The great games of golf and the football make for a great match for the University of Hawaii booster club.

The official football booster club for the University of Hawaii football team is called Na Koa, which translates to “The Warrior.” They put on several fundraisers but one of their most popular is the golf tournament.

Even the head football coach June Jones and athletic director Herman Frazier played golf in the most recent event on July 20th. There were many football players, parents and alumni in attendance. There were some great prizes too. A Harley Davidson motorcycle prize was up for grabs if someone was lucky enough to make a hole-in-one on the 13th hole. Plus there were autographed football jerseys, helmets and football tickets, too.

Even though co-founder of the booster club, Ben Yee, was at the latest tournament he didn’t play golf. The online newspaper The Garden Island quoted Yee as saying: “I’ve seen Na Koa evolve from raising $26,000 the first year to raising half a million dollars.”

Of course those funds didn’t come from just the one golf tournament! Actually, the golf tournaments are so popular that the booster club has three of them - one on Kaua‘i, O‘ahu and another on the Big Island. Plus they have other fundraisers throughout the year.

So does golf and football go together? It certainly does for this booster club.

A great way to bring in some needed funds with little effort is by hosting a ‘restaurant fundraiser night’ at local chain restaurants in your town.

Many restaurants will give a percentage of the profits from a specific evening, while others may give $1 from certain entrees ordered. The key to this event is that your group will do the promotion of the event at the restaurant on an off-night, which brings in more paying clients to the restaurant on a night when they normally would not eat out. It’s a win-win situation for both the group and the restaurant.

Here’s an updated list of restaurants that typically host restaurant fundraising nights. As with any franchise, it would be up to the local owners and managers. My son’s Kindergarten school gave us a listing of restaurant nights for the entire year, so in some areas, these nights are highly sought after and should be scheduled well in advance.

ALSO- hosting a special event at a local ‘mom n pop’ restaurant or other independent or locally owned restaurant/ pub is another great idea! Don’t get discouraged if you live in a small town or have no chain restaurants. The local restaurants may want to push business for a random Tuesday night to bring more people into the restaurant.

Outback Steakhouse
Sweet Tomatoes
Jersey Mike’s (15%)
Burger King
KFC
Rio Bravo
Fuddruckers
Ruby’s
Chik-Fil-A
Sonic
Dairy Queen (DQ dollars)
CiCi’s Pizza
Black-Eyed Pea
Tortuga’s
Ponderosa
Big Boy
Pizzeria Uno
Friendly’s
Zany Brainy
TRU
Pizza Hut
O’Charley’s
Brusters Ice Cream
Boston Market
Fazoli’s
Applebee’s (pancake breakfast)
Chili’s
Subway
Baja Fresh
Loco’s Deli
Chipotle
Taco Cabana
Panera Bread (Dough for Dough, coupon slips)
Papa Murphy’s
Wendy’s

About the Author: Danielle Hamilton is the editor of HumaneFundraising.com and moderator of a Yahoo group dedicated to helping animal rescue groups raise money for animals.

An ice cream social is a fun way to raise money for your school or sports team and build community spirit at the same time. Volunteers donate  homemade or store bought ice cream for this event.  Each year the youth group at church does this ice cream social fundraiser  during intermission at its summer musical program and it’s always a hit.

Approximately 4-5 tables are set up with 2 or 3 kinds of ice cream at each table and volunteers at each table to serve. The homemade is usually the most popular, but there’s also store bought too. Small styrofoam coffee cups are used to serve one scoop of ice cream each. A donation jar is placed at each table, so people can leave whatever donation they feel like. Many people come back for more than one scoop and add donations when they do.

There are many places that an ice cream booth would be successful:

• School play or musical performance (at intermission or after the show)
• Fall festival or school fair
• Chamber of Commerce Mixer
• Social event after a regular organization meeting
• At a sports game
• After a school pep rally

Variations:

1. Charge $1 per scoop instead of donation basis
2. Charge a flat fee for entry, usually $3-5, and serve smaller portions of ice cream. Give people who paid a wrist band or necklace to show booth volunteers that they have paid.

It works best to have this fundraiser during an already planned event, where people are already gathered. Many people love ice cream so this can be a great fundraiser.

A school bookfair can be a great way to earn much-needed funds for educational programs. A school bookfair can also help your students and families create home libraries of books that they will enjoy. It is also a terrific way to build your classroom or school libraries.

There are many benefits to hosting a school bookfair. Most importantly, it encourages children to read books that they will enjoy for fun and pleasure and the joy of learning. A bookfair can also be a wonderful opportunity to develop a larger library of books for your school or classroom library through encouraging classroom or school donations.

A school bookfair generates community participation and interest on many levels, as children of all ages will show interest in reading. Finally, a school bookfair is a great way to raise funds for its school while also encouraging learning in a fun and interesting way.

The Scholastic company helps elementary and middle schools host bookfairs. If you host a Scholastic bookfair your school can earn cash, books, reward bonuses or Instructional Resource Catalog Profits (vouchers to select educational tools or books).

Scholastic Bookfair offers instructional guides to show you step by step how to manage your school bookfair. These guides cover every topic you can think of, and all that you need is at your fingertips. The guides help you to save time and they show you what other schools have done to be successful. There is a guide for Families, for the Principal, for the Librarian and for Teachers. Each guide offers specific and valuable resources that will help these families, professionals and educators make the most of the bookfair for their school.

Your school bookfair can also include other activities and school fundraisers to make the day more fun.  No matter what options you choose, you will certainly benefit your school in every way simply by holding the bookfair.

When raising funds for any group, finding a good match between the organization and the type of fundraiser is crucial. A program that is in harmony with the mission of the organization and preferences of supporters will result in higher fundraising success.

A recent gala held to support the School for the Creative and Performing Arts is a great example. Items up for bid at the auction included items related to the arts, a clear link between the fundraiser and the mission of the organization.

The Les Paul Studio guitar was donated by Gibson Guitars and was signed by rock artist Peter Frampton, who served as honorary chairman of the event along with his wife, Tina.

The Les Paul guitar was a symbol of what the famous guitarist contributed to American jazz, not only as a performer but through the development of modern electric instruments and recording techniques.

The guitar sold for $8,000, said Judy Recker, chairwoman of the Fur Ball.

Source: Cincinnati Enquirer

Of course many people who attended the event were likely musicians or other people who are strong supporters of arts education.  This is a good example of matching the group with an appropriate fundraising strategy.

1. Make your school fundraising event fun or unique.  Even if it’s a carnival or other event that you’ve been doing for years think of twists that will get more students and parents excited about participating.
2. Events take volunteers. Usually a lot of them! Carefully consider how much manpower it will take to pull off the school fundraising event you are considering.
3. After deciding on the event type, organize into committees for each aspect of the event.  For example: publicity, decorations, food, event set-up, clean up, etc.
4. Better safe than sorry. When planning your event date be aware of conflicting events.  Make sure your event does not fall on the same day as other important events in the area.  If you are having an outdoor event, have a contingency plan for bad weather.
5. Keep the costs of your school fundraising event low! Your costs should be 25% or less of the gross receipts from the event. Try to get as much donated as possible! If your costs are zero, ALL the money goes toward your school..
6. Paying for advertising such as TV and billboards can be a waste of resources. Only a very small percentage of the people who see the advertisement will actually come. Many times the best advertisement is word of mouth.  Use free media such as press releases, flyers sent home to parents, email and phone calls.
7. Involve as many pockets of your school and community as possible.  For example, let each grade, school club and even community organizations hold their own booth.  If you are having a ticketed event, let other community groups sell tickets and keep a percentage of the revenue from tickets they sell.