Greenraising: School Fundraising With Purposeful Products
Back to school fundraising hawking giftwrap, magazines and chocolate rubs against the grain of my eco, nutritional, and anti-consumption lifestyle…so what’s a financially strapped school to do?
Enter GreenRaising.com, an all-green gift hub of gorgeous recycled wrap, cool reusable bottles and bags, fair trade chocolate, green school supplies, soaps and lotions, even cleaning supplies!
This fabulous one stop portal imparts an earth-friendly message, while helping financially strapped schools and youth organizations with socially responsible spending. (um, could our government sign up?)
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As a copywriter, I can’t help but love their tagline: “Raising funds, raising awareness, raising the bar.” And as a marketing person, it’s a brilliant ‘affinity program’ that has some viral chops to spread the word among ‘good eggs’ trying to make a difference in the world.
Here’s how it works…
1.) Register your nonprofit group
2.) Once the organization is registered, Greenraising will send you 25% of all sales from people who name your group as the beneficiary
3.) If you want to replace a traditional ‘catalog’ drive with a Greenraising one, they’ll give you all the materials you need, and a 40% kickback
Easy simple steps to help ‘green your school’ and one turnkey spot to keep lunchtime green, with products like Wrap-n-Mat, that we’ve already recommended on EcoChild’s Play!
Great to know that Greenraising supports orgs that align with your own vision and values, n’est ce pas? I might give it a go for Shaping Youth, although we partner with The Green Zebra on a local level for coupon books to help folks go organic and access worthy green businesses. (another cool tagline, “It’s easy to change your stripes with Green Zebra local savings for sustainable living!”)
Hmn…given the shaky financial state of our economy, we may need to do both! What’s YOUR school hawking this year? Could you use a greener approach to goods? When I think of all the sports team, PTA events and band programs that need funding, (not to mention our eco and wellness club on campus!) this seems like a solid pick to put in the hopper.
Sure beats water-wasting car washes and sugar-laden bake sales!
I think that online fundraising is a great eco-friendly method as well–no paper products to push and it’s something you can do from home, so no driving around
I downloaded a free toolbar from Give2Network.com to help support the American Cancer Society every time I search and shop online, so it feels great knowing I am making a small difference, without spending a dime or adding carbon emissions.
Green Students Fundraising is a similar program to Greenraising.com, but focuses on student education and action. They not only learn about the environment but make a difference too!
Some key differences are that customers never pay for shipping and it is all sent to the school, helping to lower overall shipping costs and our carbon footprint.
Take a look. Cheers,
Green Corey
http://www.greenstudents.ca
Hi Stacy, I hadn’t heard of that one, I’m going to check it out for sure, (esp. since I have family members fighting cancer!) Thanks for the lead…
Another online fundraising effort I’d like to see kids’ schools use more are the online auctions; I know CMarket.org has an ‘environmental’ category, and they stock the inventory for nonprofit preference with ’starter’ items; quite a turnkey/entrepreneurial idea on the time-saving front.
Now they just need an ‘all green items’ version!
[...] plan on covering this event over on EcoChilds Play too, where I just wrote a piece on GreenRaising (school fundraising ideas that aren’t the usual wrap-n-read catalog offerings) Everything from [...]
[...] is a really, really, innovative fundraising concept and should be in the GreenRaising article I just wrote for Eco Child’s [...]
My son’s school had a Waste-Free Lunch Challenge/Fundraiser that was organized by Kids Konserve. They offer an Awareness Program that educates and empowers children and their families to choose to reuse. They were very informative and helpful in providing helpful suggestions on how to pack a waste-free lunch.
The site: http://www.kidskonserve.com
I would check out two great green fundraising programs offered by Save Your World. This company sponsors two unique programs that enable any approved school or charitable organization to earn money for its goals, while also supporting its conservation mission to save areas of rainforest. For more information, go to: http://store.saveyourworld.com/category-s/27.htm
They are also sponsoring an Amazon walk, which would be a great topic for a special science unit on the rainforest. It would a unique learning experience for classes to start communicating with British explorer Ed Stafford as part of a rainforest project. They can track his progress in the jungle throughout the year. Children can also ask him questions and he can tell them about his most recent adventures in the Amazon rainforest. To learn more about this extraordinary journey, see: http://store.saveyourworld.com/Walking-the-Amazon-s/1155.htm