The middle school fundraiser that middle schoolers will actually do.

A middle school fundraiser sits in the awkward middle. The kids are too old for the elementary pep rally and too young to run it themselves. Parents are less involved than they were in fourth grade and more involved than they will be in tenth. Brian has run middle school sales since 1994, and a middle school in Reidsville, North Carolina with 830 students sold $26,000 in a September sale this fall. The sale works because the ask is small and the prizes are real.

Why it works in sixth through eighth grade

• ✓The ask is a link. Nobody carries a catalog to the lunch table. Each student gets a store link, texts it to relatives and the parents post it.
• ✓The prizes are ducks. VIP Duck collectibles during the sale and a cumulative prize program, tracked in an admin site. Middle schoolers trade them in the hallway.
• ✓Two weeks and done. A kickoff, a midpoint push on day seven and a finish on day fourteen. Short enough to hold the attention of a twelve-year-old.
• ✓Grandma can buy. The online store ships gift items direct to supporters in any state. Program orders come to the school pre-sorted.
• ✓Zero upfront cost. No deposit, no minimum. The school never writes a check to start.

Whole school or one program

A middle school PTA can run one sale for the building, the way Reidsville did. Or the band can run its own, the way a 150-kid middle school band in Asheville did when it sold $15,000 in October. Chorus, cheer, drama and student council work the same way. Brian keeps a calendar so two programs at the same school never land on the same two weeks. Both sales are on the case studies page.

How a middle school sale runs

1. The call. Brian and the principal, PTA president or director. The goal, the enrollment and the calendar.
2. The window. Two clean weeks that miss the book fair, testing and spirit week. Brian sets kickoff, midpoint and finish.
3. The kickoff. Five minutes in homeroom or at an assembly with Brian’s script. Each student gets a link and a paper form.
4. The sale. Families share the link. Brian sends the day seven push that reaches the families who have not started.
5. Delivery. School orders ship pre-sorted by student. Online orders ship straight to the supporter.

What the money goes to

Field trips, the eighth grade trip, technology, the band’s spring trip, cheer competition fees, the drama club’s spring show. A middle school has the same list every year and a fall sale that covers it. The catalog from Giving Market, a Booster company, is popcorn, sweet treats, cookie dough, wrapping paper, candles, kitchen goods, tote bags and magazines, so every supporter who opens the link finds something.

The parent’s part

Every family gets a packet in the backpack with the parent letter Brian writes, a paper order form and the school’s store link. Parents register at the link and share the store by text and social post. Relatives order from their phone and gift items ship to their door. The paper form is for the neighbor who pays in person. Both kinds of orders show up in the admin site, the prize program counts them together, and the student gets credit for all of it. Middle schoolers run the hallway end of this, trading VIP Ducks, and parents run the phone end.

Whole schools and PTAs can read the school fundraisers page. Band, chorus and cheer programs are on teams and groups. The step-by-step is on how it works, and middle schools across the Southeast can see what their neighbors sold this fall.

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