Stone County 4-H Fundraising Ide

Candle Making: Get together as a club and make and sell homemade candles. (Might work at the Crane Broiler Festival or some other public event) . It isn’t complicated—can be a great way to spend a club meeting and the kids will feel great about selling products that they made. Here’s a link to get you started on how to make the candles. http://candleandsoap.about.com/blprojects.htm

Calendars: Find a way to have calendars printed up at a reasonable price. Sell the dates of the calendars for $5 - $25 dollars. People can pay for their birthdays, anniversaries, or other special events. Set up sections for businesses to advertise in the calendar and determine advertising fees. You may want to limit how many names can be on one date. You could have names printed in light florescent colors so that calendars can still be written on for personal scheduling. Once you have collected enough money to cover the printing cost and make a profit, have them printed. Also take orders ahead of time for this calendar and charge an appropriate amount. You can have contests to design each months picture or use other ideas that you come up with.

Calendars (simplified version): Have kids draw their best pictures and scan them into a computer. Insert picture of kid and a bit about his/her 4-H projects and age and what-not. Print, staple and sell the Calendars for enough money to cover supplies, ink and a enough more to put into the club fund.

Quilt-Making: Create a quilt with simple pictures drawn by the kids on solid colored squares of fabric and permanent ink. Obviously some adult would have to help with the sewing. Raffle off the quilt or hold an auction.

Soap-making: A variation on candle making (can even be combined and sold in gift bags, if the club is feeling ambitious). Here are just a couple of links that give the how-tos:

Movie Night: Many organizations rent a movie and hold movie night fundraisers. This works especially well if you have a large room and projection/large screen TV. Make money by charging a single price for the movie and refreshments; provide the movie free but sell refreshments; or charge nothing and just ask for donations. Make sure you select a movie that will be of special interest to your group. Allow plenty of time for socialization before and after the movie. Some groups have held all-nighters where movie-goers bring their sleeping bags and blankets and have a movie marathon.

Photos With Animals: Kids of all ages love to have their photos taken with animals (usually the more exotic the better, but who can resist puppies and kittens), and parents have a hard time resisting because they are so very cute. If you have any animals that are very friendly with people and can take a half day or so of flash bulbs, get a local photographer to donate professional photo services, and set up at a mall or other event. Be sure to keep a true animal lover around to handle anything that gets unruly. The usual agreement would be that the photographer has his/her film costs reimbursed, and of course his/her name is on the photos as free advertising, and he/she would be the source of reprints. The photographer will usually have printed forms for completion. You should arrange for your helpers to handle the registration and collection to keep costs down. Payments should be collected in advance. Sample photos with the available animals at their cutest could help spur sales.

Alternatively you could use a Polaroid or digital camera set up on a tripod with lighting and distance worked out ahead of time. If using a digital camera, have a separate pickup booth set up with a computer and printer to produce the prints. (A digital camera that prints to floppy discs would be ideal, and such a setup would allow you to sell duplicates/multiples of the really good shots.) Don't forget to arrange for folders or other packaging for your photos. If using a digital camera, you could even include a contact number for reprints within a certain time limit. In that case, make sure to store the original discs safely for the allotted time limit. Be sure to have plenty of film or discs available. You can return unopened film packs after the event.

Possible sources of animal subjects could be your local humane society or shelter as well as members of your group. (It could result in some adoptions for the society/shelter.) You may want to arrange for several animals (parrots or toucans make a great choice if docile) to attract more attention and assure the animals don't get too flustered, particularly if you extend your hours. This could be a great compliment to an outdoor fair. Hay bales make a great backdrop and temporary corral as well help with any 'accidents'. Be sure to plan for food, water and shade for the animals, as well as shovels to clean up after them. A garbage can with a tight cover can help keep the odor down

Cake Walk: You have people donate cakes. Usually these people would be the people who are involved in whatever the money is being raised for. You put numbers around tables (usually 1-100, depending the area your in). We usually tape the top of the number close to edge of the table and far apart enough for people to stand by their numbers. We have approximately 30-40 people show up most of the time for a cake walk.

You charge them .50 per number (usually we charge .25 because of the size of the crowd). They can buy as many numbers at once as they want. They stand by their numbers. You have a second copy of the numbers that are on the tables in a bag. Once the numbers on the tables have all been sold, ( if all the numbers are not sold you just flip each one over until the next draw, and if one of those unsold numbers should be drawn, just draw another number) then you draw the number and the person who bought that number is the person who wins a cake.

You also have numbers put on each cake and a separate bag with these numbers in as well. Then you also draw a cake number. That is the cake they win. The number of cakes you have is the number of rounds you have. People line up to buy their numbers again after each cake is won. ( They can choose different numbers on the tables each time ) Have Fun!!!

Bag groceries: Ask a local grocery store if you can bag people’s groceries for donations. Be certain to put up a sign saying what the donation is for.

Hug-a-gram: Advertise a hug for a dollar. Have people buy a hug for a friend. After a member of your group gives the hug to the designated person, give them a small card with a message from the person who sent the hug.

Scratchies: Ask parents to donate a $1 or $2 lottery 'Scratchy' each. Purchase a small tree or potplant and attach all of the scratchies to the leaves with pegs etc. You then raffle the tree off like a normal raffle. The winner gets the tree and all of the scratchies (which could have tens of thousands of dollars on them - a great incentive for people to buy tickets).

Tacos and Talent Night-kids and people in the community put together amateur acts to showcase their hidden talents or interests-all school appropriate, of course! We decorate with a Mexican theme, have mini-booths of activities with a Mexican theme, also, partner up with Taco Johns (they have given us great deals). We have found that if we clearly designate the money for a specific purpose that a free will offering brings in more money than setting a specific price. It is a minimum of work, is a lot of fun, and is a wonderful way to bring the community together. (We are in a rural area, though.)

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		University of Missouri Stone County Extension Center stoneco@missouri.edu Site maintainer JoEtta Bowling, bowlingj@missouri.edu Updated 06/23/05