Large-scale fundraising ideas for Catholic School

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IBombAtomically

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So, here’s the deal. My children go to a very, very small Catholic school which is fantastic; however, it is not sustainable. The teachers are highly-trained, and they are all working for free at this point. Although we are located in a (catholic) church, I don’t believe we receive funds from the church and we’re not specifically affiliated with them. Tuition is very reasonable now, and the school is willing to work with families who cannot afford it via volunteer opportunities and so forth. Due to the cost of materials and such, the school needs to raise the tuition to a price that most of the families would be unable to afford. Most of the families would need to leave the school, which is unfortunate because the school is phenomenal, the people are lovely, and they have incredible catechesis that’s 100% in line with Church teaching ( a rarity, right?). So, as you can see there is quite a predicament!

It would be horrible if the school had to shut down! At this point, we’re all trying to brainstorm about fundraising efforts that would actually make a difference and help keep tuition affordable. It’s hard to imagine bake-sale type stuff working well because we’d need to sell thousands of dollars worth of brownies!! Has anyone been in this position before, or does anyone have some ideas that could raise lots and lots of money??
 
What about a Giant Yard Sale of sorts? People could donate usable items for the sale, such as dishes, blankets, coats, tools, furniture? Also, you might try contacting local stores of all kinds to see if they have anything they would care to donate, and of course if there are other Churches nearby see if folks from these Churches would also donate.

You could include a car wash part to the Yard Sale. And yes try some of the baked goods too.

One thing by itself might not be enough, but several things could do it. Also check into area celebrities to see if there are any that would care to sponsor your efforts or make an appearance and donation to start you off.

I am uncertain of specific regulations, but you may be able to make an appeal through your local news station and set up an account at a bank. Of course you have to have responsible individuals oversee the handling of the monies, but you have a chance of reaching more people via the media.
Hope this helps.
 
Hi IBombAtomically,

Does your church hall have a kitchen that you could use?

At one of the parishes that I was at, they were always having fund-raisers.

I don’t know if the parish raised money separately from the school or not, but in the summer, the parish would have an annual festival that would benefit both the school and the church.

Many of the yearly fund-raisers involved food, that is why I was asking if you had a kitchen on the premises.

We always had spaghetti dinners for fund-raisers, pancake breakfasts, etc. People would look forward to going to them, and the food was really good.

Now that Lent is coming up, there will be Lenten fish fries there, throughout Lent on each Friday of Lent.

The school used to have the gift-wrapping fund-raisers and the candy fund-raisers, too. I used to support those when I could.
 
Poker night. Dress up the auditorium like a casino or a saloon. Wear tuxedos or costumes. Ask a poker shark to volunteer their services. Invite everyone. Ask for $50. or $100. or $150. at the door or in advance. They pick up their chips when they check in. Then you can sell extra chips for $25. or $50. Have a winery or beer brewery donate drinks. (Ask if you need a license). Have the volunteers walk around serving drinks or selling more chips.

The last game of the evening is a showdown between two people. The winner gets $1,000. The school gets the rest. I’ve seen folks make about $7,000. on these poker nights.

Another idea is a silent auction. my sister’s school has raised over $20,000. on this one. Get donations of items, trips, events, services that people would value. You can make packages like a trip to Italy, some wine, opera tickets and Italian language lessons. The teachers at my sister’s school also got together to donate a catered Mexican dinner. Each teacher made a dish, They dressed up in Mexican costumes, served the dinner. They sang, played music, and taught dances for a party of 20. Every year someone bids at least $800…sometimes $1300. for that catered affair.

Planning, advertising, and a good volunteer staff are essential for the success of these things. Good luck.
 
Our Church buys gift cards at a discount 4-15% off, and resales them to parishioners & friends at full value. People can support their local school w/o spending any extra money! They just buy cards to the places they already shop.
 
A house give away. Buy a house for $180,000. sell raffle tickets for $100 each. sell only 2500 tickets, and you net $70,000. If you charge $125. each you net $132,000. Who doesn’t want to win a house?
 
Mouse racing, if it’s legal in your city.

My daughter’s skating club raised thousands of dollars in only a few hours with mouse racing. She said that it’s so much fun for everyone.

stlmouseraces.com/

I wish it was legal in our city!

Does your school do scrip? It’s slow but steady money.
 
You can also try a silent auction. People bring in items of interest and place a sheet of paper by them so others can place bids. The highest bidder gets the item after all bids are in. Include a bake sale at the same time.

You can also have a raffle. Sell tickets say at $5. each. Put matching stubs in a container and draw for three winners at the end of the events for the day. Have a third place, 2nd place and first place winner. Items to raffle off could include home made quilts, a little girls First Communion Dress, Religious items and pictures, or a Bible. Consider a variety of things that folks might really want and put them up for the raffle.

