FastTrack Fundraising Tips and Articles

The best way to learn more about another culture and another country is by eating their cuisine. Their food would give you an idea of how their country is and what type of food they like. The type of food they like says something about how they are as a race and as people that are a part of this world.

A good and innovative fundraiser is a food sale. But this is not just any food sale but rather an international food sale. One can advertise this to be an educational and worthwhile experience. While one is learning about different cultures, one is also helping a certain cause.

For this sort of fundraiser, the organizers would need to decide on a venue. A school with an open field would be good. One reason would be because students do need to eat and the food sale would be something new for them. Rather than eating at the cafeteria, they can be tasting something new.

The second thing the organizers need to decide on a time and the duration of the food sale. A good duration would be five days. This will give the organizers time to raise enough money and give them a chance to rotate the menu as to ensure that people will keep coming back for more educational and gastronomical experiences.

Organizers should also decide on the type of food that would be served. One day could be all South east Asian food. They can sell sinigang from the Philippines, satay from Malaysia and curry form Singapore. Another day could be devoted to Asian cuisine. This would include food from other parts of Asia. Another day would be solely about Mediterranean cuisine. They could serve kebabs among others. The fourth day could be the rich Western food. They can serve Italian, French and Spanish food. The last day could be a mixture of the bestsellers from the past four days. The organizers should also find out and get an estimate of the possible population they would get in order for them to choose how many types of foods to sell. They should also have desserts apart from the usual savory dishes.

For sponsors, they could talk to different restaurant owners and culinary schools because this is more along their line of business. These sponsors could advertise themselves and have booths along with the food sellers so the buyers would have an idea. In turn these sponsors could also help the organizers by advertising the food sale in their establishments or schools.

In promoting this fundraiser, it is important to stress out that this food sale does not only give back something to a cause but it also allows the participant and buyers to have a peek of different cultures. Make it sound like an enjoyable learning experience so that people would go and check out what it is all about. Just make sure that the prices are reasonable enough to make sure that people would indeed buy the food being sold there.

One of the traditional fund raisers is to conduct a bake sale. During bake sales, people would come together with their baked goodies and sell them off to people for a certain cause. For this sort of fundraiser, one would need about a month to organize this event. One would need to find a location that is accessible to many people. If it is to be held at a public park or open space, the organizers would need to talk to people in charge of those areas to discuss possible charges and how they can go about.

There should be different people who would be assigned to make certain baked goodies that would cater to the market that they are selling to. It would be a good choice to make sure that the consumer would have different choices. It would not be advisable that three women be asked to bake apple pies. So discuss in advance what the types of baked goodies would be made to ensure that everything will be finished and nothing will go to waste. Create a budget for the bakers to follow so that you would be able to minimize the cost and make maximum use of the profit which would just go straight to the cause.

Get sponsors for this bake sale. Find companies and individuals that are willing to support your cause. These sponsors would shoulder any possible cost that might come about while preparing this bake sale. The sponsor and the organizer should come up with a scheme as how they would be able to repay the sponsor for shouldering the costs. An example would be by placing tarpaulins up around the area advertising the company or individual who sponsored the bake sale. Call up companies which are known to sponsor causes so that you will have an easier time convincing them about your cause.

Make sure that the bake sale is advertised. Make flyers and pass it around to people who might be interested. If you are holding it in a residential area, pass it around to all the houses to ensure that you will get some people to come over. If you are holding it in a public area, pass the word to people whom you would see around the area. It would also be good to hold this bake sale in a school because one could be sure of a crowd due to the number of students. But always put up tarpaulins or give away flyers to give the people in that area an idea that a bake sale will be taking place.

It would be good to have a bake sale during a weekend to make sure that everyone will be rather free to attend and check out the goodies. Also have a day end sale to ensure that all the baked goodies will be disposed of. About two hours before the bake sale ends, cut everything by 20 to 50 percent to ensure that people will buy these.

Ever since China started mass producing those extremely cheap DVD players, the number of movie goers have dwindled down. Many people would opt to buy a cheap DVD and watch their favorite actors and actresses at the comfort of their own homes in their pajamas. Another reason would be due to the fact that the price of movie tickets have gone up as compared to before. In the past, movie tickets were rather cheap which was why it was easy to simply go to the movie house and catch a movie to distress.

One good way of raising funds would be to have a movie premiere fundraiser. As it is for a good cause, people would think twice and opt to watch their favorite stars on the big screen instead. To go about with this sort of fundraiser, one would need to tie up with a cinema that is accessible to many people. They could slightly bring down the price of a movie ticket for people to be more interested to watch the movie at that particular movie house. They could throw in a couple of freebies with each movie ticket to make it more enticing. For example, the cinema could throw in a hotdog and a Coke with each movie ticket. It would also be good to give the movie goers choices for their freebies. Aside from just a hotdog and a glass of Coke, they can opt to have a tub of popcorn and a glass of Coke that would come free with the ticket. To make it even more enticing, they can add another freebie that would be limited to the one hundred buyers. It could be an extra tub of popcorn or another hotdog. If that would not be amenable, one could opt to have discounted tickets. For example, for every ticket they buy, they get a 5 percent discount off a tub of popcorn.

