8 Tips to Basket Fundraising

Have you ever needed to raise money ? Find donations for a fundraiser? Our school PTO just held a charity Basketball game and basket raffle. As the donations chair it was a feat to make sure we got as much as we could for donations and to make sure our donations were more quality the quantity. By event day we had 75+ donation sponsors and 47 prize baskets. Let me give you some of our tips and tricks for having a successful night. 

1.) SET A CLEAR OBJECTIVE: We had our whole PTO Board plus some members helping gather donations from the beginning we had a list of the type of donations we were seeking. We sent this list out to our students parents as well on our PTO/Event letter head with the Event Flyer on the back as a save the date

Donation Wish List & Ideas

Hotel & Travel

·         Vacation Rentals ·         Golf packages·         Hotel stays·         Airline tickets/ vouchers·         Luggage / Travel Accessories·         Camping Gear·         Limo/ Car Rental Vouchers·         Resort Stays/ Packages

Entertainment & Sports

·         Concert tickets·         Movie/Theater Tickets·         Sporting Event Tickets·         Meet and Greets·         Golf Outings/ rentals·         Amusement Park Tickets·         Boating/ Fishing/Hunting Excursions·         Bus tours·         Sports Equipment·         Lessons (sports, music)·         Musical Instruments·         Board/ Card Games·         Video game Center/ games·         DVD’s/ Blu-ray disks·         Flat Screen TV·         Digital Camera/camcorder·         MP3 Player/ IPod·         Headphones·         Tablets·         Laptop/ notebook·         GPS·         Printers

Children & Family

·         Summer Camps Sponsorship·         Children’s Classes·         Family Portraits·         Toys/books·         Dog walking/ Sitting/Boarding·         Pet supplies·         Veterinary Services·         Kids Outside Toys/ Activities

Food

·         Restaurant Dinning Certificates·         Fast Food Gift Cards·         Cooking/Baking Classes·         Kitchen Appliances/ Gadgets·         Grilling Sets/ Grill/ Accessories·         S’mores Gift Set·         Tasting Packages

Health and Beauty

·         Salon/spa Certificates·         Gym/Health Club Memberships·         Teeth Whitening·         Yoga/Zumba/ Pilates·         Beauty Products·         Lotions / Bath Salt Sets·         Fitness Equipment·         Personal Training Sessions

Home, Garden & Office

·         Home Decor·         Florist Certificate·         Landscaping Services·         Garden Accessories·         Office Supply/ Accessory Set·         Lawn Chairs/ Fire Pit·         Wreathes, Floral Arrangements, Center Pieces

Fashion

·         Apparel Gift Cards·         School Spirit Wear·         Purses/ Clutches/  Bags/ Wallets·         Jewelry/ Watches/ Sunglasses/ bracelets

Arts & Crafts, Hobbies

·         Art Classes/ Supplies·         One of a kind Quilts·         Photography Classes·         Custom Designs·         Scrapbooking/ Crafting Supplies

2.) REMINDERS/WISH LIST/ EVENT FLYER: Send out you Wish List/Event Flyer 2-3 months before the event. Resend it out again 2 months before and finally send out a Reminder Flyer every week the 4 weeks leading up to the event. Make sure to send it out Tuesday-Thursday for the best response from parents. Monday's can be crazy busy with starting the new week and let's be honest most of us don't look in our kids backpacks on Friday. 

3.) PHONE CALLS and STOP INS: Another great way to get donations is calling local shops and stores. You can also visit or call local crafts people and direct sales people. Look for people with in your school boundaries, parents and grandparents. We had a handful of parents who sell Thirty-one, Mary Kay, Crafts, Salon Beauticians and more donate their products and services. 

When stopping into a shops make sure to take the following along with a sales pitch. Most will usually give you a donation with the Flyer but many others love to see a full donation pack. 

