School fundraising or school fund raising (notice the word fundraising is cleaved in two) is the practice of raising money to support educational enrichment programs by schools or school groups (for example, parent-teacher organizations, booster clubs, etc.). What most people do not know is that different school fundraiser types exist and it is therefore imperative to shed some light on these dissimilarities.

One of the most prevalent practices in the United States is product fundraising for school fundraisers. Schools and other non-profits raise approximately $1.7 billion each year by selling popular consumer items. Eight out of ten Americans support these types of programs. In addition, schools and school groups such as their Parent Teacher Organizations and Parent Teacher Associations find many creative ways to raise funds—from bake sales, dinner events, auctions and school carnivals, to more aggressive advertising, affinity programs, grant writing and straightforward donation requests.

So, what are product fundraisers in school fundraising? Product fundraising has its origins in the early 20th century. The practice typically involves the purchase and re-sale of popular consumer products by a non-profit group whereupon the group sponsoring the sale keeps a portion of the gross sales. Products can be purchased in bulk and paid for in advance by the organization, then re-sold to supporters. Products may also be ordered using a catalog, order forms and other methods. Supporters pay for the product when the order is placed or upon final delivery.

There are three types of product fundraisers in a school fundraiser that schools use to generate revenue. These are pre-sales fundraising, product in-hand fundraising and online buy levitra hong kong fundraising, with online fundraising rising in popularity over the course of the past decade.

As of early 2014 there are over a thousand fundraising companies in the United States offering their products and services to schools and their associated nonprofit parent teacher groups. In the past year many changes have occurred in the school fundraising industry. A few online fundraising companies are now using social media web apps, such as Facebook and Twitter, to make online fundraising easier for schools and the parents and students who promote them. Additionally, fundraising software is also now available thus allowing a school to have its own product fundraiser website (with its own domain name) with regard to school fundraisers. The site is then populated with products from a distributor who manages the fundraiser externally and deals directly with shipping and customer relations.

The other fundraiser type is the Do It Yourself (DIY) school fundraiser. Other fundraisers that generate substantial revenue for schools include auctions and raffles. For these types of fundraising activities schools requests donations from local restaurants and businesses in their area that are then offered at the fundraising event. In the case of an auction people are allowed to bid on the dinner, limousine ride, or whatever was donated by the local businesses in the community. In the case of a raffle people purchase raffle tickets that are then later picked randomly from a container. Often the donations are solicited by parents acting on behalf of the school, who make phone calls, write letters, or know of other parents who work for companies that may be willing to donate.