School Fundraising Ideas

The tradition of Girl Scout cookies being sold through elementary and middle schools is a long and perfectly honorable one. We're also familiar with bake sales and candy sales as school fundraising tools. One less well-known avenue along these lines is related to coffee. Guaranteed, it's the parents and other adults who drink the coffee. That, however, enhances its value as a fundraising tool.

Coffee as a Fundraiser

As you shop specialty coffee shops and other such vendors, keep your eyes peeled. You might be surprised at the opportunities you see. Perhaps you have children or grandchildren of your own. Perhaps you just value education and want to support the school system in any way possible. Bear this in mind. If you're looking for an online vendor, the search might be easier.

An ideal program might offer a dollar on every bag of coffee you buy throughout a given year. That amount would be donated to the school of your choice. Think of the possibilities this raises! Whether you persuade your friends and neighbors, church members, PTA, or any other civic group to participate, the effort can make a significant difference. Remember, approximately half of America's adults drink coffee.

This headcount, in 1999, was approximately 108,000 coffee drinkers consuming, on average, three cups a day. Extrapolation puts a figure of about $165 dollars per coffee drinker per year and two pounds of coffee per month. Let's use those figures. The coffee, which sells at from $8 to perhaps $15 per pound on average, comes in one pound bags. Now, $24 dollars a year isn't much for a school donation. But multiply that by 100 or more. To see the full potential, take just half of those 108,000 and you end up with about one million. This might not seem like much on the surface perhaps, but it's a great start!