Without fail each spring and summer, the streets are filled with signs directing us to garage sales. So why not tap into this yearly ritual and give your town a real showstopper of a school fundraiser: hold a school–wide garage sale and advertise it to the whole community.

Think of the crowd your school can draw with merchandise amassed from the garages of your student’s families. This mega garage sale is a school fundraising idea that takes one person’s trash and turns it into their neighbor’s treasure. You also fundraise for free, essentially, since all of the items are donated from unwanted items.

Establish a location & date for your school garage sale fundraiser. This can be the cafeteria, gym, or if it’s likely to be a nice day, school park. Cafeterias provide the advantage of tables for displaying items. Start early, like 8 am. Garage sale die-hards know that “better late than never” doesn’t apply to bargain hunting.

Advertise! Advertise! Advertise! Post signs prior to the day of your school fundraising event at community centers, grocery stores, churches, libraries, and any other place where people go. Take out an ad in the local paper, and be sure to ask for a reduced or even donated ad fee by emphasizing you’re raising money for your school. Make sure there are A LOT of signs on street corners directing traffic to the fundraiser. Street signs can make an even bigger difference than newspaper ads. Most importantly, encourage parents to spread news of the sale to all of their friends and neighbors. Word of mouth goes a long way.

Your garage sale fundraiser has the potential to raise thousands of dollars for your school. Shoppers may be more willing to buy and less motivated to bargain since the garage sale is really a school fundraiser. Not only that, this fundraising event is a fantastic opportunity for kids, parents, and teachers to work together and to know each other better. Your school will make a lasting impression on the neighborhood & community; and perhaps your kids may find their own little bit of “treasure” – and discover how fun garage sales can be.

With a little bit of prep work, this school fundraising idea could be a yearly winner.

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How can junk make school fundraising shine? I never thought that faithfully watching episodes of “This Old House” would lead me to a great idea for school fundraising. A while ago, we bought a fixer-upper and gutted the home. Friends told us to take the metal, nails, and screws accumulated through the process to the local scrap yard. So we did – and ended up with over $170(!) from what was really just junk. The trash was gone, and we made money, to boot!

We’re familiar with canned food drives during Thanksgiving, why not have a “With cans, We can” or “Scrap for School” drive? Gear this school fundraiser around cleaning the clutter and junk out of the home or office and recycling the metal for better use. Kids (and parents) learn about recycling in the process, too.

Place “Scrap” cans around school so that kids, parents, and teachers can drop off old metal objects. Parent or teacher volunteers (hopefully someone with a truck) will help collect the fundraising bins and bring them to the local metal recycling center. There’s a real feeling of exhilaration when someone gives you money just for collecting scrap. Imagine how much better it’ll be knowing that this school fundraiser was a success for your school and helped clean up the community as well.

Tip #1: Make this school fundraiser an on-going, year-long effort and highlight the importance of recycling as a lesson to your kids.

Tip #2: If you want to maximize the money you can raise for your school, set aside time to separate the metals by type. Aluminum, Copper, Brass, Stainless Steel raise more cash than Steel/general metal and scrap yards will pay more if you’ve sorted your scrap for them. Kids can do this as long as they wear protective gloves. Separating your collection into metal ‘buckets’ can be fun to do as group, plus you may learn a couple things about different metals in the process.

This “Scrap for School” fundraiser is really easy to implement and is great for your school. First, it costs practically nothing – you just need signs and transportation. And second, your kids contribute to their community and environment by developing the recycling, not only during the time you implement this fundraising program, but hopefully for many years ahead. This is one school fundraising idea where your kids can develop environmentally friendly habits that make the world a better place for generations to come.

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Welcome to Cheer For Change - Flexible Fundraising that Benefits You and Your Community. We’re here to help you and your organization reach your fundraising goals. We’ve scoured through ideas for fundrasing looking for the best programs. You need a simple, easy fundraiser that can get you the money you need quickly and get you back to the activity you love.

In this space, we’ll be highlighting various tips and ideas for fundraising, bringing you fundraising news, and sharing our success stories.

In addition, we’ll be talking about the community benefits achieved through the Cheer For Change Fundraiser. We’re proud to begin our efforts with support for the Braden Cross Autism Foundation.

Looking forward to your victories,

The Cheer For Change Team

Technorati Tags: easy fundraisers, fundraising, ideas for fundraising