Make sure that someone stays with the cash all the time. If held at a person's home, no one goes inside to use the phone or bathroom. Have bags ready. All sales final. How old are the kids on the team? Use them if possible. All money to be handled by cashier. No kids collect etc. Mark everything. Signs out that all money to the team.
Curious, does the money go to the team members or supplies? What about any who for any reason cannot participate? If the money only goes to those who participate, someone is going to end up with hurt feelings. I do wish you the best.

I think you might have to figure out the "participation" part. How will you figure it out if one of the team mates
can not come and help with the actual sale, but DID come up with several things to sell. I think they should get a split. But it would have to be more than just ONE item, or if it IS one item, it should have a dollar amount attached?

Oh, yeah, Marie, they DO have to participate to get the proceeds. A friend's daughter was in cheerleading for ages. And those uniforms are EXPENSIVE! They did fundraisers. And the same girls showed up and did ALL the work. And it took only 2 events before it was decided that you had to be there and actually work to get any of the funds. They would do carwashes that raked in a lot of $$$ with only 5 working. The others thought they could just take the money. no way! lol

I don't think there's any way it can be fair and make all the participants happy. Some people will not be able to help with the set up, others may not be able to help with the actual sale, some may bring lots of good items and someone else may bring just a few not-so-nice items.

I think it might work better with each participant having their own table and collecting their own money. You could make it fun by having a prize for the person that sells the most.. it'd be like a competition then.

If you want to just put it all together I'd have all of the money going to a charity. No hurt feelings and a charity that needs the money will benefit.

Honestly, I think the money you collect should just go to the team and then be divided equally. You just can not really divide it fairly so you're just going to have to let everyone share in the profits.

First, explain what you are doing and throw out two dates and let the team vote for the one they want. I think most people will participate in some way. Next, send out a sign up sheet with things that need to be done and ask that each family sign up for 1 or 2 things or shifts (or whatever you need). Ask everyone to bring what they have, to help get the word out and to collect from others. Some with trucks may be able to pick up larger items.

Some people will do a lot of work, and others won't. You won't really be able to track how much or what people donate anyway. That's just how it will go.

If people for whatever reason can't help the day of the sale maybe they can donate sandwiches and sodas for the workers the day of the event, or buy and donate some hangers or other necessary supplies. Or, maybe they can help pick up items in advance, or even help haul off the left over stuff when the sale is over. They may be able to work on flyers for the event or contact places that may want to donate. Tell them you'd like 100% participation since the money will go to the team and ask what they can or want to do if they can't participate the day or don't have a lot to donate. You may be surprised, when given options, people tend to come through in one way or the other. And, if they don't you can ask or give the option of a "buy-out" amount (say $25 or $50) to "Not" participate. I don't know if everyone will go for that and if you can actually enforce it, but I know some organizations do that and it seems to get people involved.

I go to many yard sales that have items sold by multiple people. The items have initials on the price tags and they record the sales as they check people out. It takes a bit more time but I see this done all of the time.

I'm worried about the hurt feelings part. We had picked a date last fall. I offered to organize. We have already had a situation where a third party has donated. It took me about ten hours to collect the stuff by myself because no one else could help at that time. I'm ok with that because we were under a deadline and everyone else was at work. I can't do everything. As organizer I expect to do more and not be compensated. My group knows this. I have asked them to what level they can commit. So far...crickets. I've told the group I dont want to waste time with this effort so we do it up big or no go. It is possible, no one will meet my deadline to commit and we will drop the project. Some people do truly need the financial help.

I was hoping that someone else has some experience with this type of fundraising.

I have had experience with it. Generally team fundraising is going to go to the team. Be it you sell ads for the tournament book or you have a bake sale; you generally just can't divide it. If you want to have a garage sale with just some families from the team for money, then do that but don't call it a team fundraiser.

The biggest problem is getting the families to agree to get on board. First, you do have to make sure the families want to participate and need the money. You can't assume everyone wants to do something or wants to do a rummage sale but if you get enough help, you should be able to run with it. (You will probably never get 100% participation). To start you need to set an event and date choices (but only give them 2 choices or everyone will be fighting) go with the choice that gets enough votes.

Send out an email:
Hi all, We are considering hosting a rummage sale to bring in money to help defray costs for the boy's hockey team. I have checked out locations and availible are April 15 or April 23rd. Please email me back by Monday to let me know which date will work best for you (we will go with the date that gets the most votes). Since the money is going to the team we hope to have 100% participation. I will send a signup email later with different shift and work opportunities to divide up the work and help make this sale a success.

(When you get responses back, you should be able to tell if your event will be a go or not... you will either get most people emailing you back with a date preferance, or you will get emails saying..."what, the???....we can't do that. Why didn't we vote. We can't help at all, etc....")

You should be able to tell from the responses if enough people will be willing to help or not. But you need to organize and lead them if they seem willing. Don't do all the work yourself. If not enough people sign up to help (on your work delegated sign-up sheets), then cancel the event early on. If workers get sick, etc it is up to them to find a replacement, not you. You need to organize and delegate, not do it all -- if others don't want to help, then don't do it.

do you have any help from the coach? sh/he might be helpful getting parents to participate...having said that, know from experience there are always the do'ers, and the whiners...
think i'd turn the funds over to the coach to dispurse to the kids in need...

one other possible fund raiser which only takes a few paernts and community help, is a soda can collection...you find a central location, send out a ton of flyers and collect cans for the deposit...you do have to find a store willing to accept the collected cans...(kroger in our area used to accept them) and check with city fathers if using a public parking lot...

I'm with Lydia.
Let members set up and take their own money. You could charge "outsiders" for tables if you have lots of space.

If other people donate,have a separate cashier (maybe block off part of the room with ropes and only one way out and in) you could distribute the money taken in on a percentage basis. That would be the rummage part...

If a kid participates in any way (or the kid's parent or sibling), they get a higher percentage of the rummage money toward their uniforms. The rest would go into a general fund to help pay for uniforms for all.

Sell sandwiches and soda pop and have a bake sale - even pre-made sandwiches bring cash.

I agree with the idea to sell food. Single-serve items like cupcakes and wrapped brownies. And have lots of single dollars available in your cash box. You'll find people come to these things, buy an item for a dollar and only have a $20 bill with them. By the way, good luck! Hope you have a great turn-out, both in volunteers and in customers.

Check your local/city laws (call your city hall) before selling homemade goods - the health dept may require a permit to sell food. You may even need a permit to have your rummage sale.

I would advise against doing seperate tables. Although it may seem like it's fairer you are probably going to end up doing 90% of the work. Everyone will think it's being set up so that they just have to do their own table.

Collecting money is not usually the big problem; it's everything else. Who's going to get the permits, make & hang up the signs around town days and the night before, contact others for donations, collect the stuff from other donator, store that stuff, clean or repair it if needed, haul that stuff to the event, advertise with newspapers, online and other places, set up the tables & sort the stuff the night before, clean the place after the event, haul the leftover items away, etc... You need a team effort or else you're going to end up doing everything.

Plus, a family's table worth of items is not going to be bringing in much money for the effort anyway. (Maybe $10-$25 for the day). You need furniture and baby stuff that takes up big floor space and brings in more money and you need other people from outside the organization to donate to really bring in any substantial money. Share the work, share the wealth.