Travel Abroad Fundraiser with up to 110% Back!

For: Individual Students Study Abroad and/or Foreign Language Departments

Study Abroad Fundraising: If you are looking for an easy fundraising idea for your Foreign Language department, student exchange programs,  or to sponsor your students for summer travel abroad, try our Travelathon (also referred to as Travel-A-Thon or Travel-athon).

Our Travelathon idea is similar to a walk-a-thon, except instead of walking, students collect pledges for practicing a foreign language. They can speak, listen, write, or perform. As long as the practice takes place outside of the classroom, the minutes count!

Everyone Wins—The School, Students, and Parents!

Donators pledge money for a cause: A percentage of pledges goes toward the student’s travel abroad program and/or the Foreign Language Department and the remaining percent purchases copies of How You Can Maximize Student Aid for your guidance office to distribute as they see fit.

Our Travelathon encourages an appreciation of foreign languages and other cultures, while raising funds to help the school, students, and parents.

  • School: Many Foreign Language departments do not have an adequate budget. Our Travelathon is designed to help.
  • Students: Studying abroad is very expensive! This easy fundraiser idea is designed to help with the cost of traveling abroad.
  • Parents:  As a bonus, many parents will receive a free copy of How You Can Maximize Student Aid to assist parents in preparing their finances to qualify for federal aid for college.

Our travel fundraiser may be run by schools, foreign language departments, or individual student travelers.

It goes beyond raising money. See 10 Benefits of ALL Our Fundraisers.
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Foreign Language Department & Study Abroad Fundraiser (Option #1)

Up to 110% Back!

Students directly benefit from participating!

  1. Choose your fundraising option
    • 100% Return for Collections under $500! The Foreign Language Department receives 10%, the student’s study abroad program receives 10%, another 10% is used for prizes, and 70% is used for books.
    • 105% Return for Collecting between $500-$2,000! The Foreign Language Department receives 10%, the student’s study abroad program receives 30%, another 10% is used for prizes, and 55% is used for books.
    • 110% Return for Collecting over $2,000! The Foreign Language Department receives 10%, the student’s study abroad program received 40%, another 10% is used for prizes, and 50% is used for books.
      FUNDRAISING OPTIONS 100% Return 105% Return 110% Return
      Funds Raised under $500 Between $501-$2,000 over $2,000
      Cash to Foreign Language Department* 10% 10% 10%
      Cash to Study Abroad Program* 10% 30% 40%
      Prizes 10% 10% 10%
      Copies of How You Can Maximize Student Aid given to the school
      		 70% 55% 50%

    **ALWAYS FREE SHIPPING**
    *If your school has no study abroad program, these funds will go directly to the Foreign Language Department.

  2. Students Obtain Sponsors: Students may, but are not encouraged to go door-to-door. Please use these sponsor ideas: friends, parents, aunts/uncles, grandparents, cousins, extra-curricular instructors, doctor, dentist, parent’s work friends, parent’s golfing or bowling friends, church friends, out of state relatives, and babysitters.
    • Miles Pledge: Invite sponsors to pledge $1 per mile for the distance from your state to your country of travel
    • Book Pledge: Invite sponsors to pledge $24.99, the retail price of donating a book to one student
    • Flat Rate: Donors may choose a flat rate of their own choice to donate
  3. Collect Pledges when Signing: To save time, sponsors are encouraged to give their fundraising pledge money when signing. All funds collected are payable to the school (either to the school name, the Foreign Language Department, or the school PTA, similar to how your school normally collects for fundraisers).
  4. Travelathon: Students record the minutes they speak, write, listen to, or perform their language each day. The minimum required is 30 minutes a day for 10 days over a two week period, but students are encouraged to go longer and possibly receive the prize for “Most Minutes Practiced” (see Prize Section below).
  5. Close out the Fundraiser: Consolidate and distribute collected funds, order, receive, and distribute books. (The school makes a payment to the Travel Abroad Program allocated for each student’s travel, based on individual funds collected. Most schools are not permitted to return funds collected directly to the student.)

Student Prize Opportunities:

      1. 10-10-10 Challenge: EVERY STUDENT who completes the 10-10-10 challenge receives their own surprise prize (chosen by Kids and Money Today). To complete this challenge the student collects $10 from 10 different sponsors, and practices their language for 10 days in a 14 day period.
      2. Two Individual Prizes: Out of all participants, two individual prizes are given to two students for:
        • the most pledges collected, and
        • the most sponsors pledged
      3. Books for the Guidance Office or Parents: With every option, either the guidance office or parents are guaranteed to receive copies of How You Can Maximize Student Aid will be given to the guidance office.

