Have your little pilgrims crafts up their own pilgrim-shaped hat snacks for Fall. Check out these tasty and cute treats for Thanksgiving celebrations and family gatherings:
Pilgrim's Hat Cookies via Oh So Savvy Mom
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Pilgrim Cone Hats via SwellChel
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Pilgrim Popcorn Holder via iLoveToCreate
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Chocolate Pilgrim Hats via Hungry Happenings
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Marshmallow Pilgrim Hats via Edible Crafts
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Related Posts:
Thanksgiving Craft and Snack Ideas
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Did you know tweets with images receive 18% more clicks, 89% more favorites and 150% more retweets?* If you're putting out the call for volunteers are twitter, use one of our free images below to capture extra attention and boost turnout! Right click each image to download, save and use on twitter when sharing your volunteer sign-ups and event news!
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Related Posts:
5 Ways to Grow Your School's Twitter Community
Fundraising: Raise More Money With Social Media
8 Best Practices for Tweeting Volunteer Opportunities
*Source: https://blog.bufferapp.com/the-power-of-twitters-new-expanded-images-and-how-to-make-the-most-of-it
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It’s never too early to get in on the holiday spirit when your school or cause is looking to boost fundraising dollars! Check out these 5 smart fundraising ideas for schools and nonprofits:
1. Scrumptious holiday products: Nothing says deck the halls like the festive holiday treats from See’s Candies! A delicious and fun way to boost fundraising profits during the holidays is to get started with a fan favorite – See’s Candies. Their easy to use online Yumraising Program equips schools and nonprofits with all the tools they need to customize their own candy shop, spread the word, take orders, and supply families with all that holiday chocolate they love. Learn more
2. Add product fundraisers to your community events: The holidays are packed with school and community events like performances, talent shows, concerts, the list goes on. One easy way to boost fundraiser profits is to add a booth or table wherever your school or organization is selling tickets or concessions for an event, and encourage attendees to purchase See’s Candies to help fundraise for your school or organization. Imagine adding a See’s Candies chocolate booth at the holiday concert – can you say ka-ching?!
3. Coordinate holiday fundraiser volunteers online: Streamline volunteer support for your holiday fundraisers and events with free online sign-ups from VolunteerSpot. Spending less time on organizing volunteer shifts, tasks and donations means spending more time for focusing on your fundraising goals. Quick schedule where and when your school or group needs help and email or share the sign-up link on social media. Participants and volunteers can sign up 24/7 from any device, anywhere – and automated reminders keep everyone on track! Get started
4. Holiday fundraiser incentives: The joy-filled holiday season is a great time to cue up fun and creative incentives to help school families meet their fundraising goals. One great example comes from See’s Candies who is awarding 2 free gift certificates for every $500 spent in fundraising. That’s bonus prizes your school or nonprofit can use in gift baskets, at an auction, to reward volunteers, you name it! Learn more at sees.com/fundraisingoffer
5. DIY holiday decorations: Ditch the high overhead cost of decorating for your holiday fundraising events and opt for creative, colorful DIY alternatives like these. School and nonprofit volunteers can unite for a DIY decorating party to spend time together and help your fundraiser save money, thus boosting the bottom line!
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Team VolunteerSpot is a big fan of anything that saves time, lets a person pitch in or sign up from their smartphone, and benefits schools and communities. Kellogg’s Family Rewards Program does all that – and more. Check out our 5 favorite things about KFR and get started earning for your school today!
1. Get Rewarded: Just for joining Kellogg’s Family Rewards you can earn up to 500 bonus points on the spot! Plus, get points every time you buy Kellogg’s products your family already loves. Sign up and join today, it’s easy!
2. Adding a loyalty card: This great new feature from Kellogg’s Family Rewards makes it so EASY to earn cash for your child’s school. Simply connect a retailer loyalty card or membership to your KFR account and start earning whenever you shop.
3. Uploading receipts: Kellogg’s Family Rewards knows no two families are exactly alike, and that’s why they offer many ways for you to upload receipts for points – simply scan or take a picture of a participating receipt and upload from your smartphone, desktop, or text it!
4. Redeeming for your favorite school or cause: It’s easy to earn rewards for your family like coupons, gift cards, sweepstakes, kids activities, and so much more – but Kellogg’s Family Rewards also lets members donate their points to their school or charity of choice. This means real cash dollars for your child’s school – awesome! Learn more
5. Special savings & offers: As if all that wasn’t enough, KFR members have access to exclusive coupons, sweepstakes and special offers from participating Kellogg’s brands. This means savings for your family and more happy kids!
Get started today with Kellogg’s Family Rewards – you’ll be glad you did!
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Where do school parents really like to volunteer? What fundraisers are favorites of school families? VolunteerSpot asked these questions and more and got some surprising answers! Check it out in our INFOGRAPHIC below and click here for more information.
