fundraising in an after school club???

[catpool]

Hi i am thinking of doing some fundraising within my after school club. Not sure what to do though as we are only there for 2 hours a day, was thinking maybe a cook book,or something along those lines.
Not really sure where to start with it all....how much is a reasonable price to sell them at?
Or does anyone have any other ideas i could do???
Thanks

[DizzyDora]

This needs to be handled carefully. Parents already pay for their child to attend the club? and in my experience some aren't happy about contributioning to fundraising.

[Ruthierhyme]

Hiya, it is possible you could encounter some negative or neutral feedback from parents/carers and staff.

Cook books are fab, if you have the time to organise and police/risk assess them I'd say most definitely go for it you could settle on a price based on cost - if giving your time freely use the printing expense and paper/materials as a guide xx.

Alongside this you could also offer parents the choice on how you approach different types of fundraising.

Maybe send out a questionnaire listing a selection of options - eg a 'We're thinking of fundraising survey, what would you enjoy supporting': Sponsor the staff, sponsor the children, collect coins/items at home, buy raffle tickets, send in money for buying fundraising items, call in to purchase fundraising items, attend a larger fundraising event, provide fundraising items - add a section for suggestions & if possible promote that it's an anonymous feedback survey/request form.

From there you could guage possible responses to the activities you're looking at. It's also possible to look at what you're fundraising for, if its a specific item maybe see if anyone knows where it could be sourced & obtained without setting up a fundraising cause for it.

This is heaps more than you've asked for sorry but to support an activity that you may have to raise funds for - to use an example, how about planning a chocolate trail for Easter/Spring, if you have any links with local stores would they consider sponsoring a donation of chocolate bars? the children could then 'treasure hunt indoors or outdoors for them? - the only care with this are thoughts and feelings surrounding possible requests or invitations from/for the business to supply advertising materials with the donation/sponsorship.

Or hand participation over to parents - Send out activity sheets that can be returned by a deadline with an entry fee - eg: Draw/stick whiskers on a cat, the most whiskers wins a small prize? Spot the difference - correct entries all put into a hat and a winner drawn - Support your childrens rights and mention that by not returning the sheets, if Children don't want to do them doesn't mean you won't accept a donation of the entry monies - make it known how much parent's support means to you. Question to explore, more urgently if you're asked 'Can someone enter the final draw if they pay a fee but do not supply a completed sheet'

Hope this helps a little xx

[FARLEYS]

we did a cake sale like they do at schools....each parent was given a paper plate with a short message saying we are doing a cake sale on..date at..place...if you would like to contribute please fill the plate with cakes bought or made with a list of ingredients and return to..staff by ..date
we had really good feedback, sold the cakes for between 5p-20p or £1 for a whole cake and we raised nearly £200

[flipflop]

We do fundraising all the time, but keep it small. We do quizes for £1 to take part and give a small prize, bingo with the parents charging for tickets 50p a book and the children organise it all. For easter we ask if anyone can donate the prize and then have a raffle, £1 a ticket. We also got the children to do a canvas painting and made a huge gallery inviting everyone for cheese and biscuits then sold them to the parents for between £3 and £5 for assorted sizes which covers everyones pocket. We then got the parents to do a painting and displayed it on the parents gallery and sold them to the highest bidder. That was a lot of hard work but very successful. Good Luck.