Badge Making Fundraiser

Badges, or buttons, as they call them in the US, were all the rage in the 70’s and 80’s. The more, the better with folks wearing them on denim jackets, hats, and without giving away my age, I even recall putting them on my school bag too! Yep, I was one of the cool kids 😉 These days we don’t see them around as much, but badges come in a whole lot of sizes and are so versatile for fundraising. They are low cost, particularly when bought in bulk and can be sold at a whole range of events where you make a profit on each one sold. Have you thought about running a badge making fundraiser?

Bulk Pre-Made Badges

This is certainly the easiest way to go. Commercially produced badges are a great option for you if you need large quantities and don’t have the time or resources to produce them yourself. Suppliers will often have a range of designs for you to choose from and you supply the wording and colours and they will do the rest.

Great for school events like sports days, where you can have badges for each sports house for your school that can be sold to students and parents. Also great for Mother’s and Father’s Day stalls and Christmas stalls too! Clubs and other groups can have them made up to show support and create awareness of their club. The beauty of more generic designs like this means that leftovers can be stored and then sold at other events and you’re not left out of pocket.

DIY Badge Making

Investing in a badge making machine is something that will pay for itself over time but if your budget doesn’t allow for an upfront purchase of a machine, you can hire them for a daily rate so that you can run your badge making fundraiser on a budget.

Making your own gives you much more flexibility and creative freedom and while some of these ideas aren’t necessarily a fundraiser, they can still save you money in the long run.

Name badges for your committee or volunteers for easy identification at events (not necessarily a fundraiser but handy none the less).
Winners and losers badges for your next trivia night.
Photo badges – students supply their own photo to create a personalized badge.
Award winners – student of the week.
Recognition of birthdays for students and staff – birthday boy/girl or it’s my birthday
An awareness raising tool – if your group is trying to promote a particular cause, this is an easy and low-cost way to do it.
Incentives for entering competitions or participation in events like talents quests, spelling bees, swimming carnivals or athletics carnivals. Each participant receives a badge. It could be as simple as ‘I compete in …’ or ‘I survived the 2017 swimming carnival’
Memento for school leavers – ‘Class of …’
Stall at a fundraising event or fete – set up a bunch of crayons, colouring pencils or pens different and scissors and for a small fee, kids can design and make their own badge.

If you want to take things up a notch, there are extras and other accessories that you can buy to customise your badges, expand your range or even help you create your very own market stall!

I’m possibly one of the least crafty people you’ll meet but this idea even made me start thinking about buying my own badge maker! Using cutouts from pre-loved children’s books (think Dr Seuss, Mister Men or the classics like Cuddlepot and Cuddle Pie or Peter Pan), comic books or fabric you can create gorgeous unique badges, or accessories like keyrings, bookmarks, magnets and jewellery. Coloured rosettes are even available so you can get even more creative with your badges as well!

I say we bring the badge back! We’ve given you some ideas to get you started with your badge making fundraiser but I’m sure once you get started, you’ll probably come up with even more ways to use badges around your school or club for fundraising.

Happy Fundraising!
xMandy Weidmann
aka the Fundraising Whisperer

Originally published 26 September, 2017