Parents will pay top dollar to make sure their college student (particularly first year students and those in the middle of exams) are comfortable, settling in and, frankly, still aware their parents exist.  Enter your Care Packages for College Students fundraiser.

Planning:
Sit down with other organizers and have a brainstorming session about what you should include in each care package.  Be sure to focus on items you can buy in wholesale stores, in order to keep costs low and maximize profit.  Consider having three different sizes and advertising the medium size as the best value.  Make the big one expensive, since some parents will buy the biggest version for their kid(s) almost regardless of the price.

Advertising:
Encourage people to send care packages to college students they know.  Parents will logically consider sending a care package to their child or children, but be sure to encourage other people – people who don’t have children or don’t have children enrolled in college – to send care packages to college students they know (their best friend’s child, for instance).  Make sure the smallest version of care packages you’re offering is priced low enough so people don’t have reservations about sending a care package or care packages to their neighbor’s kids, friends’ kids, etc.

Execution:
When it come time to prepare and send the packages, recruit volunteers to help assemble the packages and write handwritten notes that will be included in the care packages (you can have volunteers write a nice note on behalf of your organization, you can have volunteers transcribe and include a note that the buyer desired or you can have the buyer write a note at the time of purchase that can be included in the care package).  Also, you should inform the sender of the care package that his or her care package has been sent.  When sending care packages, consider using the post office’s flat rate shipping boxes to minimize costs and maximize ease.

Another angle?  Use this as a Support the Troops Fundraiser
This would work especially well as a support the troops fundraiser.  You could simply say that for every care package you send to a college student, your group will send one to a soldier (be sure to do a little research ahead of time so you know what soldiers are and are not permitted to receive).

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