Tips For Easy Fundraisers

Tips For Easy Fundraisers (NAPSA)—FPicture this: Rais- ing funds can be easier than you imagine if you follow a few tips. Here’s some new school fundraising ideas and creative tips that are sugar-free and don’t require door-to-doorsales. 1. Turn existing purchases into a fundraiser Picateers is a company that turns school Picture Day into a fundraiser. Parents spend $2 bil- lion on school pictures every year—andvirtually none of that money goes to the schools. Picateers is changing that. Picateers gives 50 percent of every dollar spent on portraits back to schools. Picateers is able to give cash back because they train a volunteer mom to take the pictures. She snaps the pictures with her digital SLR camera and Picateers does the rest. It’s minimal effort—an elementary school can raise thousands with only two volunteers for a day. Parents love it because they can help their school by simply purchasingtheir child’s pictures. Fundraising can be a snap if parent volunteers use digital cameras to capture imagesfor school picture day. nator at a school sends home a sheet for parents to complete, reg- istering their credit and debit cards. Then, when parents shop at participating merchants or buy products on the eScrip Web site using their registered cards, their school earns money throughout the year. 4, Focus on learning 2. Get healthy with a Walk- A great fundraiser that supports learning is a Read-a-thon. With a Walk-a-thon, children have a blast walking to raise members pledge either a fixed donation or a flexible donation a-thon moneyfor their school. It’s easy to set up. Children bring home sponsor sheets for parents and family members to pledge either a fixed donation or one that depends on the distance the child walks. Children feel a sense of accomplishment in completing the Walk-a- Typically, parents and family depending on the numberof min- utes the students read during a two-week period. Children bring home pledge sheets and start reading. A way to make it even more fun is to ask local merchants to donate prizes 3. Try a fundraiser that delivers all year for the students who read the most or have a special prize for the entire class that reads the most. These easy school fundraising back to schools. This fundraiser requires minimal effort. A coordi- late to bake for bake sales or bothering your neighbors for donations. They can put the “fun” back into fundraising and provide a great return for your school. thon to help their school. eScrip is a company that works with retailers like clothing, electronics and grocery stores to give a percentage of parents’ purchases ideas mean no more staying up