The Business of Child Care – Fundraising

by Early Math Counts

What are some of the other ways you supplement the income of your program to make ends meet?

A lot of programs count on fundraising as a source of extra income.  However, fundraising can be tedious, time-consuming, and can frequently yield small amounts that don’t seem altogether worth the effort.

We now live at a time where there are whole companies dedicated to fundraising for small businesses.  They often take a pretty large cut of what is sold or auctioned off, but they do a lot of the work.  For 16 years I have been a party to many of these fundraising efforts from my children’s schools.  We have bought and sold cookie dough, wrapping paper, doughnuts, soft pretzels Cubs tickets, Bulls tickets, and Fire tickets.  I have stood outside on a cold Friday evening during playoff time in the fall and have collected money for Cubs parking.  I have sold advertising for calendars, phone directories, and auction booklets.  I have solicited friends, colleagues, and local businesses for goods and services that could then be auctioned off at an annual auction. I have bought tickets for and attended events that raised funds for education.  In short, I have pretty much done it all.

It is really too bad that the actual cost of caring for and educating our children costs far more than we have.  So we have to resort to extra fundraising efforts to make up the difference.  I would be interested to hear about what has worked for you and what hasn’t?  Do you have any great fundraising ideas to share?

7 Replies to “The Business of Child Care – Fundraising”

  1. Good Morning,
    You are so right about us having to fundraise. My clients are awesome when it comes to fundraising for Ms Vee\’s Christian Daycare Inc. we have sold cookie dough and cheesecakes. But recently in November i was introduced to a new fundraiser well new to me, The Carson Community Day fundraiser. This fundraiser is 100% profit they ask for nothing in return to you selling thier coupon books for $5.00 to your patrons and in the book is $400 of saving and more. And guess what the patron get a $10.00 off coupon on anything in store ten dollars or more, you are given two days to enjoy these savings. I just signed up again for the next Community days which are 3/1/13 and 3/2/13. If you are one of the top sellers like we was you get a check in the mail from them for participating. So call your nearset Carson Pirie Scott now to find out more or call me to purchaase a coupon book. LOL

  2. We just did a fundraiser at Chuck E Cheese. We earned 15% profit on everything sold except gift cards. It was a nice profit check. It was also fun for staff from our school to enjoy playing with the students and families at Chuck E Cheese.

    1. I love that this fundraising effort included all members of the families. Often, we see fundraising in isolation from the children. Good tip abut the Chuck E. Cheese opportunity.

  3. I have not done this personally yet, but I know that some providers will host a parents night out and will provide care for several hours on a Friday or Saturday night to allow parents a fun, interactive night for their children. They have had good success with this. I have also done Avon Fundraisers and I have also done a Little Ceasar\’s Fundraiser (did great with this one). I was selling Avon at the time, so it went pretty well, but not great.

    1. Interesting. How does the program raise money if they offer a parent\’s night? Do they charge for the service? Does it pay if you have to then pay staff to watch the children. This sounds like a great idea, I would love to hear the details.

      1. They do charge the parents. I am not 100% sure if they actually have to pay the staff, or if the staff offers their time to help out with the fundraising. I know the providers have mentioned they make dinner for the kids, plan some fun activities, play, and watch a movie and have some popcorn. The feedback from their parents was great. I plan to do this sometime this year and see how it works out 🙂 I know one provider even offered Black Friday care for her parents. Most others offer it for a Friday or Saturday night.

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