School Fundraisers Guide

Every purchase you make in a local, independent business makes a difference for school funding.  Sales taxes support our schools.  It only makes sense that Bloomington starts to make the connection between what we buy locally and where that money goes. 

While sales tax is indeed gathered from all sales (local or nonlocal), local businesses are much more likely to turn around and spend that money locally themselves, recirculating the money through the community over and over again, creating up to 75% more tax revenue for our community and state.  (See our Studies page to learn more.)  After what happened last year to our school funding, you can see why this matters. For instance, when we were about to lose the very popular and important camping program for 5th graders at Bradford Woods, Bloomingfoods stepped in and created a fundraiser at their cash registers, raising $5,000, contributing to the seemingly impossible task of raising $40,000 in little over a month to save the program.  With the help of Bloomingfoods, the program was saved.  Similarly, Nick’s English Hut helped raise money during the same time period to help save extracurricular coaches and the library.

We are accustomed to asking local businesses for donations when we need things for the schools, but not so accustomed to calling them when we are buying lunch or having fundraisers.  The next time your school has a fundraiser or brings in food for celebrations, consider local businesses first. 

 Bloomingfoods SCRIP

Bloomingfoods Scrip Program:  Bloomingfoods partners with localorganizations and schools, who purchase gift cards from them at 5% less than the value they are worth at the register.  These organizations then sell the cards to their customers and supporters, keeping the 5% difference. 

 

 

B-Town Beans

• Normally, our fundraisers involve the group taking orders for 12 oz bags of coffee: We usually offer a limited list of 7 or 8 coffee choices: 2 Medium coffees, 1 Bold, 1 Decaf and a couple Flavored coffees.
• There is no minimum order.
• No money is due until we fill the order.
• We sell both ground and whole bean.
• Due to the recent rise in coffee costs, we had to raise our price from $6 a bag to $6.50.
• The fundraising group can resell them for any price they choose. Normally they pick somewhere in the $10 range.
• Some groups have pre-purchased an amount and then sold them to their own organization members.

Some of the groups we have done fundraisers with:

Owen County Schools

Owen County CASA

Patricksburg Youth Basketball

McCormick’s Creek Pentecostal Church

Zion Nazarene Community Church

St. Charles Catholic Church

Others that escape my muddled mind right now!

 We can be reached at btownbeans@gmail.com or 812-322-5349. Fundraising page at http://btownbeans.com coming soon!

 “I love doing fundraisers because I believe in giving, serving and supporting one another. This allows me to be a part of many causes. One nice thing is that we don’t inflate our prices; our product fundraises for its actual value. National organizations just don’t have the vested interest that we have. They are making money; we are helping one another. We have so much in Bloomington that there is little need for local businesses and organizations to go anywhere else.  I think we should support our community first, especially during these challenging times.”

 

Nature’s Crossroads

 Sell Earth-Friendly seeds through the School Fundraiser offered at Nature’s Crossroads.  The kits and seeds are sourced locally where possible, feature area artists, and are completely packed by local labor.  Even the prizes for students come from local businesses to keep money circulating in our community.  New this spring are two kid-inspired collections that highlight artwork designed by local elementary students, the Rainbow Flower Garden and Super Veggie Garden. Over 90 varieties of the Midwest adapted seeds are offered this year come from their sister company, LIFE certified organic farm in Morgan County.

 They also provide a strong educational program with each of their fundraisers (online or paper) that is designed to get kids excited about gardening and to help them learn more about where food comes from, how plants grow, why local economies are important, and how to take the things they’ve learned in school and apply them to growing fabulous fruits, flowers, herbs, and vegetables.

 For schools located within a 25-mile radius of Bloomington, they also offer an optional in-classroom educational experience.  Several of their staff members are available to give live presentations to groups of 20-200 students about gardening and plant life. 

 Your school earns 25% of all products sold and can participate in our sales incentive program and take advantage of our educational materials.

 The two Nature’s Crossroads Fundraiser options include:

EARTH-FRIENDLY FUNDRAISER PROGRAM (AVAILABLE TO BLOOMINGTON SCHOOLS ONLY) We will offer age appropriate instruction to groups of 3-4 classrooms or larger with teacher follow up handouts included. Our instruction will focus on our spring theme.

ONLIINE VERSION OF EARTH-FRIENDLY FUNDRAISER PROGRAM (AVAILABLE TO ANY SCHOOL) All ordering is done through our web store, and items are shipped directly to the person ordering. Educational components, like the teacher handouts will be made available for access on our website. Great option for clubs!

 “There may be few things more delightful than hearing children define and describe what art is to them….& then to witness them discovering and drawing flower bulbs. Just spent the afternoon in Luke’s school in “Art of Botany” class and saw the presentation given by Nature’s Crossroads and my heart is still singing…”  Carey Beam, mother of student at the Project School, who participated in the Nature’s Crossroads School Fundraiser.

Nick’s English Hut

We do a CAN (Community Action Night) fundraiser at least once a month for a variety of local businesses.  The events are held in our back room for 5-8pm, Nick’s donates 10% of our food sales and wait staff donate ALL their tips. 

If someone is interested they should call Natalie at Nick’s, she works Friday-Tuesday, 5-close. If they can’t get in touch with her they can ask Susan Bright and she’ll talk to Natalie to coordinate.

Twisted Limb Paperworks

 Eco-friendly fundraiser, selling locally hand made papers from 100% recycled materials with natural inclusions.  You pull in 25-40% sales commission and can start selling within a week of contacting them.  Choose between online ordering or using a traditional order form.

 Current fundraising products are:

·        notecard bundles (great for letter writers, thanking donors,  and hostess gifts)

·        bits & pieces remnant bags (great for scrapbookers, artists, and crafters)pictured here

·        set of seven inspirational bookmarks (great for stocking stuffers or tucking in birthday cards).

 Twisted Limb Paperworks gives you the opportunity to sell beautiful, sustainable handmade paper products that you can feel good about promoting.

Good for schools, sporting groups, nonprofit organizations, churches, extracurricular clubs, etc.

 “We are very excited about our fundraising program and look forward to it being an ever great part of our business. It is an important part of our mission to give back to the community and providing the opportunity for your school or organization to earn 40% (the wholesale price that we give to stores) of sales to fund your worthwhile endeavors makes us happy!”