Show me the money

December 10, 2006 9:53 PM

Help me with some student oriented nonprofit fundraising ideas (mi)

During this upcoming semester break I'll be going on a Habitats for Humanity program in the Southeast US. That's all fine and dandy but each person from my college group apparently needs to raise money to cover some expenses like transportation (we'll be driving down) and food.

I feel like it would be too lame just to hit up the parental units for the hard cash as I'm almost out of college and whatnot, so if anyone has some alternative fundraising methods that would help me feel like less of a leach raising the money that would be awesome.

I've thought of just carrying a bucket around asking random people around campus for a dollar or something, but I don't think that would work because 1 - there's a bunch of us doing it and 2 - it would take a bit too long to raise the amount needed. I think it needs to be a more time efficient method - especially during this finals season.

Any specific anecdotes doing this sort of fundraising earns you a gold star.

posted by jourman2 to work & money (6 comments total)

You could make some sort of inexpensive food product (say sandwiches or burritos if you want to go with a SW feel). Advertise it for delivery and say that you will also deliver a bedtime story/tuck in service for extra tips.

Let everyone know it is for charity up-front.

It is fun and a proven method.
posted by Pollomacho at 10:28 PM on December 10, 2006

I recently asked something similar for a group I advise. A lot of the answers I got were variations of "ask for donations" but there are some other ideas there too, like getting some pizza and selling it in a common area. Do it every day for a week and you'll get some steady customers.

My student group ended up doing a raffle. A popular professor donated his new book, and we collected some other books and art supplies. The students wanted to do as little work as possible, so instead of selling tickets they just had people write their names on dollar bills, which they drew from a bag. (Defacing currency is illegal, mind you, so that's not what I'd recommend.) I initially didn't think a raffle would work but everyone pretty much understood right away that the money was a donation and the raffle just made it more fun. They made sixty dollars in four days from a small pool of students and faculty.

Some suggestions:

-If there's a bunch of you raising money, consider organizing your efforts. One big raffle will get more attention than several small ones.
-Publicize your goal. "We need $x for y." Make a poster with a some graphics to show your progress.
-Establish rules and post them. Put up the prizes in a locked display case. We had one bag of tickets to choose from and several prizes. First name drawn gets the first prize, and so on. Folks can win more than one prize, so they should buy a lot of tickets. Be clear that the raffle is open to everyone and hit up faculty and staff too.
-Faculty and staff may wish to just donate and will pass up the prizes. Find out ahead of time and note it on the ticket (or leave the name blank).
-You're pressed for time. You can auction off a service to be delivered after finals (like home-made bread or a hand-knit scarf.)

Good luck!
posted by hydrophonic at 10:56 PM on December 10, 2006

Your location isn't in your file, but if you have the ability to, maybe do some sort of scrap metal drive/search? (You say that you're "almost out of college" and colleges have lots of empty aluminum cans/glass bottles.)
You would have to check and see if your area allows you to bring them scrap metals for recycling and get paid for it.

(The floor I lived on did this, it only took one dedicated weekend to get several 55 gallon trash bags filled with these bottles. Of course, we didn't research if the area paid for recycling and thus didn't get anything. It was still highly entertaining. If it does work out for you, make sure you follow the instructions that whatever entity gives you.)
posted by sperose at 11:45 PM on December 10, 2006

How much do you need to raise in what amount of time?
posted by imjosh at 6:06 AM on December 11, 2006

I need about 500 dollars in a little under a month ( I think we leave the 7th or so).

The sponsoring org said they will kick in the money we can't raise though.
posted by jourman2 at 7:12 AM on December 11, 2006

Sell candy. Get some bulk from Costco and sell for a reasonable price (making sure, of course, that people know what you're trying to raise money for).
As the semester is ending and you said you are close to graduating, is there anything that you or others in your groupl could sell? No longer needed furniture, clothes, textbooks, random toys? Have a yard sale.
posted by Sara Anne at 9:46 AM on December 11, 2006