How to Fund Raise for Your Homeschooling Group

Just because your kids study at home doesn't mean they don't need fundraisers. If you belong to a homeschool group, fundraising can be the perfect way to earn some cash for group field trips, events, and even shared lab equipment. Every homeschool group could use some funding and most parents are already spending a fortune just on books and curriculum.

In a regular school, family members of many of the children would chip in a bit of cash to help fund important events and field trips. Even at bake sales in schools, the parents are the primary buyers. However, homeschool groups are usually so small that this isn't an option and you will need outside funds from the general public. Here are a few ideas on getting cash donations.

Hold a car wash. Have the kids make giant signs with your homeschool group name on it, saying "Car Wash!" underneath. You can hold the wash in a driveway, but it is better if you can talk to a local business about using part of their parking lot. Put signs up all up and down the street and consider taking out a small classified a few days before in your local paper.

Set up a giant banana split event. The whole trick behind this is to hype the event. Let the local paper and TV channel know a good month in advance of your plans, set up in a public place (with permission) and even talk to local grocery stores about donating part of the ingredients in exchange for having their name all over the place at your event. On the day of the event, you will need a very long (decide how long ahead of time!) piece of PVC pipe that has been washed out and cut in half to form a dish. Mark it with a marker every 3" or so and make an enormous banana split. People pay a fee to eat a 3" section.

Set up a special PayPal account and an EmailaDollar account. Now all you need to do is let people know that your group is accepting donations through EmailaDollar. This website allows you to set up as many different charity accounts as you want and you can advertise online, through blogs or websites of various members for people to donate through this program. All the money goes into a PayPal account where you can direct it to a bank.

Fundraising for a homeschool group is a great way to get some extra cash for those fun group activities that no one family can afford! It is also handy for buying shared books, equipment and more.