* Event Flyer

*Donation Receipt Form (I'll explain this later)

* Wish List Sheet 

 * Sales Pitch

Example Donation Pitch:

"Hi my name is ______________ I am from (organization). We are holding a charity event on (date) for (name your cause). We are looking for gift card, basket gift sets or products to raffle off at our event. We would love a donation from your company if you are able. All our sponsors are posted at the event and in our event flyer."

When you call or stop in to places make sure to make it your own you don't want to sound like one of those RoBo calls we all hate. After a few calls take a break and do something else this will help your voice from sounding like a robot and keeping your mind fresh for those questions they may ask you. KEY Tip: Know your Dates! Event Date/ Printed materials cut off date and Donation drop off 

4.) DONATION RECEIPTS: I made up this form after our PTO Co-President showed me one she received from another organization. Trust me companies LOVE them. They love having a receipt to file away for their records. We would make a photo copy of them to place with our files and if we were unable to copy it (drop in donations given on the spot) we would snap a shot on our phones to print at home. 

5.) DONATION REQUEST LETTERS:  Another method we used to gather donations was online requests or sending out donation request letters. Key points with a donation letter is to list what the event is, the date of the event and what kind of event it is. They also love to see how big of an attendance you will have at your event and what kind of promotion would they be receiving by sponsoring your event. Make sure your letter is on your event letter head or your organizations letter head. Below is one we used. 

6.) KEEP RECORDS: We had a lot of people working on collecting donations and to help not contact the same people several times we had an online database for keeping track of who contacted who, what the donation was, if it was a pick up/ drop off, dates contacted/pickup/drop-off and any notes 

7.) THANK YOUR SPONSORS: This is key if you plan to ask them again next year. Thank your sponsors with posters listing sponsors, printed flyers, putting out their brochures/ cards/ flyers. We sent thank you cards out to several of our bigger sponsors with their donation receipt. 

(Below is a draft copy of our flyer/poster)

Here are some of the donations we got from our event. We also had a tone of gift cards and certificates that we would stuff into the baskets to increase the package value. 

Some of our gift cards/ Certificate sponsors

8.) DON'T TURN DOWN UNUSUAL DONATIONS: This was one of our new sponsors for this year and was a HUGE hit for the students and families that came. We contacted The Coloring Table out of Texas and they sent us one of their reusable coloring table clothes, they asked us not to raffle it off but to keep it and reuse it at our events. We picked up a few ultra washable markers and BAM instant family activity! 

Bridal Basket

 If you went to a bridal shower, baby shower or house warming event with me you would  learn that I can't give your average gift. I have to make it personalized to the recipient and it has to have a fun display to it. Here is my latest Bridal Basket. 

The couple was registered at Walmart and although I didn't realize that most of the items on their registry were online only till I was there shopping the day before I was able to get them a lot of similar items from their list. 

Close up of the cake side of the basket. 2 towels, 2 hand towels, 2 wash cloths went in to making the cake portion. I held them together with decorative ribbon and topped it with twine. Tucked into the folds are measuring spoons, spatulas, ice cream scoop, spoons and serving spoons. 

The bride was registered for this fun galvanized utensil holder. Here I fan folded some wash cloths and tucked in the whisk and tongs. Laying a crossed the filler box is a grater and the home made card. I layered the purple and green scrapbook paper in parchment paper and then topped it with twine and a cute saying.

Baby Shower Cake

I love Baby Showers! I love making these cakes too! This is my signature styled gift for showers and housewarming parties. above is the one I made for a girlfriend of mine for her first baby. I hand make several hair bows based on the mommy and her style. This cake was for a Favorite Things themed party. 

The base is filled with Diapers and a towel. Secured by twine and adorned with hair bows, and bath toys. the next row is another layer of diapers, q-tips, wipes, travel shampoo and lotion, boogie wipes and a onsie. The top layer is a Bedtime Bath gift set you can find at target and walmart. 

