Burger/Pizza Night Fundraising     

The Burger King in our area has "fundraising benefits" to support area groups like Girl Scouts, M.O.P.S., etc. All you do is arrange with the Burger King the date and time (for example Friday the 5th from 3-5pm) and they donate a percent of the sales during that time! You just need to get as many people as possible to eat there during that time so that you get the most money possible. The Burger King here says they did one for the Girl Scouts last month and the girls made $500 in those couple hours!!

A fundraising event that everyone who has ever gone to McDonald's will love! McDonalds will have a school night for your school. In our area our school system uses it a lot. McDonalds will have, for example, an Oakhurst Elementary Night. They donate to that school 25% of all monies that come in from 5 pm to 7 pm. This is generally one of McDonald's busiest times so the money can be quite great! Each area may have a different percentage that they donate. It seems to be about 20% to 25% as a general rule. All you need to do is go to the McDonald's nearest to the school or pre-school and ask about their fundraising program. Another thing that they do is the class who has the most attendance gets an ice cream party! This helps bring in the students and their families in as well as the general public.

Many Pizza Hut restaurants offer "Fun"draiser Nights where they donate a percentage of the net sales generated on a particular night and time frame to non-profit groups. All the groups have to do is encourage supporters to dine-in, carry-out or order delivery (where available)! Some restaurants even provide flyers to distribute prior to the event to help get the word out! Some stores offer a flat amount per purchase instead of a percentage. The St. Charles Public Library, Friends of Triangle Seniors and Food Assistance, Western Illinois University, Connally High School PTA, Greater Houlton Christian Academy, Summit Elementary PTO, and the Coon Rapids High School Marching Band are just a few organizations that have benefited from this program. For more information, call your local Pizza Hut.

Chuck E. Cheese's restaurants donate 15% of all proceeds back to schools from sales generated by this weeknight event. Sales include all food, merchandise and token deals purchased at the register.   Only authorized school personnel or PTA/PTO representatives can officially book events. You must be a non-profit public or private pre-school or elementary school with 75 or more students to be eligible. Request a weeknight (Mon-Thurs) event for your school. Three weeks advance notice from date of booking is required. They supply some of the tools to make your event a success. When you reserve your event, you will receive a promotion package and access to online tools to promote your fundraiser. Contact your local Chuck E. Cheese restaurant or call 1-888-CEC-4FUN for details.

Our school did McChoir Night last year as a fundraising event at McDonald's on a Tuesday night in February. I think during different months you get different percentages of profit. We got 10%. We made almost $175.00 in 3 hours. All you do is provide McDonald's with 3-4 parents per hour to help run the night. It was a good fundraiser because we didn't have to do a lot of preparation and it was all profit. But, you really need to generate school interest and reminders to get people to come through McDonald's the night you are doing it, otherwise you won't make as much money. Good luck if you decide to do it!  I think you can contact any local McDonalds and they would have information! (Laura)

We decided NOT to do a Burger King or McDonald's fundraising night because the only location they would use was across town. We didn't think many of our families would be willing to drive there and they would only give us 10%. Instead we used a local salad bar buffet, Fresh Choice, which gave us 20%, was centrally located and allowed us to have small student ensembles perform for the guests. This guaranteed that at least the performers' families would be there! I don't remember the exact amount we made but I know we considered it very successful. (Vivian)

Burger King donated 20% of fundraising sales made between 4 - 8 PM on Cashola days to BSA Troop 135, Brookfield, CT. It is important that everyone support the troop by eating at Burger King on Cashola days whenever possible. Each patrol is assigned a particular Cashola day, and the patrol leader for that patrol is responsible for getting scouts from his patrol signed up for that day. The scouts covering the first shift should arrive 5 minutes early in order to put up the signs (available from Mrs. Burlhis at the scout meeting before Cashola day), and to ask the manager for the spray and rags to wipe the tables (Burger King doesn’t require this, but it is a nice gesture as long as scouts do a good job.) If anyone from a patrol cannot go to a shift, he is in charge of finding a replacement for himself by asking scouts from other patrols, especially scouts that have not been able to help on days when their own patrol was on duty. Patrol leaders need to start signing up scouts 2 weeks before Cashola day, and if they can’t find enough scouts, they will be responsible for covering shifts for which no scouts were found. With this in mind we ask parents that whenever possible, they do not schedule get-togethers on Cashola Fridays, especially on Fridays to which your son’s patrol has been assigned. Scouts covering the last shift should at the end of their shift, check that bags with receipts are labeled “Troop 135”, extend a thank you (for having us!) from the troop and collect the signs.

See Also: Fresh Choice and Garden Fresh

Source: The Perpetual Preschool (Upland, California), Teacher's net (San Diego, California), BSA Troop 135

We have included a number of do-it-yourself fundraising ideas in this section such as a Burger/Pizza Night that offer a break from traditional product sales.  They were developed by groups just like yours in an attempt have a little fun with their fundraiser. Some of them are tried and true while others show a lot of creativity ... and even wackiness in some cases.  All of them are obviously not appropriate for every group, but sometimes, with only a little modification, your might find some fund raising ideas that are perfect for your group. If you have an idea for a do-it-yourself fund raiser you are willing to share with others, please send it to us via email at . Include anything and everything you would want to know if you were hearing the idea for the first time.