Tools

Great Ideas! (Junior High, High School, FBLA & Key Club Chapters)

What types of events are successful at your school? Are there businesses or students who might be interested in helping your cause. Check your calendar – try not to schedule events on days when a lot of other activities are going on.


  • Bowling for Babies – Encourage friends and family to register teams to participate in a fun night out bowling! Work with local businesses to get an alley donated and charge an entry fee for teams to participate!
  • Have a mini Super Bowl®. Organize a massive game of tag, ultimate Frisbee® or a “quidditch” match at a local park. Recruit players and raise money by selling food and admission tickets.
  • Pie in the face - Invite everyone’s favorite teachers/professors and/or student leaders to volunteer to be pied in the face for a good cause. Set up collection jars for each volunteer and ask everyone to donate to one (or all) of the jars. Encourage participants to ask for donations. The person who raises the most will be pied in the face in front of the entire school!
  • Go Project Runway® - Organize a fashion show that features clothing from local stores. It’s a great way for stores to showcase their clothes. Prom and formal wear are naturals. Hold your event in a central location and use the admission fee to raise money for March of Dimes.
  • Trick or Treat - Get your classmates to ask for donations instead of candy to fight for the health of all moms and babies.
  • Rock out in Purple – Host your own Purple Dance! Go formal, with gowns and ties, or go casual, asking everyone to dress in purple from head to toe. Check with local businesses to have food and entertainment donated. Charge an entry fee and donate proceeds to putting an end to prematurity.
  • Bake Sale - an oldie but a goodie. Get your classmates together and bake some delicious treats. Ask for donations in exchange for a bag of treats to help raise money for March of Dimes.
  • Car Smash - get an old car donated and get an school approved area in the parking lot to use. Advertise that you get 5 swings for $20 or $5 per swing. This is a great way to engage your fellow students in a fun activity where proceeds support March of Dimes.

Other ways to engage Your School (Pre-School - Middle School)

Sample 1 Week Program

We provide an easy to follow template for you and your staff that lasts for the week:

Monday

  • Bring in your pennies to help your classroom.

Tuesday

  • Bring in your nickels and wear a hat to school.

Wednesday

  • Bring in dimes and dress up in a profession you may want to be when you grow up.

Thursday

  • Bring in quarters and come to school in your pajamas.

Friday

  • Bring dollars and wear purple to school for the day.
  • On Friday you can host a mini March for Babies at your school and invite parents to walk with their kids.

Sample 2 Week Program

Executing a Change War

As with any fundraiser, you should first brainstorm to see if this is the best fundraiser and your local March of Dimes office can help you with that. If you cannot execute the fundraiser properly to extract the maximum amount of donations, the fundraiser may not be worth your valuable time. Fortunately, the change war is an easy fundraiser that both beginner fundraisers and seasoned veterans can accomplish with relatively little effort. After brainstorming, you should meet with your team of volunteers and plan out the full details of the fundraiser!

  1. Set a time frame: Your change war can run as long or a short as you want it to! Make it a quick competition of 5 days or a month (in this case we have added it as a 2 week program). You can even set your change war to run the course of a season. For schools, try running the change war for the fall until Holiday Break or from the beginning of school until Halloween.
  2. Set a goal: For your Change War you must set a goal. The goal will encourage competition and it will promote donations as you inch closer to the set amount. Moreover, everyone “wins” when the goal is achieved!
  3. Create clear and concise rules: Make sure that everyone understands your rules and that they are easy to follow.

Here are sample rules we have set up here for a sample school Change War:

  1. The time frame of this Change War will be two weeks (you determine length) and the winning class will get a party or special privilege for winning.
  2. Each class will have a March of Dimes bucket for the fundraiser with their class name on it, this jug will be located in a unique location and will hold the donations.
  3. For the first week of the Change War, classes should donate as much money as they can into their class bucket. These donations can be any type of coins – pennies, nickels, dimes, quarters, etc. – and dollars.
    • Every day, or every few days, an adult will collect the buckets and count the money inside. The money should be placed in an envelope or larger collection bin with designations for each class so the money does not get misplaced.
    • At the end of each week, announce the total amounts and which class is in the lead. You can then update your school thermometer to reflect your total donations to date.
  4. Donating: For the last week of the Change War, the competition will switch to a reverse generosity competition. Classes want as little money in their buckets as possible and should put all donations into other the buckets of other classes.
    • The amounts totaled in each classroom's bucket will be “deducted” from their total amount raised. Note that the money is still going towards the overall cause!
    • The reverse generosity encourages more friendly competition and classes will fully immerse themselves in the fundraiser.
  5. Count the total amount of change and dollars collected for the entire month and wrap the coins, or have a bank count it for you, and send or deposit the check for cause!