Make Money and Make a Difference with Fair Trade Fundraising

By Ashley Symons, Equal Exchange

I went to elementary school in the Midwest in the early ‘90s. Every fall, we entered the school gymnasium to get pumped up for our annual fundraiser. This kick-off event was meant to energize us to sell, with lures of all the prizes we could win if we sold the most candy bars, tubs of popcorn, or wrapping paper. The philosophy was, “the more you sell, the more you’ll win random stuff you really don’t need!” Never did we talk about how what we were selling might impact people or places. Just get the most money, and you too could win a neon-pink kazoo keychain. Woo-hoo!

Fifteen years later, I’m so pleased to be a worker-owner at Equal Exchange, where we offer schools a different kind of fundraising. My co-worker, Virginia Berman, started the Equal Exchange Fundraising Program after getting requests from teachers and parents who wanted an alternative fundraiser. After three years, we’ve partnered with over 300 groups. And the momentum continues to grow every day.

So, what’s special about this fundraiser? Well, for one it offers totally yummy fairly traded and organic coffee, tea, chocolate, nuts and dried fruit. It’s stuff that people already eat and drink, so it doesn’t feel wasteful like typical fundraisers. Plus, it’s fairly traded, so you can feel good knowing your fundraising dollars are supporting small-scale farmer co-ops and their communities. Additionally, the products are organic. The farmers use sustainable farming methods, without all those nasty pesticides and fertilizers. It’s better for them, it’s better for you and your kids, and it’s better for our earth.

Equal Exchange also developed a Fair Trade and co-op economics curriculum to accompany the Fundraising Program, to teach children that their everyday choices can make a difference in the lives of others (it’s free to download on our web site). We really believe that change is on the horizon – and we need the help of future generations to make sure we are supporting farmers internationally, while also making efforts toward greening this planet of ours.

The bottom line? Your school fundraiser can make a difference worldwide while raising money for your own community. Sounds way better than a neon-pink kazoo keychain, if you ask me.

To find out more about the Equal Exchange Fundraising Program, please visit www.equalexchange.coop/fundraiser

Post from: Eco-Office Gals

Guest post: Fair Trade Fundraising

It’s that time of year again, alarm clocks, school clothes, football practice… yep school is gearing back up. Big Box stores are full of parents battering each other down for the last black and white composition notebook.  It’s almost like Christmas in August isn’t it?

I have had a bad habit in the past of not seeing what supplies I already have in the house from previous years, and it is so wasteful, I know. This year thanks to many of the green office products I have had opportunity to review I will definitely be able to scratch several items off of the list and I love it! For the rest of the lot, why not green up your kids supply list?

Green Apple School Supplies offer a great selection of environmentally responsible school supplies for your kids to fill their backpacks. Like Banana Paper or Rulers made from Recycled Yellow Pages, and much more!

My husband has a friend that is deaf and his sign language skills are very beginner, so the banana paper notebooks and pencils made from cedar wood scraps have been useful for hours of written conversations without the waste of virgin materials.  I love the idea of highlighter pencils, no harsh fumes when opening a cap. The raw cardboard binders may not seem too stylish for the kids, but it is an open canvas for them to doodle all over and get creative, which is what they end up doing with those chemical leeching plastic ones anyway, right?! And the list goes on! This is a great way to green up an area of your life, cause every step counts!

Green Apple Supply is happy to offer four of the following giveaways: One Banana Paper Legal Pad with special embossed cover, 50 sheets, one set of Friendly dry erase markers, chisel tips, 4 colors (tubes made with recycled paper/uses 60% less plastic and ink has no VOC’s) and a Green Apple retractable pen made from recycled components. All are perfect fit for the “green” office or backpack. Retail value for each set is $11.00. So, do any or all of the following and leave a separate comment for each one to get a chance to win!

• Visit Green Apple Supply let us know what you would love to try.
• Blog about this giveaway and link back to this post.
• Tweet this giveaway
• Stumble this giveaway
• Use other forms of social networking to spread the word about this giveaway.
• Subscribe to my feed to stay up to date with the latest from Eco-Office Gals.
• Buy anything from Green Apple Supply and comment 5 times that you did! (I will confirm)

Good Luck! Four winners will be picked on 8/12/09.

Here are your random numbers:

36

Timestamp: 2009-08-15 15:31:08 UTC

Congrats! Sonya Sparks

All the best!

I forgot 5 prizes were being awarded! Apologies! Here are the other 4:

Here are your random numbers:

7 - Heather Goldsmith
115 - Veronica Garrett
56 - Chris G.
98 - clarissa neiding

Timestamp: 2009-08-16 15:39:16 UTC

Jen

Post from: Eco-Office Gals

Flaunt It! Monday! Green Apple Supply