My Favorite Fundraiser!

 My oldest child is about to enter high school this fall and my youngest is entering 5th grade, her last year at the elementary level.  sniff.  sniff.   After working with the parent organizations at their schools for nine years, I have great appreciation for the hard work and dedication that goes into supporting our schools and our teachers.  However I have a special appreciation for the person responsible for putting together the school fundraiser.  This person is tasked with the awesome duty of coordinating, scheduling, managing the school's fundraising efforts.  It is often the parent of a young student because parents of the older students frankly know better than to volunteer for this incredibly time-consuming, often thankless, volunteer position. :)  Don't get me wrong, I understand first hand the need PTAs and PTOs have for these big financial pushes as it sets the stage for all of the events and activities that happen through the course of the school year.  But I have found that many schools don't eagerly pursue money that is quite literally sitting on the kitchen table!

When my son was born I started saving Box Tops for Education.  Actually, I probably started to save them while I was pregnant.  Either way, when he entered Kindergarten, I was able to send in over $37.00 worth of Box Tops.  I was diligent about the program and clipped them off the top of the Cheerios box with a vengeance!  When it came time to fill the Box Tops for Education Coordinator position at a PTA meeting later that year, I was more than happy to volunteer for the job.  That was 2005.  Fast forward to 2013 and I have been the Box Tops for Education chairperson at not only my child's school but also at every school I have worked at.  My entire family has spent time cutting out these little gems and everyone knows better than to throw away packaging with the BT still attached.  Mom will go crazy!

Being the Box Tops cheerleader that I am, I thought that sharing some of my fun collection strategies with you could help you to fall in love with this program as well.  Disclaimer: I love a good deal and I understand money is tight in many families.  Even I will purchase the generic version of a product in lieu of the Box Top decorated product (especially since a box of cereal doesn't last as long as it used to anymore) so please don't think I am advocating everyone should go buy more BT products!  That's Box Tops job, not mine.  You see, my strategy has been to increase awareness among people who don't know about the program or who are less inclined to cut them out and bring them in (you know, the bigger kids who are "too cool" for this stuff anymore) to order to increase a school's Box Top totals. 

To that end, behold the Box Tops Classroom Vault!

My family was forced to eat a lot of chips for mom's latest project at school but they were understanding and were willing to put in the hard work needed to get the job done.  :)

Here's another example of a vault that I made for my children's school.  Having the room number on each vault was helpful but not necessary.  The important thing is that each classroom has a visual reminder of what they're supposed to collect and a place to hold them.  It's one less thing for the teacher to have to deal with and THAT is always smart.  One thing that IS important, however, is that you make sure each teacher understands that the vault stays with the classroom and doesn't travel with them to other classrooms or worse, other schools.  After all the hard work you put into getting uniform containers, the last thing you want to do is have to replace one that's missing a year later.  On that note, it's always a good idea to make a couple extra, just in case!

This container previously held caramel covered popcorn.  I loved the fact that it was clear so I could instantly tell if I needed to collect from it or not.  The wide mouth also made it easy to pull everything out.  The downside of this particular one was the cost of the caramel covered popcorn.  At $3.99 each, it was a pricy project (I needed about 12 containers) which is why I chose the chip container above the next time I made them.

One of these canister is placed in each classroom so that students have a consistent, designated container in which to shove their donations.  I have also found that by doing so, students are more apt to recognize the Box Tops logo on products at home.  Having a consistent container decorated the same throughout the school is also extremely helpful when student volunteers visit the classrooms for collection at lunch or after school.  The kids know exactly what to look for and  are less likely to disrupt the teacher.

Another extremely helpful tool I have found is a board profiling some of the brands that Box Tops can be found on.  I know the website does a great job of announcing new products and items that carry the BT logo but something that can be placed near the school office to be seen by parents milling around isn't a bad thing either.

I've traveled to Minneapolis in order to attend Box Tops University that is so generously put on by the General Mills company.  For a Box Tops junkie like myself, it was heaven!  I left with loads of samples and tons of great ideas for my school.  If you ever get the chance to attend one, I would highly recommend it!

I hope that these ideas inspire you to seek out more of these little buggers.  Once more people are aware of the program, they are more than willing to save them for you.  This last year at my school we were able to increase our Box Tops haul by more than 400%.  One of the best moments of the year was when I attended the parent/teacher meeting and announced that our total haul for the year would be almost $2,000.  This could not have come at a better time as everyone in schools knows, the end of the year is often filled with extra requests for funds and our school was no different.  Where some requests were going to be turned down, they were now going to be granted.  That was a great feeling!

What other fun and engaging ways do you have to increase your Box Tops haul?

 RW&BT