be training for erstwhile politicans

[evmori]

OGE,

I agree but what is the difference between what 92 suggested and the Bowl-A-Thon held in my district (other than one is walking & one is bowling)?

 

Ed Mori

Scoutmaster

Troop 1

1 Peter 4:10

[eagle90]

Our troop had its annual Rummage Sale last weekend and made over $1600 in one day. All families brought their rummage on friday night, we set it all out, and were open Saturday from 7 AM till 1:00. Only expenses were a couple of classified ads in the local paper. The families are happy to get rid of their "treasures". The leftovers were donated to the Cancer Federation for their resale shops. It's an easy way to make money, expose the public to Scouting, and is good fellowship at the same time.

[OldGreyEagle]

Ed, I guess the answer is there is no difference so that makes what your District is doing suspect in how I understand BSA fundraising policy

Check out this link:

 

http://www.minsitrails.com/resources/index.asp

 

Click on forms and look for the Unit Money Application Form

 

Check on page 2, item number 6, The last sentence reads

 

"... You cannot permit anyone to capitalize on a Scouting connection or induce sympathy as a substitute for a worhty product or service."

 

Any type of "a-thon" does not return either a service or a product to the customer/donator/whatever. Now, if you wanted to do a marathon baseball/basketball/etc game and sell tickets for people to watch, that would be ok as then it would be presented as entertainment to the ticket buyer.

 

I am relatively sure of my answer, if you remember Bethlehem, PA is home of the Bogus Cub Scout whose parents had him go door to door soliciting money for a campout. (side note, father skipped bail and left Mom and scout). We have had a lot of discussion over fundraising and the above is what we were told.

 

I guess its the interrpretation that an "a-thon" does not return a worthy good or service.

 

At least thats how I understand it, how would you defend a bowl-a-thon against the "worthy goods or service" statement?

 

(This message has been edited by OldGreyEagle)

[evmori]

OGE,

Based on the form, I agree any type of "a-thons" do not comply with policy.

 

Ed Mori

Scoutmaster

Troop 1

1 Peter 4:10

[John Schmidt]

If you don't like to pay out money in advance and have unreturnable products left over check out:

 

www.watkinsonline.com

 

Click on "Join as a Nonprofit Organization." You group can have each family order for their own use, NO DOOR TO DOOR SALES, order as much or as little as you like, the products are shipped to your door, orders of $75 and up are shipped free, and each month Watkins will send your group a check for 19% to 33% of the retail sales.

 

Watkins has been offering quality for 135 years. They originated the money back guarantee if not satisfied.

 

No risk, no cost, simple and easy to do.

 

Let me know if you have questions or comments.

 

John