Yard Sale
Yard Sales, Garage Sales, Tag Sales. Whatever you call them, people love them because it's an adventure to find a great deal! And, since all items for sale are donated, yard sale fundraisers can bring in profits up to 100%!
There's some labor involved, but overall a yard sale fundraiser is very easy to plan. Simply collect donations of gently-used items from school & community families, label each very inexpensively, advertise, place the items outside one weekend morning, and offer them for sale. As long as you advertise effectively, customers will come!
Planning a Yard Sale Fundraiser
DATE & TIME
A Saturday or Sunday morning from 9:00am-2:00pm are ideal. In New England we prefer a Fall or Spring date so it can be held outdoors, but we've also recently proven that a an indoor yard sale can be just as profitable. Remember to note an alternate rain date on all printed promotions.
LOCATION
School parking lots or fields are generally good locations. Look for a space that is large, open, flat, and has adequate parking. We've also run them just as effectively in the school gym - in doing so you may have to pay a custodian, which will eat into your profits a bit, but if this is your only cost it may be worth it.
SELL DONATED ITEMS
Focussing on selling donated items is the option that could potentially bring in far greater sales. One 200-student elementary school in Massachusetts raised $1,600 one year and $2,100 the next!
- Collection: Ask school families, staff, and community families to donate items by distributing flyers in backpacks of the students in ALL of the schools in your town. You will get far more donations if you extend the request to the community. Small furniture, toys, books, bikes & wagons, costumes, sports equipment, holiday decorations, household items, and more. Allow for a 1-2 week collection period if possible.
- Storage of donations: Be prepared for a very large volume of items. Check with your school to see if items can be stored inside the school (perhaps on the stage, which is generally out of the way).
- Access to the school: Arrange access to the school on the morning of your sale. This may entail hiring a custodian for the 2-3 hours while the items are removed from the school and placed outside. If your sale begins at 9:00am, plan to have lots of volunteers (min. 10-20) available at 6:00am to help set up. Serious buyers will start arriving an hour before the opening time so you'll need to be completely set-up. Once all items are removed, lock the school so that the general public cannot access it.
- Volunteers: Plan on 10-20 volunteers to help set up the items and sell throughout the day and at clean up at the end. Ask your volunteers to all wear the same color shirt and/or a name tag that says "ASK ME". Depending on the size of your sale, you will need:
- 10-20+ to set the items out for display
- 2-3 at the Cash-Out table
- 2 at the Bake Sale table
- 10+ to work the floor and assist buyers
- 10+ to clean up and dispose of unsold items
- Tables: Display donated items on and around 5'-10' folding tables.
One 200-student school used 18 five-foot tables for displays, 2 for the bake sale, and one for cash-out. As you set items out, place like items together.
- Cash-out Table: Set up a table toward the entrance/exit for buyers to pay for their items. Have 2-3 volunteers working this table. Have available an adequate number of dollar bills and coins to make change and a calculator.
- Price Items: A few days prior to the sale, volunteers should mark the price of every item by affixing a small sticker to each. Keep prices low, remember... it's all profit! Most items sell for 50 cents or $1.00. Small furniture sells for about $15-$20, electronics $10, costumes $5.00, toys & games $0.50-$3.00, glassware 10-25 cents, books 25-50 cents.
- Exclusions: You may want to exclude donations of heavy pieces of furniture which are difficult to move and dispose of if they do not sell. Do not accept donations of any items you'll have to pay to dispose of such as electronics, computers, and appliances. If you choose to accept clothing donations, plan to sort through these early. This is time-consuming and many clothing items may not even be suitable for sale.
DISPOSAL OF UNSOLD ITEMS
At the end of the day, you will need to dispose of any items donated to the school that did not sell. This could be as simple as disposing of them in the school dumpster (with prior approval) or loading the items into a pick-up truck and driving them to your local charity. Or, because the volume of donated items is unpredictable, you can contact a local charity (Salvation Army, Goodwill, Big Brothers/Big Sisters) ahead of time and arrange a pick-up after your sale ends.
It's important that you arrange to have several volunteers present at the end of the sale to assist with clean-up. All trash should be removed from the area and it should be left as clean as when you arrived. If you do not, you can be sure the school will not approve the event for a second year.
