Fundraising Resources and Tips

You have identified a need for your school garden project, now how do you get the funds to make it happen?! Many school gardens sell seeds, bulbs, seedlings and plants to help fund their needs on an annual basis while others offer a weekly farmers market at their school. What could you do to raise money for your school garden?

Here are some sample garden fundraising projects that you can consider:

Have a plant sale

Grow seedlings to sell at a plant sale in the spring before school is out for the summer. Combine it with an end of school activity.
Check with your local nursery and garden center to see if they are willing to supply you with plants at a wholesale rate that you could then resell at a higher rate. For example, you could order poinsettias for a holiday sale or mums for a fall sale or a special plant for a Mother’s Day sale!
Check out the Maine Cooperative Extensions Plant Sale Fundraisers page for more information and tips plus advertising your plant sale.

Sell seeds

Sample seed packets from TGS Common Ground Garden & Orchard

You can either harvest and sell the seeds from your school garden project or buy bulk seeds and seed packets to resell. Check with your seed supplier for supplies. We’re lucky to have some great local seed companies here in Maine and you can learn more about three of them here. For example, Fedco Seeds has blank seed packets your students can use to design their own seed packets and bulk seeds available for purchase. See the profile on Fedco Seeds.

Sell bulbs

There are bulb companies that offer fundraisers (such as Dutch Mill Bulbs) who enable you to earn a 50% profit when you sell them at the regular retail price. You can also check with your local supplier to see what kind of discount they might offer you.

Run a Farmers Market

There are many school gardens who have summer farmers market stands to sell their produce and make some money to help fund the costs of the school garden and to employ students over the summer..
- The Edna Drinkwater School offers a Summer Farm Stand Program for middle school students, in which students learn all aspects of running a farm stand from harvesting, washing and bunching produce in their own wash station, to advertising, displaying produce and other student-made products like beeswax wraps, customer service, and handling money. The community is very involved in supporting the farm stand.
- Traip Academy Greenhouse and Garden Program Farmer’s Market
  
  Traip Greenhouse and Garden holds their Saturday Farmers Market right at their garden and offers tours for their customers as well as a pick on demand service. In addition to selling fruit and vegetables, they also offer ready made bouquets. The fund raised pay for summer intern positions to manage the program.

Remember that it can take a few years to build up a sale or fundraiser for your school garden. Keep notes on what did and didn’t sell and revise your plans for the next year. And don’t feel shy about asking for a discount for your projects from local vendors…what’s not to like about supporting youth, school gardens and teaching healthy eating habits?!