CASL Favs
There's so many resources that spread CASLove! Browse them from here.
Give and Take: A Revolutionary Approach to Success
By: Adam Grant
For generations, we have focused on the individual drivers of success: passion, hard work, talent, and luck. But today, success is increasingly dependent on how we interact with others. It turns out that at work, most people operate as either takers, matchers, or givers. Whereas takers strive to get as much as possible from others and matchers aim to trade evenly, givers are the rare breed of people who contribute to others without expecting anything in return.
The Smartest Kids in the World: And How They Got That Way
By: Amanda Riply
How do other countries create “smarter” kids? What is it like to be a child in the world’s new education superpowers? The Smartest Kids in the World “gets well beneath the glossy surfaces of these foreign cultures and manages to make our own culture look newly strange….The question is whether the startling perspective provided by this masterly book can also generate the will to make changes” (The New York Times Book Review).
Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance
By: Angela Duckworth
In Grit, she takes us into the field to visit cadets struggling through their first days at West Point, teachers working in some of the toughest schools, and young finalists in the National Spelling Bee. She also mines fascinating insights from history and shows what can be gleaned from modern experiments in peak performance. Finally, she shares what she’s learned from interviewing dozens of high achievers—from JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon to New Yorker cartoon editor Bob Mankoff to Seattle Seahawks Coach Pete Carroll.
Thrive
By: Arianna Huffington
Arianna Huffington’s personal wake-up call came in the form of a broken cheekbone and a nasty gash over her eye–the result of a fall brought on by exhaustion and lack of sleep. As the cofounder and editor-in-chief of the Huffington Post Media Group–one of the fastest growing media companies in the world–celebrated as one of the world’s most influential women, and gracing the covers of magazines, she was, by any traditional measure, extraordinarily successful. Yet as she found herself going from brain MRI to CAT scan to echocardiogram, to find out if there was any underlying medical problem beyond exhaustion, she wondered is this really what success feels like?
A Curious Mind: The Secret to a Bigger Life
By: Brian Grazer, Charles Fishman
Grazer has spent most of his life exploring curiosity through what he terms “curiosity conversations” with some of the most interesting people in the world, including spies, royals, scientists, politicians, moguls, Nobel laureates, artists…anyone whose story might broaden his worldview. These discussions sparked the creative inspiration behind many of his movies and TV shows, including Splash, 24, A Beautiful Mind, Apollo 13, Arrested Development, 8 Mile, J. Edgar, Empire, and many others.
Eat That Frog!: 21 Great Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time
By: Brian Tracy
There’s an old saying that if the first thing you do each morning is to eat a live frog, you’ll have the satisfaction of knowing that it’s probably the worst thing you’ll do all day. Using “eat that frog” as a metaphor for tackling the most challenging task of your day—the one you are most likely to procrastinate on, but also probably the one that can have the greatest positive impact on your life—Eat That Frog! shows you how to zero in on these critical tasks and organize your day. You’ll not only get more done faster, but get the right things done.
The Organized Mind: Thinking Straight in the Age of Information Overload
By: Daniel J. Levitin
The information age is drowning us with an unprecedented deluge of data. At the same time, we’re expected to make more—and faster—decisions about our lives than ever before. No wonder, then, that the average American reports frequently losing car keys or reading glasses, missing appointments, and feeling worn out by the effort required just to keep up.
A Whole New Mind: Why Right-Brainers Will Rule the Future
By: Daniel H. Pink
Drawing on research from around the world, Pink (author of To Sell Is Human: The Surprising Truth About Motivating Others) outlines the six fundamentally human abilities that are absolute essentials for professional success and personal fulfillment–and reveals how to master them. A Whole New Mind takes readers to a daring new place, and a provocative and necessary new way of thinking about a future that’s already here.
Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us
By: Daniel H. Pink
Most people believe that the best way to motivate is with rewards like money—the carrot-and-stick approach. That’s a mistake, says Daniel H. Pink (author of To Sell Is Human: The Surprising Truth About Motivating Others). In this provocative and persuasive new book, he asserts that the secret to high performance and satisfaction-at work, at school, and at home—is the deeply human need to direct our own lives, to learn and create new things, and to do better by ourselves and our world.