With tips on boosting fundraising turnout & profits as well as new, creative approaches to overcoming the hurdles that prevent parents from volunteering in school, this INFOGRAPHIC is a must-share with your friends and school community.
Also see:
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The critical ingredient for a successful fall festival or carnival is hands down volunteer support. From set-up to take down, ticket sales to concessions and staffing all the carnival booths and games, school and church carnival volunteers are a MUST for pulling off such a big event. So what if instead of a crumpled note sent home in a child's backpack, your carnival volunteer sign-up looked like this:
It's so EASY to boost parent involvement and save time this year with free online carnival sign-up sheets with reminders. Volunteer coordinators, carnival chairs, and school staff can quickly set up a schedule of fall carnival volunteer needs - intuitive scheduling tools plus Auto-Fill and Quick List Builder features make it a snap. Bonus: Organizers can even add custom fall themes and the school logo to the sign-up!
Parents click the sign-up link wherever the school posts it (on the volunteer webpage, in an eNewsletter, on social media, etc), and sign up from their computer or smartphone anytime, anywhere. No password needed!
Spend more time on the FUN stuff like building carnival games and decorations, planning new and interesting food stations and getting the word out - and LESS time organizing and reminding volunteers. VolunteerSpot captures all the volunteer information for you, updates the schedule real-time, and eCalendar sync and automated reminders keep everyone on track! Start Planning
Also see:
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Remember this one school's humorous take on an Alternative Fundraiser (No-Hassle Fundraiser)?
While event and product fundraisers DO help many schools engage families, build community and raise money, many parents agreed they would rather just contribute the money to begin with and avoid the door-to-door wrapping paper sale or staying up late baking for another sale.
VolunteerSpot already makes it easy for schools to save time and boost parent involvement with free online volunteer & participant sign-up sheets, and now, school-parent groups can apply the same streamlined coordination to alternative fundraising! The NEW Contributions Sign-Ups make it easy for PTA's and PTO's to set up secure online forms for collecting money, dues, and fundraising dollars. Learn more
Instead of keeping track of multiple cash boxes, envelopes and crumpled letters sent home in stuffed backpacks, school-parent groups can send out ONE sign-up link to the entire school (or post on social media, the school website, etc) and collect money and parent information securely (and quickly). Parents click the sign-up link on their computer or smartphone and can make their contribution within minutes, easy!
Alternative Fundraisers can provide a more relaxed approach to school fundraising that still helps parent groups meet their goals, but also focus more time and energy on community building events and creative programming. It's easy (and free) to get started with online Contributions Sign-Ups from VolunteerSpot - your school parents will thank you! Collect Money Now
Also see:
Contributions Sign-Ups from VolunteerSpot
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Looking for an easy (and sweet) way to raise money for your school or nonprofit this fall? Check out the See's Candies Flash Fundraiser Sweepstakes today, ENTER HERE!
4 lucky winners will receive the following product from See's Candies to sell at 100% profit:
· Lollypops (500): 250 each of Butterscotch and Chocolate
· Candy Bars (288): 144 each of Milk Chocolate and Milk Chocolate w/ Toffee Nuggets
· Reusable Totes (50): Perfect for transporting candy
· Collection Envelopes (50): Hand them to all your helpers
· See’s Banner (1): To use at your fundraising event
· See’s Candy Dish (1): Great gift for an outstanding volunteer or coordinator!
Raise up to $1,000 for your child's school, team, Scout troop or your faith group or local non-profit - it's so easy to enter. Spread the word too so your favorite organization has more chances to win! ENTER NOW, ends 9/15/15.
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Recruiting volunteers? Trying to engage new supports for your organization? Simply need more hands helping at school? Bookmark this list of 8 simple but innovative and time-saving communication tactics for reaching volunteers:
1. Tweet: A simple tweet can say a lot! If your community organization is looking for volunteers, strategic tweeting might do the trick. Utilize searchable hashtags like city names, events, etc. Check out, 8 Best Practices When Tweeting for Help.
2. Email: Whether in a letter-style email from your nonprofit leader or an eNewsletter full of content and volunteer opportunities, email is going to be one of your number one ways to reach current and potential volunteers at just the right time. Companies like Emma, MailChimp, Constant Contact, and iContact are great vendors to check out for more enhanced eMarketing capabilities.
3. Blog/Webpage: If your nonprofit has a website, make sure your volunteer webpage is doing everything it can for you! Post volunteer opportunities and sign-up links frequently, share volunteer testimonials, and encourage visitors to follow your group on social media. You never know, your next great volunteer leader might just be a google search away!
