Green Fundraising For Schools With One Big Caveat
by Kenny Luna, North Babylon, NY 
on 10. 1.07
Founded by elementary parents with an eye for the future and a realization that we’ve all had enough of the wrapping paper and cookie dough fundraising tactics, Greenraising, a program to help schools and non-profits raise funds using eco-friendly products has emerged.
And with items for sale ranging from SIGG bottles and fair trade coffee to eco-friendly lunchboxes and recycled office supplies, the intentions are good and the products seem excellent.
But what’s that big caveat I mentioned above?
Well, it seems your school or non-profit will only garner 25% of the proceeds from sales placed by friends, family, and co-workers via their website, and just 40% of the profits from those you sign up in person with their catalog. And while I’m no PTA fundraising guru myself I do know a few, and can say with certainty that products sold through school fundraisers generally mean that between 50-70% of the proceeds to the school itself.
After all, it’s a school fundraiser, and not just a straight sell…
So while I’m enthusiastic about the idea of the program, and recognize that using eco-friendly products instead of the usual plethora of fundraising suspects is exposing lots of people to great products they might never try otherwise... I have to suspect that you may do better elsewhere gaining the cash you need from your fundraising efforts.
Perchance our friends at Greenraising need a little friendly competition to make them up the ante… Anyone have a favorite program in mind that can give them a run for their money?
via:: enviromom
Follow @TreeHugger on Twitter & get our headlines with @TH_rss!
Thirsty for more? Check out these related articles:
As a former PTA president and member of that organization fro the last 9 years, I can tell you that the typical junk-food or catalog fundraiser gives the school 40-50% of revenue. You have to remember that they're selling junk made in China and jacking up the prices, similar to the WalMart model, so you can't always expect such high returns on green products. There are very few choices for eco-friendly fundraisers out there!
My company, Fundraising Green, has put together a coupon book of green and healthy activites that will be sold by schools and non-profits in Southern California. Schools get between 45-50% per book sold, depending on volume sold. All books are printed on recycled paper with soy inks. Go to www.FundraisingGreen.com for more info.
I am a social entrepreneur popularizing energy-efficient CFL light bulbs that can save the U.S. 106 billion pounds of pollution per year. See www.greenlightsusa.com .
I'd be happy to provide CFLs at a wholesale price for fundraisers aimed at alleviating climate change while raising funds for the school and giving the students an experience of becoming active for a cause.
Please contact my marketing person at y.ybarra@greenlightsusa.com .
Thanks for the mention!
The reason Greenraising gives 25% - 40% is pure economics. Our products are not marked up as much as Sally Foster's. They can't be - we only carry products that are produced at a living wage, in humane working conditions, with high quality renewable materials. Marking them up too much would make them too expensive for many people who are used to buying plastic, made-in-China, mainstream products. Part of our goal is to get those people to move in a "green" direction, as well. So we keep prices down.
It's always a balancing act. If we raise prices, we can offer a higher percentage to schools, but they'll probably sell a lot less (and therefore raise less money), too.
25% is a remarkable return for a website sale, anyway. Look at Target, Amazon, or any of the big online affiliate programs. They're giving schools 5-10%. And 40-50% is fairly typical for a catalog sale.
Again, thanks so much for the mention. We'd love to hear from Treehuggers about products they'd like to see included and ideas for improvement!
Best,
Lisa Olson
Greenraising
Green Fundraising is a great idea! Try this: Green Mountain Energy Network is a retail electric provider completely committed to renewable electricity like 100%wind. They have a fundraiser that pays every month the customer uses electricity. e-mail brianrambo2000@yahoo.com
Please visit www.LetsGoGreen.biz for a great selection of eco-friendly products for the homeowner. We have the products to let the average person "go green" at home. We also have an outstanding fundraising program for schools, churches, non-profits, etc.
There is a phenomenal new green / environmental fundraiser on the following website: arborrevolution.com. This site is set up to sell tree sponsorships that go toward reforestation efforts. It is a very relevant idea that I think is good for the times.
They have a very competitive incentive plan and an offer that I haven't seen before by any type of fundraiser. Contact them and speak with their representatives. They are very helpful and have an offer that is unbeatable in the fundraising world like I said. If you are looking to raise money and truly do good for the environment at the same time here is your chance.
You might look over the new line being offered at Easy Fundraising Ideas.
They are one of the most active online product fundraising distributors and their new Go Green Fundraising line offers the best of both worlds discussed in this thread.
Go Green Fundraising offers only earth friendly products AND offers the profit percentages that fundraising groups are accustomed to.
Howard Gottlieb
While I like the general idea behind Greenraising, I'm not as keen to just throw a new catalog of stuff out to parents - green or otherwise. It takes a little bit longer, but we've been trying to tie school-wide educational campaigns with a related green product sale at the end. I like the idea that people are buying stainless steel water bottles, but I LOVE it when both the parents and kids can easily recite some reasons why they should kick the plastic disposable habit.
One easy suggestion that has worked for us:
We set up a chain of 333 plastic shopping bags to represent the US per capita usage and strung them along the main hallway at school. We also had a row of elementary school-level posters with pictures of the local landfill, a math poster describing what 100 billion looks like, pictures from countries that have restrictions on plastic bags, posters talking about decomposition and plastic photodegrading in the ocean, ideas for how kids could reduce their plastic bag consumption, etc.
This display was set up for two weeks and we provided more detailed information & references in the teacher's lounge.
During the second week (a busy week for us, with Open House, a book fair, parent breakfast, etc.) a lot of parents passed through the school and had a chance to see the display. The parent-teacher organization spent that week selling the reusable 'green' shopping bags to staff for the wholesale rate ($1.00) and to parents and community members for $2.00. In four days the school earned around $500 and sold upwards of 800 bags.
Making the display takes time, but the one-product fundraiser is a piece of cake that requires very little time or organization from PTA/FFO volunteers. We have also loaned the display & a bag supply to other schools in our district...once you create the signs & a big visual bits, they can be used over and over again.
This approach can be used for selling cleaning products, light bulbs, water bottles, etc. We've been really happy with the results. It isn't the largest fundraiser we hold, but it has been very rewarding to hear the enthusiasm in the kids as they repeat the information to their parents and seeing all those awesome sustainable shopping bags actually in use at our local market.
Fischer -Ridge would be happy to provide all of the necessary material and a proven process to allow organizations to earn approximately 70% of the product cost (over 40% of a sale price) selling four sizes of CFLs.
In person order forms .....as well as Online ordering ....training...and very minimal adult parental involvement or supervision necessary . See the video...use the environmental savings calculator...receive all the printed materials along with posters for selling and product distribution.
Product has a seven year warranty
As close to a guaranteed success as you can get.
For eco-friendly fundraisers that offer as much as 55% profit, check out Go Green Fundraising. They have a great line of earth friendly fundraising products with some of the best profit margins available anywhere.
I definitely have a favorite program in mind. I use a toolbar from www.give2network.com, which is really great since it lets you earn money for your school just by searching and shopping through the toolbar. I just checked and it looks like they offer 50% of all revenue from advertisers. Not too bad :)