The Road to Character
By: David Brooks
With the wisdom, humor, curiosity, and sharp insights that have brought millions of readers to his New York Times column and his previous bestsellers, David Brooks has consistently illuminated our daily lives in surprising and original ways. In The Social Animal, he explored the neuroscience of human connection and how we can flourish together. Now, in The Road to Character, he focuses on the deeper values that should inform our lives.
Creating Great Choices: A Leader’s Guide to Integrative Thinking
By: Jennifer Riel, Roger L. Martin
Jennifer Riel is an adjunct professor at the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto and a strategic adviser to senior leaders at a number of Fortune 500 companies. She is coauthor, with Roger Martin and A.G. Lafley, of the Playing to Win Strategy Toolkit (Harvard Business Review Press).
Roger Martin is an author, business school professor, and strategy adviser to CEOs. He is Director of the Martin Prosperity Institute at the Rotman School of Management, where he served as Dean from 1998 to 2013. He is a frequent contributor to Harvard Business Review and other leading publications and has published nine books, including Playing to Win and The Opposable Mind.
Good to Great
By: Jim Collins
The Challenge:
Built to Last, the defining management study of the nineties, showed how great companies triumph over time and how long-term sustained performance can be engineered into the DNA of an enterprise from the verybeginning.
But what about the company that is not born with great DNA? How can good companies, mediocre companies, even bad companies achieve enduring greatness?
Leading Change
By: John P. Kotter
Millions worldwide have read and embraced John Kotter’s ideas on change management and leadership.
From the ill-fated dot-com bubble to unprecedented M&A activity to scandal, greed, and ultimately, recession—we’ve learned that widespread and difficult change is no longer the exception. It’s the rule. Now with a new preface, this refreshed edition of the global bestseller Leading Change is more relevant than ever.
The Heart of Change: Real-Life Stories of How People Change Their Organizations
By: John P. Kotter, Dan S. Cohen
The Heart of Change is your guide to helping people think and feel differently in order to meet your shared goals. According to bestselling author and renowned leadership expert John Kotter and coauthor Dan Cohen, this focus on connecting with people’s emotions is what will spark the behavior change and actions that lead to success. Now freshly designed, The Heart of Change is the engaging and essential complement to Kotter’s worldwide bestseller Leading Change.
Chop Wood Carry Water: How to Fall In Love With the Process of Becoming Great
By: Joshua Medcalf
Some things you will learn…
- No matter how it feels, you are always building your own house.
- How and why you must surrender to the outcome in order to be at your best.
- Why you never want to have your identity wrapped up in what you do.
- Why your strength lies in faithfulness to the little things.
- How to develop a heart posture of gratitude.
- How to use the biggest challenges as a training ground for greatness.
- Why the process is more important than the goal.
- Why comparison is the thief of all joy.
- How to develop a growth mindset.
- Why talent is more of a curse than a blessing.
Outliers
By: Malcom Gladwell
In this stunning new book, Malcolm Gladwell takes us on an intellectual journey through the world of “outliers”–the best and the brightest, the most famous and the most successful. He asks the question: what makes high-achievers different?
The Tipping Point
By: Malcom Gladwell
The tipping point is that magic moment when an idea, trend, or social behavior crosses a threshold, tips, and spreads like wildfire. Just as a single sick person can start an epidemic of the flu, so too can a small but precisely targeted push cause a fashion trend, the popularity of a new product, or a drop in the crime rate. This widely acclaimed bestseller, in which Malcolm Gladwell explores and brilliantly illuminates the tipping point phenomenon, is already changing the way people throughout the world think about selling products and disseminating ideas.
The Reason I Jump: The Inner Voice of a 13-Year-Old Boy with Autism
By: Naoki Higashida
You’ve never read a book like The Reason I Jump. Written by Naoki Higashida, a very smart, very self-aware, and very charming thirteen-year-old boy with autism, it is a one-of-a-kind memoir that demonstrates how an autistic mind thinks, feels, perceives, and responds in ways few of us can imagine. Parents and family members who never thought they could get inside the head of their autistic loved one at last have a way to break through to the curious, subtle, and complex life within.
The Alchemist
By: Paulo Coelho
Paulo Coelho’s masterpiece tells the mystical story of Santiago, an Andalusian shepherd boy who yearns to travel in search of a worldly treasure. His quest will lead him to riches far different—and far more satisfying—than he ever imagined. Santiago’s journey teaches us about the essential wisdom of listening to our hearts, of recognizing opportunity and learning to read the omens strewn along life’s path, and, most importantly, to follow our dreams.