Stuffed Animals for Days

With baby number 4 on the way my goal has been to de-clutter the last 8 years of marriage and collecting. Yes, my husband was shocked when I told him. we normally go round and around on what to keep, toss, sell or give away.  I am a big collector of “stuff” that i want to keep for the kids or because we may need it in a year or two but that is for another post. So our current de-cluttering project: Stuffed Animals. These are my "drive me nuts because they are EVERYWHERE" items. Admit it every mom has that one toy type that they can't stand being on the floor.  

(This was taken 2 years ago, they are sitting on an oversize love seat)

Like every family out there we have collected stuffed animals. Since before our oldest was born he has collected stuffed animals from friends and family and each of our other kids have followed suit. Fast forward 7.5 years and our collection has grown just like our family. We tried everything from baskets to toy boxes to keep them picked up but they still took up space. I felt like we were ALWAYS cleaning up stuffed animals from the floor because someone had to find that one puppy or the green snake. We had seen the idea of buying a Stuffed Animal Bean Bag Chair and kind of tossed it to the side. After all, how would this be any different than a basket for each kiddo? they can still get into it and toss them on the floor and then what you have an empty bag floating around instead of a tipped basket. 

(Collection minus beds buddies and Mickey collection)

Boy were we proven wrong!

In an attempt to solve two problems 1) seating for the playroom and 2) a new stuffed animal solution,  we bought these ones off Amazon,  each kiddo has their own color and we even have one set aside for the baby. There are tons of options but we found these to be the best priced for our budget and with the best reviews for durability. 

Click Here

They are made out of a canvas material for long lasting durability, have a heavy duty zipper and a large opening to allow space to fit in those extremely large holiday animals they collect that are bigger than they are. The bags have a handle to help move them around and to help fluff them up when they get flat from sitting on. All the seams are reinforced and double stitched (this was important to me with 3 active boys. I didn't want to have to patch and resew the seams all the time 

When it was time to stuff our bags we sorted every ones stuffy collections into piles and then each kid went through their pile. They were instructed to sort them as 1.) Bed Buddies 2.) Give Away and 3.) Bean Bag Buddies.

Bed Buddies: Our kids are allowed to have 3-4 buddies on their beds at a time this keeps the mess to a minimum and allows them to be able to make their beds in the morning without difficulty. We also have it so we have to approve what is on their bed. If it was up to our oldest he would have his extra large teddy bear that is ½ his size on his top bunk bed. Not the safest idea with a kid who roles and moves a lot in his sleep.  Even funnier is our second oldest (pre-school) would have every talking, moving and noise maker on his bed if he could.

(Mickey and Friends collection stored in the baby's crib, 

and example why we have bed buddies)

Give Away: Our second pile is give away. This is those stuffed animals that get collected from giveaways, parties, carnivals, vending machines ect. This is also the pile were we put all our stuffed animals that no one really wanted or wanted to claim. We then donated all these to a shelter for families to come get help for free. We took a large garbage bag and a brown grocery bag worth of these and the shelter was delighted because most of them were like new condition and most the time they have to trash out what is brought to them. If you decide to go the same route make sure you check what the shelters policies are for stuffed animal donations. Most will only take smoke free, pet free like new condition. I've even seen a few that won't take beanie babies, and animals without tags.

Bean Bag Buddies: Everything that was left from each person’s pile was then placed in their bean bag. I didn't count how many stuffed animals made it into each kids bag because they each vary with sizes but the older 2 boys each have a full baskets worth (see the tall green and black basket pictured at the beginning of the post). Our youngest son has all his stuffed animals plus out Mickey and friends collection from the crib, His bag is about half to three quarters full so we stuffed a blanket in it to fluff it up.  

The end result created 3 bean bags for our boys to have in their playroom to sit on when they read, play or watch a movie. They are soft and when the kids want to have a specific friend out they can unzip, dig through, find and re-zip! So easy our 2 year old has been able to swap his own friends out with minimal help. We have even caught Daddy laying on them for a quick nap. 

  

All zipped up and ready