Our students and parents have expressed interest in going to more competitions in the next year, as opposed to our traditional fall and spring comps. The only problem is, the fees are outrageous and we have several sibling groups (as in, 4 or 5 children from the same family all in competition classes), making it next to impossible for the to do a lot.

What are some good fundraising ideas to make money to pay for competitions? We've thought about car washes and bake sales, and maybe a can drive (we're near the New York state boarder so we get the 5 cent return). Is there anything else we can do? How do you all afford it?

Studio Garage Sales! These are fun!

We do a cookie dough fundraiser every year where for every tub of dough sold the student gets three dollars.

We also are doing a Nelson's chicken fundraiser. I'm not sure if you have that where you are but students get about $300 for each chicken half they sell. We live toward the country so it sells ALOT.

Get sponsors from the community. Have the students send out letters to business owners, friends and family asking for sponsorship.

We also do parent night out several times/yr and have a flat rate for dropping off their kid, the older comp students babysit under the supervision of one or two of the comp moms. The girls teach the kids a dance, watch dance movies etc. It's like a dance party. The kids love it and the parents get a cheap night free of children. It's really popular around the holidays so parents can get their Christmas shopping done. We have a sign up sheet in the studio for a few weeks before each one so we know how many kids to expect and how many babysitters we'll need.

We also did themed weekend workshops this yr for younger kids. Hannah Montana, High School Musical etc. The comp kids would teach routines from the movie/show. Those were hugely popular.

Also birthday parties were pretty popular. We'd use the studio on the weekends when there were no classes and host dance themed birthday parties.

we sell sub sandwiches, poinsettas for christmas, butter braids, cookie dough, and we danceat an arena football game getting $10 per ticket we sell.

In the past we have done car washes, can drives, sponsorships.