January 9th, 2009 · No Comments

By Melissa Segrest
Green Right Now

They’ve sold the candy bars. They’ve sold the wrapping paper. Perhaps they’ve even sold cookie dough (not healthy) or had car washes (not good during droughts). The problem with typical school fund-raisers is that the kids just end up selling more stuff – at a time when the world could benefit from a little less stuff.

Thus, a green wave of school fund-raising efforts has washed across the country, and companies are springing up to meet that demand. Eco-friendly firms will provide everything from stainless steel water bottles to fair-trade T-shirts, energy-efficient light bulbs to recycled wrapping paper as alternative, Earth-friendly ways of raising money.

No small number of them were launched by environmentally sensitive parents who didn’t like what they saw their kids selling to friends and family.

The Green Schools Initiative – a non-profit group in California – has a far-reaching agenda to make schools across the country more environmentally conscious. Co-founder Deborah Moore said that a few years ago she began getting more requests from parents for ideas to raise money and serve a greater purpose at the same time.

“I just tried to collect some information to email the person, tell them there are other kinds of products they could sell,” Moore said. Since then, she said, there’s been a surge in “turn-key” green fund-raising businesses. (She offers numerous links to green fund-raising groups on the Initiative’s Web site.)

Many of the for-profit entrepreneurs see an opportunity to contribute to the environment and make money selling products that are both useful and earth-friendly.

Corey Berman launched Green Students Fundraising in 2007 and started providing CFLs (compact fluorescent light bulbs) to schools, not just to raise money but to teach kids about the environment and save customers some electric-bill money. Today, they offer complete fund-raising packages to schools and sell all sorts of green products. Their most popular items are Klean Kanteen stainless steel water bottles (pictured above – schools can earn $6 a bottle) and Nellie’s Dryerballs (to replace dryer sheets).

“We started with four pilot schools,” Berman said, “and we probably have around 200 now,” in Canada and across the U.S. His fund-raising program works like most others: They send information and promotional materials to schools, the schools collect orders for products, and his company sends the products back to the school for distribution to customers. He makes a profit, the school makes money, and the Earth benefits.

Lisa Olson was a PTA mom frustrated with the typical fund-raising products. Her desire to find something to make the world a little better, “and something I really needed,” led to Green Raising. The company launched two years ago and now offers numerous products (reusable grocery bags, fair trade chocolate, coffee and jewelry, and recycled gift wrap, for example) to about 1,100 schools and other non-profits. “We even have a reusable gift sack (pictured at left) made out of cloth that you can use over and over.” Her business has expanded beyond the ever-green West Coast and is growing in the Northeast, especially in New Jersey. “Many schools are adding spring fund-raisers tied to Earth Day (April 22),” she added.

Success isn’t measured strictly by how much money a school raises, Berman said, but also by the value of the products sold.

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