Great Ideas for Green Fund-Raising

Forget the bake sales and door-to-door holiday wrapping paper sales: the Berkeley, California-based Green Schools Initiative has assembled a fantastic list of healthy, environmentally friendly ways for cash-strapped schools to raise funds.

Some of the options are familiar ones: walk-a-thons, bowl-a-thons, gift cards to local stores and book sales. (Or how about a used book sale? Even more eco-friendly.) But there are lots of other cool ideas I haven’t seen before like:

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Auctioning off fun experiences with teachers. The Green Schools Initiative points to one school where parents can bid on “a hike and picnic for 6 kids with their beloved 3rd grade teacher; or a middle school teacher who doubles as a gourmet cook (and) offers dinner for 6 cooked in the bidder’s home”;

TerraCycle’s juice pack and food wrapper recycling program. Terracycle pays a few pennies for each yogurt container, juice pack, cookie wrapper and other items sent in, and uses the materials to make some pretty awesome stuff: backpacks, messenger bags and totes;

Cartridges for Kids, which pays schools and non-profits for empty printer cartridges, used cell phones, laptops, iPods and more. (The Cartridges for Kids site also links to caused-based recycling programs that help pets, the military, refugees, victims of domestic violence, the climate, etc.);

The Funding Factory, which offers a pay-for-recyclables program similar to Cartridges for Kids.

You can find the full list of green and ethical fund-raising programs at the Green Schools Initiative.

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