Especially For Schools

An Environmentally Friendly Fundraising Option

One of the things we heard when we were deciding to open MySchoolLights.com was that no one had approached our local school with an environmentally friendly fundraiser. So we decided to start one. Our local school had wrapping paper, candle, and food fundraisers. None presented good health, environmental, or economic benefits to families. Your school may be similar.

Of course, once you've started a certain type of fundraiser some people may not want to change. Families might be used to the type and timing of fundraisers. But in most cases participation rates are low even if your group might be earning a significant amount. At no time will all families participate. But if you give them a good reason — like saving money — you might engage more people who have been on the sidelines and not participating in any fundraisers.

Integrate With Curriculum

Many schools cover environmental science at different grades. A CFL fundraiser complements a wide range of segments including energy, conservation, pollution, and global warming.

Perhaps more important is that it gives kids an opportunity to show that they can take action and have a positive impact on the world around them. They can teach their parents about how easy it is to save energy and help the environment. Empowering kids in an important benefit that doesn't show up in your fundraising totals.

The average home has 40 light bulbs. Working together to educate students and parents on CFL bulb energy savings will help them understand why it makes sense to switch to CFLs.

Unfortunately most school fundraisers don't provide any of these benefits. Kids are recruited to sell stuff no one typically needs. It's not clear what they'll learn from those experiences.

Simple, Quick and Easy

Our goal is to take away the stress and strain of fundraising. We recommend that you handle all communications with families and coordinate with the school (as you would for any fundraiser). We take care of the rest. We set up a custom web page for your group highlighting why a CFL fundraiser makes sense for everyone. Orders are captured on our web site eliminating the need to take orders and collect cash and checks. This makes all of the bookkeeping easy. Orders are shopped direct to homes taking all of the work to package and distribute orders off your hands. One champion at the school can handle everything. We've turned the "all work and no play" approach of most fundraisers to "share the benefits and save."