Successful Fundraising Project
During the summer of 1999, seventeen high school students became the first group of public high school students from Maine to travel to the People's Republic of China. Successful Fundraising Project outlines the steps the parents and students took to raise plenty of money making the trip much more affordable for the parents.
The cost was reduced to begin with because the organizers procured reduced rates for travel and accommodation in China. The per-student cost was thus kept to $3,000. Fundraising would have to make up the difference for those who needed financial aid.
To this parent who had little prior experience in fundraising, the whole process was quite amazing. Led by some high-energy parents and enthusiastic students, we went from nothing to more than enough funds in a few short months.
Here is what we did to raise money:
- Elaine, an art teacher who is also a talented graphic artist, gave her time to design a logo for the project, which was promptly transformed into letterhead for our mailings.
- We publicized the project in local newspaper to encourage readers to send in contributions.
- The students each made a personal commitment to raise at least $300 toward the cost of the trip. Each student sent a letter to friends, family, neighbors and others asking for sponsorship of one to five days of their trip, at $20 per day. Many students raised well over their goal with this approach.
- One of the students' band and three other local bands gave a fundraising concert at the high school.
- The students did the usual car wash thing at a local VIP.
- The students ran a local hot dog stand at the annual open house of a local lumber yard.
- We obtained donated items and sold tickets to raffle them off. One unusual donation was the offer of a full course of orthodonture (braces!) The parents sent form letters to local businesses and followed up with phone calls to get commitment to those donations.
The student efforts over three months raised over $8,000. To all those who buy into the stereotype of unmotivated, anti-social teenagers, think again. In addition we received support from most of the participants in the original Bank Street China Study Project who had made this trip in 1979. Their support came to $7,000.
Thus, $15,000. raised in three months. The students who needed financial aid were fully funded. The rest of us who thought we would have to cough up $3,000. ended up having to pay only $1,500.