Scaling Up Excellence: Getting to More Without Settling for Less
By: Robert I. Sutton, Huggy Rao
Sutton and Rao have devoted much of the last decade to uncovering what it takes to build and uncover pockets of exemplary performance, to help spread them, and to keep recharging organizations with ever better work practices. Drawing on inside accounts and case studies and academic research from a wealth of industries– including start-ups, pharmaceuticals, airlines, retail, financial services, high-tech, education, non-profits, government, and healthcare– Sutton and Rao identify the key scaling challenges that confront every organization. They tackle the difficult trade-offs that organizations must make between whether to encourage individualized approaches tailored to local needs or to replicate the same practices and customs as an organization or program expands.
The Obstacle Is the Way: The Timeless Art of Turning Trials into Triumph
By: Ryan Holiday
The book draws its inspiration from stoicism, the ancient Greek philosophy of enduring pain or adversity with perseverance and resilience. Stoics focus on the things they can control, let go of everything else, and turn every new obstacle into an opportunity to get better, stronger, tougher. As Marcus Aurelius put it nearly 2000 years ago: “The impediment to action advances action. What stands in the way becomes the way.”
Tribe: On Homecoming and Belonging
By: Sebastian Junger
Decades before the American Revolution, Benjamin Franklin lamented that English settlers were constantly fleeing over to the Indians-but Indians almost never did the same. Tribal society has been exerting an almost gravitational pull on Westerners for hundreds of years, and the reason lies deep in our evolutionary past as a communal species. The most recent example of that attraction is combat veterans who come home to find themselves missing the incredibly intimate bonds of platoon life. The loss of closeness that comes at the end of deployment may explain the high rates of post-traumatic stress disorder suffered by military veterans today.
Leaders Eat Last: Why Some Teams Pull Together and Others Don’t
By: Simon Sinek
Imagine a world where almost everyone wakes up inspired to go to work, feels trusted and valued during the day, then returns home feeling fulfilled. This is not a crazy, idealized notion. Today, in many successful organizations, great leaders create environments in which people naturally work together to do remarkable things.
Start With Why
By: Simon Sinek
Sinek starts with a fundamental question: Why are some people and organizations more innovative, more influential, and more profitable than others? Why do some command greater loyalty from customers and employees alike? Even among the successful, why are so few able to repeat their success over and over?
Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World that Can’t Stop Talking
By: Susan Cain
At least one-third of the people we know are introverts. They are the ones who prefer listening to speaking; who innovate and create but dislike self-promotion; who favor working on their own over working in teams. It is to introverts—Rosa Parks, Chopin, Dr. Seuss, Steve Wozniak—that we owe many of the great contributions to society.
Die Empty: Unleash Your Best Work Every Day
By: Todd Henry
Most of us fill our days with frantic activity, bouncing from task to task, scrambling to make deadlines and chase the next promotion. But by the end of each day we’re often left wondering if any of it really mattered. We feel the ticking of the clock, but we’re unsure of the path forward.
Die Empty is a tool for people who aren’t willing to put off their most important work for another day. Todd Henry explains the forces that lead to stagnation and introduces practices that will keep you on a true and steady course.
California Association of Directors of Activities
National Association of Student Councils
Teampedia
Soul Pancake
TEDxTeen
Extracurricular Activities Guide
How to build a company where the best ideas win
By: Ray Dalio
What if you knew what your coworkers really thought about you and what they were really like? Ray Dalio makes the business case for using radical transparency and algorithmic decision-making to create an idea meritocracy where people can speak up and say what they really think — even calling out the boss is fair game. Learn more about how these strategies helped Dalio create one of the world’s most successful hedge funds and how you might harness the power of data-driven group decision-making.
Everyday Leadership
By: Drew Dudley
We have all changed someone’s life — usually without even realizing it. In this funny talk, Drew Dudley calls on all of us to celebrate leadership as the everyday act of improving each other’s lives.
Remember to say “thank you”
By: Laura Trice
In this deceptively simple 3-minute talk, Dr. Laura Trice muses on the power of the magic words “thank you” — to deepen a friendship, to repair a bond, to make sure another person knows what they mean to you. Try it.
