Fundraising Ideas

Here you'll find several great ideas on how to raise money for your group's VE tour.

DubLi

VE travellers can offset the cost of their tour by registering for free at DubLi.com. With DubLi, your everyday shopping for groceries, gas, health products and more can earn you generous rebates. After you register, click the “Shopping” tab to start shopping your choice of 900 stores, including 250 Canadian stores, to get the best prices, amazing discounts and cash rewards. You can also buy gift certificates and cards for even more rewards. Shop with DubLi today and start saving for your VE tour!

Futura Rewards

Shop with participating merchants, grocers, online retailers and financial services to earn a percentage of what you purchase and put it towards your VE tour. To learn more, visit the Futura website.

ChipIn

ChipIn provides an easy and secure way to collect money for your VE tour by allowing you to create your own custom ChipIn webpage. You can also create your own ChipIn widget to use on popular social networks like MySpace and Facebook. To learn more about how ChipIn can help you collect money and spread the word about your VE tour, visit the ChipIn website.

Entertainment Coupon Book

Students can earn extra money to help offset the cost of their tour by selling the Entertainment Coupon Book in their area. The book is filled with great coupons for dining, movies, groceries, and more – for $1,000s of dollars of savings! Books are sold on consignment and students pay only for the books they sell – plus, they keep all the profits immediately. The cost of the book and the profit to be made from each varies by province – but generally, students can make $8-$12 per book. For more information, visit www.entertainment.com (and click on "Students & Fundraisers" at the top) or contact your local representative: British Columbia - Anna Donnelly - 1-778-839-6240; Alberta - Deena Semeniuk - 1-403-542-4171; Manitoba - Tammy Solmundson - 1-204-792-8779; Ontario - Christine Lee - 1-416-518-2630; Quebec - Christina Antginas - 1-514-238-2568.

Other great ideas

Holiday gift wrapping
Time: 3 weeks
Money up front: Minimal. You will have to purchase gift-wrapping supplies if you are not able to acquire them through donations.
Expected profit: $50-$500
How it works: Wrap holiday presents for donations.

• Approach the management of a local shopping mall about permission to provide a gift-wrapping service in a centrally located area.
• Ask a stationery store to donate wrapping paper.
• Decorate your wrapping stations, make large posters to attract passers-by and dress festively.
• Set out a decorated shoebox for donations.

Car wash
Time: 2 weeks for planning and holding the car wash
Money up front: About $50 (sponges, towels, soap, etc.)
Expected profit: $100 - $300, based on price of car wash
How it works: Wash cars for donations.

• Find a local gas station or convenience store to allow you to use their parking lot, reminding the manager that a car wash will generate more business for them.
• Purchase or get donations for several sponges, soap, towels and garden hoses.
• The day of the event, you will need at least six or seven “washers” – but the more the merrier!

Mega car wash challenge
Time: A few weeks this summer leading up to early fall.
Money up front: Minimal
Expected profit: Up to $4,000
How it works: Arrange to have the two most popular stores in your community agree to host a car wash challenge.

• Approach the two most popular stores in your community to host a car wash. Hours: 9am to 4pm. The store that sells the most tickets to the car wash wins.
• Look for a marketing gimmick to promote your Car Wash Challenge – i.e., Toy Wars (Walmart vs. Toys R Us); Car Wars (car dealer vs. car dealer), etc. Get the stores to buy into the challenge idea – they’ll have fun and get lots of PR.
• Have the stores’ cashiers sell tickets to the car wash at the cash registers. Get each store to hold a draw for everyone that buys a ticket at their store. The prize for the draw should be something nice, like a BBQ or TV. The draw will motivate more people to buy tickets.
• The losing store owner/manager has to sweep the floor at the winning store for a photo-op. Give a trophy or plaque to the winning store.
• Have a poster made this summer to promote your car wash so that your promotion can start the first day of school.
• Get tickets made this summer so they can be sold in advance starting on the first day of school. Charge $5 a ticket at most.
• Arrange for a photo-op to announce the challenge. Local newspapers will likely attend if the stores are big advertisers.
• Approach other businesses/organizations to take part in the challenge in two-hour shifts. By doing this, you’ll have more people to sell tickets and more people to wash cars. You can even get them to challenge each other (e.g., Police vs. Fire Department, doctors vs. dentists or car dealer vs. car dealer).
• Place one of your tour chaperones in charge of each car wash site.
• Set the car wash up like an assembly line. Get the car wash materials donated to cut down on costs and use power sprayers to pre-wash and rinse.

