A common problem that many high school clubs face is the lack of funds in their bank accounts and the cost of going to conferences on the constant rise. Fundraising is the solution to this problem, but for the most part, it can be challenging to come up with creative ideas to raise money.
The first thing that a club must do is realize that there are many ways to make income for the club (or class). Fundraising is just one way, but applying for grants is another equally effective way to raise money. All there is to do is figure out which way to raise funds is best for your club.
Option 1: Fundraising
Example of one of the posters made for the Valentine’s Day Fundraiser.
Everyone loves a good fundraiser, but there are things that must be set in place to make said fundraiser successful. You first need to figure out what idea you’re going to use for the fundraiser: a bake-sale during finals week, a candy-cane sale before winter break, or a flower sale on Valentine’s day. There’s a lot of possibilities to make money for your club depending on your school’s policies. To set up a good fundraiser there are some logistical basics that you need to cover:
- How will you afford the supplies?
If your club receives funding from your school then you can ask them to pay for the necessary supplies. It’s important to stay in contact with your school’s extracurricular supervisor so they know when your club is planning to do the fundraiser and the budget of the fundraiser. The benefit that comes with your school paying for the supplies is that the club only sees the profit because the school covered your expenses.
- Who’s in charge of what?
The sharing of responsibilities is crucial to having a successful fundraiser because one person cannot manage everything. An idea would be to create committees in charge of different things. I’ll use the example of a Valentine’s day themed flower sale (that is my club’s biggest fundraiser). This is our guideline:
- Committee A is in charge of making posters to advertise.
- Committee B is in charge of selling flowers during lunch.
- Committee C takes care of logistical things. For example they would be in charge of the flower fundraiser, meaning that the day before they would pass the flowers out, sort out the slips, and ensure the personnel was readily equipped to distribute the flowers before Valentine’s Day.
- How can everyone get involved?
One thing that an exec board member should focus on is getting everyone from the club involved. An (or two) underclassmen can be in charge of the committees so that they learn management skills and are more active participants in your club in the future. I know trusting underclassmen can be difficult especially with something this important since they don’t have as much experience as the upperclassmen, but by trusting them they will learn and be able to lead the club in the future when the upperclassmen all graduate.
Option 2: Grants
Grants are the easiest way to get money because most of the time all you have to do is write a few essays explaining what MUN is and how it will help students succeed (depending on the institution and their essay questions). Grants can be made easy if there are multiple people working on the essays and editing them as others write them. At my school, we have the exec board do this so that the task is done efficiently and quickly.
The first (and only) thing that you will have to do is find grants; although this may seem hard, it’s actually quite easy. A fast trip to Google will let you know if there are any educational groups around your city and you’re in luck if there are because these education-focused groups are the most willing to give money to Model UN clubs. The rest is even easier because you just have to send them in on time and wait for a response; the only thing you actually have to sit down and do is write the grant itself.
Hopefully these two ways of fundraising will make an impact on your club, but other than just fundraising at school, there are even fundraisers that you can do outside of school in efforts to draw attention to MUN and expose your community to Model UN.
