Smencils Gourmet Scented Pencils - Set of 10

These deliciously scented pencils are made from rolled sheets of newspaper instead of wood--you can even see the layers of newspaper when you sharpen them! Recycled newspaper is tightly rolled around #2 graphite then hardened so they feel like wood pencils, but are better for the environment

School carnivals are one of the most popular ways to raise money for schools in the United States. While the amount of planning and organizing that goes into this type of an event may be very high, the pay-off can also be substantial. If you find yourself in charge of running your school's carnival, take a few minutes to read about the things NOT to do, if you would ever like to resume this position in the future.

Repeat the Same Games, Activities, and Entertainment Year After Year

A surefire way to decrease the annual attendance at your school carnival is to find some activities that seem to work and then use them year after year after year. It's very easy to fall into the mindset that since an activity or event was popular one or maybe even two years, it will always be so. However, this is dangerous. People get bored. Also, just because you still have some props left over from previous carnivals, and it's cheaper not to have to build new ones is no excuse to stick with the "same-old, same-old".

The only exception to this rule is something that is considered a local tradition. Perhaps there is a long-established talent contest or chili cook-off that is responsible for actually drawing people to the carnival.

However, these kinds of perennial events should make up only a small fraction of your carnival agenda. Most of the entertainment, activities, and events should be continually updated to keep attracting a large audience each year.

Have Poor Food Choices

Believe it or not, there are some groups out there who place very little importance on the selection and presentation of food at school events. From bake sales to sporting events to school carnivals, food is important! You can not give a lazy effort when selecting what items to sell. You can not just wrap a Rice Crispy treat in cheap cellophane and walk away, thinking you're going to make money.

If you are in charge of organizing your schools carnival, I recommend finding the most creative person on your team and putting him or her in charge of food sales. This person should be responsible for making sure there are interesting and unique food items for sale and that the presentation of all items is highly attractive. This will boost sales and your income dramatically.

Don't Talk to Lots of People When Picking a Theme for the Year

A school carnival should reflect the tastes and interests of your entire school community at large. If the event is going to be a success, it has to appeal to a wide cross-section of your parents, students, and school staff. For instance, I personally can't stand anything to do with Sponge Bob Square Pants. I forbid my children from owning any Sponge Bob merchandise, and they know that even over at friends' houses, they are to avoid this awful, awful cartoon.

Anyway, that's merely my personal opinion, and if I were going to organize a carnival, I would have to be open to somehow incorporating a Sponge Bob theme, if that's what my community wanted one year. The point is, you should seek out a wide cross-section of opinions while determining what theme you are picking for carnival and not rely on your own personal likes and dislikes, just because you're the boss.

Not Having Lots of Places for Families to Spend Money

A school carnival is great because it serves so many purposes. Not only is it a wonderful community builder, but it is also an opportunity for a school to generate a great deal of revenue. A huge mistake on the planners' part would be not to create as many places as possible for parents to spend their money. Of course, there are the traditional opportunities, like admission tickets and food items. However, put some thought and research into other ways to get the cash registers ringing. For example, I would recommend using a space to create a small store and stock it with items from the Oriental Trading catalog. Kids love these kinds of things.

Also think about holding a contest before the carnival for students to design the official school carnival t-shirt for the year. The winning design would be featured on the front side of the t-shirt, while sponsor logos could be sold on the backside. Then these t-shirts could be sold at the event. I would also charge separately for any type of "rides" like a moonwalk or other bouncy type activity.

I would also recommend eliminating cash from your carnival and instead do everything by ticket or token. This will avoid many headaches for you and families at the event.

Not Researching School Carnival Information Online Beforehand

These days, there are so many online resources for you to investigate anything before diving into it. Not only are there traditional sites that will sell you carnival-related items and services, but there are also blogs like this one that offer general advice. Additionally, there are plenty of places, like Yahoo Answers that allow you to post questions and receive answers from people at large about a particular question you might have.

The point is, there is no longer any excuse for not finding out the very best way to run a school carnival. The Internet has provided us all with a free and easy way to gain knowledge on a mind-boggling array of topics. Use this amazing tool to assist you in your planning process.

Not Selling Booth Space to Local Non-Profit or Other Family-Focused Organizations

This may fall under the topic of raising as much money as possible at your carnival, but I thought it was important enough to deserve its own headline. Since you will be drawing a significant crowd of a desirable demographic (families with young kids), other groups will be very desirous of getting in on that action.