Yard sale
Time: At least 5 hours a week leading up to the event
Money up front: Minimal
Expected profit: $100 - $1,000, depending on how many donated items you collect
How it works: Have a yard sale with donated goods from students and families within the community.

• Students ask their families, neighbours and friends to donate to the yard sale.
• Students with driver’s licenses can collect the goods the week before the event.
• Sort and price everything for the sale. Volunteers can work the sale while also selling baked goods, juice, lemonade, and candy—every bit helps!

Spaghetti dinner
Time: 2-3 weeks
Money up front: $0 to $200, depending on how much food, etc., you can have donated
Expected profit: $100 to $1,000, depending on attendance and entrance fee
How it works: Host a meal through grocery store donations to support your trip abroad.

• Secure a venue with a kitchen for hosting the dinner.
• Check whether tables and chairs are available.
• Get donations from area grocers for spaghetti, sauce, bread, butter, salad, beverages, paper plates, etc. (It’s even better when you can attach a theme that ties in to your destination: French crepe night, Mexican fiesta, etc.)

Silent auction
Time: 1-2 months
Money up front: Very minimal
Expected profit: $500 - $5,000
How it works: People bid on items or services donated by area merchants over the course of a week.

• Announce a Saturday when your group will be going door-to-door to collect 30-40 auctionable items for the event.
• When visiting local businesses, be sure to mention that the donation will be identified with their name.
• Offer to list the business as a sponsor on any promotional posters or flyers you create.
• Get your school or another community gathering place to donate a room where the auction items can be displayed for a week.
• Next to each item, place a bidding sheet that describes what the item is worth and who donated it.
• Community members can then attend the auction as often as they like to bid against each other on paper.
• Arrange for a secure, lockable room or closet for the merchandise when the auction isn’t open.

School/community cookbook
Time: 2-3 months
Money up front: $0 to $200, depending on whether production/design costs are donated
Expected profit: $100-$1,000, depending on production costs and price of the book How it works: Create a community cookbook to sell!

• It’s easy to compile, inexpensive to print and makes a terrific gift.
• Solicit recipes from the school or community.
• Make each of your travellers responsible for obtaining a certain number of recipes (the more varied the contributors, the broader the appeal).
• Limit the number of recipes to 25 or 30. You don’t want to make the book expensive to print.
• Organize all recipes into categories and type them into a computer file.
• Students with a knack for computers may wish to be in charge of layout and design.
• Find a local copy centre to donate reproduction costs for a large credit in the book or a free ad.
• The book should have a heavy or laminated cover, and should be bound—this makes it more durable as well as more attractive.
• You may also wish to consider selling ad space to local food stores and food-related businesses.
• Sell the book at all school and community events (charge no more than $10).

Canadian Community Day coupon booklet
Time: 3-4 weeks
Money up front: Minimal
Expected profit: $100 to $1,000 depending on how many coupons you're able to get.
How it works: Promote a specifc day that will be used for fundraising your trip.

• Approach the owners of franchises about having their stores (e.g., restaurants or shops) featured as part of the Community Day promotion by providing you with coupons to be used at their business on that day.
• Compile the coupons into a booklet promising great savings to be sold to the public for a reasonable cost.

Funniest home videos showing
Time: 2-3 weeks
Money up front: Minimal
Expected profit: $200 to $500
How it works: Charge admission for people to see students' funny footage.

• Students shoot funny home videos or submit previously recorded footage of a funny incident.
• Hold a show and charge admission for people to see them.
• Offer some of the proceeds as prize money for the video that wins the most votes as the funniest.

Chef for a morning
Time: 2-3 months
Money up front: $0 to $200, depending on how much food and supplies you can have donated.
Expected profit: $100 to $1,000, depending on attendance and entrance fee.
How it works: Student volunteer chefs cater breakfast to a school.

• Student chefs will make breakfast for students and faculty.
• Breakfast ideas include crepes, wraps, waffles, fruit and omelets.
• May need to look into allergy restictions and renting portable stove tops for eggs and crepes.

Quick cash idea: Free place raffle!
If you have enough people going to earn another free place, you can raffle off a free spot (which you get with every six paying travellers) to people in the school or in the community! You can make a good profit from this with $5 or $10 tickets.