September marks an exciting time for everyone, back to routine for parents and back to school for kids! With a backpack full of new school supplies and packed lunches, kids get to see classmates again and get involved in their favourite team sport, after-school club, or other extracurricular activities. All of this also comes with a tremendous amount of organization and (sometimes) cost to parents, teachers, and PTA members, which is where we can help!

More and more these days, fundraisers are needed to help pay for sports teams, school clubs, music programs, and field trips!

With the help of Indeygo, the days of crunching the numbers to find the most profitable fundraiser are long gone. We’ve come up with a super handy guide to some of the most profitable (and fun!) fundraising activities which are bound to be a success!

Host your favourite “A-thon”

Pick a local favourite or popular activity and turn it into a light competition where individuals or groups can raise funds by moving their bodies or using their brains! This can be done with any activity like skating, walking, music, dancing, biking, or swimming just to name a few! Categories can include individual entry, team, or even relay to keep things interesting. Maybe cross-country skiing is the popular thing to do near you, so pick a short loop and have participants pledge a certain dollar amount per lap they complete! Looking for something less physical, host a Chess-A-Thon and fill a gym with chess boards where players can enter into a round-robin style competition to win a grand prize!

Look for opportunities to showcase sponsors

Sometimes seeking out plenty of smaller donations is easier than asking for one big donation. In exchange for a small donation, offer a sponsored brick, tile, or component. For example, if you’re fundraising to build a new playground, you may incorporate tiles around the park with the logos of sponsors highlighting their donations. This crowdfunding concept is a great way to showcase strong community ties between sponsors and your fundraiser.

Hold an Experience Auction

Instead of approaching local businesses for free or discounted products, turn to participants’ network of family, friends, and close contacts to create a compelling list of fun experiences! These experiences could be fun, useful, or a little bit of both! Think, you could offer a lesson in changing tires and basic car maintenance from your car mechanic neighbour, or a kayak trip with your raft guide cousin. It could look like a pair of concert tickets for the next gig your local band books, or a dinner for two at the restaurant your best friend’s uncle owns. These auctions can be held in person which offers an opportunity to gather and promote your fundraising goal. Alternatively, this can easily be held as a silent auction which also gives you the option to host it online and over a longer period.

Try an Off-Screen Challenge

As parents and teachers, we all secretly (or not-so-secretly) wish our kids and students would spend less time in front of their electronic devices! While the kids may disagree with this idea, they do all love a good challenge especially when an enticing end prize is in store! So how can you convince them to do this? Have students be sponsored for spending time away from all their devices (smartphones, laptops, tablets, gaming devices, and so on). The more time they spend away from the screen, the more money they rack up! This can be a relatively easy-to-organize fundraiser if you’re looking for a quick fundraiser with very little setup needed.

Don’t forget the tried-and-true Cookie Dough Fundraiser!

It’s no surprise that our Cookie Dough is our most popular fundraising product at Indeygo – it’s easy, effective, and delicious! Available in a 2.7 lbs. tub or 48 pre-portioned cookies, our cookie dough is guaranteed to make any sweet tooth in the family excited. The best part is that our cookie dough stays fresh for months in the freezer and can be thawed and then refrozen if you don’t want to make them all!

Our Cookie Dough fundraisers typically make between a 30% – 40% profit, which makes it a financially viable and effective way of raising funds for your school, group, or club. We’re also proud to offer 11 amazing flavours and source over 70% of the ingredients from Canadian farmers. Find out more about your next Cookie Dough fundraiser here.

Hopefully, we’ve been able to inspire a few fresh ideas for fundraising this school year. Just don’t forget the most important part of fundraising – promote, promote, promote! Making sure people know what you’re fundraising for and how to get involved is key. And don’t forget to share the results as well, people love hearing about an effort that leads to great results!

As always, if you need help with your fundraising efforts, make sure to reach out to our helpful team at Indeygo to plan your next successful fundraiser! We can’t wait to hear from you and help blow your fundraising goal out of the water!