Garage sales can be excellent fundraisers for college organizations. They don’t cost a ton of money to run, and they can yield decent profit if you have the right amount of stuff to sell. If you’re new to garage sales, you may not do everything you can to earn money at your sale. That’s where this article comes into play. Here are a few tips to help you get through your garage sale with as much money possible.

Get a Permit

Most people don’t realize that they need a permit to run a garage sale. This is not the case in every state, but it may be in yours. Contact City Hall to find out if you are going to need one and how much it is going to cost. Then you’ll need to run down there to City Hall to pick it up. The permits are fairly cheap, but they are necessities in most areas. If you don’t have one, you could get a fine from a police officer that strolls by. I’ve held many garage sales in my day, and I have only had one cop check my out (not in that way people…geesh). Nevertheless, it would be to your advantage to have a permit on hand, just in case.

Sell Some Furniture

You can only make so much money if all you’re selling is clothing and shampoo bottles. You need to have some big ticket items to draw in a crowd. You could contact the school to see if they are getting rid of any furniture any time soon. They may be in the middle of remodeling a building, so you could potentially sell the furniture they’re tossing. Couches, recliners, beds, dressers, and desks all sell well in college towns, but just about any furniture could draw attention with the right display.

Advertise as Much as Possible

You can’t rely on people driving by to bring you money. You have to advertise your garage sale to get a crowd in. Put an ad in the newspaper because a lot of traditional garage salers will use that as a point of reference. You can also put an ad on Craigslist for free to let people know about it. Put signs up in the neighborhood the week prior to the sale so people driving by will know what to expect. Then you can focus on good old word of mouth to get people to the sale. Don’t forget to have members of your organization or online courses advertise for you on Facebook. That could be the key source of traffic for you.

Use Colored Labels

If you need to indicate which member of the organization donated certain items to the garage sale, you can use colored dots that signify that. I do this a lot when I have combined garage sales with family members. We put all of our stuff in the same sale, but we each have a different colored price tag. That way we can easily record the contributing party for the sales. In the case of a fundraiser, this will determine who made the biggest contribution to the sale, just in case you have a prize system.

Have a Closeout Sale

When the end of the garage sale day comes, try to think of new ways to clear out everything you have left. You could declare a 50% off sale or start throwing in free items when people buy other items. My mother and I once had a grab bag sale, where we allowed people to pay $5 for anything they could fit into a standard plastic bag. People went nuts, and we made more money than we would have by throwing everything away. It’s creative tactics like that that will bring you the most money in the end.

College fundraisers can be a blast if you work with a good organization. They can, however, be a pain if you don’t make any money from them. In order to ensure profits with your fundraiser, you need to have a good marketing plan in place. There are tons of ways to promote a college fundraiser online, but what if you want to promote something locally? Here are a few tips to show you how to get that done.

Hand out Flyers

Handing out flyers can be a bit boring, but it can prove profitable if you do it right. The trick is to hand out flyers to people who may actually respond to them. Let’s say you’re throwing a charity concert at the Student Union featuring a local screamo band. You wouldn’t want to pass out flyers at the front door of Shady Hills Retirement Village. Think about the demographic for your fundraiser, and the try to setup a way to hand out flyers to them so that they respond. Whatever you do, don’t stick stuff on people’s windshields in a parking lot. 99% of the time, that will piss off the drivers. Pissed off people don’t donate money – they sue.

Advertise on the Radio

You may not be able to afford an actual radio advertisement, but you could talk to the radio station to see if you could work out a fun segment with them. For example: Let’s assume you’re running a fundraiser for your online school sorority. You might reach out to a local pop radio station to see if they would feature some of the girls on the show. They could do interviews with the girls about sorority life, dating, what women want, gift ideas for guys to give to girls…anything. If you get the right amount of hot women to go to the radio station, you will have no trouble getting them to help you out.

Put Up Signs

You can hang up signs around town describing your fundraiser, especially if it’s a benefit garage sale or a charity carwash. Some cities have regulations about where you can post signs like that, so you may need to speak with the city to find out exactly what you can and cannot do. You might be able to put up signs around campus to draw in a crowd of your peers, but that might be hard if you don’t actually go to a campus-based school. Signs aren’t guaranteed ways of getting people to help you out, but they’re cheap enough to try. If you have a couple of cute girls in your organization, you may have them hold large signs to draw in a crowd. That almost always works, especially for carwashes.

