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!