School fundraisers in New York, planned around a post-Labor Day start.

The New York calendar and the two-week window

New York City public schools open the Thursday after Labor Day, and most districts across the state open the Wednesday or Thursday of that same week. A handful upstate go the week before. That makes the fall window the latest in the country and the tightest. Brian ships the kickoff packet the week before school opens, lets the first full week settle, and launches on the third week of September.

• ✓Fall. The third full week of September through the first or second week of October. Delivered before Thanksgiving.
• ✓Spring, early. The last week of January through the week before mid-winter recess in February.
• ✓Spring, late. The first two weeks of March after the break, before spring recess and the state ELA and math tests in April.

Where Brian works in New York

The New York City Department of Education, the largest school district in the country, across all five boroughs. Long Island, where Nassau and Suffolk counties hold more than a hundred districts, Brentwood, Sachem, Smithtown, Levittown and Half Hollow Hills among them. Westchester and Rockland. The Hudson Valley through Newburgh, Middletown and Poughkeepsie. Albany, Schenectady, Shenendehowa and the Capital Region. Syracuse, Rochester, Buffalo, Utica, Binghamton and the Southern Tier. The North Country and the small central districts across the rest of the state. City schools, suburban districts, charters, Catholic schools and independent academies all run the same program.

Band, chorus and cheer in New York

New York field bands build toward the state championships in Syracuse at the end of October, and the fees, buses and camp balances come due in September. Choirs and bands audition for All-County and All-State in the fall, with the All-State conference in December. Competitive cheer is a winter sport here with sectional competitions in February and a state championship in March, so cheer squads pay camp and competition bills through the winter.

The fall window covers the field band season and the All-State trip. The early spring window covers cheer competition travel and the spring musical. Spring sales also fund next fall’s uniforms before the price goes up over the summer.

What Brian does from Greensboro

Everything that is not the kickoff itself. He builds the calendar around your district dates, sets up the online store, ships the kickoff packet and the share links the week before school opens, writes the kickoff script, reads the numbers on day seven and calls the coordinator with the midpoint push. On delivery day he is on the phone if a box is short. A school in Rochester gets the same attention as one in Greensboro because the program was built to run by phone, email and the store.

You run a five-minute kickoff and send the link home. The VIP Duck collectibles keep the kids chasing the next level and the prize program tracks itself in the admin site, so nobody at the school keeps a spreadsheet. Zero upfront cost, no minimum order, and the fall and spring catalogs are different products, so a school can run both. Elementary and middle schools, PTAs, PTOs, bands, choruses, cheer squads and booster clubs all run the same program. The day-by-day version is on how it works.

Shipping to New York schools

Giving Market ships pre-sorted orders to the school about two weeks after close, sorted by student so distribution takes one afternoon. Online store orders ship direct to supporters anywhere in the country, so the grandparents in Florida and the cousins in Jersey get their boxes at home. Nobody carries a case on the LIRR. Brian tracks every shipment from Greensboro and handles any shortage himself.

New York is part of the Northeast region. Fall 2026 was forty sales and more than $700,000, every one run from one desk.

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