Related: 10 Ways to Pump Up Your Volunteer Webpage
4. Online Sign-Ups: The easiest way to coordinate and communicate with volunteers is to schedule and remind them online! Planning a service project, an appreciation potluck, a carnival, festival or fundraiser? VolunteerSpot's free online sign-ups and scheduling tools are the answer for saving time and boosting participation! Try it out now
5. Facebook: Reach volunteers where they're at - on social media! Posting volunteer opportunities, nonprofit news, even feel good quotes and volunteer pictures is a great place to start in developing a communication highway on facebook. Check out Facebook for Volunteer Recruitment & Engagement.
6. Post online: Online resources like HandsonNetwork.org, VolunteerMatch.org and CreateTheGood.org let organizations and nonprofits post volunteer opportunities in an online database that anyone can access who is interest. Read more
7. Word of mouth: Few recommendations carry as much weight as someone telling a friend what an amazing time they had volunteering for your organization. If you're group is struggling to recruit new members, consider a "Bring a friend program" where current volunteers are encouraged to bring a friend or group with them to the next volunteer event. Organic, word-of-mouth buzz helps build a loyal base of supporters for years to come.
8. Like organizations: Network with similar organizations in your area to boost one another's visibility in the community. Partnering with another local cause or group can give you access to a whole new sect of volunteers and donors who have a record for giving back and supporting the community. Consider swapping emails to one another's lists, sharing booth expenses at the community festival or promoting one another on social media.
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Fundraising events like galas, auctions, walk-a-thons, and are not only great community builders but main sources of operating budgets for non-profits big and small. Event fundraising, however, can be a real gamble especially when resources are tight.
A recent IndustryView study from Software Advice, a company that provides online reviews of nonprofit software, illumines answers to these questions and many more with insights based off a survey of fundraisers who have planned at least one major event in the past year. Check out their INFOGRAPHIC with key findings below and read the full report here.
Key Findings Include >
Type of Event: Fun Runs and Walks are recommended for non-profits of all sizes due to their higher ROI and ease of planning, while time-consuming events like concerts and galas take much more work and bigger initial investments.
How to Organize: Event planning and volunteer management tools streamline coordination and communication and save hours of administrative work. Check out our favorite free tech tools that simplify event planning, and the Top 10 Fundraising and Donor Management Software Systems recommended by SoftwareAdvice.com.
What to Measure: Cost Per Dollar Raised (CDPR), # of attendees, # of donors - what your non-profit measures for success can affect how you decide to fundraise in the future.
Read the full SoftwareAdvice.com Study,
"Which Fundraising Event is Best for Your Nonprofit".
Also see:
5 Ways to Leverage Technology & Boost Community Impact
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Training for a 5k? Try training to organize one! From managing tactical event details to recruiting and organizing volunteers and sponsors, coordinating an outdoor race or athletic fundraiser can really take the wind out of you. Stress less and save time finding all the help you need with free online sign-ups from VolunteerSpot!
24/7 access from a computer or mobile device makes signing up to help with this year's 5K or Fun Run a breeze, not to mention eCalendar syncing and automated email reminders! Volunteers and helpers will thank you for making it so easy to get involved.
Charity Race Sign-Up (Mobile View)
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Charity Race Sign-Up (Desktop View)
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In addition to intuitive and quick scheduling tools, volunteer coordinators have access to:
Try a free demo today or get started - you'll be glad you did!
Also see:
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Carnivals can have you filling up on cotton candy and giant pixie sticks before you can say dunking booth! Encourage your school or nonprofit to try a handful of healthier options at this year's Spring fundraiser with these delicious and fun ideas below:
Fruit Cups via Catch My Party
Blend a few fruit favorites in one and you’re set! This is a quick, portable snack for carnival goers and good for them too. Mix up the combinations and complete the look with a fun tablecloth.
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Corn on the Cob via Move Nourish Believe
You can’t go wrong with a traditional corn on the cob this carnival season. Try this recipe to have a batch down in no time and be the sweetest booth at the festival.
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Funnel Cake via Mess For Less
Without a doubt, funnel cakes are a crowd pleaser at any festival. Meet expectations with this simple recipe you can make from the comfort of your own kitchen. Your booth will complete the entire carnival.
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Popcorn via Your Home Based Mom
You can’t forget to get your popcorn! Give your attendees a few popcorn options at your very own popcorn bar. From flavors to toppings, they’ll keep coming back for more.
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Fried Pickles via KitchMe
Offer up a few untraditional carnival treats with some newly fashioned fried pickles. It’s so easy to package a few for guests and offer some dipping sauce on the side.
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Red Cinnamon Apples Food Network
Add even more color to your carnival with these vibrant red cinnamon apples that are sure to lure everyone in. They’ll be sure to turn heads as quickly as it was to make them.
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Snow Cones via CincyShopper
Spring carnival can get a little warm. Cool down with a homemade snow cone topped with your favorite flavor. This tasteful treat can do you know wrong – just follow these simple instructions and savor up.