You could include a Parish Dinner to go with the raffle, or a soup and bread dinner to go with the raffle.

You might have some sort of event every month until you reach your goal.
 
Regina_Love said:
Our Church buys gift cards at a discount 4-15% off, and resales them to parishioners & friends at full value. People can support their local school w/o spending any extra money! They just buy cards to the places they already shop.
Click to expand...
Our Parish and our children’s school both participate in the “scrip” program, which sounds like what Regina is talking about. It’s a great program which costs nothing but provides revenues to the participating organizations based on use. Definitely a win/win. Maybe that would help in the OP’s quest

scrip.com
 
Our school does a Race for Education with local businesses and families sponsoring the kids. Festivals are also good ideas.
 
A few ideas here.
  1. what about an auction (silent, live, or a combination of both)? Seek donated items from parishioners, community organizations and businesses. Some items are likely to be small, but you might be surprised at how generous some businesses are willing to be.
    When I was in college, I was president of a student organization that raised funds for certain public service activities. We held a silent auction that raised almost $13,000 in a single night – and the bidders were fellow students! Some of the prizes I remember were: a reserved parking spot at the college, experiences with professors (e.g. dinner for 6 with one professor, a historical tour of the city for 8 with another professor), gift cards to local stores, gift baskets, movie tickets, a Southwest airlines gift certificate, autographed memorabilia from two of the area’s sports teams, and 4 box tickets (!!) from the third area sports team. All of these items were donated. We sent a ton of letters to local businesses explaining the purpose for raising money, details of the proposed auction, and details about the non-profit status and the college’s non-profit organization ID number (which many businesses require for their records). Not all businesses donated, of course, but I was pleasantly surprised by how many did. Afterward, we sent thank-you letters/receipts to all donors for their records.
  2. what about a raffle? Someone earlier in the thread suggested raffling a house, but that’s a large cash outlay required initially. You could raffle off some smaller but still big-ticket items. For example, a flat-screen TV, a brand new iPhone, a tablet computer, etc. These items could either be purchased by the school or donated, then the school could sell raffle tickets for say $5 per chance. Parents and students could sell the tickets to family members and friends not associated with the school, and there could be an announcement in the parish bulletin so that parishioners who don’t have children at the school could also purchase tickets. (Maybe there could even be someone from the school available after Mass so parishioners could purchase tickets more easily?)
  3. food always draws people in. Spaghetti dinners, Lenten fish fries, pancake breakfasts, etc.
Also, don’t underestimate the smaller events and their cumulative effect. Ladies at our church raised a total of $6,000 in 2-3 months just by selling homemade Mexican food and baked goods. Your school probably needs much more than that, but any little bit would help. Perhaps the parish would give permission for the school to hold bake sales after Mass or something, you never know.

One final piece of advice – publicity! Whatever fundraising events you hold, publish announcements in advance in the church bulletin, the local Catholic newspaper (for your diocese or archdiocese), as well as the town/city newspaper and whatever other media outlets you have locally. The more people you get to participate from outside the school community, the more successful your events will be.
 
I’ll also plug the silent auction idea. A school in my area uses that to great effect each year.

I know lots of people don’t like this idea, but there’s always Bingo. :o As much as I hate the Catholic bingo stereotype, I know of some schools who really depend on the money they make from weekly Bingo.
 
Sell chocolate! “World’s finest chiocolate” is a great fundraiser. The chocolate bars are cheap and people love them. A coworker mentioned that her son would be selling some soon and everyone got excited. That NEVER happens with other school fundraisers.
 
Wow! Thank you for the replies, everyone! Those are some great ideas. My husband also thought of a golf outing, and he’s seen how much money they can bring in. I’m optimistic we can do something. We’re going to be meeting about it soon and I’ll bring up a lot of your ideas. I’ll keep everyone posted on how we do, and please let me know if you can think of anything else, or if you have any idea what would be the most profitable.
Thanks again!!!👍

P.S. We do have access to church hall and kitchen, which would be great for dinners. Also, I love the idea about doing lots of advertising… maybe a little story in the local newspaper which tells about our mission, and plugs an event.
 
How much money do you need to earn?

We do a silent auction/live auction/dinner event and it brings in about $30,000. We live in a depressed area so that is really great for us. I know of some schools whose auction event brings in over $90,000 but they live in wealthier areas.

What we have going for us is that our event has been an annual for over ten years. Anything you do will work better if it is done on a regular basis. Spaghetti dinners can be once a month, large events annual, etc. They get easier to do in subsequent years as well.

We run a scrip program too. I guarantee if you allow families to keep some of the earnings in their own accounts to go towards tuition, you will earn a whole lot more than if the entire earnings go toward the school.