ADVERTISE
The success of your sale will not only depend upon the number of table spaces you can sell, but also on the volume of traffic you can drive to your sale on that day. The more you advertise, the greater the chance of both and the greater the chance that your vendors will want to return again next year. Advertising recommendations, in order of importance, include:
- Students & Parents: Distribute flyers to each student in your school as well as other schools in your town. To distribute through schools other than your own, you'll need to obtain approval from the School Superintendent's office.
- Signs:Display the largest signs you can in prominent locations so that passing cars can see them as they drive by (i.e school front lawn, busy intersections). Prior approval may be required to place a sign at a public location so check with your town hall. Display the signs for one week prior to the yard sale date.
- Email: Send email reminders to school families. Also email the principals of each school in your town and ask them to place the announcement in their school newsletter. See our Increase Participation page for information on emailing.
- Newspaper: Send the announcement to your local newspaper. Most newspapers will print school fundraiser announcements for free.
- CraigsList: Six days prior to the sale, place a free ad online at www.craigslist.org. Ads expire after 6 days.
- Local Merchants: Ask local merchants to display your flyer in their shop window.
- People: On the morning of the yard sale, ask volunteers to hold signs and stand at the main entrance to attract attention and to direct traffic into the parking areas.
- Senior & Youth Centers: Distribute flyers to your local senior and youth centers.
- Churches: Ask your local churches to put an announcement in their bulletin.
- Website: Advertise on the school's webpage.
For more information on advertising, Sign up and receive immediate access to Fundraising: Success is in the Details, a Free online guide from PTO Ideas featuring 8 essential steps to creating successful fundraisers. Click here.
ADD VALUE TO YOUR EVENT
A more extensive yard sale can generate money for your school in other ways as well.
- Sell Table Spaces:
Table spaces can be sold for $20-$30 each to those wishing to sell their own items. If you sell 20 spaces, your school has immediately profited $400-$600.
Be sure to let sellers know, in advance, if they have to bring thier own table and chairs. Also, we encourage you to be very specific as to the size of the space you are selling (12'x12', 12'x24', maximum of one 6-foot table, etc.) and then mark off the spaces (using rope, chalk, or tape) prior to the sellers arriving on location. If you do not do this, some sellers will arrive with just a few items, while others will arrive with what seems like enough to fill an entire garage!
- Bake Sale:
Sell coffee, donuts, popcorn, cotton candy, water, soda, hotdogs, or balloons. Ask your local coffee shop to donate donuts, coffee & supplies.
- Soda and water can be purchased at any grocery store or wholesale warehouse (i.e. BJ's Wholesale, Costco, Sams Club) and resold for a premium. A case of water (24 count, 16oz) runs approximately $5.00/case ($0.21/bottle). These can be resold for $1.00/bottle; a profit of $18.96/case for your school.
- Costumes: Although we mentioned earlier to exclude clothing donations, you may opt to have this yard sale in mid-October, just before Halloween. In this case, ask for costume donations and advertise that these will be available. These donations can consist of the typical store-bought costume, but remember that children have wonderful imaginations and can make creative costumes from women's and men's clothing too. To get the kids thinking, you can even have a Halloween party so they can display the costumes they created!
PERMITS & APPROVALS
Be sure to obtain the required approvals from your school and perhaps even your town to run your sale on school property. A one-day permit from your town may be required to host a public event. Our town simply required prior approval from the School Committee.
ADVERTISING, SPONSORS, COMMITTEES, THEMES, & MORE
Sign-in for Free, immediate access to Fundraising: Success is in the Details for detailed info:
- Planning
- Forming a Committee
- Selecting a Location
- Advertising
- Sponsorships
- Conducting Meetings
- Being a Great Leader & Thanking Your Supporters
- Developing a Theme
- Maintaining Accurate Records
NOTE: An access link will appear every time you login.
THINGS TO REMEMBER
Items you will need for your yard sale include:
- Tables for your school's space.
- Cash box, cash and coins to make change.
- Name Tags to identify volunteers.
- Bags at the cash-out table for purchased items.
- Small plastic bags to individually wrap bake sale items if needed
- Stickers & markers to mark items with prices
- Yard Sale signs posted on the main streets leading to your school.
- School and town approvals and permits as needed.
