Whoever would have thought that raising money for a group of kids to go on a trip could be fun?  It can be, and teach kids responsibility, as well.  Fundraising using coupon books can also be a terrific learning opportunity.

Coupon books are a fairly easy way to raise money—and cheap to put together.  There is a method to making them, and kids can do it themselves with just a bit of guidance, and adult supervision.  Knowledge of what the common goal is will help everyone work together and achieve the end results—enough funds to go on a trip—in an easy manner.

First, sit down together as a group, and brainstorm about what type of coupons would be the best in the coupon book.  Would coupons to fast food restaurants work the best or tanning salons—or a combination of both?  Car washes, fine dining restaurants, movie theaters and even department stores are possibilities to use also.

Next, as a group, decide what should be said to each of the businesses to ask if they would like to participate in the coupon book fundraiser.  Most importantly, write out a script for each person to use, so that nothing is promised or left out that should not be.

Once the script has been written, start going around to the different businesses one by one, and talk to the owners or managers.  Ask if they’d be willing to honor a coupon or two even, in the coupon book that the group is putting together.  If the coupon could be worth 10 percent off a minimum order that would be great—or a fixed dollar amount could work also.

After all of the information from the businesses has been gathered, then the coupon books need to be made.  When making them, a way to determine authenticity has to be built into the coupon books, and talking to the printers about that is a necessary thing.  Putting a small marking of a specific sort, like a dollar sign, or two squares, somewhere on the coupon to prove that it is one of the coupons from the coupon book itself is vital—this ensures that the group is not defrauded.

Talk to a printer about putting together the coupon book, and the authentication marks for the coupons.  Even if they simply run off sheets of the coupons and the group staples the books together to save money that would be a big help.  Laminating the coupon book fronts to prevent those matching authentication marks from being removed would be helpful also.

Coupon books in hand, the group can then hit the streets of the town, with their scripts in hand as well.  Selling the coupon books in front of department stores, at the schools, and up and down local neighborhoods, the group can make some serious money for their trip.  Organization, guidance, and some planning can definitely make fundraising with coupon books fun.  You can even add a brochure fundraiser to go along with it!