I think you should dedicate a section of your carnival space to non-profit groups or other family-focused organizations, so that they can pass out information about their own services. They shouldn't be allowed to sell anything or to solicit donations from those in attendance, but they can pass along information about themselves that would lead to future support. In addition, each group should be required to provide, at their booth, some kind of kid-friendly activity- even if it's something simple like fishing for a prize or a coloring contest.

Lastly, I would charge these groups for the booth space. All non-profits I have ever worked with have a budget for advertising/marketing and participation at a school carnival could easily fall into that budget category. Of course, make it affordable to them, but even at $100 per group could net you a tidy little sum for something that will add to the atmosphere of your event.

Not Embarrassing the School Principal to Raise Money

As a former school principal, I cringe at what I'm about to write, but it's true- you should most definitely use any way possible to embarrass the head of the school for cash. In a related article, I wrote that you should shave, dunk, follow, or jail him or her to raise as much money as you possible can. Inflicting (imaginary) pain on the school principal is something that appeals to the child inside of everyone, including the parents and the staff of the school.

Try selling tickets for a dunk machine, or set a bar of $1000 dollars donated to the PTO and the principal will shave his head, right there at the carnival, you could have a huge hit on your hands.

Not Providing Special Activities and Supervision for Younger Siblings

If you fail to consider that many families have younger siblings (or even elderly grandparents) that could also enjoy the carnival, you are missing a huge opportunity. In all of your promotional information, you should highlight that you will be providing supervised play areas and special activities and events for younger siblings that will be separate and protected from the older kids. You should also mention that there will be plenty of seating areas for grandmas and grandpas to come and enjoy the fun.

By inviting the entire family along, you take away the need (or obstacle) for families to hire a babysitter and also increase your gate receipts. Some families could very well decide that if they can't bring their little kids, they aren't going to bother coming at all and then you lose out.

Spend lots of money on promotion of the event

Advertising can be very expensive and dramatically eat into any kind of profit you're hoping to make from the carnival. There is no reason for your school to drop lots of money in getting the word out about your event. You can do a fantastic job of promotions and only have to spend a modest amount on making copies of your flier.

First of all, you should be sending home information sheets about the carnival months ahead of time, seeking volunteers for all the necessary tasks. Keep the event in the top of the parents' minds on a regular basis right up until the day before. Posters and fliers can be hung up around the school, as well.

Out in the community, many stores will post your fliers for free. Likewise, churches will often cooperate and write a small blurb in their weekly bulletins. I would even write a short public service announcement and send it to your local TV and radio stations. You should assume that your advertising budget is almost zero and work fro there.

Conclusion

Although taking charge of your school's carnival may be daunting, there are many resources available to help you succeed. By putting in some effort early on in the process, you will greatly increase your likelihood of pulling off the best carnival your school has ever seen!

About the Author: James Berigan is a former school principal who enjoys guiding schools with their fundraising efforts. He writes for the Top School Fundraisers blog at http://TopSchoolFundraisers.com/news which includes a variety of fund raising options like fundraising events and school carnivals

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Smencil Scented Pencils - Pineapple

Draw student attention with these gourmet-scented, environmentally friendly pencils. An alternative to wooden pencils, Smencils are made from 100% recycled newspapers. You can even see the layers of newspaper when you sharpen them! The scentsational fragrances are guaranteed to keep their wonderful aromas for two years! Set includes 5 Smencils of the scent that you choose.

In these times of tougher trading the biggest killer of any business involves cashflow: it's an unfortunate fact that as soon as customers start witnessing a downturn they slow down orders AND payments. The result is a double whammy; not as much income as you've budgeted for & the income that the business does earn takes even longer to come in. Meanwhile you need working capital for wages & suppliers - so what do you do?

Some simple rules (some obvious, some a little less so).

1. The Golden Rule: DON'T USE CREDIT CARDS especially personal ones to finance your business. [A chargecard with a monthly limit which then gets paid in full each month is fine to have but I would suggest only using it for bits & pieces.] There are stories of a company that used a series of credit cards to finance their start-up & the turnover now runs into the multi-millions BUT they are the extreme exception & their business plan must have been based on an absolute dead cert (even then I'd say nothing's really a dead cert in business so I reckon they just got lucky). The number of horror stories I've heard regarding companies who have turned to credit cards as a means of survival & the dire consequences further down their trading lives far outweigh the one success story I know about.

