Other fundraisers besides popcorn in a rural community

[OldGrayOwl 10]

Another thought on the play is that the Scouts involved could be working toward Theatre Merit Badge.

 

Everyone benefits. The community gets to see a theatre production and the Scouts gets to earn a merit badge, as well as raise needed funds for their troop.

[scoutingagain 20]

If you do a play, do one that has mass market appeal, don't try and be too artsy. This is a fundraiser. The HS drama club the last few years has always done a mystery or drama play as it's winter offering. Attendance was, well parents, relatives & friends.

 

This year they did "A Christmas Carol". They did a great job and sold out the house for several nights. There were many elementary school kids and others in the audience I had never seen attend before. It was the talk of the town. They had a great time and made big $$ for their club.

 

SA

[GMitch 10]

******FIREWOOD & NUTS*******

 

In this area a wind storm took out over 15% of the orchard trees this year, in particular almond trees. We have one farm (and probably many others, but one is all we need) who will let is cut and haul off wood that they have hauled out of the orchards (about 8000 acres). Adults cut and split, and scouts load and unload. Boys are responsible for trying to contact buyers, although we get a lot of buyers that just kind of happen through the CO (church).

 

It is a good fit,we get pretty good money from it, the boys work hard, and we are selling a product that is much needed by many families, much more so than popcorn and candy I might add. We sell the wood at about $150 per cord, as some of our product is not as uniform as the guys that are in the firewood business. Most almond goes for $225-$285 per cord, so ours is a great value and most people realize that it all burns the same even if the lengths and splitting vary a little bit.

 

The same farm after shaking and sweeping walnuts, will have a good number of nuts that will fall, but it is not economical to run man hours and equipment on it again. Scouts and adults can come in and pick up these nuts by hand, and then sell them to the processor. This has been good for us in the past too, although we skipped it this year as the nuts all came off pretty much at the first shaking.

 

If you are in a rural area, think rural! Gathering and delivering fertilizer for example might make a good project, or tilling gardens for people. Rural areas present some unique fundraising opportunities that I think exceed that of city life, but I think one has to get out of the traditional scout fundraising mindset to take advantage of them.(This message has been edited by GMitch)

[talen333 11]

We sell pinestraw, delivered to their door. Free carwashes also work where you get sponsors of so much per car washed. People almost always give the scouts money for their free wash, so you make money both ways. Good Luck

 

[OldGrayOwl 10]

What we have been doing is to have a Pit Beef + Ham sale.

 

$5.00/sandwich gave us a net profit of $900.00 after only 4 hours of selling, and we sold out of 100 lbs.!!!

[dScouter15 11]

Our troop runs a very successful event each year at our town's annual fair/carnival shindig: a dunk tank. We find this works well, as its not a fundraiser that the scouts need to put a lot of "work" into. The PLC and adults handle reserving a spot for a booth at the fair (free), and renting a dunk tank ($200-$300). We divide up the time the fair is open into equal-length shifts, and assign each patrol to a shift. For its shift, the patrol's members sit as "victims" in the tank, and handle collecting money, passing out balls, and trying to entice fairgoers to pay for a chance at the dunk tank. Throughout, we have a couple of adults there as well to supervise. If I remember correctly, we charge $1/ball, or 5 throws for $3.

 

We make somewhere between $1000-$2000, so its not the biggest cash cow. In the past, the PLC has voted to put the proceeds directly into the scout accounts of those who participated. Other years, the money has been used to subsidize some summer camp fees.

 

Even though the proceeds aren't fantastic, we find that this is probably the most fun, popular event outside of camping trips. The scouts seem to like this as a fundraiser because there's no door-to-door selling, or other "work" involved. The scouts just have to show up in their activity uniform, and have fun for the duration of their shift. Just something worth considering.

[Knot Head 10]

When in college my fraternity made a killing selling cotton candy & lemonaide at the county fair. Cheap raw materials and seems like everyone wants one or the other or both at a fair. We rented the cotton candy machine. We had to have a health permit and fair permit but those were pretty easy hurdles. If not a county fair perhaps an area flea market or 4th of July parade or something.

 

The scouts could do the work and the adults collect the profits.

[shortridge 184]

Anyone made money (or lost money) selling outdoors-type products - pocketknives, homemade firestarters, bandanas, maps, guidebooks, etc.?

 

Someone mentioned calendars, but has anyone tried those paper placemats?

[Gonzo1 10]

When I was a scout, we did a pancake breakfast the first Saturday in December. We sold tickets in town for 3 or 4 Saturdays before, then did the event, brought in lots of money, the troop still does it today, 30 years later.

 

The troop my son is in puts on a spring festival and fall festival. These festivals are huge money makers. We get the town to block off the street, we round up vendors, the scouts have their own booths. This works!

[Joni4TA 10]

we're doing a spaghetti dinner on the 21st! I'll let you know how that goes. The boys are doing all the serving and waiting on tables. We're also having take-out!

 

The last successful fundraiser we did was $1 chocolate bars. We made $830. The Scouts took them to their schools and sold out very quickly.

[meschen 24]

One of the local units raises money by providing trash collecting services at a local stree-fair. They empty the trash cans as they fill up and I believe they also pick-up trash on the street. They are paid by the fair organizers. This could easily be translated into a County Fair project.

[btouch 10]

BuffaloSR739 wrote:

 

"You may try publishing calendars. Sell small ads (business card size) for $25 and more for larger ads. Make sure every page has a Pack or Troop photo. Troop action photos of camping, hiking, fishing or performing community service."

 

Have any of you done this? I really like the idea but wonder about "use of the uniform" in the photos. Since these would be for Unit money-earning might there be a problem with National?