School Fundraising Ideas?

We do lots of things at my kids school, little things like adult and kids bingo, kids disco, summer and xmas fairs, adult disco and ball (takes alot of organising), non uniform days to be paid for £1 each, hope that will get you started Good luck make sure you get lots of help though

Well - where to start!

Have you joined the PTA at your daughter's school? If so, they probably have loads of ideas already - but if they're members of the NCPTA, get hold of the membership and you can go on their forum where people post some great ideas...

Failing that - feel free to pick my feeble brain (currently chair of our Friends Association!). Some ideas that have been lucrative for us, and which I can post more details on, include;

Monthly Cinema Club (very easy to set up and run!)
Ice Skating in school hall
Family Bingo Nights
Quizzes
Race Night
Children's Disco
French Day
Nearly-New School Uniform sales
Tea Parties at Christmas and Easter
Ladies Pamper Night
Christmas Shopping Event
Summer Fayre

The list goes on...

PM me if you'd like more info on any of these - happy to help!

Toast @ 10p a slice at morning breaktime.

Hi

I was the Hon Sec of a PTA for 10 years, now i am just on the PTA as I work at the school.

We do loads of things just like Pootle suggested, we also do 100 Lucky squares every half term, buy a sq for £1 and then the winner gets half the amount earned, so only 75 sq sold they get half, easy to do.

The NCPTA have great ideas, ask your parents what skills they have, you never know you may have parents with their own businesses, we are only a Nursery school with 90 pupils on role, but last year we did a calender (kids drew their pics and teachers too and we put in all the dates of their birthdays etc) we sold a page to sponsors for £30 each and we made over £700 from this.

Only last month we did a sponsored walk of two laps of the playground at the school behind us and we raised £1800!!!!! It took 10 mins and the kids got a sticker on the first round and a lolly on the last and the parents helped, it was great.

We write to loads of companies and have a fun day in July, only for the kids and parents, we do a raffle and a balloon race and a sponsored bounce, its always a success and we raise from this as well. A lot easier than fetes.

Also we have a "Garden Club" in my kids school, they charge £1 for every month and there are 100 places to join and then 3 people are pulled each month for a 1st, 2nd and 3rd place and they receive £20, £10 & £5, the rest of the money goes on the garden area.

If you need anything else, just ask, i have loads and loads of ideas and have organised them all first hand (not always so easy!! lol).

Good luck with it

Su

Hi

Do a run/race. Do it in fancy dress if it is too easy.
If you can't run do a pram race.

The harder it is for you, the more money people will give. There are lots of fun runs for various charities; just make your own sponser form and take it from there.

T

The trouble with raising money for schools is that you are always asking the same people for money there's only so much parents can give. I know I was on P.T.F.A. for over 24 years.
One thing you can do is ask local supermarkets if you can wrap flowers on Mother's day (I know its gone this year ) or any other celebration day and ask customers for donations we raised quite a lot doing this and if its timed with them giving out school vouchers they can donate these as well.
How about in the town centre having a mile of coins.
If you have a river or stream a duck race or use corks you need a net or something to catch them in so no pollution.
Hope these ideas help.

One of our Mums is a professional gardener (and so has contacts in the trade) so we've provided wrapped Mother's Day plants for the children to buy for the last two years...well, its the only way I'd ever get OH to shell out for flowers

Again, its a quick and easy fundraiser - plus dads/grandads like it because they don't have to put in much effort!

I agree though that it is always the same people who join in and donate etc. With the large number of primary schools in the area doing an event in town isn't really an option (plus the children are a bit young/need too much supervision) but its a tactic used by the secondary schools and people like the Sea Cadets (can't understand why we have Sea Cadets in Malvern, but there you go!) The way we get round this is to have lots of child focussed fund-raising as people are more generous when their kids are having fun!

I don't know about anyone else but sponsered things always get my goat because we don't have family close by and most of our friends also have school age children - so I might just as well write a cheque and be done with it! Moan over...

We live near the villiage of Lacock and every year they do a scarecrow trail. There is a theme - this year it was cats and dogs- and the villiagers make "scarecrows" which are dotted about. Visitors pay £2 for an entry form, follow the trail guessing what the scarecrows are and each correct entry goes into a draw for prizes donated by local businesses. All the profits go to the school. This year there were 45 scarecrows and it took us 2 hrs, the kids loved it.

Thanks for all the ideas & suggestions so far, they've been great. Some of them have been done by the school previously. I thought we'd organise a Balloon Race & contact businesses to sponsor it, that way we'd keep our costs down. Also, I've heard about a bag 2 school scheme where people collect old clothes etc ( like the door to door collections). The school are supplied with the bags to give out with the children. The collection van picks up the donated stuff from the school as it's brought in by the parents etc so there's no need for storing it. The bags are weighed & they school gets so much depending on the weight.
We'll also do the nearly new uniform sale as I'm sure most people will have something to donate. I've already heard mums asking other mums if they want their outgrown uniforms for their children.
Not sure about the ice-rink idea, it sounds great but don't know if we'd get our costs back.
Keep the ideas coming though & thanks for all your input.

No probs!

Just a note of caution on the balloon race idea though - a lot of environmental charities and groups no longer approve of them as the burst balloons cause a hazard for wild animals...not good if your school is going for Eco status!

One for the adults, a cheese and wine evening....if you've got the sort of parents who would go for that. See if a local wine merchant (or supermarket) might sponsor the event - cheap wine, glasses for the evening, might even provide you with some 'themed' cheeses to go with; usually a good seller, tickets can be relatively pricey, add a raffle/auction for some wine...

Our school had a hugely successful Bonfire Night every year, charging the general public on the door. We sold tea, coffee, burgers etc and made a bomb. Ruddy hard work though - it's always the same volunteers who do all the work.

we did the 100 club, although there ended up more than 100 members, every
member paid £2 per month by direct debit - half the money collected went to the prize fund (we only did one winner per month so the amount was worth winning) and the other half went to PTA funds, easy by direct debit no chasing every month, you can get grandparents friends etc to join and its quite painless.
Also we registered as a charity,really easy and we got tax relief on all contributions and if you did sponsered events etc, you can claim the tax back on that works out at quite a lot depending how much you raise in a year. its worth another23p per £ raised i think

Hi Daineal, well done to you for making this decision. I set up and run the PFA (Parents & Friends Association) charity for my son's school, total funds from these events within 2years in the region of £17,000. PM me if you want. I no longer Chair as it became too much, especially with my current job at another primary school. Good luck!