If the movie is a local film, it would be good to invite local movie stars involved in the movie to participate in these kinds of fundraisers as it will bring more people to come ad watch in order to hopefully get a glance of their favorite star. This will be a bonus too for the actors as this could serve as a promotional campaign for their movie.

To spread the word, one should go around populated areas such as schools and malls. Get volunteers to help sell these tickets to be able to reach more people. Start organizing this fundraiser a month to two in advance. This would give the organizers time to get the cinema involved and make a deal with the cinema. To give the organizers enough time to go around and spread the word, two weeks to a month would be ample time so they can make sure that the cinemas would be full. Careful and detailed planning needs to be done so that ample proceeds would go to the cause that you are raising funds for.

Laws and Legislation

Abstract:

Mandates food standards for all schools in the state of California. Food sold in all K-12 schools must have limited fat, calories and sugar.

Author: Escutia, Martha
Publication Date: Dec/06/2004
Source: Sacramento, CA: State Senate
Contact Info: California Center for Public Health (530)297-6000

Full Text:

SB 12 (Escutia) – School Nutrition Standards
SB 12 Summary
1. FOOD STANDARDS FOR ALL SCHOOLS K-12
• Strengthens and implements the competitive food standards
originally described in SB 19 (Escutia, 2001).
• An individually sold snack may have no more than:
• 35% of its calories from fat (excluding legumes, nuts,
nut butters, seeds, eggs, vegetables that have not
been deep-fried, and cheese packaged for individual
sale).
• 10% of its calories from saturated fat (excluding eggs
and cheese packaged for individual sale).
• 35% sugar by weight (excluding fruits and vegetables).
• 175 calories (elementary schools)
• 250 calories (middle and high schools)
• An individually sold entree may have no more than:
• 4 grams of fat per 100 calories
• 400 calories
• And must qualify under the federal meal program
2. FUNDING: SB 12 does not contain a requirement that the state
increase funding to the federal meal program before
implementing nutrition standards for competitive foods.
3. IMPLEMENTATION DATE: All food standards become effective
July 1, 2007.
4. SALE TO PUPILS: Nutrition standards apply only to the sale of
items to pupils and do not apply to foods brought from home. All
groups selling or serving food on campus to pupils are required
to follow the standards.
5. FUNDRAISING EXEMPTIONS: Foods that do not meet the
standards may be sold at least one-half hour after the end of the
school-day or off the school premises
August 2005

URL: http://www.fasttrackfundraising.com/documents/sb12-fundraiser-summary.pdf

Notes:

Related Names: Alquist, Elaine|California School Board Association|California Center for Public Health Advocacy

Contact Info: California Center for Public Health (530) 297-6000

SB12 Compliant Fundraiser

SB12 Fundraiser

LOS ANGELES–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Over the past three decades the childhood obesity rate has more than doubled for preschool children aged 2-5 years and adolescents aged 12-19 years, and it has more than tripled for children aged 6-11 years (Source: U.S. Department of Health). For years, children have been school fundraising with chocolate, cheesecake, frozen pizzas … and more chocolate. Even with the alarming statistics on childhood obesity and type 2 diabetes, parent-teacher organizations and coaches had few alternatives to the constant “obesity fundraising.” That is, until FastTrack Fundraising came along.

FastTrack Fundraising, an online provider of fundraising ideas and solutions, offers a variety of alternatives to selling fat-laden chocolate and cheesecake. Among them are the recently launched “CalPak Healthy Snacks Fundraiser,” which contains popular treats such as Chex Mix and Pepperidge Farms Goldfish. Each snack contains less than 30% fat, less than 35% sugar, less than 10% saturated fat, and less than 250 calories. One master case contains 66 treats and raises $264. The CalPak fundraiser is guaranteed to meet all SB12 laws and nutrition regulations, so fundraising leaders can ease their policy worries.

“Now school groups are free to choose from a wide array of fundraising options. With the California SB12 regulation in effect, and many other states following suit, groups need fundraising alternatives more than ever,” says Harold Y. Tan, CEO of FastTrack Fundraising. “We’re glad to work with huge brand names to provide a healthy selection of fundraising ideas to the fundraising leaders.”

School fundraising is critical to funding education in schools nationwide, and has traditionally been dominated by the same fundraising products year after year. Almost every parent has experienced their child coming home with several candy bars or brochures featuring high-priced cheesecake. Now kids and parents can finally take a break from selling obesity and choose a fundraiser that won’t result in unnecessary health concerns.

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