8 Student Activity Ideas for Students to Reach their 30 Minute/day Goal:

    1. Listen for 30 Minutes: Students can listen to their foreign language for 30 minutes a day. A student studying Spanish might listen to Spanish on a TV station, radio station, audio book from the library, movie from the library, a video on travel tips for their country, or maybe attend a local function (fair, club, etc.).
    2. Read for 30 Minutes: Students can read something in the language they are studying. Try: books from the library or free newspapers often found at grocery stores.
    3. Speak for 30 Minutes : Students can create an after-school club to practice speaking the language
    4. Perform: Students can get together as a group (creating a short 1-5 minute play) or offer a solo performance (like a talent show) to a group of parents, classmates, church, nursing home, street corner performance, etc. The topic could be about the country they will travel to.
    5. Make a Video: Students could get together as a group or individually create a video in their language of study. It could be the student on camera, a slide show of pictures with narration, or a presentation such as powerpoint (with or without audio).
    6. Translate for 30 Minutes: Students can spend 30 minutes translating a picture book, their favorite song, a poem, etc. from either the foreign language to English or English to their foreign language. Try translating a travel book about the country they will visit.
    7. Free Tutoring for 30 Minutes: Students can offer free tutoring to students in lower levels.
    8. Research for 30 Minutes: Students can research facts about their country of travel and write a summary of these facts in their language of study.

Travelathon Fundraiser Examples

We value the benefits of education through travel and understand how difficult it is for parents to send their students to travel abroad. This fundraiser can help open doors of opportunity.

Example#1: 105% Return with no study abroad program

        Students in a Spanish class, in a school with grades 6 through 8, collect $1,000 and qualify for the 105% return ($1,050).
        • $400 cash is given to the Foreign Language Department. Because there is no study abroad program in the middle school, a total of 40% (10% + 30% of $1,000 collected) is given to the school.
        • $100 is used for surprise prizes
        • $550 is received in books (55% of $1,000 collected) The guidance office receives 22 copies of How You Can Maximize Student Aid to use at parent meetings or for parents of the 8th grade class.

Example#2: 105% Return with a study abroad program

      Students in a Spanish class, in a high school collect $1,000 and qualify for the 105% return ($1,050).
      • $100 cash is given to the Foreign Language department of the school (10% of $1,000 collected)
      • $300 is sent to the office managing the study abroad program, with a list to allocate 30% of funds collected by each child, to that child’s account (bill).
      • $100 is used for surprise prizes
      • $550 is used for books (55% of $1,000 collected) The guidance office receives 22 copies of How You Can Maximize Student Aid to use at parent meetings.

Individual Student: Study Abroad Fundraiser (Option #2 with up to 60% Cash Back)

30-60% Cash Back for Students!

This choice is normally for older students who are in High School or College and have the maturity, independence, and freedom to run a fundraiser on their own. This fundraising idea raises more money for the student because the foreign language department and prizes are eliminated from distributions.

  1. The student chooses a school or organization to be their joint cause in the fundraiser. (A college student might pick the high school they graduated from.)
  2. The student requests pledges for the joint cause of:
    • Raising books for the guidance office, and
    • The student’s study abroad program.
  3. The student will follow the same rules as the Foreign Language Department fundraiser, except all collections are made payable to the student (we highly recommend collecting ONLY Cash payments), and upon completing the fundraiser, the student must obtain a money order payable to to KidsandMoneyToday.com for the appropriate percentage of funds collected.
    FUNDRAISER OPTIONS 100% Return 105% Return 110% Return
    Funds Raised under $500 Between $501-$2,000 over $2,000
    Cash for Study Abroad Program 30% 50% 60%
    Copies of How You Can Maximize Student Aid given to the school
    		 70% 55% 50%

    **ALWAYS FREE SHIPPING**

The advantage of an individual student running the fundraiser is the student can use the money raised with no restrictions. It can be used for luggage, books, etc. Where as in the school fundraiser, the money is sent directly for tuition payment (paid directly to the travel abroad program).

The disadvantage of a fundriaser run by an individual student is the student must handle cash. If the student receives checks, the student would have to deposit the check and deal with any check that bounces. Because of this, we highly recommend the student only accept cash.

Note: Student run fundraisers are NOT tax-deductible for donors. The money is a gift, similar to a birthday or graduation gift.

Submit Your Application Early

We have run successful fundraisers since 2003. Because of this experience level, we are able to run this fundraiser almost entirely through email communication. We know your time is valuable and we’ve designed this program to minimize the work for teachers, parents, and students.

Because we wish to give every student and/or school the attention they deserve, we are unable to approve every application. We understand that you may need time to have your principal or school district approve the program at your end, but as soon as you have an interest in this program, we recommend you complete our inquiry form to reserve your spot on our calendar.

Please complete as much information as you have available. This will save you time and reduce emails. If you are unsure at this time, you can still sign up to receive notifications about fundraising ideas and specials Click here to subscribe to our fundraiser mailing list.

[contact-form-7 id=”5954″ title=”Study Abroad Fundraiser”]

Successful Study Abroad Fundraiser Tips

Follow these tips to run a successful program:

  1. Ask Everyone You Know for Pledges
  2. Perform: Students can group together and do a play in one family’s home, a nursing home, grocery store entrance, church, or other charitable location, and split the pledges collected
  3. Long distance donations: Encourage students to call relatives out of state at the start of the program so checks will arrive by collection day.
  4. Sponsors: Ask local business, especially travel agencies to sponsor the entire program at a flat rate

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KidsAndMoneyToday

Author | Writer | Entrepreneur | Internet Marketer "I'm enthusiastic about helping people in business and finance — so they can have money available for college, retirement, and travel."

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