Fundraising

TROOP 461

Here is a scratchpad of fundraising ideas and information:

Here is some good reading for anyone contemplating scout fundraising...

High Adventure Funding Ideas

Courtesy of Troop 427 in Amherst, Ohio.

Can we hold a raffle? (no, not usually)

This Scouting Magazine article covers some basic fundraising dos and don'ts.

Pancake fundraiser 101

Selling a lot of tickets in advance is the real secret to success.

Courtesy of Troop 547 in Cerritos, California.

Scout Salesman

A general guide telling what works well in scouting, with an emphasis on direct selling.

Don't forget the old standbys, Yard Sales and bake sales as a potential source of revenue. The key to a successful yard sale is the collection of donated (sellable) items all year prior to the sale.

Troop 111 in Arlington VA has this web page describing some details of how they managed their annual yard sale.

How about plain old fashioned hard work? Just put an ad in the local paper asking for jobs that are suitable for a group of scouts.

How about a car wash, paper drive, or aluminum can drive. These have all worked well for scout units in the past.

Here are some specific fundraising ideas geared toward Individual Youth Accounts (scout accounts) and troop activities...

With scout accounts, individual scouts are allowed to keep a portion of fundraiser profits to use for scouting related equipment and activities.

Personal Management
Merit Badge

Tell me more about Individual Scout Accounts.

This Excel file is for Scout Account management.

Here is another excel spreadsheet program designed for keeping track of individual scout accounts.

Troops & Packs who want to implement Scout Accounts in their units may find these excel files to be a good starting point. They are spreadsheets designed to track individual accounts and provide monthly statements.

What are scout accounts, and what are the benefits?

Those who work the hardest benefit the most. Example: Scout Johnny Doe earns a whopping $1600 selling popcorn and as a result pays his own way to the national BSA scout Jamboree. Scout Jimmy Doe sells no popcorn and does not get to go.

Scouts & parents become more motivated to participate in fundraisers when a portion of the profit becomes theirs to spend on scouting related purchases.

Typical scout account rules

2009 Middle TN Council popcorn book

Trail's End Popcorn

This annual BSA fundraiser can be done by all units to earn extra funds and benefit our council office as well.

Krispy Kreme fundraising page

Yum yum!
About 50% profit.
Nice potential for repeat customers.

Interstate Batteries scouting

Interstate Batteries fundraising

Boy's Life advertisement

Sonic Community Coupon Cards

Johnny is the Local Sonic Manager.
Community Cards at no cost to us.
Cards sold well ($5 ea.) in our Cub Scout Pack. About 4 industrious parents/scouts participated at a 50/50 troop/scout account split and it brought in almost 1K over the next 6 months. Win, win, win situation.

Page's Seeds

Scouting Magazine ad.

Their program features flower, vegetable, and herb seed collections perfect for holiday and spring fundraising.

Sherwood Forest Farms

Wreaths, Swags, Centerpieces, Garlands, Cones, Bows, Baskets, Christmas Tree Kit.

Mickman Wreaths

Scouting Magazine ad.

Spring candles offered too.

Many troops fund all of their annual activities with money earned from wreath sales.

(Some sell Christmas trees with good success BTW)

17th Annual Fayetteville....
Host of Christmas Past

Boy Scouts of America, Troop 461 (prior years)

Homemade baked goods, popcorn, hot cider and hot chocolate (Mulberry Avenue) will be open after 5:00 during the Candlelight Walking Tour and Cemetery Reenactment.
The info above comes from:
http://hostofchristmaspast.com/nonprofit.html

This is an event that the troop has participated in before.

Philmont (From Scoutmaster's Minutes pg. 14)

I remember my first Boy Scout meeting. One of the older Scouts gave us a slide presentation on his recent trip to Philmont. I went home so excited. I really wanted to go there. So I told Mom and Dad that when I was 14 I was going to Philmont Scout Ranch in New Mexico. Dad asked how much it would cost. I told him only $150, plus maybe another $50 for expenses on the trip. (Things were a lot cheaper back when I was a kid.) Dad asked who was going to pay for the trip. I told him that I thought he would. Well, Dad set me straight right then. He reminded me that I had an allowance and I could save to go to Philmont.

I went up to my room and started figuring out how long it would take to save that much. Every week, Dad gave me 10￠for each grade level I’d reached in school. In sixth grade I got 60￠a week. In seventh grade I would get 70￠, and so on. That night I figured out that if I tithed my 10 percent to the church and spent nothing else I could afford to go to Philmont after my senior year in high school. I was crushed. I didn’t think that I could go five years without spending anything. What was I going to do?

The next day Dad took me aside and suggested that I open a bank savings account and keep my money there so I wouldn’t spend it. He added that Aunt Rae had heard about Philmont and she thought it would be a good idea if I started saving my money for a chance to go there. Well, Dad and I went to the bank and opened a savings account with the $25 Aunt Rae had given me and the $1.10 I had already saved.

I got a job delivering newspapers and saved half of everything I earned. Then I found something out that I didn’t know. The bank paid me to keep my money there. They called it interest, but to me, it was free money! That encouraged me to save even more.

Our neighbor, Mrs. Finney, asked if I could cut her grass during the summer, and I said, Sure! I put all of that money in the account. It wasn’t easy. I still remember having to deliver those newspapers in the pouring rain and the freezing snow. And then, cutting Mrs. Finney’s grass when I wanted to be playing baseball.

But by the time I turned 14 and was a First Class Scout I had enough money for my trip to Philmont. I had earned the money—no one else. I could pay my own way. That trip was all mine and it felt good going there. To this day, I’m still saving for things I want. Going to Philmont taught me how and it turned out to be a lifelong lesson.