Talk with Local Businesses

Sometimes you can get in touch with local businesses to help market your fundraiser. You might discuss the fundraiser with some banks in the area, and then they can advertise to the customers for you. This works well for charitable events, like if you’re raising money to donate to breast cancer research. Just have the businesses ask the customers if they would like to donate a dollar or two to your organization every time they fork over money. Most people will say yes without even thinking about it.

Don’t feel limited with local advertising. You can still draw in a ton of money if you know how to get the word out there. If you combine local and online marketing methods, you will have no struggles getting the money you need.

Fundraisers are important for all college organizations, especially those that do not get money from the school. Even if you go to one of the top online universities, you will still probably encounter the need for fundraising at some point in time. When that day comes, it is important for you to plan your fundraiser at a time that will yield the greatest profits for your organization. Listed below are just a few times during the year that will prove profitable for your fundraiser.

First of the Year

The first of the year is the time when most people are trying to fulfill their New Year’s resolutions. They are ambitious, driven, and ready to buy – as long as you have a fundraiser with the right products. See if you can find a weight loss campaign since most people will aim to lose a few pounds for their resolutions. I’ve been in fundraisers before that involved gym memberships. You can see if local fitness centers may have programs like that, where you get part of the proceeds and they get part of the proceeds for every gym membership you sell. It may be a huge success if you time it right.

Early February

Valentine’s Day is February 14th, so it’s a good idea to run a fundraiser right before that. This would gift lazy or last minute gift shoppers the chance to get someone for their partners without having to take time to do so. You might sell chocolate, flowers, romantic knickknacks, or something else along those lines. Back in my choir days, we used to have fundraisers doing singing Valentine’s cards around the city. People would pay us to essentially embarrass someone they love with a personal song selection, and then we would go out to do the fa-la-la-la-ing. We sold chocolates and roses for extra money, and from what I remember, we made a killing. You might do the same if you’re vocally inclined.

Summer Months

You can run a lot of outdoor fundraisers in the summer months, like lemonade stands, cookouts, and carwashes. Your organization may not meet up in the summer, but if it does, this could be a great solution for you. You could host a pool party and charge $5 a head for it, or you could even have a giant slip and slide on the school lawn where people pay to have a good time. There are tons of creative ideas for this, so you just have to think a little outside the box.

Right after Thanksgiving

While there are people that shop for Christmas presents throughout the year, most of them wait until right after Thanksgiving to get all of their shopping done. This is a great time to run a fundraiser because you can provide creative gift ideas for people in your area. Wrapping paper sales also do well around this time as people look towards the end of December. Try to run the fundraiser in the last week of November, and you should be able to snag a decent amount of sales.

There are plenty of other times in the year that would work well with fundraisers, but these cover most of the basics. Think about the people in the community and when they are most likely to respond to a charitable need. If you catch them right after Christmas when they’re all broke, you’re not going to get any money. With the right timing and advertising though, you can almost always make a fortune.

Carwashes are fairly common fundraisers that don’t always work out the way they’re supposed to. If you’ve seen the recent movie “Bad Teacher,” you may think that making $3000 from a carwash is completely realistic. It’s not. You need Cameron Diaz with short shorts drenched in water to make that happen. Nevertheless, it is possible to make money with a carwash fundraiser if you know what you’re doing. Here are some of the pros and cons of carwash fundraisers so you can determine if it’s right for you.

Pros of Carwash Fundraisers

• Low Costs: All you need is a hose, a bucket, some soap and a sponge to have a run of the mill carwash. You may pay to rent out a parking lot for this, but you can just as easily use the schools.
• Limited Marketing: Since people need their cars washed on a regular basis, you don’t have to spend a ton of time reaching out to draw in traffic. You can get some signs together and just promote the carwash that day.
• No Skills Necessary: Just about anyone can wash a car, which cannot be said about selling chocolate or running marathons. Your group members don’t need special skills to participate in this fundraiser.
• High Paying Potential: On the right day with the right car washers, you can earn a lot of money with this fundraiser. There is no guarantee for that, but at least you don’t have to share the profits with any other organization.

Cons of Carwash Fundraisers

• Seasonality: You can’t have carwash fundraisers all year long. The only times you may make money with this is during the summer, and chances are you’ll be out of school then. You could get people from your online courses together, but they may not be around. You just have to take opportunities when they come.
• Liability: If one of the people in your club scratches a car he or she is washing, the club could be responsible for the damages. Most people who go to these fundraisers are going to have older cars that they don’t necessarily care about, but you may get a Mercedes to come through. The last thing you need is repair expenses coming out of your profits.
• Limited Audience: Even though most people have a car, there are not many of them that trust other people to wash the car for them. This is especially true if you’re running a club with children. You will not get much business from people letting your children roll all over their cars.
• Messiness: While it can be fun to hose everyone in your organization down with water, you won’t like having to clean up after a car wash.

