From widgets to car washes, ACIS' fundraising page provides you with a mix of new and old methods of fundraising for your next trip abroad.
Fundraising Ideas
I. Collect Funds Electronically
II. Fair Trade Fundraisers
III. Greenraising
IV. Traditional Fundraisers
Fundraising E-Newsletters
I. Collect Funds Electronically
Collecting money door-to-door is so 1990s. Collect money from the comfort of your home computer with ChipIn. ChipIn allows anyone to create their own fundraising web page or widget to collect money for a personal cause, a group purchase, or general fundraising. You can send along your ChipIn URL to friends and family or create a widget to post on some of the most popular social networking sites around. Create your own ChipIn account in three steps: Step 1: Set up an account. You'll need to provide ChipIn with information about what you're fundraising for, how much money you hope to raise, and the date you need to raise the money by. Step 2: Create your own personalized ChipIn URL. For example, Europe2010.chipin.com or PeterJones.chipin.com. Step 3: Start collecting money by passing along your URL via email to friends and family or post a widget on your social networking page. Learn more about ChipIn. |
II. Fair Trade Fundraisers
Fair trade products help improve the lives of the people who help produce and cultivate food and goods from developing countries by making sure they're paid justly. By participating in a fair trade fundraiser, you can help improve the quality of life for people overseas while raising money for your trip.
Heart of the Sky Fair Trade - Goods
Melinda VanSlyke from Wisconsin, the owner of the Heart of the Sky Fair Trade website, has been involved with fair trade for the past 15 years. Through Heart of the Sky Fair Trade, you can earn up to 50% of the profits from the merchandise while improving the lives of families in Guatemala. Here are Melinda's selling options:
Option 1: Contact your friends and family and tell them about http://www.HeartOfTheSkyFairTrade.com from which they can purchase various goods from Guatemala. Melinda will set aside 30% of total sales and send it directly to you and your group.
Option 2: Melinda puts together a box of her best selling merchandise, all priced and ready to go. You turn around and sell the merchandise and you get to keep 50% of total sales. When you're done selling, you send Melinda back the unsold merchandise.
Option 3: Melinda creates individual bags for your group members to sell. If there are 15 people in your club, she'll create 15 little bags of merchandise for your individual members to sell. With this option, your group keeps 50% of total sales and you send Melinda the unsold merchandise.
Contact Melinda at 1-608-588-5223 or melindavanslyke@gmail.com
Divine Chocolate - Chocolate
Divine Chocolate is UK's leading Fair Trade chocolate brand who partner with Kuapa Kokoo, a farmer's co-op group in Ghana. Schools from the USA can participate in fundraising efforts with Divine Chocolate by visiting their fundraising page or by requesting information. With the income generated by the fair trade chocolate, Kuapa Kokoo gives back to the communities in Ghana by constructing schools, building wells for drinking water, and providing mobile medical clinics for farmers.
Grounds for Change - Coffee
Grounds for Change is a family owned—fair trade certified and organic certified—coffee roasting business located in the United States. The family purchases the coffee beans from countries like Peru at a higher price per pound. These coffee-rich countries then use the money to support local programs such as domestic violence intervention programs. Learn more about fundraising with Grounds for Change.
Other Fair Trade Fundraising Opportunities:
EqualExchange Fundraiser
A Better Footprint
Global Goods Partners
III. Greenraising
Finally, some earth friendly fundraising solutions that help you raise money and save the planet at the same time. Greenraising.com provides opportunities for schools and non-profits to raise funds from selling earth-friendly items like cleaning supplies, reusable bags, soaps & lotions, and recycled gift wrap. Greenraising.com sends participating schools and registered non-profits up to 40% of sales. Schools can choose to drive people to the website to purchase items or they can choose a more traditional route of selling the green goods via a catalog.
Learn more about Greenraising.com or jumpstart your fundraising efforts by registering your school.
IV. Traditional Fundraising
Traditional Bake Sale
Ask the other members of your travel group to participate by baking or cooking yummy homemade foods: cookies, brownies, fudge, candy apples, chocolates, cheesecake, pies, breads, fancy cakes and pastries. Ask your local grocer, craft fair coordinator, or sports coach if you can set up a bake sale table at their store or event. Artfully display the baked goods and make a poster to advertise your sale; be sure to mention your ACIS travel plans. You may also want to provide napkins or paper plates and sell drinks if it is a sporting event - coffee, hot chocolate, lemonade, and soda transport easily and go well with sweets. Make sure to bring plenty of change and one-dollar bills!
Create A Recipe Book
Collect 50-100 favorite recipes for snacks, salads, dinner, desserts, or holiday food. Ask for neatly written or typed submissions on regular 8.5x11 paper, and encourage creativity with artwork on the pages. Be sure to make a nice cover page and a Table of Contents when all the submissions are in. Make 5 copies of each page to produce 5 demonstration books to show people and take orders. (Make as many copies as you need to fill the orders later.)
Binding the pages: Stack pages for each book and use a 3-hole punch on the left side of the stack (you may only be able to do a few pages at a time, but try to make sure all the holes are in the same place for each book). Tie colored string through each hole to bind pages together, or use 3-ring binders to hold the pages. Make a few extra books to sell at school or at local fairs and events. Be sure to charge enough for each book to cover your costs for supplies as well as make a profit.
Raffle Something Cool
Ask the creative people in your family if they would donate something homemade (paintings, artwork, quilts, knitted items, pottery, woodwork, fancy cakes or pastries) or offer your services (rake leaves, paint, mow lawns, do housework, wash cars, babysit). Display the item and make a poster to advertise the raffle; list your raffle item or service, ticket price, date of the drawing, and ACIS travel plans. Make up tickets on your computer or draw them on a sheet of paper to Xerox. Be sure to ask for name, address, and phone number so you can contact the winner afterwards. Sell as many tickets as you can at school or at local fairs and events - if you keep the price of tickets fairly low, people will tend to buy more. Note: Some schools or events may require you to get a raffle permit first. Be sure to ask around.
Car Wash
Ask the other members of your travel group to participate by spending a sunny weekend morning or afternoon washing cars with you. Choose a bustling section of town and ask a church leader, school principal, or store owner beforehand if you can use a small section of their parking lot and a water faucet for a fundraising car wash (offer to wash his/her car for free). Make some colorful posters to advertise the car wash - be sure to include the price. Bring a hose, some buckets, car soap, soft sponges, scrubbing pads, a squeegee, and drying towels. When you open for business, ask some of the group members to hold the posters up near the road and wave people in. Designate people to rinse, wash, rinse again, dry, and collect the money. Don't forget to set a rain date, just in case.
Bake Pizzas
Everyone likes pizza! Companies like Joe Corbi's Pizza can deliver freshly-baked pizza dough and pizza-making kits to your school—all the ingredients are included and the pizzas take under 10 minutes to bake. Take orders beforehand and have a blast as you and your friends try your hand at being Italian pizza chefs and raise money for your trip at the same time.
Hold a Marathon
Walk around a track, play soccer or chess, sing, dance, jump on a trampoline - any activity you can think of! You can do this by yourself or get the other members of your group to join in. Pledges are usually made by hours or miles.
