Portrait fundraiser

I was approached by a local elementary school to do a family portrait fundraiser. It ended up not happening this year because they wanted to do something for Christmas and approached me at the beginning of December, but they'd like to try next year. So I'm putting together a proposal for them, and I will send it to other schools in the area as well.

I'm not concerned about my experience, equipment or ability to run the fundraiser, as I've done big shoots similar to this before. Those have all been for charity though, where I donate my time and the sittings are by donation. I suppose I could do that for this as well, but I'd rather not.

So far I'm intending to offer a few different packages, with the basic one at $50 with a set of 4x6 prints and others including different things like additional prints, digital files, etc. They are all priced above the basic package obviously. I'm intending to give the school $25 from each session (a weekend would allow for 76 sessions, so $1900 for the school). They would also get a percentage of the print sales made within a certain time frame (again, not enough to make me lose money).

The other option would be to have the sittings at $25, paid to the school, but they only get say one print (which in the past the organization doing the fundraising has paid for). Then they would order anything else from me, with 100% of those profits going to me. I don't like to rely on reprint sales in this world of scanners and home printers, but the lower upfront cost might look better to some people.

I've looked online at places that have the school sell certificates for prints (usually 10x13s), but I'm not crazy about that idea. I also want to offer a wide variety of options and products, as I don't believe in making people pay for something they don't want. There is also a huge spread of income levels in my town, so I don't want people to be left out because they can't afford one higher package price.

Has anyone done a fundraiser like this before and have any advice on what to offer and what to do/not to do? What do you think of my plan so far?

Liza might be the best one to answer, but I will try.

When you do anything for schools or churches, have customers pay in advance. Even if you decide to do a simple package: 1 8x10, 2 5x7 and 8 wallets and that's it. Sell them to everyone for $40 or whatever, and additional prints extra, that is the best way. That way you know that anyone who signs up is paying a set price and if they love the work, they will order more. Also, if they don't like the picture, tell them reshoots are available, but will cost an extra $15 for sitting fee. That way you don't lose all the money you invested. If this amount seems high, decide what you really are shooting for. If you charge too little, people will think it can't be good. If you charge too much, people won't do it.

The studio I work for recently did a charity with the Angel Gift Tree program in our county.

We offered discount studio shoots with the Christmas backdrop only (tree, presents, etc) for $30. This included 1 8x10 and 2 5x7's, which we let them pick out after the shoot was over. The $30 was considered a donation because 100% of it went to the charity. All of our time was donated so we didn't get paid. They all got an online gallery and any additional prints they ordered they had to pay for (and we made the money on that). We made sure to let them know ahead of time (it was by appointment only) that it was cash or check only and checks were to be made payable to the charity.

Ya, that's similar to what I did for my other fundraiser (for the SPCA). I'm trying to get paid for this though