Youth Fundraising

Youth Fundraisers

Youth fundraisers are classically the most successful and most popular. You can rarely make your way into a mall or a grocery store without being met by a child selling apples for his boy scout fundraiser or a barbecue for a hockey team fundraiser.

Many youth fundraisers are organized by schools or teams that your child may belong to or attend. Schools seek donated funds for new playground equipment, to subsidize uniforms for children participating in extra-curricular sports, and for musical instruments for school bands. The need is never-ending. If you're a parent you probably want to get involved in your child's fundraising ventures. Many of us don't have enough money for our kids to join both minor hockey and gymnastics, however thanks to fundraising ventures their membership may be partially subsidized making their participation a reality.

Generous donations are made to fund schools and youth ventures all year long. Perhaps the most touching youth fundraising effort was seen after the Tsunami devastated schools and homes across South Asia. Individuals all around the world joined together to raise funds for medicine, the rebuilding of schools and homes, food, clothing and other supplies.

It is surprising how generous people can be when youth are in need. We've put together the following youth fundraising ideas. These are tried and true fundraisers that require little overhead costs, and that include the children to make them a success. We have found that the most successful fundraisers are so because they include the people who are benefiting from the fundraiser.

Our top youth fundraising ideas

Pizza discount cards – Every family loves pizza and many have a special pizza night when mom can take the day off from cooking and the whole family can enjoy a hot delicious pie. Pizza discount cards are offered through large chains such as Pizza Hut, Pizza Delight, Dominos, New Orleans or Pizza Pizza. Having a discount card gives the cardholder a deal on various menu items, for example cardholders are granted:

• Two- for-one pizza deals
• Free side orders of cheese sticks, salads, pop or wings.
• Percentage discounts on their orders – such as 15% off a large pizza.

Pizza cards cost around $10 to $15. Most don't expire for a year's time. For the family who has the weekly pizza night, a pizza cards is a no-brainer. You can set up a pizza card fundraiser like this:

1. Approach major pizza restaurants and ask if they will supply pizza discount cards for your youth group or school to sell for a fundraiser.
2. Most discount cards offer custom design. This means they will print the cards with your team, league or school logo and name.
3. Now all you need are eager volunteers. Look to your team players, youth members or students to sell the cards in their neighborhoods, at local malls, grocery stores and to family and friends.

Prepaid phone cards – We like the idea of discount cards because they are easy for young people to sell, and they get them involved in the fundraising efforts. We featured discount cards in our elementary school fundraiser page. Prepaid phone cards are identical to the ones you would buy at Wal-Mart or through your AT&T phone service provider. They have a pin numbers on the back that indicate to the phone company that the time allotted on the card can be used to make phone calls. When the cardholder makes a call, the points deteriorate (for instance it typically costs between10 to 30 cents per minute). AT&T charges approximately 410, $20 and $30 for discount phone cards. The great thing about them is that most people already purchase them regularly, for instance:

• Families with kids in university
• To make frequent long distance calls if you travel frequently.
• For emergency calls on business trips
• For youth and teens in case of an emergency

So the question is wouldn't you rather purchase a phone card if the money was going to a good cause rather than right to the phone company? Of course you would, and so would most everyone else.