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The Best and the Not-So-Good Fundraising Ideas

Flowers or flour for cookies? Car wash or concert? Auction or Avon? Which will it be?

Choirs are busy raising money for to cover expenses to attent various Festivals What are some great ideas which yield high profit for the hours invested in the fundraising project? A poll taken at the 2001 Festival Conference yielded many suggestions. It was noted that what was a great project for one group may turn out to be a poor idea for another group.

Each group needs to carefully plan the details of it fundraising project, gain approval of the church/organization officials, and carry out the project. An organized person who is good at handling details should head the project. The group should determine what they feel would be the best item(s) to offer for sale. Calculate the profit per item sold versus the hours expended to determine what your fundraising project will be.

One suggestion that has great merit is to select items to sell that people would otherwise purchase. Hanging baskets of flowers or bedding plants for Mother's Day, citrus fruit, or Christmas trees are examples of itmes that people would probably purchase. These would sell well since people know that they are helping their bell choir raise needed funds while they receive a product of good value which they would normally purchase at a local business.

Efforts that seemed to work -

Several ideas that yielded good profit for the hours expended were these:

FOOD SALES	SALE OF ITEMS	SERVICES
Bells and Brunch	Advent calendars with chocolates	Rehearsal with the audience paying for their favorite music
Candy for Easter	Avon products	Car wash - freewill donations
Cheese cakes	Catalog sales, ie. candles, wrapping paper, cards, etc.	Church bulletin insert about the need for donations
Citrus fruits	Christmas trees	Concert with freewill offering
Cookies for Christmas, baked and boxed for gifts	Entertainment coupon booklet	Ringing Christmas caroling at people's homes at 3 songs for $7.00
Cookie mix in a jar with the recipe attached	Flowers - annuals bedding plants and hanging baskets	Silent auction
Fish & chips dinenr	Grocery store gift certificates
Frozen cookie dough	Pizza restaurant coupons
Fudge	T-shirts/sweatshirts
Lollipops	Tupperware
Pancake breakfast
Soup & salad bar with an auction
Strombolis

Efforts that had low returns -

Other fundraising ideas that yielded profits less than the choir hoped to raise were bake sales, church cook books, church luncheons, and magazine sales.

Do you have a fundraising suggestion? If you have had success raising money either to attend a festival or for the purchase of additional bells or chimes for your choir, tell us about it! Email our webmaster at webmaster@area2agehr.org and look for your suggestion to appear here or in Twice Tolled Tales!