Mommy Talk Show Candid Conversation with a TV Mom
We’re barely two months into the school year and already we’ve received catalogues and packets for school fundraisers. I get it. Schools have additional projects that require funding. For example, A.J.’s elementary school is raising thousands of dollars for a brand new playground. We’re also in our first year of Cub Scouts and will be selling popcorn to offset the troop’s expenses. But instead of soliciting co-workers and friends in-person for sales, then running behind them to collect their donations, I’m a proud supporter of online school fundraisers. Some of the links below are affiliate links.
Post Online & Send Email
As someone who misplaces school forms each week, sharing a fundraiser online is so much easier. (I’ve already lost a permission slip for next week’s field trip.) With online school fundraising you can share links on your Facebook profile and in Facebook groups to solicit donations on behalf of your child’s school. Even this morning, I’m sending a reminder email for my brother to donate!
No Lost Cash or Checks
Donors can use a credit/debit card or enter their check account information to make donations. To me, that’s so much easier than keeping an envelope of cash and checks, then worrying about submitting them by the school deadline.
Easy Delivery
For fundraisers that are motivated by sales or products, the shopper/donor can enter their own address information for shipment.
Encourage Social Sharing
Once the shopper/donor has completed their order, most online school fundraising sites allow them to get social. They can share a link and help the fundraising efforts reach even more people.
Online School Fundraising Sites
Several family friendly brands allow schools to fundraise through their shopping sites. Usually it only requires creating a profile for your school/organization, including your address and tax ID number so that a portion of sales are donated.
Tea Collection – This global-inspired kids clothing line is one of our favorites. A.J.’s wearing their Tora T-Shirt and Railroad Pants below. For 2016, it’s fundraiser school days are October 12-19 where 15% of sales are donated to your designated school or organization.
Bake Any Shape – This brand allows you to create your own cake pan shapes for fun celebrations. “What we do is set up a charity with a unique promo code. When a sale is made the product gets sent directly to the customer and the charity receives a portion of the sale.”
iSow – Parents can create a profile for children under 13, add their children to their profile and start collecting donations. “Our website alone provides access to an easy-to-use fundraising interface, financial tips, and a robust network of like-minded young people. iSow is the future of gift giving, goal setting and fundraising for young people.”
Pals Socks – Comfy brand Pals Socks allows schools to fundraise by selling wholesale priced socks. Their mismatched socks brand is designed to teach children acceptance of differences.
“We offer paperless ordering — essentially the organization/PTA will send out an email blast/listerserv with the fundraising announcement, including a special code for our shopping cart at checkout. So, we can see the orders are through them, and what they ordered. After their fundraising period is over, we send them a check for the sales created (customer pays shipping, organization gets wholesale costs of socks, $10 for every $20 box, $4.50 for every $9 pair of socks for example). There is no risk, they do not purchase anything up front, they only can make money.”
Mabel’s Labels – As a food allergy family, we’ve purchased and reviewed Mabel’s Labels allergy alerts every school year. Your school can easily set up a fundraiser through the labels brand throughout the school year.
In case you missed this three-part series for “Successful School Fundraiser Week,” here’s The Secret to a Successful School Book Sale and The Secret to a Successful School Spirit Night.
Yes, yes, yes! I love some of the fundraisers my kids do through school, but doing them online is SO MUCH easier.
This is such a great post! My kids get some pretty cool fundraisers sent home but doing them online seems like it would be so much easier.
I LOVE this! LOVE IT! Whenever my kids do fundraisers for the school, I have to drive them around all over the place. Ugh.
This is great! No driving. No collecting money. No delivering stuff. WOOHOO!
These are all fantastic ideas. I the create any shape baking pan is such a cool thing, I’ve never even seen that before. I love the idea of fundraisers where I don’t have to handle cash.
This is so true for people with out of town family, too!
(Admittedly, the elementary school does the best ones…send in X dollars and your kid gets this, send in XX dollars and they get this and I don’t have to buy things and the school gets a bigger cut of the money!)
Love me some labels. I’ve been thinking about gifting those for the holidays as well as using them for a fundraiser.
These are such a great idea and I like the safety implications of an online option.
We love Mabel’s Labels. As many things as you have to label when you have kids, that’s a great fundraising idea that someone would actually use.
I like these options far better than some of the fundraising they do at school. I’d still rather just send them a check for a specific amount and call it a day!
This is a great post and one that I will pass onto our school. We have online fundraisers as well, but these are resources we haven’t used!
I love the online component of school fundraisers. With my family spread out, it’s easier to ask them to support our schools.
I had no idea there were so many ways you could raise money for your school. I bet the kids would sell a lot of Mabel’s Labels.
It is nice to know about this. There are many options for parents and this one is great.
As a parent – I agree! Online is really so much easier on everyone.
This is so true! These things are hard but you have such great tips!
I really love these school fundraisers! It’s so much easier when they are online now and many people can join them. Thanks for sharing this to post and also your amazing tips! They are helpful very much!
Those ideas are pretty cool. It would be very funny for children to participate in and contribute something to the schools. I do like it.
TOTALLY LOVE IT! Saving time and not waste money for delivery. Most importantly, it is easy for every parent.
I can appreciate online fundraising. I always hated the door to door soliciting we had to do as kids. Now we can send a quick emails for some of our campaigns and folks can pay using a credit or debit card.
I agree online is definitely the way to go. Those were all great tips.
Times have definitely changed from having your parents take the fundraiser to the their jobs, and praying they get a lot of people so you can get the big prize for selling the most stuff! LOL These all sound like great fundraisers!
Man, I remember the days of the fundraising book. It would have been so much better to have a digital format back then. We would take orders on the phone and wait on the money after the fact from family members who lived out of town. Kids have it easy these days, lol.
I remember my parents having to sale candy for me growing up. I never liked selling anything! I love this idea of online school fundraisers. It seems so easy like online shopping. Thanks for sharing!
This is such a great idea for fundraising. This makes the job of parents and kids easier.
My son is playing soccer and now we need to do a fundraiser. I am putting it online too! I just need to post it soon. Thanks for the tips too.
These are definitely great tips for helping to raise funds for schools. It beats running after people and pleading with them to give you money! LOL
Thanks for sharing!
Wow fundraising for school is so much different now. I didnt know it went digital now but as it should we are in the digital era so it should make it easier!
These are wonderful ideas for fundraising! I love that we do one huge fundraiser for my son’s school in the Fall in the digital space! So much easier and more fun!
Great list. My son’s h.s. booster club is always looking for fundraising ideas. I’ll pass these along.
Our school did fun runs and raised money by collecting donations (and/or pledges) online. I had wished all their fundraisers were online … but seriously, keep it to one LOL
Great post! I wish they had did this when we had fundraisers when I was in elementary school!