Yearbook Fundraising Ideas

Fundraising is an important part of any yearbook committee’s job. Funds are needed for more than just to cover the cost of the yearbook itself. Additional expenses can include workshops, equipment, software, or even a team pizza night! 

The basic costs of your yearbook should be covered by yearbook sales, as well as ad revenue. By basic costs, we’re talking about the costs to print your yearbook. And let’s be honest, these costs rise every year. Your yearbook fundraising needs to be able to keep up.

Finding new and fun ways to raise funds for your yearbook may seem like a challenge. Perhaps you’ve already explored the more traditional fundraising ideas, like a bake sale. This year, you’re looking for something a little different! 

At YearbookLife, we’ve been helping school’s create unique, memorable yearbooks for over 20 years. Throughout that time, we’ve learned some tips and tricks to help with your yearbook fundraising. Give it a try yourself with these school yearbook fundraising ideas.

Yearbook Fundraising Ideas

Some of the best yearbook fundraising ideas involve thinking outside the box. We’ve browsed success stories, and learned from our own experience. Try out some of these yearbook fundraising ideas for your school. 

1. Sell Empty Space – We’ve all run into the problem. A blank page in your yearbook, that you don’t know what to fill with. Often, we default to throwing some candid photos in there just to fill it. Instead of thinking of a blank page as wasted space, consider it an opportunity. Give students an option to buy the candid space to highlight the photos that they want to feature. Charge per photo or per person in each picture. Suddenly, a wasted page has become a nice way to raise additional yearbook funds. 

2. Use Your Assets – *Snap snap*. Taking pictures and yearbooks go hand in hand. But there are a lot of photos that don’t make the final cut! Instead of letting them sit in a folder hidden away on the cloud, give people an option to purchase these. Put together CDs or USBs with some outtakes, and give people the option to buy them! 

Other traditional yearbook fundraising ideas include: 

3. Food Catalogs – Who doesn’t love a tasty snack? Sometimes a bit of sugar is the welcome boost that we all need in the middle of the afternoon. Use this as an opportunity to raise additional yearbook funds. Some things that you could consider selling include: Gourmet popcorn fundraisers, Candy fundraisers & Bake sale fundraisers.

4. Take Advantage of Existing Facilities – Does your school have a canteen that serves refreshments during sporting events? Speak to your school administration, and see if using this canteen for a bit of time either before or after school would be an option. One yearbook advisor in Illinois tried this approach, using the school canteen for 30 minutes each day before class. Selling coffee, muffins and other drinks they were able to raise $5,000 in profit in one year!

These 4 school yearbook fundraising ideas can be a fun and unique way to raise extra money for your yearbook. If you’re looking for some help with marketing and selling your yearbook, check out the YearbookLife Marketing Supplies Store. 

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At YearbookLife, we make yearbooks easy. Our easy-to-use yearbook design software and technical support assistance help simplify the yearbook process for you. Plus, our experienced customer care team are on hand to help you market your yearbook and increase your yearbook sales. If you’d like to request a quote today, please click here.

3 Ways Your Yearbook Class Makes Students “Career-Ready”

Students may sometimes wonder, “When am I ever going to use this in real life?” Well, that’s not the case with yearbook class. Yearbook class helps students to learn a variety of skills that will likely be useful to them in the future, especially when pursuing their careers. This includes how to communicate more effectively, handle problems, grow as a leader, manage your time, and meet important deadlines. These are important skills to have as students continue their schooling, and they become even more critical as they enter post-secondary schools and/or the workforce.

Here are a few ways that yearbook class gets students career-ready:

1.  Helps Students Learn Crucial Life Skills

Students working on the yearbook develop planning, organization, and teamwork skills which they will use through school, college, and their careers. Time management, prioritizing, reliability, and the responsibility of following through on tasks when others depend on you are some of the other crucial life skills that students learn when working on the school yearbook. Students participating in the development of the yearbook also learn to be accountable to others for completion of their assigned responsibilities.

All of these skills are important in order to keep the school yearbook project on track and meet all the deadlines provided by the yearbook publisher. 

2.  Teaches Students Valuable Business Skills

Yearbook class is similar to a business, in that you’re creating and selling a product. This provides an opportunity to learn valuable business skills such as budgeting, promotion, advertising, marketing, customer service and market research. 

3.  Helps Students Gain Various Technical Skills

Working on the school yearbook and using yearbook design software, photo-editing programs, and project management software helps students learn various technical skills such as working with computers, photography, journalism, and graphic design. This makes students more valuable candidates for employers, and also may play a vital role in helping them decide what they want to do when they finish their schooling.

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YearbookLife delivers extraordinary service and yearbook products at an affordable price. To learn more or to request a quote online today, click here. If you would like to speak with a YearbookLife representative, contact us today.

How to Keep Your Yearbook Class Motivated Through the Holidays

With Christmas and New Years approaching, students are probably preparing for winter break, and in anticipation of this time off, it may be difficult to keep your yearbook staff on task in order to meet those December and January deadlines. On top of that, after the long break, it’s common for students to come back to school and need help refocusing. So what can you do? Don’t fight the holidays, embrace them!

To keep the yearbook class motivated through the holidays, yearbook advisers often try to mix in some fun with the work that still needs to get done. This can help keep the spirit alive in your classroom while meeting your yearbook deadlines. It can be as simple as throwing on some music while you do your “yearbook” work, adding some festive decor to the room, or celebrating your accomplishments with a staff party.

Here are a few tips and ideas on how to keep your yearbook class motivated through the holidays:

• Set reasonable expectations! Although work still needs to get done, remember that the holidays are a time for family and friends. Let everyone know ahead of time what is expected of them during the break and how you’ll “hit the ground running” upon return. It’s important for them to understand what the goals are, but don’t overburden them during the break.
• Share with other people what the yearbook class is up to. Use daily announcements, the school newspaper, social media, or emails to parents. This can be a great way to increase awareness as well as interest in the school yearbook. This is a great time to encourage yearbook and ad sales while people are in a “giving” mood.
• Host a “School Yearbook Photo Contest.” Announce it ahead of time and during the break to the school students and staff. You can set up a Dropbox, email, Facebook group, or Instagram where students / parents can submit their pictures from winter break. This will help with your yearbook coverage through the holidays and a nice “How I Spent my Winter Vacation” section for the yearbook! 
• Throw a “Holiday” party. Bring treats for everyone to enjoy! 
• Will some students be away during the break? Schedule a couple of Zoom chats, so everyone can check in and catch up. Or if they’re staying local, arrange a coffee meet-up!
• Have a gift or an ornament exchange. Maybe a Secret Santa exchange with a small dollar limit for those ‘always broke’ students.
• Play a game during your downtime (i.e. “Never have I Ever”, a trivia game, or a scavenger hunt). 
• Take your yearbook class to an escape room or other group activity. Great for team building. And super fun!
• Then, get back to finishing an amazing school yearbook!

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YearbookLife delivers extraordinary service and yearbook products at an affordable price. To learn more or to request a quote online today, click here. If you would like to speak with a YearbookLife representative, contact us today.