2. FACTOR YOUR INVOICES: Factoring isn't a solution for all businesses but if you're prepared to shop around & spend time comparing the different companies that offer this service (& their small-print to ensure no nasty surprises) you may find that it's the right solution for your business. The monthly costs tend to be comparable to a part-time clerical assistant &, like having an office junior, you will have to check their work on a regular basis; it's certainly the norm for them to be rather laid back about chasing your money (more-so than you would be) & if you take out bad-debt protection (essentially an insurance against your debtors going under) then you will have to keep a daily eye on whether they've transferred these risks to you (as they can tend to do). These days most factoring companies offer an online service so checking all these points is relatively simple & takes very little time.

3. SPEAK TO YOUR CREDITORS: When cash starts getting tight, swallow your pride & phone the companies you're struggling to pay on time; most people are more inclined to do a deal if you're upfront & honest & appear to be sorting out your situation rather than leaving them in the dark. Offer a sensible, realistic payment plan & make sure you stick to it - once you default, you're much less likely to get any further extensions of credit.

4. BUSINESS LOAN: Admittedly when you're at this point you may find the banks a little reluctant unless you can show your cashflow pattern over the previous 12 months & a cashflow forecast for the next 12 months backed up by proof of cuts in expenditure and/or contracts won etc. Be realistic as to what you require to put your finances right & be prepared to be able to show comprehensive workings of this to your bank manager.

5. PERSONAL LOAN: Not a decision to be taken lightly but if your personal finances can take the monthly payments AND you are actively marketing to ensure your future cashflow then injecting personal capital in the shape of a personal loan is an option. As to whether or not to pay the loan off in full if the business fortunes turn around in the near future, this is a decision best left for you & your accountant to discuss at the time based on the merits of your business and personal finances.

Above all remember, it's very easy to live in denial & pretend all is rosy but if you take the time to sit down & analyse your business all will become much clearer & you can set your goals based on certainties rather than vain hopes.

Gerard Bermingham is Managing Director of A3 Freight Logistics Ltd & sits on the Transport Committee of the Federation of Small Businesses. He has run his own businesses since the age of 23.

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Fundraising is hard work. No doubt about it. It involves the time and effort of volunteers who are committed to your organization. Every dollar your organization earns through fundraising needs to be accounted for and used wisely.

The following are from current news items from around the United States.

A former treasurer for a high school sports booster club stole $48,000 from the group's

bank account to pay her personal bills and buy a house.

A treasurer of a high school wrestling booster club stole $12,000.

A school secretary embezzled more than $480,000 from the student activity fund.

A fraternity was embezzled by an alumni who was supposed to be in charge of paying the rent of the frat house to the university.

These stories may be shocking but they are not at all uncommon. It is a fact that there are people who do steal and embezzle the funds raised by organizations such as PTO's, sports teams, churches, as well as well-known national charities. Usually people are surprised that someone they thought they knew so well could do such a thing.

When something like this happens to small nonprofits or clubs it can have a devastating effect on the organization and the community for years. The money will have to be raised again which will be difficult if donors have lost faith in your organization.

There are checks and balances that can be put in place to reduce the chance of this happening to your nonprofit organization.

These are some of the things that can be done to help avoid the possibility of funds embezzlement:

Rotate the job of treasurer on a yearly basis - If the same person is in charge of the money year after year it becomes too easy to hide bad accounting procedures.

Checks - Two signatures should be required on each check. Yes, this may slow down the process of check writing and it may be difficult to find two volunteers to do this, but it needs to be done.

Cash - Cash should always be put in a locked safe and deposited in the bank the next business day. Money should always be counted by two people who both sign a receipt confirming the amount of money received.

Disbursements - Cash disbursements should always have a paper trail of invoices and receipts.

Financial Documents - At each board meeting the original bank statements should be presented and filed by the secretary and treasurer.

Yearly Audits - Financial audits should be done by a CPA on a yearly basis.

Background Checks - Require that every board member has a background check from your local police department.

Insurance - Buy an insurance policy that protects you in case of embezzlement. Make sure you follow the proper procedures in money handling according to the policy.

It is up to the board of directors of the organization to ensure that the proper accounting procedures are followed. Do not let your nonprofit organization become a victim of embezzlement or fraud.

Article by Amy Passmore of DIY Fundraising.

Are you looking for ideas on how to raise money for your school, charity or nonprofit organization? Visit http://www.diyfundraising.com for more great tips and resources from an experienced fundraiser.

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