Profit during the sunshine and rain with these creative booster club spring fundraising opportunities. Even if your school’s activity isn’t in session, your club can still be working hard on their behalf. Having just survived a gray sky filled winter, I’m sure your booster club and the students would all love some sunshine-filled fundraisers and promotional events.
Many clubs and school activities are seasonal and not year-round but this doesn’t mean that your booster club should be seasonal as well. Hosting fundraisers throughout the year can still be beneficial to your activity.
During the student’s offseason you can work hard to build up funds to pay for new equipment, uniforms, field trips or other things you may have noticed they were lacking. This way, when the activity is in session, you have the funds to help them get off to a great start!
Another great reason to keep your booster club busy with fundraising events is that it helps to keep your booster club active and build better brand awareness among the student body and community. While people may forget about your booster club if you take a pause for a few months, staying active and busy keeps you fresh in everyone’s mind and helps to promote your group, drive more volunteers, and increase fundraiser promotions for better profitability.
These spring fundraising opportunities can keep your booster club busy and profitable this year.
(Note: Because of the current COVID-19 closures around the country, we know many of these ideas are not feasible. However we also know that at some point everyone will be back up and running and socializing. To that effect, consider bookmarking or pinning many of these ideas for future use when we are able to socialize together.)
Spring Fundraising Opportunities For Your Booster Club
Bake Sales
Springtime bake sales are a great booster fundraiser because they have such little overhead costs and can turn a great profit even on a rainy day. Everyone loves to indulge on a little treat now and then, so consider setting up a once a month bake sale to increase your booster club’s visibility and to make money.
Bowl-A-Thon
Spring is known for its heavy rain so planning indoor fundraisers are great because you don’t have to worry about the weather reports. With a bowl-a-thon, you can have a creative fundraiser where students and staff take pledges per pin. When they bowl, they get a point for every pin that they knock down and afterward the one with the best score can win a prize.
This spring fundraising opportunity is one that can be a lot of fun and may not cost much to operate if you can get the bowling alley to donate a few lanes for a few hours.
Spring Dance
A spring formal may already be a tradition in your school, but hosting a dance in the spring is still a good spring fundraising opportunity. You can sell tickets in advance and admission at the door. Offer free concessions and have a lowcost DJ or hire someone willing to donate their time for a few hours to help the booster club.
While a spring dance may not be a unique fundraiser, you can’t deny that it isn’t a fun one!
Taking advantage of Spring fundraising opportunities means that you should also look for the unique ways that you can make money and promote a green environmentally friendly approach as well. With Earth Day in April and spring being a time for green leaves, flowers blooming, and the sun finally emerging from the winter clouds, having a few earth-friendly fundraisers can be a great way to raise some funds. One of the best ways to do this is to host a recycling contest.
Recycling competition
Depending on your state you may find that there are programs that pay for used soda cans, grocery bags, or even glass bottles. Have classrooms compete by recycling for profit. While teachers may not want to hold a ton of trash or used items in their rooms, students may find that their families can recycle at home and bring the profits instead.
Donation facilities often weigh the donations and give a receipt, you can have teachers collect receipts to see which class donated the most trash by weight. This can give classes the chance to compete by who earned the most and who recycled the most, allowing for the possibility of having two winners.
Classes can also take a recycling approach with the trash that they produce in school. This helps to promote greener practices and raise money. The winning class(es) can win a pizza or ice cream party for their efforts.
Outdoor Spring Fundraising Opportunities
While the weather may not always behave, planning some outdoor fundraisers for your booster club may not be in vain. Here are two great ideas that can get your booster club outside those school walls and into the community for some spring fundraising opportunities.
Garage Sale
This is a fundraiser you can make a lot of profit from. Ask people to donate old items to your booster club and then sell them for profit at a garage sale. With the sun out, and freshly cut lawns everywhere people will flock to a well-promoted garage sale looking for a steal of a deal!
The good news is that anything that doesn’t sell can be donated to charity or attempted to be sold online or elsewhere. Another great thing is that if the weather turns sour last minute, tents can be set up or the tables can be moved inside for an indoor garage sale, so make sure that you choose your location wisely so that you don’t limit your spring fundraising opportunities.
School Garden
This is one that is more promotion than a fundraiser, but getting your booster club out there and having it promoted is just as important as turning a profit.
Consider allocating a location on the school grounds for a booster club donated garden. Have local garden or hardware stores donate the items needed (soil, manure, flowers, etc.) and then form a list of flower options and have students and staff pay $1 (or more) to have a specific type of flower from your list planted. You can even sell little kits for making mosaic stepping stones or garden decorations for a little more money.
This is a great idea because
- The student body and teachers will feel great that they had a say in it and that they paid to have something put in the garden.
- Your booster club gets the profit.
- The business gets a nonprofit tax write-off for their donation.
- The school will get a great facelift and added curb appeal.
- If students help to physically build the garden they can write it off as community service.
It’s a win-win-win-win-win.
Make it even better by having a small sign placed stating that the booster club donated the garden, and now everyone will be reminded of your booster club every time they see it. This is a great passive form of promotion!
There is no limit to spring fundraising opportunities and no matter what the weather may be, a profit can be made. Just look around your school and see what your booster club can do to increase promotion or profits during these months. Your booster club doesn’t have to stop just because your activity does.