Why I’m done trying to be “man enough”
By: Justin Baldoni
Justin Baldoni wants to start a dialogue with men about redefining masculinity — to figure out ways to be not just good men but good humans. In a warm, personal talk, he shares his effort to reconcile who he is with who the world tells him a man should be. And he has a challenge for men: “See if you can use the same qualities that you feel make you a man to go deeper,” Baldoni says. “Your strength, your bravery, your toughness: Are you brave enough to be vulnerable? Are you strong enough to be sensitive? Are you confident enough to listen to the women in your life?”
The Power of Vulnerability
By: Brené Brown
Shame is an unspoken epidemic, the secret behind many forms of broken behavior. Brené Brown, whose earlier talk on vulnerability became a viral hit, explores what can happen when people confront their shame head-on. Her own humor, humanity and vulnerability shine through every word.
How great leaders inspire action
By: Simon Sinek
Simon Sinek has a simple but powerful model for inspirational leadership — starting with a golden circle and the question: “Why?” His examples include Apple, Martin Luther King Jr. and the Wright brothers.
What it takes to be a great leader
By: Roselinde Torres
The world is full of leadership programs, but the best way to learn how to lead might be right under your nose. In this clear, candid talk, Roselinde Torres describes 25 years observing truly great leaders at work, and shares the three simple but crucial questions would-be company chiefs need to ask to thrive in the future.
Inside the mind of a master procrastinator
By: Tim Urban
Tim Urban knows that procrastination doesn’t make sense, but he’s never been able to shake his habit of waiting until the last minute to get things done. In this hilarious and insightful talk, Urban takes us on a journey through YouTube binges, Wikipedia rabbit holes and bouts of staring out the window — and encourages us to think harder about what we’re really procrastinating on, before we run out of time.
The surprising habits of original thinkers
By: Adam Grant
How do creative people come up with great ideas? Organizational psychologist Adam Grant studies “originals”: thinkers who dream up new ideas and take action to put them into the world. In this talk, learn three unexpected habits of originals — including embracing failure. “The greatest originals are the ones who fail the most, because they’re the ones who try the most,” Grant says. “You need a lot of bad ideas in order to get a few good ones.”
The puzzle of motivation
By: Dan Pink
Career analyst Dan Pink examines the puzzle of motivation, starting with a fact that social scientists know but most managers don’t: Traditional rewards aren’t always as effective as we think. Listen for illuminating stories — and maybe, a way forward.
Tye-Dye Shirts
Designate a date, time, and suitable location. Buy supplies: – powdered dyes – shirts – rubber bands – soda ash – bins for soda ash solutions – plastic squeeze bottles to create dye mixes – plastic gloves. Create printed instructions on how to tie-dye and/or create different designs. Hang instructions around your event location. Determine how much to charge per event attendee — make sure you at least break even, but you’ll need to make a profit if you want to raise funds. Publicize for your event and get online or paper signups! Good luck:)
– Jasmine Tong-Seely, Past CASL Board Member
Spirit Gram
Spirit grams are a small token of appreciation a student, teacher, or school advisor can give to another person on campus to express their thanks and friendship. Spirit grams include goods such as candies, sodas, and other creative pieces. They are a great fundraiser for the holiday-related events and the different season such as fall seasons, winter holidays, and Valentine’s day. To start a spirit grams fundraiser, ask leaders in your leadership organization to donate candies and crafting supplies such as tissue paper, cardstock, ribbon, etc. that correlate to your themed holiday. Have workdays to put together the grams and sell them the week of the holiday or season! At my school, we sell everlasting roses in red and yellow for those who are interested in buying them for their significant other or friend. We sell/deliver them in either bouquets or singles to their homeroom classes.
– Tammy Pham, Past CASL Board Member
Raffle Tickets
My band is always looking for funds in order to fund for our trips that we take to play in exotic places and this year and last we have been doing a raffle! What happens is that there is cash prizes or gift cards up for grabs and what the students do is they check out tickets from our director to sell. At $10 a piece, every ticket sold will go toward the account for their trip, all the ten dollars of it. Not only is it fun to sell the tickets, but it is an opportunity to practice those selling skills!
