The Global Education Club

Fun(d) Raising

Let us not be satisfied with just giving money.
Money is not enough, money can be got, but they need your hearts to love them.
So, spread your love everywhere you go.
~ Mother Teresa ~

No one should think that the only way to cure the problems of our communities and our world is with money. So our Global Club and our school tries to take action in many other practical ways.

But sometimes there are specialist organizations that can do the job better than we can. What is most useful to those organizations is money, to help pay for personnel, supplies, and transportation costs. So sometimes we fundraise. Besides, fundraising is actually FUN!

Goals

Through all the fundraising events we try to:

ensure the whole school community learns about the issue through announcements, home/school newsletters, district newsletters, local newspaper
share teaching resources with the staff
pick an interesting and effective organization to help
make sure people get something good in return for their money
make sure items we sell are cheap ($2 or less, usually 25 cents)
not interfere with other fundraising our school does
not overwhelm people at critical money times: eg. school start up and Christmas
do the fundraising in-school (definitely no door-to-door)
keep the events simple (teacher sanity!)
have no initial costs - just pure profit
recycle wherever possible
have the fundraiser reflect our values (eg. used book sale helps promote reading, helps recycle, helps the organization)
have the children plan, run and evaluate it, so they do the learning
celebrate how much they make, no matter how little or much
have fun!

Children's Motivation

Fundraising is very motivating to children.
They love coming up with an idea, putting it into action, and counting, tangibly, in coins, the results. Fundraising projects help students learn very critical life skills:

Students learn how to:

set a goal
creatively brainstorm
listen to and accept different ideas
think through and plan all the steps necessary
advertise (communicate) in different ways
educate others
make decisions in different ways (consensus, vote...)
divide up tasks and take turns
evaluate a project
tangibly help others
count money and give change
make responsible money choices

Guaranteed Great Ideas

These are our favorites from over two decades of the Global Club's fundraising for helping organizations. An estimated amount raised is included, based on 500 students and 30 staff. Some have become annual events. Some target our students, some target our staff.

used book sale (books brought in by students)		$200
make and sell friendship bracelets		$80
make and sell beadie buddies		$50
collect juice boxes		$70/mo
sell carnations on Mother's Day ($1.25 each)		$130
Unicef donations for Hallowe'en		$600
sponsoring for a walk, no t.v. week, or bicycling		$400
staff lunches and silent auction		$1,000
bake sale		$80
Bald the Barr (shave hair off one of the teachers, in this case, Mr. Barr)		$300
one child made and sold hand-drawn posters for $2 a piece to staff		$30
year end gift from a group of parents (in lieu of purchased items)		$100
Christmas bazaar (like a high class garage sale, $1 cents/item)		$1200
African market (donated fruit/veg, student customers pay $1/item)		$80
candy jar raffle (guess number of candies in jar, winner gets all, $1) (each student brings small bag of candy to donate to the big jar - great for after Hallowe'en)		$25
tree of hope ($1 to put a paper leaf on a painted dead tree in our lobby)		$700
sell chocolate suckers ($2 each)		$40
raffle (Christmas wreath, Valentine's bear, chocolate house)		$25
sell book marks (with a picture of endangered animal being "adopted")		$100
make and sell 100 photocopied calendars, kid art, Theme: "How to help our world"		$100
young student dance lunch recess in gym ($1 each entrance) (Have lots of supervisors for this.)		$100
show cartoons in a class one very inclement lunch recess	entrance "fee": a new pencil, ruler, scribbler to give to school in Cuba	a huge box full

Our annual book sale is always a hit. Students donate books that are resold for 25 cents each.
We usually make close to $200, and donate the proceeds to an organization promoting literacy.

Other Kinds of Donations

Women's shelters always need donations:
Baby food
Diapers
Slippers
Kids pyjamas
Kids and women’s underclothing assorted sizes
Packages of socks
Gloves, toques, scarves
Bedding
Towels, cleansers, hygiene products
Makeup, toothpaste, toothbrushes
Perfume, deodorant, hairbrushes, shampoo, conditioner, bubble bath for kids, gift certificates for anything, and of course any treat you can think of.
(These are often items needed by local Food Banks as well)

Here are some other donation ideas:
-bake a big batch of cookies for a homeless shelter
-collect used eyeglasses and drop them off with a local eyeglass sales place for their distribution box (to developing countries)
-collect new toys for children's wing of local hospital
-make a quilt for a local hospital
-donate used books to a local hospital
-donate food and household supplies to local Food Bank
-donate time walking dogs and petting cats (& lizards!) at your local SPCA
-donate time playing cards with seniors in different facilities
-shovel the walks or mow the lawns of people who are unable to do their own

Why a Global Club?	What are Global Problems?	How We Do It	Hundreds of Ways We've Helped the World	Other Ft. McMurray School Projects	People Love Us!	A Sample Year	Global Days
Human Rights	Anti-Racism	Helping Organizations	Fun(d)-Raising	Recycling is Easy $	Opportunities	Resources	Kids Corner

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The Global Education Club Website
Created by Kitty Cochrane

E-mail contact: kathleen.cochrane@fmpsd.ab.ca
or: kittyco@shaw.ca

Check out Kitty's other webs at www.kittycochrane.ca