Badges and Buttons

Badges or Buttons are a low unit cost/high-volume fundraising choice which will work well for most school and clubs and can be easily incorporated into your fundraising efforts.  There are several different ways that they can be used and they can work especially well for awareness campaigns and events.

Badges can be made commercially or hire a do-it-yourself badge making machine (search the internet for “badge makers” in your town or capital city). In it’s simplest form a badge fundraiser could involve buying a bulk amount of buttons (or using your own badge machine, make them yourself) with a design, text or logo. These can then be sold to students, parents, teachers, supporters and the wider community at events and functions and you can make a small profit on each one sold.

If you choose to order commercially made badges, you’ll find that bulk orders will usually result in less outlay or upfront cost to you.  However, when ordering keep in mind that it pays to have an idea of how many you might sell so that you are not left with a heap of unsold badges eating into your profits, particularly if they are for a specific event and cannot be used again.

Another simple fundraising idea for schools is to hire a badge making machine, set up a stall or ‘design studio’ with coloured pens or crayons and scissors (think school fete, disco or markets), kids can draw their own picture for their badge and pay to have it made. Money raised from this could be used to purchase your own badge-making machine for bigger profits on future drives. ‘Design your own’ badges are a great idea for mementos for school leavers too.