Fundraising for your center: An opportunity to build community

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People say, "It takes a village to raise a child." In orchestrating a fundraiser for my center, I realized it takes a village to run a successful fundraising event!

Throughout my teaching and directing career, I have enjoyed the planning and implementation of various fundraising events (e.g., t-shirt sales, flower pots, clay ornaments decorated by our children, and bake sales). These types of fundraising events were based on products that were fun, safe, and easy to make, market, and sell. The overhead was low, but so were the returns; the funds generated by these events were just enough to cover a few teachers' training registration fees or to celebrate staff birthdays.

Recently, however, something unexpected happened that pushed my 'creative fundraising' button. Last summer while I was out on maternity leave, the Children's Center Evening Program came close to being shut down due to lack of funding. Following many discussions with the ...