- Work schedule to distribute to volunteers
- If the food carts or helium are donated, be sure to purchase the food, paper good, and balloons & ribbon needed.
- Extension cords for food carts as needed.
- Mark out the size of purchased table spaces using rope, chalk, or tape.
 
SAMPLE ANNOUNCEMENT
(SCHOOL NAME) YARD SALE
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 18TH
(Rain Date Oct 24th)
9:00 AM - 2:00 PM
at the (SCHOOL NAME) PLAYGROUND
Address, City
SHOP at the event
SELL - table spaces available $20
DONATE gently-used items
Kindly drop off your donations now thru Thursday, Oct 15th at the (School Name) School during school hours at the Main entrance located at (address).
household items * toys/games * small furniture * books * costumes * sports equipment * glassware * decorations * tools * bikes/wagons * lamps *
video games * gently-used clothing * coats * movies
(No computers, printers, TVs, appliances, or other items that require special disposal.)
(Contact email)
THANK YOU!
SAMPLE ANNOUNCEMENT
Mega Yard Sale Fundraiser
Saturday, May 15th
at the School Name
Street Address, City
9:00 am - 2:00 pm
Raindate, Sunday, May 16th
Whatever your motivation - selling a house, spring cleaning, organizing your home, cleaning out the basement or garage, or even marketing a small home business - sell it at the MEGA YARD SALE !!!
- Join forces with other sellers
- Purchase a space to sell your items
- All proceeds go to the (School Name)
The cost is a non-refundable $20.00 per space, payable in advance via cash or check made payable to the School Name PTO. If you have questions, contact:_____________
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Please return this portion to the ABC School.
_____ YES, I would like to reserve a yard sale space $20.00
_____ YES, I have items to donate (resaleable items only please; no clothing)
Name:__________________________ Phone:_______ - _______________
Address:__________________________ E-mail:_____________________
SAMPLE VOLUNTEER REQUEST FORM
Volunteers needed for the
Mega Yard Sale Fundraiser
Saturday, May 15th
at the School Name
Street Address, City
9:00 am - 2:00 pm
Raindate, Sunday, May 16th
Please support our efforts by volunteering. We will need assistance with set-up, clean-up, donating baked goods, water and juice, and working our donatoins & bake sale table.
All proceeds go to the (school name) School.
Also, for information on purchasing a table space, please contact:_____________________
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Please return this portion to the (School Name).
_____ YES, I would like to reserve a yard sale space $20
_____ YES, I have items to donate (resaleable items only please; no clothing)
_____ YES, I can help with set-up, 7:00 am to 9:00 am
_____ YES, I can help with clean-up, 2:00 pm to 3:00 pm
_____ YES, I can work the school's tables: 9am-11am____, 11am-1pm____, 1pm-3pm____
_____ YES, I can supply bake goods_____, water bottles_____, or juice boxes_____ for the bake sale table
Name:__________________________ Phone:_______ - _______________
Address:__________________________ E-mail:_____________________
SAMPLE SIGN
YARD SALE
Mega Yard Sale Fundraiser
Saturday, May 15th
at the School Name
Street Address, City
9:00 am - 2:00 pm
Raindate, Sunday, May 16th
SAMPLE REMINDER NOTICE
Reminder Notice
Please come to the
Mega Yard Sale Fundraiser
to support the School Name
Street Address, City
Saturday, May 15th
9:00 am - 2:00 pm
Raindate Sunday May 16th
Volunteers still needed.
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Please return this portion to the School Name.
_____ YES, I would like to reserve a yard sale space $20
_____ YES, I have items to donate (resaleable items only please; no clothing)
_____ YES, I can help with set-up, 7:00 am to 9:00 am
_____ YES, I can help with clean-up, 2:00 pm to 3:00 pm
_____ YES, I can work the school's tables: 9am-11am____, 11am-1pm____, 1pm-3pm____
_____ YES, I can supply bake goods_____, water bottles_____, or juice boxes_____ for the bake sale table
Name:__________________________ Phone:_______ - _______________
Address:__________________________ E-mail:_____________________
PTO Ideas has provided you with ideas for planning an event. This information should not be used as a legal reference and may not be all-inclusive. We suggest consulting with the head of your school or any other essential professional.
The dates, times, and dollar amounts shown here are general guidelines and can vary depending upon your area.
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