– Olivia Yee, Past CASL Board Member
Lemonade Stand
I volunteer for the Let it Be Foundation and a fundraiser that we do is have lemonade stands around our city. We set the stands up on warmer days in front of grocery stores like Vons and Ralph’s and other local businesses. We asked past buyers if they’d like to have a glass of lemonade and we would make profits off of donations only (people are willing to give more when there is no set price). If you are not comfortable with having the funds based off of donation, you can have a set price of $1.00! You can say “Help our ASB get to Ontario this year for the CASL State conference!” or something along those lines.
– Jacob Quiroga, Past CASL Board Member
The ASB Cafe
My ASB has sold coffee, tea, oranges, muffins, and other breakfast snacks in the morning one day of every week. The sales always do really well! It’s a great fundraiser because it helps hungry students in the morning that skip breakfast & wakes up sleepy seniors. You can even sell hot dogs and other snacks after school for kids who have dinner on their own.
– Lizzie Landau, Past CASL Board Member
Car Wash
Car washes are very successful in the Antelope Valley as we are located in the desert and have winds reaching high speeds that dirty up cars quickly! For car washes, usually the presale tickets make the majority of the money. Each student can be responsible for selling a certain number of tickets, as well as advertising for the day of the event. Car washes can be located at your school, Vons grocery stores, local businesses, etc.
– Amanda Regalado, Past CASL Board Member
Basketball Showdown Against Admin
Perfect during basketball season, the leadership program sets publicity material, sells food and drinks, and decorations for the basketball gym. Students can be charged a recommended $10 and $15 for other spectators. Teachers and students can be recruited to play, and the winning team receives gift cards.
– Daniel Choi, Past CASL Board Member
Sell A Shirt
Students can create shirts using design tools such as Canva, and print them out via any printing company (i.e. Custom Ink). Once the shirts arrive, students can sell them around campus for a profit!
– Aarush Gupta, Past CASL Board Member
World’s Finest Chocolate
Using their website, students have the opportunity to sell chocolate bars for $1-2 and make a 50% profit from all the proceeds from their sales! World’s Finest Chocolate also ships the bars to your location, making it extremely easy to start selling!
– Aarush Gupta, Past CASL Board Member
Movie Night
Leadership program chooses a movie and hosts the movie in the quad, field, or anywhere with an open area. Students can be charged around $10-15 dollars for admission, and depending on attendance, the leadership program can gain a profit. Materials that may be needed: movie, projector screen/sheet depending on where the movie is being played, projectors, sound system.
– Aarush Gupta, Past CASL Board Member
Pie A President!
Students have the opportunity to pie a class president of their choosing or the principal for a recommended $15. Materials needed: whipped cream, foil tins, goggles (to protect the individuals’ eyes), trash bags to cover the body, and paper towels. The input cost for this project is low, but we were able to raise over $3,600 in profit. Students loved being able to watch their fellow classmates or administration get pied in the face!
– Diane Kim, Past CASL Board Member
Basketball vs Football Volleyball Match
In between seasons, the basketball team and football teams have the opportunity to be trained by the girls’ volleyball team and play a game in anticipation of volleyball playoffs. Charge a small admission fee for all students and other spectators and sell concessions at the entrance! Have the dance team or cheer perform halfway through, and make people wear the color of the team they want to win: ie. white for basketball, blue for football!
– Esi Otoo, Past CASL Board Member
Soak a Sophomore/Senior
Students can pay money, depending on your campus and community, to spray water with a water gun or dump water from a bucket on either a sophomore or senior. Teachers are also encouraged to participate if possible! Set this up on a warm/hot day of the year with chairs in an open, outside area (i.e. quad) for the sophomores/seniors to sit in as they get soaked. Play fun music to create an inviting atmosphere to welcome more people! Put out banners around your campus and publicize this through your school’s social media account/morning announcements/news broadcast to get people excited.
– Katarina Dragasevic, Past CASL Board Member
Choir Grams / Holiday Grams
For a certain amount of money, students can pay to have their chosen person be called during class and sung to by choir students in front of the class. For holiday grams, students can pay a certain amount of money to have an item (i.e. a candy cane) delivered to whomever it’s bought for.
– Donovan Rudish, Past CASL Board Member
Water Plunge
A game where someone sits above a big container of water while someone else tries to hit a lever that will plunge the person into the water. Students can pay a small amount to try plunging a classmate, teacher, or other faculty members. This can occur as a class competition where the class that earns the most money for the school gets various awards or prizes.