The Dirty Conclusion…

Carwash fundraisers could either be highly successful or completely stupid. You take a risk having one. If you have a lot of hot girls in your organization, you may be more likely to draw in business than you would with a group of beer-gutted frat boys. Take your pick. I wish you luck either way.

Catalog fundraisers are fairly common, and they can be profitable if you select the right one. Whether you’re running a fundraiser for your online college or you need some money for your son’s kindergarten class, you have to take the time to find the right fundraiser for you. Here is a simple guide to show you what you need to look for in a good fundraiser. Selecting the right one will make all the difference.

High Profit Percentages

When you work with a catalog fundraiser, you get paid on commission based on the sales your group generates. That means that you make a certain amount of money for every item sold. You want to look for fundraisers that offer high commission rates because that will mean more money for you. The highest percentage you’ll probably find is 50%, where you get half the money and the company gets half the money. A more realistic expectation might be 30%. Just look at some different options and see which one promises the most profit.

Sales Rewards

Everyone likes the idea of a reward for work, and that theory applies in fundraising as much as anything else. You should look for fundraising options that will offer prizes for people who sell a certain amount of items. The prizes in these fundraisers are usually geared towards high school students, so you may want something that suits college students a little more. Good old fashioned money should do the trick. If you can’t find fundraisers with rewards, make your own. This should push your group members to succeed.

Relatable Products

Try to find a fundraiser that actually matches your groups niche. People are not likely to buy baby dolls from the football team, nor are they likely to buy high-fat candy from the health club. With the thousands of fundraising options out there, you shouldn’t have a problem finding something that works for your group. You just have to look around.

Easy Marketing

Ideally, you want a fundraiser that is going to market itself. If you get something that is too specialized, you won’t get any customers. People love chocolate and candle sales, and many of them actually look forward to them. When I was in high school, we had a gourmet popcorn sale that was a huge success. People actually came to me to buy the popcorn. That is the definition of easy marketing, and it is something you should strive for. Talk things over as a group, and you should be able to come up with a good compromise.

Choosing the right catalog fundraiser could make or break your earnings. Select wisely. The tips above should give you enough inspiration to find the fundraiser you need.

All college organizations need money, and there is only so much support a club can get from the college itself. Whether you need money for a field trip or a new set of uniforms for the group, you have to run some kind of fundraiser to get funding for your organization. The internet can provide you with many different venues for promoting your fundraisers. You just have to know how to tap into it’s awesome powers. No worries – I’ll help you do that. Here are a few tips to get the word out about your latest fundraiser.

Social Networks

The average Facebook user has 130 friends, and 48% of people between the ages of 18 and 34 have a Facebook account. Thus there is a high probability that people in your organization have a Facebook account that has a ton of friends attached to it. If you can ask all of them to promote your fundraiser on their walls, you should be able to spread the word very quickly online. Of course, you can also do this on Twitter, Friendster, MySpace, or any other social network you are on. It can’t hurt to let people know about the event online.

School Newsletters

If your college has a newspaper or newsletter, you might want to get your fundraiser in there somehow. This could be easy to do if you are running a creative fundraiser that people would enjoy being a part of. The paper could write a story about you that way. If you just need a little ad for the fundraiser though, you may have to pay a small fee to make that happen. Contact your local periodicals for more information.

Craigslist

Craigslist is a free classifies site that you can use to promote just about anything in your community. If you want to make a listing about your fundraiser, simply go to the “community” section and post in the appropriate subcategory. This process is totally free, and it can get the word out to any of the people that use Craigslist in your community.

School Websites

If your organization has a section on the school website, make sure that you promote your fundraiser there. Otherwise you may be able to contact the school’s IT department to see how you can go about marketing the event on the school website. You will likely have to write a brief description of the fundraiser for the tech guys to use, but they can work to get the word out on the web. If you’re in a distance learning program, you should be able to shoot the IT people an email in place of meeting them in person.

There is no reason for your school fundraiser to be a secret when you have the internet at your fingertips. Think of a fun way to raise money for your organization, and then let the web do the rest. You’ll be raking in the big bucks in no time.