Fundraising ideas for a non profit dance school?

I'm on the executive of a non profit, recreational dance school. Every year we have to do fund raising to help cover our costs. We do charge a fee to dance at our school, but it is a minimal fee. We do fund raising so that we can keep our fees low as many of our dancer's families can't afford high tuition fees.



Our students do the fund raising. We split them into two age groups and they do separate fund raising. Those children under 10 actually go door to door to collect pledges, and this works really well. The children over 10 years of age usually won't do this kind of fund raising so we try to come up with a different fund raising event for them.



Last year we had several vendors come to our studio, in the evening, and sell stuff (such as Avon, a jewellery maker, Tupperware), offering part of the profits back to the school. The year before, we sold candles. The year before it was chocolate bars.



We are running out of ideas. None of these events have been very successful. Our problem is that we are competing with several schools in town, who are also doing fund raising at the same time. The schools usually do chocolate bars, candles, and pizza cards (a local pizza company sells coupons for cheap pizza. The sales of the pizza cards go to the schools).



Does anyone have an really catchy, something different, ideas on fund raising for 10-18 year olds? We would prefer if it didn't involve going to door to door as we aren't likely to get the teenagers to do that. We can hold events at our dance studio.



I appreciate any ideas. Thanks for your thoughts.Fundraising ideas for a non profit dance school?
You should try to do your fundraising at a different time than the other dance studios. You should try doing a dance show that costs about $3 a person to get in. It could be at the studio to minimise the cost. Put up flyers to spread the word, and also through word of mouth. The dancers could bring their friends. A few dancers could get solos, plus some duos and trios and, of course, groups. During a 15 minute intermission, you could sell home-made cookies, brownies, cake, etc. You could also have a stand that sells stuff from some vendors (like you said, avon, a jewelry maker, tupperware, etc) for a discounted price. Plus, something that always works at my studio is to sell little baggies filled with hershey kisses and you could attach a blank card to it. Parents of the dancers would write a note on the card and at the end of the show they would be delivered to the dancers.



Hope I helped!Fundraising ideas for a non profit dance school?
You could do a talent show for a fundraiser. (Sorry if someone already suggested this already, I didn't read any of the answers)

Each individual (any age) can do something they're really good at, you could also get every class to do something together.Fundraising ideas for a non profit dance school?
- dance car wash

- performance where people pay a few bucks to get in

- bake sales

- party or dance for the community w/ticket fee



here are some other ideas: http://www.fundraising-ideas.org/DIY/
What about a bake sale? Maybe get some snacks, granola bars, and waters to sell them before class.



You could try selling leotards, dance shoes, etc.