Booster Fundraiser Gifts and Spirit Ideas

The school year is fast approaching!  It is time to think about school activities and booster clubs again.  Repeating the same fundraiser year after year can become boring, so here are a few ideas to spice them up.  Spirit items make great rewards for students who participated in a fundraiser, or as rewards for donating.

Booster Fundraising Ideas

Take advantage of the last of the warm weather by holding a car wash.  While this is a common idea you can make it unique by encouraging your supporters to donate more by offering key tag or lanyard as incentives.

Take a page of out PBS’ book and hold a pledge drive.  Offer fan gear as an incentive.  The more a person pledges the better the reward will be.  For small pledges the reward could be a flag to wave at the next game.  For greater contributions offer seat cushions to make sitting on the hard bleachers a bit easier.

Put a new twist on back to school shopping.  Have students collect gently used items from community members to sell at a school wide garage sale.  Add in some fun competition by having the different classes keep track of how much money they earned.  Whichever class earned the most at the end of the sale will then be rewarded with prizes.  Set up a bake sale and concessions table as well for those shoppers who might get a bit hungry while they are there.

If you live in a state the offers a cash reward on recyclable products then you can hold an environmentally minded fundraiser.  Collect recyclable containers like glass or plastic bottles and aluminum cans.  Students can bring these items into school, collect them door-to-door, or have a container for collecting them at the next sporting event.  Once the collection is over simply take all the items to the local recycling facility and see how much you’ve earned.  If you made this drive a competition it would only make sense to reward the winners with a reusable water bottle.

Bingo is fun for all ages and makes for a truly fun fundraiser.  Charge a small amount for each bingo card and offer some fun prizes to the winners, and you will have fun for a good cause.  Also offer raffle tickets so that your supporters can win a great prize if their names are called.

Spirit Ideas for Booster Fundraiser Gifts

If you are promoting your team by selling spirit gear at sports events you can find anything you need in your team’s colors.  Noisemakers are a must have!  From megaphones to inflatable bam bams you can be sure that your team will be able to hear all their fans. When noise isn’t enough make sure to have movement in the stands as well.  No matter the sport, pom poms are always good to wave and support your team.  What would a game be without the classic “We’re number 1” foam spirit mitt?  You can even have students selling these in the stands so that no one has to go without spirit gear.

With these ideas and products there is no need to fear the upcoming school year.  You can make it the most spirited year yet!

Decorate for Your School’s Own March Madness

While the History Channel claims that March Madness was born 74 years ago with the “first-ever NNCAA men’s basketball tournament,” high school teams everywhere know that small town school spirit has played an important role for decades. The squeak of basketball shoes on gymnasium floors, roaring crowds, and the swish of basketballs bouncing off the backboard and falling down to bounce on the shiny floor, while the audience holds its collective breath for just one second, a second when time stops, before erupting into screams of delight while their favorite players rush back up the court, dripping with sweat and motivation…This is March Madness, and it is catching once more.

Illinois and Indiana both claim to have started March Madness with high school basketball playoffs, but whether you’re playing in the Midwest or coast-to-coast, school spirit has an insatiable thirst this month. Give in to the enthusiasm and make sure your players and biggest fans have enough to drink with durable polycarbonate or plastic water bottles personalized with your school’s name, the year, certain player’s names, or even just “March Madness!” You could toss these out during basketball games to get the crowd even more pumped up, or sell them as part of a sports fundraiser.

Next, advertise your school spirit with banners for pep rallies, star players, and all the big games that are happening this month. Weave your school colors through fencing and around the hallways using gossamer or even durable, flame-resistant poly vinyl. Nothing is more exciting than walking into your high school or college gymnasium to find huge signs promoting the team and the starting players surrounding by bright streams of school colors.

Speaking of color, you can use lots of it to spruce up the hallway in your high school with affordable graphic banners that are designed for lockers.  Personalize them to match your school colors as well as with names. These can be used for all your superstars, too; marching band, the yearbook, or even just that special person in your life that needs a little bit of motivation as the end of the school year looms, but is still very far away.

Finally, be sure and surprise boys and girls, women and men’s basketball superstars with Big Heads; use them in the crowd or attach them along the walls or fencing with their number and cheer them on throughout March Madness and for the year to come. Remind them who their biggest fans are and frighten the opposition with your school spirit, to boot!

Team Fundraising Ideas That Ooze with Holiday Spirit

Team fundraising doesn’t have to be a chore this time of year if you have the right goods and the holiday spirit. Here are three general venues with ideas for working the holiday fundraising magic with personalized products.

In School
Your school store soon will be full of secret Santas and others looking for cool but affordable gifts, and Christmas Event Favors is the place to bookmark for this. Select mint tins, chocolate lollipops and glitter frames in holiday motifs and a jolly message. Take a look also at items you already carry, for which you may want to order a special holiday version, such as keytags.

In the mornings or at lunchtime, travel mugs can be similarly personalized, cleverly packaged and sold along with hot chocolate mix from Event Favors in a “winter survival kit.”

Plan a bake sale, but a couple weeks before the sale show off 2-3 designs in cookie tins, and take orders to fill them with homemade treats to be picked up on bake sale day. Since there are no minimums on cookie tins, you can order only what you need to fill.

Taking orders can likewise be done for customized candle favors.

During Sports & Outdoor Events
Add a “holiday edition” design to your usual team supplies this time of year, such as stadium mugs and seat cushions, especially if you’ve got special sports events such as holiday invitationals on the calendar.

Broaden your horizons, too. Don’t just sell at your own games, but seek out additional venues for your fundraising items. For example, you might check with your local parks department or district to see if you can make arrangements to sell hot beverages (perhaps served in your special holiday travel mugs) during scheduled winter activities such as skating parties and winter festivals.

At Holiday Shows & Sales
Much of November through mid-December are full of holiday craft shows and fairs, and a good way for a fundraising team to participate is to offer a gift-wrapping service for fair-goers.

Customize favor boxes for small ornaments, and include curling ribbon, tote bags, tissue paper and shred with your wrapping supplies. Think about small ornaments your group might be able to make (such as these awesome angels made of pasta) that you could hang from a tabletop Christmas tree and sell as well.

Help customers identify your group by hanging a personalized Christmas banner across (or behind) the wrapping table, and by wearing your team shirts – and perhaps Santa or elf hats, just for fun.