please, help with ideas.

[mir]

hi, people - if anyone can respond to this with any ideas, i would REALLY appreciate it.

the literary magazine in my school is currently having . . . um . . . fiscal difficulties.
the kids in the school (this is high school) are pretty willing to contribute their stories and art to the magazine, but we're having trouble raising money from them with literature-based fundraisers such as story or poetry contests. we could raise some money with a bake sale, but we really want something that has to do with books or the arts - and we dont't want to just ask for charity. does anyone have any suggestions for fundraisers that involve writing, but would be appealing to teenage kids?

[Xamonas Chegwe]

Isn't the traditional method to have the smart kids sell completed homework to the jocks?

Seriously though, how about selling personalised birthday / greetings cards, complete with poetry composed especially for the recipient - with their name, likes/dislikes, etc?

[Scheherazade]

You can ask people donate their old, unwanted books and sell them to the other students for a small price. Like £ 1 each.

Also, competitions where contenders have to pay a fee to enter... Like funniest May Day poem competition.

Similar to XC's suggestion, bookmarks always sell nicely as well.

[Petrarch's Love]

Hi Mir--Since I headed my highschool lit. magazine for two years (and was heavily involved the other two) I can sympathize. If you've already exhausted every possibility of leaning on the school for money (after persevering one year with the help of the teacher advising the club, we were able to get some out of a random fund the school had--though I think we had to get creative and pretend we had something to do with technology--printing presses count right? ).

Anyway, assuming that's a no go, it's usually best to try to sell something that people want, and unfortunately poetry alone doesn't usually sell. The card and bookmark suggestions are good ideas, but in my experience appealing to the stomach is usually most successful with all people, especially high-school students. Edible sells. Here's a suggestion, why don't you go with a bake sale or candy sale idea, but give it a literary twist so people connect it with your club. One idea would be to sell suckers or lollipops (or any other kind of candy you can get a lot of for cheap) with some kind of poetic quote tied around the stem. Or take a hint from Cyrano's friend Ragueneau and wrap your baked goods in poems. Make your quotes things having to do with love, friendship and humour. Then you can market them to those cliques of girls who are constantly trying to think of best friend things to do together or to people who are dating or have crushes on each other and need a romantic gift for that "special someone." Just think of the popularity of those candy hearts with the messages on them people exchange on Valentines day, or the popularity of fortune cookies--people can wonder which quote they're going to get with the lollipop you sell them, or what limerick their cookie will be wrapped in. Maybe while you're selling the candy and cakes you could test the market with a small supply of other things like bookmarks, cards, used books etc. Then you can tell how much of a demand there might be for that sort of thing.

One final bit of advice, you might want to concentrate some efforts on the people who might actually have some real money to donate--not your peers but their parents. Try contacting the PTA at your school and see if they'll help you raise money or let you address parents at one of their meetings to ask for donations. Or possiby ask the members of your club if they would mind bringing home a letter to their parents asking if they would like to help in any way (one year my club found someone's uncle who was in the printing business and was willing to give us a significant discount for our mag., so you may find help in ways other than money). For this you'd want to play up the importance of the lit. journal for learning and for improving minds. Maybe highlight the responsibilities you guys learn in putting a magazine together and emphasize the pride both students and parents will feel when seeing the students' works in print. Parents might also be interested that this is a great thing for students to put in the extra-curricular portion of their college apps.

Good luck to you and your group.

[mir]

wow - thanks, guys, these suggestions are really great. we're sort of trying to create a traditional fundraiser for the magazine, something we could do every year, and any of these would be perfect. thanks again!