I know a lot of bands, sports teams, and church groups that hold car washes and are excited when they earn five or six hundred dollars at a car wash. At that point, I call that wonderful team-building and a great social experience for your kids, but I don't think of that as a fund raiser. Let's face it—band, choir and orchestra directors have their plates full trying to get their groups to perform the right notes, at the right time, with the right balance, blend and style. That's what we've been trained for—that is our passion; sharing the love of music with our students. However, oftentimes, we have to also help our students earn money to go on trips with us, pay for entry fees, purchase music, clean the uniforms, provide meals and much more. Even the sweet tastes of candy bars get old, magazines are becoming dated, and cookie dough is still in the freezer from the last fundraiser.

Several years ago, I remember reading an article in another journal about a mega car wash fundraiser. I was astounded when I read that you could make ten to fifteen THOUSAND dollars by doing a car wash! I was skeptical—but I kept the article. A couple of years later I came across the article again, but this time I shared it with a colleague and we decided to try it. We were astounded by the results, as we earned over $8,000 for a single car wash. Now we've done it several times and we made between $8,000 and $13,000 each time. . .in only seven hours of work! Here's how it's done.

Secure a location (or two or three) for the event. You'll want a big parking lot in order to pull cars through two at a time (side-by-side) from a washing station, rinsing station and drying station in an assembly line style. The bigger the group, the more locations you'll need.

Decide on how to divide up your students. I recommend a sixteen to twenty-four person crew. With significantly more students, you can create shifts. Just make sure to overlap their call times. For us the first shift come in from 8:45 to 12:45 and the second shift comes in from 12:30 until 4:30 PM. We wash from 9:00 AM until 4:00 PM. We typically have 140-160 students divided between six crews in order to provide three locations with two shifts at each. Some students like to work all day, and some students are unable to help so it all works out.

Here's the secret—pledges! Every student secures pledges prior to the day of the big event. On our pledge sheet there are five options, 1 cent per car, 2 cents per car, 3, 4 or 5 cents per car washed. You can wash 300 cars in seven hours. We've found the average pledges are 2 cents per car. So doing the math, let's say you have 100 students participating, each getting twenty pledges, that is $12,000! Done.

We also accept donations on-site that usually amounts to nearly $1,000 for each location. We don't have all of our students doing the work of securing pledges, so that number might go down somewhat, but I have other students who get more pledges. Sometimes grandma or a close family friend will pledge five cents per car, so it all works out.

Some other things we do to help us be successful
I share the math with the students (see sidebar). I show them how easy it is to make BIG money. We have a couple of group meetings led by the drum majors. Each drum major is in charge of one site (remember the team-building aspect). They have a list of items that are needed such as hoses, washing towels, drying towels, squeegees for windows, "Y" adapters, drying racks (for the drying towels), dish soap, buckets and signs. We also ask to have one parent for each site that owns a power washer to come and run it for the day. I've heard horror stories about stripping paint from cars through use of a power washer and I don't want any issues. However, we can move cars through much quickly by using a power washer in the soap and cleaning area.

We tell the students that we need 6-8 in the washing area. Each person is responsible for one area of the car. That way we make sure that not everyone is washing the hood or trunk... the easy stuff. Someone is responsible for the front quarter and wheel area, someone else the back quarter and wheel area etc. In the past, I've had my car washed by large groups students with no organized system for assuring all parts of the car are washed, leading to poor quality. We want to maintain our wonderful reputation in the community. Excellence is our goal in music AND in car washes!

For those who make pledges for the car wash, we give them a small "ticket" that they can present the day of the wash signifying that they have pledged. That takes the awkwardness out of asking for a donation. They just give that to our student asking for donations or tickets and away they go. We also collect those tickets or donations at the drying station for those who may tip or give a larger donation because they REALLY liked their service when they see what a great job we have done.

Parents help in each of the washing, rinsing and drying areas. Since most students don't own their own vehicles, they don't understand the degree of perfection an adult would expect in regard to getting "in the cracks" to make sure every inch of the car is clean. Sometimes in the rinsing area, we have to hit the tires again, or a quarter panel that has been missed.

Certainly we have students out on the street corner holding signs and directing them to the car wash. They must be energetic and moving at all times. Sitting down, or standing in a bored or lazy manner does not inspire confidence that this will be a pleasant experience. Sometimes we have student bring their instruments and play a few pep band tunes—now that get's peoples attention!

We have washed RV's, motorcycles, fire trucks in addition to cars and trucks. We did count the fire truck and RV as three vehicles I must admit. We even once had a gentleman tell us he was limited on time. He asked how long it would take and we told him five minutes. To that he said he would give us $50 if we could wash his truck in five minutes, but every minute over he would subtract $10. From the time the water hit his windshield to the time it was dry was six minutes—because we had a system. We made $40 on his truck and the kids were excited. Now THAT was team building—everyone working to achieve a goal!

To get more cars washed, we encourage everyone to get their car washed. Each band family tends to bring every car they own! Students who oftentimes would hesitate to get their own car washed because they couldn't donate now get their cars washed. There is no pressure to donate. There is no guilt for not putting money in the can. Every car we wash is a bonus; the money that comes in at the event is not our primary focus.

Finally, we have done this as a trip fundraiser. To encourage the students, they get to keep 70% of the profit from their pledge sheet which goes into their individual trip account. It is not unusual to have students earn $300 to $600 for their individual account. The other thirty percent went to the band fund for general-purpose expenses. By dividing the money 70/30, the band still earns close to $4,000, which in any "normal" fundraiser is still a good amount, but now the students have put $8,000 also into their accounts! We all win!

All the forms that we use are included for your use. Change the name of the group, locations of the car washes and dates and make them yours. All I ask is that you send me an email to let me know how much you've raised. The kids have a blast and you can make a lot of money for NOT a lot of work. Enjoy your clean car! If you have questions, you can also email those.

Bill Thomas is the Director of Bands at Shawnee Mission West High School in Overland Park, KS. He has also taught in Dodge City and Wichita. In his current position, his marching band travels to London, England every three years for the London New Year's Day parade, thus needing to raise several hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Resources (PDF files)

Car Wash Tickets
Pledge Sheet
How To...