Just wondering how I can get a fundraiser started....

[Jodi]

My best friend and I run a child care center, with 155 children enrolled. She suggested we try to do a walkathon/fundraiser, to benefit the lung association/lung cancer. How would we get started? Any ideas? We are planning our summer program, in the next few months, so we would need to outline something....Any suggestions would be helpful !

[KatieB]

Are you planning to do something that involves the children you care for? Or are you looking for fundraisers in general?

You can take a cue from the public school systems and send a fundraiser home with each child. You can sell candy, books, cookies or products, make a "brochure" and an order form and all monies raised can go to your charity of choice.

You can hold a "play" or "musical". Organize the children and put together a program for parents and friends of family. Sell tickets and those proceeds can go to benefit a charity of your choice.

You can put together a walk/run in your area. You can send flyers home with the children to enlist parents into helping or just spreading the word.

You can have a crafts sale at a fair, festival, school or craft mall. You can make things, sell things and you can even get the children to make "art" or greeting cards to add to your inventory. A sign saying that all proceeds are benefitting a charity usually inspires people to buy.

You can hold an auction and ask friends, family, and parents to donate items for your auction. You can do this in an open venue, at your home, or a public place, or you can do this online with one of the autcions like Ebay or Yahoo.

*Hope this helps.

Good luck and keep us posted!

[palves]

The child care center where my daughter goes has a hop a thon for the kids.

Paula