Recently, the idea of school fundraising has been on my mind. There are all sorts of fundraisers. So the question is, which one do you choose?
You have your traditional selling things method. Usually, these things are overpriced candy, wrapping paper, or candles. The school ends up getting a small percent of the profits, and the purchaser gets something they probably wouldn’t have bought in the first place for twice the price they could have gotten if they had gone to Wal-Mart.
The second option is providing a service like a car wash or a bake sale. The profits for the school are fairly small compared to the effort to organize the event.
Then you have the final option of simply asking for donations. There are all sorts of systems that do this via e-mail, text, social media, etc. And surprisingly, this is the one that makes the most money for the school, and doesn’t take a lot of effort. However, you are faced with the awkward task of asking the same people year after year for funds.
This last scenario is the closest to what my daughter’s school does. They do a fun run where she is supposed to get people to sponsor her. They sponsor her by pledging to give one dollar (or more) per lap that she runs. The problem is there is no way to accurately keep track of how many laps she completes, and to be honest, she is not a runner. So what ends up happening instead is various friends and family give a flat amount of money. Then my daughter runs around a field for an hour. This is actually genius on the school’s part. Not only do they make money, but they don’t need to organize very much, and the teachers get an hour break while they watch their students run.
Every year I am also faced with the task of organizing fundraisers for my speech and debate team. We usually run various concession stands and host tournaments to make money. We usually are able to raise what we need, but it requires a lot of time and effort to do so.
So the other day, while I was waiting in the school pick up line, I had a brilliant idea. If a school could organize a coffee drive-through – similar to the efficiency level of the Chick-Fil-A drive-through – where a parent could place their coffee order when they first enter the drop-off or pick-up line, and then receive their coffee once they reach the end of the line, the school would be making hundreds if not thousands of dollars every day. Thus, solving the fundraising conundrum we all face every year.
