Fundraising Ideas From Our Program Leaders

Worldstrides Sarasota, Florida

Fundraising is a great way for groups to offset trip costs and allow more students to the opportunity to travel. We’re always looking for new and creative ways to raise funds to share with our program leaders, parents, and students. We recently asked our program leaders to share some of their best fundraising ideas with us via social media. Here are some of our favorites:

“A car wash and selling concessions at school events.” – Courtney
“Meals at parent/teacher conferences.” – Valerie
“Bagging groceries at our local grocery store for tips.” – Darcie
“Family Fun Night.” – Valerie
“Making and selling crafts at a local festival.” – Angela

Additionally, theater professor Angela Bacarisse told us she had great success raising funds for her group to travel to Scotland with the International Collegiate Theatre Festival by painting faces at a local Day of the Dead celebration. Another ICTF participate, dance professor Matt Farmer, turned to crowdfunding to help send his dancers to Scotland.

Some other fundraising ideas we like?

Community yard sale in the school parking lot
A bakeoff bake sale.
Sponsor a pancake breakfast or spaghetti dinner.
Hold a 50/50 raffle
Host a “Battle of the Bands” or a talent show
Plan a school dance or carnival
Organize a sports tournament

For more ideas, check out our ever-growing list of fundraising ideas on our fundraising website. We also have our own fundraising tool, Gift of Education, which allows students to send e-cards, share their trip on Facebook, or send letters to family and friends to raise funds for their trips. Check out our fundraising website for more information on the Gift of Education!

Have you held a successful fundraising event recently? Or are you planning a fundraiser? Tell us about it in the comments!