– Donovan Rudish, Past CASL Board Member
Boo Grams & Valentines Grams
Students can buy a gram for $1, which includes a personalized note and piece of candy that will be delivered to their chosen person during their 4th period (Halloween/Valentines Day).
– Rohitha Tammineedi, Past CASL Board Member
Color Run
Color runs are an easy, engaging, and fun way to raise funds. Color runs are essentially jog-a-thons with a twist. All participants will arrive at school in a white t-shirt. As they run each lap, the student will not only raise money for the school, but they will be blasted with color! This is an engaging activity for both runners (students) and the teachers hosting the event!
– Rohitha Tammineedi, Past CASL Board Member
READ-A-THON
Have students find pledges from teachers, parents, and friends. For every certain amount of pages the student reads, they will receive profit according to their agreement.
– Rohitha Tammineedi, Past CASL Board Member
Penny Drive
Host a school-wide competition! The grade/class that fills up their giant jar with pennies first wins! You could offer an incentive like a party, to motivate students to bring in pennies.
– Rohitha Tammineedi, Past CASL Board Member
Battle of the Bands
Host a competition for your local high school bands. Students can pay for tickets to experience an immersive night of music. T-shirts, glowsticks, and other school merch can be sold during this event.
– Rohitha Tammineedi, Past CASL Board Member
Night Tag
It is recommended that students pay $5-10 to play, and on a Friday or Saturday night, the night tag event would occur. Students typically show up after it gets dark. Once everyone arrives, a group of taggers is selected, usually a group of 5-10 depending on the crowd. While the taggers wait, everyone else will go hide around campus. Then after 5 minutes, the taggers are given paint pellets, and they will then seek those hiding. A hider is out once they are hit with a paint pellet, and the last one standing wins. Staff that volunteer are stationed across campus to supervise and make sure nothing goes wrong.
– Zyzy Raygoza, Past CASL Board Member
Club Food Day
Clubs at your school fundraise through a leadership event called “Club Food Day!” At this event, every club sets up a table on the plaza and sells food that they have bought or made (e.g., people will make tamales, cookies, and liquid nitrogen Trix cereal!). From personal experience, clubs have raised $100 or more before!
– Bella De Vita, Past CASL Board Member
Haunted Hallway
Pick a theme (i.e. carnival, graveyard, elm street, haunted school, asylum, etc.) and decorate a hallway in your school with an entrance and exit according to the theme. Have the students who are working the event get costumes that match! Make sure to black out any natural light from windows and turn the lights off so it is pitch black. Create a scary environment by using LED lights, music, and smoke machines to achieve this. Get actors and others who can do scary face paint to participate as well. Groups of 1-7 people, charged $x, can walk through the hallway at a time.
– Desiree Diaz, Past CASL Board Member
Selling/Smashing Fruit or Vegetable
Give students the opportunity to smash a large fruit or vegetable! This event can occur during finals or AP testing as a de-stressor. Additionally, fruit or vegetable choices can be chosen based on a theme. For example, during Halloween or fall season, small pumpkins can be sold for $1, while larger pumpkins are $2. After Halloween, these pumpkins can be sold for smashing.
– Nadine Padrigon, Past CASL Board Member
Nothing Bundt Cakes Fundraiser
Your school can partner with Nothing Bundt Cakes to host this fundraiser. Bundt cakes cost $6 and can be offered in a variety of different flavors: Chocolate Chocolate Chip, Classic Vanilla, Red Velvet, White Chocolate Raspberry, Confetti, Carrot, Lemon, Marble, Strawberries and Cream, Snickerdoodle, and the Gluten Free Option, Chocolate Chip Cookie!
– Nadine Padrigon, Past CASL Board Member
Wrap a Locker
For the holiday season, students can pay to have their locker, a friend’s locker, or a teacher’s door wrapped with holiday wrapping! It is recommended for $3 per locker and $5 for teachers doors. Holiday wrapping can be purchased from the dollar store or be donated from families.
– Sara Miller, Past CASL Board Member
Food Trucks
Have students “order” food ahead and take a class period to deliver meals straight to the students’ classrooms.
– Angela Rico, Past CASL Board Member
Family Photo Booth
The leadership program hosts a photo booth session. This session can be intended for families in need of family photos, but different groups on campus can participate as well. Unlike professional photo studios, a recommended $25 may be charged. If your school offers a photography class, they may be the ones taking the photos and contributing the backdrop. This is a great way to fundraise, give practice to photography students, and allow families to get amazing photos for a reasonable price.
