Val-o-grams and CRUSH - Seasonal Fundraising Ideas

Val-o-grams and CRUSH are a great seasonal fundraising ideas for a class, student government or a special project to raise money quickly. It is especially fun in middle school and high school when there might be a lot of “crushes” happening! Valentine's Day is a great time to fundraise.

What is this fundraising idea?
Seasonal fundraising ideas such as Val-o-grams and CRUSH are great sellers because they are unique. Sell “Val-o-grams” for $1 each. You can get creative and design a card which the buyer fills out and will be sent to their valentine.

The Val-o-gram can be attached to one balloon and delivered on Valentine’s Day. Tip: use one balloon and attach multiple val-o-grams to that balloon (you aren’t in the balloon business!). You can also attach small chocolates as well.

The costs on this idea are minimal – most of the work is in the advertising and coordination on delivery day.

A variation on this idea is called “CRUSH”. It is the same idea but instead of a balloon and a card, the buyer purchases a can of Orange Crush that will be delivered with a note. You can decide if it is one can per customer and multiple notes or multiple cans and notes. Both of these activities can earn big returns.

Promotion and advertising for Val-o-grams and CRUSH to your classmates is key to success! Make fliers throughout the school and indicate when Val-o-grams or CRUSH can be purchased. Usually selling over lunchtime and before and after school for a week or so should give you ample time.

Remember to make announcements over the intercom or in classrooms as well. If the money is being raised for a specific project make sure to let you classmates know how important the project is and how their help is needed. AND, they also get something in return.

On distribution day, make sure you have enough time to compile all of the deliverables and enough volunteers. You probably may need to begin this process a full day ahead of the time depending on how successful your sales have been.

If you do chose to give multiple cans of CRUSH make sure that you have a way to deliver them to the recipient – in a box or grocery bag – so that they have a way to carry around their items.

This idea can be explored depending on your school or group’s creativity to include St. Patty’s day green carnations, or Halloween Honey cards, Christmas Kisses (Hersey kisses) or wherever your imagination can dream up!