Does your school do an annual appeal of alumni? You don’t say how long the school has been around. Obviously the older it is, the more alumni you will have. Make up a newsletter, tell the people what is new and exciting at your school, and ask for a donation. The most work will be in collecting addresses.

Finally, the last thing you want to do is make an appeal stating that if you don’t make the money the school will close. Nobody wants to give money to something that isn’t going to be there anymore. Try to mention what programs the money will be used for (even though most is probably for operating expenses). Make your events something that people want to go to, not an event that you are begging them to go to as a favor.
 
If you are not familiar with Race for Education, look it up, it is a nationwide program I believe. We also use that at our school. In addition, we have a golf tournament, and use scrip and the local grocery chain has a program where they donate a certain amount depending on what people spend in their store. Campbell’s soup labels, box tops for education, and a charity auction.
 
IBombAtomically said:
So, here’s the deal. My children go to a very, very small Catholic school which is fantastic; however, it is not sustainable. The teachers are highly-trained, and they are all working for free at this point. Although we are located in a (catholic) church, I don’t believe we receive funds from the church and we’re not specifically affiliated with them. Tuition is very reasonable now, and the school is willing to work with families who cannot afford it via volunteer opportunities and so forth. Due to the cost of materials and such, the school needs to raise the tuition to a price that most of the families would be unable to afford. Most of the families would need to leave the school, which is unfortunate because the school is phenomenal, the people are lovely, and they have incredible catechesis that’s 100% in line with Church teaching ( a rarity, right?). So, as you can see there is quite a predicament!

It would be horrible if the school had to shut down! At this point, we’re all trying to brainstorm about fundraising efforts that would actually make a difference and help keep tuition affordable. It’s hard to imagine bake-sale type stuff working well because we’d need to sell thousands of dollars worth of brownies!! Has anyone been in this position before, or does anyone have some ideas that could raise lots and lots of money??
Click to expand...
Hello,

My children attended a similar school in California. It is now at least triple in size and doing well financially.

Another idea would be to contact similar independent Catholic schools and see how they managed to get off the ground.
 
OP, my kids attend a (very good) Catholic school at a poor parish. Several years ago we were on the verge of closing the doors. But weave it.
  1. give up the dream that there is one magic bullet fundraiser that will solve your problems. There isn’t.
  2. we do have one big casino night/silent auction/ live auction every spring. We are a relatively small school ( around 200 kids) and make around 40k/ year.
  3. we have a Halloween carnival for kids that makes around 5k/year
  4. in our state, Catholic Life Insurance does a raffle for schools to participate. They supply all prizes, a school keeps 100% of proceeds from its ticket sales: we make 5-10k year
  5. most grocery store chains have a charitable program that customers can select to have 1% of their purchases go to. Enroll in these
  6. have someone learn grant writing. People will say that foundations don’t like helping with operating costs, but that’s not quite true. We get 20-40k a year in grants now ( used to be zero). Have found several foundations who live to find textbooks. And you will never have to spend a dime on computers.
I am probably missing a few things here. But we earn close to 20% of our budget through these various fundraising activities. It’s hard work. Parents have to be involved. make volunteer hoursmandatory for all parents, we require 25 hours per year.

Good luck. It can be done. Just focus

PS: be careful about scrip. They may have changed, but we dropped that. (name removed by moderator)opular with parents and the school did make much money. If parents don’t like a particular fundraiser, move on.
 
Oh, as for big ticket raffles, eg cars: be careful. The IRS requires withholding by the charitable org of 25%.
 
If I understand correctly, this is a very small school, with volunteer teachers?

I’m a former board president of our parish’s Catholic school, albeit a well established one, and have served on multiple task forces to study and reorganize our Catholic schools. I also worked as a development director for a non-profit arts organization for years. It sounds to me as if you need some heavy-duty funding. While raffles and sales are all well and good, and can be a nice addition, that is not enough to provide the kind of income you will need to survive.

To get off the ground, you need to find an “angel”… someone who has considerable funds to donate and who buys into the “mission” of your school. This can be an individual(s) or a foundation with an interest in Catholic education, particularly in establishing Catholic education in your area. Getting publicity about your mission/school is crucial. Start with providing information to your local Catholic paper, and the local secular paper (if there still is one!), as well.

You will have to prove that your idea is viable; donors generally want to fund “winners”. Demonstrate that you are doing a good job educating your students, tout any test scores, etc. Have a definite business plan and vision for your school. The more professional and organized you look, the better the chance of attracting donors.

What sort of support do you have from your diocese and the parish where your school is located? Is there a benefit to them in having your Catholic school succeed? If so, then you may be able to attract funding from either the parish or the diocese.

There are so many variable that dictate how much income you need to be sustainable. Generally salaries and benefits can take up to 80% of your budget. I doubt you will be able to maintain volunteer teachers for long, and you need good teachers in order to succeed.

Prayers and good wishes for your success.
 
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