– Shivansh Kelkar, Past CASL Board Member
Family Board Game Night
Invite families and students to come enjoy a night of fun at a family board game night! It is recommended that this event is hosted in the school’s cafeteria or gym. Those attending can come in pajamas as well! It’s recommended that the entry fee is about $5-$10 per family, and food opportunities (i.e. dinners, desserts, drinks, etc) can be provided!
– Rohitha Tammineedi, Past CASL Board Member
Field Day
Host a family field day! A variety of events can be organized such as sports competitions (i.e. soccer, basketball, etc.) and an obstacle run. Food and merchandise can be sold as well.
– Rohitha Tammineedi, Past CASL Board Member
Breakfast Events
On the first Wednesday of each month, a breakfast morning takes place! Invite families and students for a delicious breakfast buffet in the morning before school. Install an entry fee, and after attendees get in, all breakfast is free and unlimited! Coffee, donuts, pastries, waffles, pancakes, muffins, and bagels are some foods you can serve.
– Rohitha Tammineedi, Past CASL Board Member
Gift Basket Bidding
Create custom gift baskets for the holidays and auction them off at various school events (concerts, games, etc.)
– Angela Rico, Past CASL Board Member
Dinner & a Movie
Invite students and families to school to watch a movie and have themed dinner by serving them snacks and drinks similar to ones served or mentioned in the movie. Leadership programs can charge a flat fee for entrance and food.
– Angela Rico, Past CASL Board Member
ThinkNLocal
Residents and other consumers can support a cause (and local business) with each shopping trip, while businesses donate an agreed-upon portion of each receipt for the duration of a fundraising campaign. Fundraising gets tracked via uploaded receipts, goals are easily achieved and everyone gets to watch, literally, how every dollar adds up!
– Daniel Choi, Past CASL Board Member
Dog Walking Service
Leadership students walk dogs in a nearby hike trail. This can be done weekly (i.e. every Saturday). This can be done technically for free, but the recommended contribution can be $25 an hour. Washing dogs can also be a service provided!
– Daniel Choi, Past CASL Board Member
Global Village
Your leadership program works with groups around campus to come together and create items to sell at an after-school event celebrating diversity and inclusion! Clubs can sell goods for a profit, and students and parents can be charged around $10-15 for admission. Global Village is a chance to bring the community together and make tons of money doing so!
– Aarush Gupta, Past CASL Board Member
Thrift Store/Flea Market
For two weeks, allow students to donate lightly used clothing, books, household items, and any other things worthy of being repurposed. On a Saturday morning, allow community members and students alike to come back and purchase whatever they would like. Donate all remaining items to charity or recycle them!
– Esi Otoo, Past CASL Board Member
Moonlight Dinner
Your leadership program hosts a dinner with paid tickets for the local community. Students organize a catering company to serve dinner to those who attend the dinner. Additionally, waiters may be needed, so students can dress formally to help out. During the dinner, a silent auction occurs, where leadership students obtain items/gift baskets by asking local businesses to donate for the auction. Advertising can be through word of mouth, Instagram, and even local stations (i.e. radio stations).
– Shivansh Kelkar, Past CASL Board Member
Community Fair
Host a fair/carnival on your campus where individual clubs/programs can have their own booth with snacks and other food items, much like a vendor fair or they can run activities (i.e. pumpkin ring toss, haunted house, cookie decorating, etc.). Each activity will cost a certain number of tickets (i.e. ticket = $1, sold by your leadership program). This allows for multiple programs to raise profits while still providing an experience for the community. Get outside organizations, vendors, and food trucks involved and discuss the potential of them donating a portion of their profits towards your cause. This is specifically targeted at schools in low-income areas that struggle with collecting, receiving, or asking for donations as fundraising can be a challenge.
– Audrey Peterson, Past CASL Board Member
Trunk or Treat
Host a trunk or treat inviting the feeder elementary and middle schools in your school’s area!
Encourage attendees to show up in costume, host a costume contest, and open the event to family and friends. The high school allows its own clubs, sports, classes, and pathways to set up booths for middle/elementary students to get more information. This can be used as a fundraising opportunity for all participating by each club selling different things as well. Additionally, local businesses and vendors can get involved.
