We all need fundraising for our comps, teams, and recitals. Here are some clever and creative ways to earn money for your team!

1. Affiliate Marketing.

Seriously.

Start a blog, Instagram, Pinterest, or Facebook group. Do a YouTube channel. Use your email list. Whatever.  Then start with some affiliate marketing!!!

What's affiliate marketing?

Basically, it works like this:

You contact the supplier and say "Hey, pay me to promote your item," and they say "Yeah okay." Then you tell your subscribers "Hey go buy this thing." They buy it. If they buy it from your link, you get a small cut (anywhere from 4 or 5% to a flat fee of $10 or $15 per purchase.)

A few starter ideas:

• Write an email to your parents, asking them to try Blue Apron, Home Chef, or Dinnerly, Naturebox, Merkaela, Drip Drop, or any other subscription that is perfect for them. Many times places like this provide a discount on your first purchase. Ask them to do so through your link, and you will get a percentage of that purchase.
• Have a "Recommended Products" page (here's mine), and fill it with dancewear from Amazon, Opt-in Monster, Danzia, All About Dance, ballet box, or Dancewear Solutions. There are also great fitness-based programs like Gokker, FitStyle, or Stroops, Make sure to tell your parents about how a portion of the purchase goes to the studio! This is required by law!
• Feature one item every month in your monthly newsletter containing an affiliate link and/or coupon

2. Penny Wars. 

Divide the studio into 2 or 3 groups, maybe by level, dance, age, location, studio, etc. Each group collects as many pennies (and nickels and dimes) as they can find, and the group with the highest value gets a prize at the end of the "war." Make it fun!

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3. Quarters for Kisses.

Have each kid buy a bag of Hershey's chocolate kisses, or some other pre-wrapped candy that is fairly affordable. Ask the students to go around to different businesses (dressed in their favorite costume, of course) and sell the wrapped candy for a quarter each. Most people would be willing to give a kid a few quarters... but quarters add up!

4. Sell Something Hot or Cold.
Is it blistering hot outside? Set up a water, lemonade, or Popsicle stand at a few of the local parks (those little ice-pops that cut up your mouth? They're cheap. This box of 200 is $25 with free shipping. Sell them for $1 each? you've made $175 profit. ) Is it freezing out? Hot cocoa, man. (this Swiss Miss is actually cheaper to buy the 58 oz instead of the 40 oz.)

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5. Sell something you've made

• Have a craft night for your team where someone guides the students through making a simple craft or item. 
• Every family bakes something for a bake-sale
• Cards are a great craft to make and sell around Christmas time - everyone sends holiday cards!
• Pancake Breakfast
• Spaghetti Dinner
• Rice and Bean bowl dinners. (seriously. rice and beans are cheap, especially if you cook the beans yourself. top with veggies, cheese, sour cream, etc)
• Melt-and-pour soap (fairly inexpensive, easy to make, and even easier to sell)
• Hair Bows (you know you can make some great hair bows with rhinestones!)
• Leg warmers (pro-tip: go to thrift store, buy sweaters, cut sleeves off, add decor. instant legwarmers)
• A Calendar with candid studio and action shots

6. Sidewalk Sale - ask dancers to wash and bring all their unused costumes from previous years, dancewear, shoes, leotards, etc. and have a sidewalk sale to raise money for your team.

7. Raffles and silent auctions - Recital is the perfect place to have a raffle or silent auction!

• Have a beautiful poster or display saying "Help us put on an even better show next year!
• Ask each family to contribute something - a $5 target gift card, a bottle of wine, a batch of home-made cookies, all due 3 days before the show, etc.
• Separate and sort the items into gift packs, baskets, or categories, and set up a silent auction or raffle. 
• This is great because people like friends and grandparents are very likely to buy a few tickets to support the studio

8. Holidays? Mistletoe. Guys, Mistletoe is literally a fungus that grows out on trees and it's literally free. Get a group of dance dads to collect the stuff. Cut it into little bundles, and tie it with ribbon and put a few jingle bells on it. I'd buy a bundle of mistletoe for $10 from a kid in a tutu.

9. Have a parent date night. Ask parents (or even people outside the studio!) to drop their kids off and enjoy a date night out... in exchange for a small fee (you can set a flat fee, an hourly fee, or just pay-what-you-can). Set up fun activities for the kids to do (movies, games, dancing, dress-up, crafts) while the parents are away.

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10. Be part of a trustworthy and worth-while MLM. Yeah I know MLMs and shop clubs get a bad reputation, but some of them are great! I'm a member of an online wellness club, and I have dance friends who have made thousands of $$ selling tooth-whiting toothpaste, and other products like Lash Boost and Healthy energy drinks. Find something that is specific to your demographic that you think your families would enjoy, and make sure none of your studio families already sell that item!


What are your most successful fundraisers?