WE just had our RFL Damascus this past weekend.

This is what we and some of our other teams did for their kids.

WE had a bingo afternoon when the kids were home from school. We had donated prizes and the winners of the games got to choose a prize. Since we were not really "allowed" to fund raise at the library we had a suggested donation of $1.00 for a bingo card. Most people just rounded up to 5 or 10 depending on how many kids and cards.

We raffled an iPod

We raffled Webkinz at Relay.

WE have had hat day at school in the past. Our student government helped with this by teaching the kids about the dangers of being out in the sun without sunscreen. The kids had to pay one dollar in order to wear the hat around school. This year we did footprints. We charged a dollar for each footprint where a person's name was written. I think we did pretty well with this. The footprints almost made it around the whole school.

Another team has done pizzas in the teachers lounge with luminaria or just donation forms taped to the outside of the box. They have also sent in film canisters to the preschools and elementary schools and asked the kids to bring them home and fill them with change. Our school has also done loose change days. Monday is pennies, Tuesday is nickels, etc. Friday is anything goes. We can usually raise over 3K with this one.

HOpe this all helps. It certainly did for our kids team which raised over 6K this year which made them the highest amount raised by a kid team for RLF Damascus

Joanne

Team Frankfort Police Explorers have collected donated formal gowns and shoes.  This way our youth can purchase formals, some still have tags on them.  All gowns sold are under $60. 

Hopefully this will be beneficial for many youth in the Frankfort area, along with helping this team in their fundraising efforts.

We are also having a "Relay Yard Sale Hop"  Several teams will have a yard sale on the same weekend, share advertising cost and people attending all stops will be entered for a drawing.  We have a massage donated so far.

what we did was set up glass crush bottles in each english class, and the class that raises the most dimes...would get to go to lunch early. we have raised about $500 from this...we have a small school so we could so this easily. we called it "Crush Out Cancer"

and we have done really well with bake sales.....

and this weekend we are going to have a fleamarket sale...I hope we do well.

I have had raffles...and they have done ok...

we are planning on having a car wash...and I hope that does well ..

our team is a bunch of high schoolers ranging from freshman to seniors

this is my first year and I think we have done pretty good.

ok. there you go... oh and don't go by that fundraising booklet..b/c alot of it kids can't or won't do... just be creative or think simple..and you end up winning. good luck!

I have found that it really depends on what age group you are dealing with. When I was in high school a few years back we made Relay fundraising a district wide event. In the elementary we did a "penny" drive. Any class that raised over $75 got a pizza party, which the local dominos donated. In addition the top raising class got a bananna spilt bar to go with their pizza. It was so much fun.

 With the high school I organized a "mini relay" that turned out to be phenomenal. The first year it raised close to $1500 and got most of the high school involved. My little brother decided that he was going to take it over the following year since I had graduated and the second time around it raised almost twice as much and the ENTIRE high school student body was involved!! But a mini relay is ALOT of work!!!

Locally, I have seen kickball and dodgeball tournaments, guitar hero contests, and popcorn sales at school. They all seem to work well.
Good Luck

Hello it is my first year too. I was jsut wondering if you can tell me in past what has not worked for other relays;

thanks

Heather

This is a good fundraiser if you have a school affiliated team.  Kids bring in unwrapped coins to their teacher first thing in the morning.  The teacher is not allowed to begin class until all of the coins are wrapped.  When my school did it (many moons ago!) those poor teachers counted for over an hour before they were finished.

Our Relay started three years ago as a high school only relay.  The kids are amazingly creative with their fundraising ideas.  You don't say the ages of your youth, but the kids we work with are form about 13 to 18.  They have done the following:

• Rock for Cancer - Bands donate their time and perform in the HS gymnasium.  Admission of $5 is charged.  This has raised almost $1,000 each year.
• One team baked cookies and bagged them.  They put the cookies in the teacher's lounge or main office as well as sold them to students in the cafeteria at lunch time (this may be prohibited by your school's nutrition policy).
• Relay Idol - same familiar theme but students vote for the winner through collection cans.  Last year's winner sang the national anthem during our opening ceremonies.
• Candy-grams - especially well received around Valentine's Day. 
• Collection sites at local Walmart stores (teams raised an average of $800 per three hour time slot).  
• Dancing with the Faculty
• Concessions Stand - our area has a community day about a month before our Relay.  Students sign up for sites to hold food concessions, game concessions, chinese auctions, etc. 
• In a local elementary school, students sold cutouts of a footprint for $1.  They were sold during the lunch periods and the goal was to have the foot prints go all the way around the school building at least one time. 

These are just a few of the "different" ideas they had in addition to the traditional ones.  Good luck.  In their first year, our students raised almost $35,000 on their own.  They are truly amazing!

Melissa Conover

I guess that I would know best, being a youth team with the same problem and all, so I'll give my input. First off, depending on the age of your youth, you have the cuteness thing, and so you can easily get company sponsors or donations from random people on the street. However, older youth can't really do that without just seeming greedy, so in the past, our team has:

Made easy crafts that don't require much craftsmanship (decorating flip flops, using stamps to make cards-- the latter only really works if you know someone who can give you guidance)

Buy things in bulk and resell them at Relay

Collect little (dollar store/ Happy Meal) toys and make grab bags

Make jewelry

Face painting stands at event or local carnivals

Bake sale!

Odd jobs-- the crappy choice, but it works

Also, we've found that it's really easy to convince other high schoolers top buy things. You need to either avoid authority figures or check with them first before recommending this, though, because many school districts are opposed to in-school sales that aren't related to their own fundraising. But they can't take issue with accepting donations for cookies/ fudge, or taking requests for services and jewelry that will be performed/ delivered out of school.

Plus, any adult fundraising ideas can (usually) be adapted for youth. Well, actually, not many at all, but if you're creative... Or if you have a specific place of origin for your group, e.g. a church, school, or workplace. But without creativity OR an affiliation, our team of four raised 1500 dollars in a month, so never count things out.

Good luck! And thanks for this thread-- I was just asking the same thing!