Hello! I was just wondering if you guys had ever had a fundraiser in your nursing program. I am the president of our graduating class and I am responsible for coming up with ideas for fundraisers to help raise the money needed for our pinning ceremony. We need to raise at least 5,000 to cover all the costs. ANY ideas that have worked, are appreciated! Even if it wasnt for nursing school. We live in Texas so its really hot here in the summer to do car washes. bake sales everything melts. we are planning a yard sale, but other than that, I am looking for ideas! thanks in advance!

We did a yard sale.

hi asfreeasabird! Did it go well for you guys?

We did a snack cart. Each person in our class donated some item to get started, then the money raised went to buy more snacks etc. The best moneymaker was coffee--one student brought in her 40 cup percolator, and we made a fresh batch each morning and afternoon. 50 cents for a cup of fresh coffee at our cart, or 1.35 for a cup of questionable sludge from the vending machine? It's a no brainer!

hey thats a great idea! did you make very much money at it?

Each year we make themed gift baskets (candy,spa,movie night) and then sell tickets to raffle them off. Each student is responsible for getting a donated or purchased item (under $10) to add to one of 8 baskets. Each student sells a minimum of 20 tickets at $1 a piece. This way, every one pitches in, and last year we raised $3000. Obviously you can raise more if you sell more tickets!1

Hope this helps.

Applebee's does pancake breakfasts, you set a date, sell tickets and serve and bus tables. They take a portion of your profits, but it works pretty well. T-shirt sales, raffle off gift baskets, Cici's pizza does a thing where people put their reciepts in a jar and you get a percentage of that total, Chik Fil A does something similar to the applebee's thing. Silent Auctions with donated items, we also do a Haunted House annually. We also did penny wars between the semesters, but that was to donate to an outside fund...(like ACS, etc) We're going to do the car wash thing, we were going to do a garage sale thing, but just never got around to doing it. I can't think of anymore off the top of my head though.

My class has did a yard sale during the summer raised about $700

We had a resturant sponsor us, so during dinner from 4-8pm all the profits that they made went to us, as long as the customer had a flyer

During Halloween we had a haunted hospital where we decorated the skills lab scary and educational at the same time, kid friendly....(why you wear your helmet....) we charged $5 addmission but would take off $3 if they brought canned food to donate to charity

During Christmas we sold poinsettas

We have had numerous raffles, for various items, one time it was a 50 gas card and a 100 dollar gift card

The current raffle is the winner gets 50% of the profits

We have sold nursing class sweatshirts and t-shirts

the previous class has always passed down at least $500 dollars to help the next class in thier fundraising efforts

My old school did really nice bake sales all the time and they also made an adorable, awesome "Student Nurses Little Cookbook" of recipes that came from all the student nurses. It had great recipes and the cutest cover. Unfortunately, I couldn't afford to buy it at the time - it was $9. But it did really well. They made at least $700 to pay for one of their pinning ceremonies. I was surprised our school didn't pitch in to help pay for the pinning ceremony at all. Cause of state budget cuts and all, I suppose....

We do lots of fundraisers for various things throughout the year. The first thing we do is class dues. We pay 5.00/mo for 25 students equals 125.00/mo and 1500.00/year. Our main fundraisers are for relay for life, a trip to our state board hearings, and of course, capping/pinning ceremony. We do everything possible to make money...no matter how little our how much. We purchcase/get donations of canned drinks and we buy them within our class and sell at lunches and breakfasts for 75 cents each. We also have a recycling drive and we take those drinks plus ones from home and make money from that. We do class-only potluck lunches. We do lunches for the school that include hotdogs/chili dogs/nachos. We have done pizza day. We get a great deal from a local place and sell them by the slice. We've done breakfast where everyone makes something (sausage, ham, bacon biscuits), biscuit and gravy, cinnamon rolls, etc. (GREAT MONEY MAKER if you plan ahead and advertise or do it everyweek on the same day) From our breakfast on a slow day, we made about 200.00. If you do it every month for 10 months, that's 2000.00 right there! We also had Sonic donate sonic cards. they are free and we sold them for 5 dollars each. We made 1250.00 off of those...with no charge to us so it was clear money!

Our class organizes a Easter/Fun Day at a local park the weekend before Easter. We sell hotdogs, nachos, etc and have games and a FREE egghunt. I think they made over 2000.00 last year with that. Games, hotdogs and drinks were 1.00 (a ticket) each.

We have also bought candy fundraiser boxes from Sam's and we are selling candy bars to ourselves and other students at school for 1.00 each. We are planning bake sales, beaded jewelry sales (including badge holders at the hospital/clinics)

Just remember that every little but adds up. I think that we have over 4000.00 already and we've only been in school since jan 4th. $3,000.00 of that money is going to relay for life so over 1,000 is already set aside for graduation or our trip to the state board hearings. Not bad for the first couple of months!

I will be stalking this thread for ideas for our school too.

So far we have had a bakesale which raised about $250 and we are starting a Yankee Candle fundraiser as soon as we get back from spring break. There is a garage sale and another bakesale planned and we have heard about a wash-your-dog fundraiser someone did on the beach that was pretty successful that we are thinking about trying. We also pay dues each semester which I guess helps break up the costs.

THANKS SO MUCH!this is great, I guess we better get on the ball, we havent done anything yet...

My whole class did not want to be bothered during the nursing program w/ fundraisers and such, so we just did dues. We have raised about 2000 so far, and that is plenty for a small pinning ceremony and we are able to leave some for the class behind us! I couldn't imagine trying to pass NS, plus organize fundraisers, sell cookies... etc. Good luck!!