– Jude Hammouda, Past CASL Board Member
Flocked!
Local sports teams can participate in this fundraiser. The teams choose a house, put flamingos on the front lawn with a sign that says “You have been flocked by the XYZ team,” and they include a letter for donations. Usually, those who are flocked are dancers at local schools or are friends of those on the team, adding an extra measure of support, recognition, and understanding.
– Bella De Vita, Past CASL Board Member
Calendar Fundraiser
A student will have a calendar template that they will email or text out to family members, friends, or teachers. It should be for the month that is current. The student will ask a person to sponsor them for a specific day, and the sponsor will send the amount of money for the day that they choose. For example, if a participant picks the 11th of November then they would donate 11 dollars for that day. The student would then ask different people in their lives to do the same on different days. The student would do this for however many months were necessary.
– Noa Berry, Past CASL Board Member
Boba Fundraiser
Leadership program or clubs can set up a booth and make boba to sell to students or the community. Up-charge or down-charge depending on who is at your event. Charge a set price for the tea, then add a dollar for each topping. Ingredients to make boba include: toppings (i.e. pears, jelly, fruits), tea powder (put a poll on instagram and buy the top-voted flavors), 16 oz cups, lids, and boba straws.
– Desiree Diaz, Past CASL Board Member
Community Business Lunch
Contact local food places that are preferably family-owned/not a chain and have them sell their food on campus at lunch! The more popular the place is for your school the more money you will make, especially if it is advertised that they will be coming on campus beforehand so people can bring money to spend.
– Izzy Dadalt, Past CASL Board Member
Set up an Amazon Smile Account
Every time a family makes a purchase through Amazon (using a Smile account), a portion of Amazon’s profit will be given to the school. This is easy and doesn’t require families to do anything extra.
– Rohitha Tammineedi, Past CASL Board Member
Snap Raise
A digital fundraiser website. Students will enter 25+ emails of friends & family. After they input these emails, the student efforts are done. From here the company sends out scheduled emails & text messages, describing the cause/organization. The school organization keeps 80% of the profits. Donations are tax deductible, encouraging many to donate.
– Kaylie McMillen, Past CASL Board Member
Blast Fundraising
Blast is a donation app/website. Users input emails or phone numbers of family or friends who would be likely to donate to them. Blast sends out messages automatically periodically after submitting the contacts. Donators can also see photos and updates from you on the Blast website if you choose to post in your feed.
– Natalia Ochoa, Past CASL Board Member
Make the Grade
Much like having sponsors donate a set amount of money per lap ran at a jog-a-thon, ASB students can ask people to sponsor them at a small amount ($2-$3) for every A and a smaller amount ($1-2) for every B they receive on their quarter or semester report cards.
Christmas Caroling
Take your ASB Christmas caroling, but instead of Christmas Carols, explain to them in song what you are raising money for (“We wish you would send us to CASL, We wish you would send us to CASL…”) and ask for donations.
CADA has several resources for all things student activities!
- Distance Learning Free Resources from Friends: A listing of free resources being provided by CADA sponsors, affiliates, and friends during the coronavirus distance learning period. Find some great content you can use in your lessons.
- Affiliate/Vendor Directory: Find a vendor for all your activity needs, i.e. DJ, Speaker, Fundraising, etc.
- Alliance for Student Activities: Why does student activities matter? How does student activities provide a return on your investment? Research & Statistics – Do the Math Video & more.
- CADA Store: Search our CADA Store for leadership books, CADA/CASL Memorabilia, Activity Ideas, and more!
- CADA Newsletter: Quarterly newsletter w/ leadership ideas, the latest in CADA news, and more! Mailed to members in hard copy format.
- CADA Podcast: Interviews with speakers and educators you can use at school.
- Calendar: Calendar of all CADA/CASL events. Find leadership training events throughout the state all year round for both students & advisors!
- CADA Roadmap: Your Road Map to improved climate and culture at your school. Click here for the Road Map and Road Map stops.
- FCMAT Help Desk Archives: Frequently asked Financial questions.
- Resource Library: Search hundreds of leadership lessons, forms, templates, & more to help you run your activities program.
- Standards: CADA Standards document for student activities.
- Hope International University: Administrative Credential and Masters Program at Hope International University