Coffee? Tea? a Free Cruise? Fundraising for Your Child's School

It's that time again, and you get the dreaded phone call. You child's school is doing a fundraiser, and they need volunteers to help coordinate the money and donation efforts.

Like many parents, you don't have a lot of time, and you want to use the time you have efficiently, to help promote the fundraiser and to raise as much money as possible. This is where Internet fundraising comes in.

The most common fundraiser schools hold is the Silent Auction. Parents get local businesses to donate items and services, such as free wills and trusts, gift cards for coffee, movies, restaurants, and so forth. The school holds an auction, selling the items to the highest bidder. A silent auction simply means that there are sheets of paper near each item, and parents write their bids. When the auction ends, the last bid on the page is the one that wins the fundraising item.

You have no desire to pound the pavement and walk around town asking-and sometimes begging-for donations for the fundraising committee. So let your Internet browser help you.

Many national companies, such as Green Mountain Coffee Roasters and Stonyfield Farms will donate auction items to local schools. Parents can find ten, twenty--fifty or even one hundred donation request forms online to help boost your fundraising efforts.

Go into any search engine and type "[name of company] donation request form." Look at each company or organization that comes up for the first ten to twenty pages-there are hundreds out there, ranging from food companies to minor league hockey teams to swan boats in Boston to organic macaroni and cheese companies!

Keep in mind that some companies will require a letter on the school's letterhead, or a copy of the school's tax ID number, so get all the documents in order before you begin. A little preparation goes a long way, and finding $100, $1000, or more in donations can be accomplished in a very short time. Decide in advance whether you will have items shipped to your home for you to deliver to the auction, or whether the items should go directly to the school.

Print out the request forms or, where possible, fill out the form online. Norwegian Cruise Lines has an online application for a cruise donation! Complete ten or twenty of these applications and you've done your duty for your school. The Internet lets you work as a fundraiser from home, your lunch break, or on the road-and enterprising companies have made this possible through technology.