Most people know about the annual Boy Scout popcorn sale. Every year scouts sell the Trail’s End popcorn that comes in many different flavors. My husband bought a whole case, one of each flavor, for the second year in a row. Can we eat that much popcorn? Probably not. That’s why some of it went in the family stockings.

Two Boy scouts vie for top popcorn fundraiser salesman from KSAT Television in San Antonio, TX

Cub Scouts popcorn program from Top School Fundraisers

Many packs across the country have another annual fundraiser starting the day after Christmas. They pick up the live trees from homes for recycling collection. The Statesman-Journal in Oregon reports in Scouts win with tree-recycling job:

Troop 20 nets anywhere from $1,500 to $2,800 each year from tree collection, said Paul Guthrie, the assistant scout master. That far surpasses proceeds from sales of food products, ranging from candy and cookie dough to popcorn and pepperoni, he said.

Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts stay busy all near, not just fundraising. Here are a few other good links about scouting activities:

Pinewood Derby Nights: The NASCAR of Boy Scouts from NJ.com

Boy Scouts teach skills to handle bullies from The News-Enterprise (NJ)

Scouts in Action from Boy Scout Trail

Inspired by the annual cookie craze known as the Girl Scout Cookie Sale, this week we’ve got some Super Links related to scouting. Today we have some neat stories related to Girl Scouts and tomorrow we’ll have links for Boy Scouts.

Most troops sell Girl Scout cookies toward the end of January.  In fact it may be starting this week, depending on the council in your area.  You can input your zip code in the Cookie Finder to discover when your local scouts will be selling cookies.

Here’s a few more great links…

About the Girl Scout Cookie Program from Girl Scouts USA

It’s Cookie Time…be kind to your Girl Scout from Plot Monkeys blog

Girl Scouts want us to stick to our diets from Philly Burbs

Girl Scouts Potluck from Life With Frenchie

One of the most important things about a fundraising campaign is to have a goal. Goals can inspire action, help us meet deadlines and of course be more successful. When your school group reaches its goal be sure to plan something special to celebrate. Your group has worked hard and everyone who participated, teachers, students, parents and community members should be thanked and appriciated for their efforts.

A school in Hancock, Maryland celebrated the end of their drive by completing the thermometer type goal poster they’d created. In fact they asked a business who contributed the final $500 donation to help:

To celebrate the end of the drive, Robison asked bank CEO/President Jeff Shank and Hancock Community Office branch manager Angie Hager to paint in the remaining funds space on the Panther Playground Fund slide in front of the school.

This made for a great photo op and publicity for both the school and the bank!  This would be a great idea for any school or other group who’s recently finished a fundraiser.

Go ahead and plan your goal celebration during the process of your fundraising planning.  Expect the best… expect your group to succeed, rather than saying “if we meet our goal.”

Here’s another idea…  how about when you first put up your goal placard to ask a local business to be the first to make a donation? Then  you can have a photo and story for the local newspaper to help kickoff your fundraising drive.   Then perhaps at your celebration you can recognize others who contributed.

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.

Four determined tug-of-war teams battled it out on Saturday, July 14th in the first Tug for Tots fund-raiser. The event benefited Harmony Youth Programs.

The event was created to replace a canceled Corporate Challenge event held by the charity. Teams fought it out, but the reigning champs this year was The Integra Technologies team which won the tug-of-war event.

The Sarnia Ontario, Canada charity anticipated raising approximately $5,000 from collected pledges. Funds will go to the youth outreach programs at the South Sarnia Centre.