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Churros via I Heart Nap Time
Churros are also another favorite guest appearance at festivals. They’re so quick and easy to make, you’ll make this snack your new carnival go-to!
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Save time, boost turnout and raise more money at this year's Spring carnival with help from these free tech tools & apps:
1. Pinterest: Stock up on carnival game and booth ideas, DIY carnival decorations, free carnival printables and signs and so much more with a simple Pinterest search. Follow our carnival ideas board today to get started and happy pinning!
2. Trello: Boost effectiveness of your project management strategy with the free online tool and app, Trello! Create tasks, to do lists for purchasing prizes and coordinating help, alerts and more - assign team members to task cards and set due dates as well. Learn more
3. VolunteerSpot: Save time coordinating carnival volunteers and parent helpers with free online signups. Quick online scheduling and messaging tools make it easy for carnival coordinators to set up online signups. Mobile, 24/7 access makes it convenient for parents to sign up in a snap - and automated reminders keep everyone on track! Get started
4. Dropbox: Easily store and share important documents regarding your carnival in the cloud with Dropbox's free and secure online storage. Link carnival committee members to expense receipts, supply and game lists, online volunteer calendars, and more.
5. Hootsuite: This free social media tool helps you coordinate social strategy for spreading the word to boost turnout to your Spring fundraiser. Recruit social savvy parent ambassadors to amplify the date, time and info about your carnival or festival on their channels, the school social channels and with networks within the community. Check it out
Related:
5 Free Tech Tools That Make Event Planning Easier
[PRESENTATION] Boosting Fundraiser Turnout & Profits
10 Tips for Your Face Painting Booth
Fun Carnival Games & Booth Ideas
Best Spring Carnival Games Ideas
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The recipe for Spring fundraising success doesn’t have to be complicated! With the right fundraiser for your school families, time-saving coordination tools, simple social media outreach and fun incentives, your school can boost turnout and profits more than ever before.
Check out our 5 top tips for cooking up sweet fundraising success this season:
1. Get a taste of sweet (and delicious) product fundraisers: Give your school parents a product fundraiser they can really sink their teeth into that is delicious, profitable and fun for the family! Butter Braid® Brand Fundraising offers a variety of flavors of their mouth-watering, signature hand-braided pastries including raspberry and double chocolate. Local fundraiser representatives, short turn-around times and high per-item profits also make this fundraiser a sweet success for any school!
As band mom and blogger, Carissa Rogers, recounts the whole host of fundraisers she and her fellow band parents are involved in, she wonders, “If we host all these other fundraisers why do we keep running an annual Butter Braid© Brand Fundraiser? Because both the parents and the parent’s friends and family ASK FOR IT.”
Enough said. Check it out for your school today, learn more.
2. Cook up time-saving coordination: Scheduling parents to help with your big Spring fundraiser? Save time organizing parent volunteer jobs and tasks with free online signups from VolunteerSpot! Intuitive and time-saving scheduling tools make it easy for fundraising chairs and school leaders to manage multiple events and volunteer needs at once – and automated reminders keep everyone on track! Get started now
Related: 5 Spring Fundraising Solutions for School Parent Leaders
3. Stir up community events: A great way to boost spring fundraising profits is to add your existing product fundraiser to a community event like a carnival, auction or bake sale. Give your fundraiser its own table or booth staffed by a handful of volunteers, and school families can easily place their fundraising orders in minutes (or even redeem tickets or points towards a purchase). With product fundraisers like Butter Braid® Brand Fundraising, you can even have free samples for tasting at your booth to encourage parents to act fast!
4. Whip up the word on social media: Spreading the word this Spring is easier than ever with a whirlwind of strategic outreach on your school’s social channels! Key inclusion in marketing materials like eNewsletters, the school’s website, classroom blogs and local online news outlets are also great ways to get the word out and include more school parents and community members in your fundraiser.
Related: How to Use Social Media When Fundraising
5. Sweeten the deal: Adding fun and clever incentives to your school fundraising program is a great way to get more school families involved and boost profits. Set fundraising benchmarks and goals so students and school families feel that extra boost to spread the word and raise more money. Fun incentives include:
FUNdraising goals with great incentives are fun for students and parents alike!
Related: Fundraising Ideas | Boosting Turnout & Profits (Webinar Recap)
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Raise more money for your school or nonprofit with the ideas, hints and tips in our popular fundraising webinar - presentation slides below:
Key Takeaways:
More About Our Sponsor, Evan-Moor:
Evan-Moor is a leading education publisher, specializing in helping kids learn with fun and educational teacher-developed products! Their unique fundraising program offers schools the chance to raise money and provide Daily Summer Activity books to families. These summer enrichment books help prevent summer learning loss and promote smooth transitions for kids from one grade to the next.
Related:
Social Media Tips When Fundraising
5 Steps to Getting Volunteers Active in Your Online Facebook & Twitter Communities
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