School fundraising ideas are always in demand. After all, every school could do with some extra budget to improve their facilities and offer their learners even more growth opportunities. Here are a few ideas that go beyond the tried-and-tested bake sale and car wash staples we all know and love.
Set up a fun sports event in which children can partake. Field Day can include off-the-wall ‘sports’ like slippery slide time runs, monkey bar races, etc.
Children and parents can buy tickets to the event, and you can bolster your fundraising by selling food and other market items.
Okay, so a raffle is not exactly a ground-breaking fundraising idea. But, we include it here because it works every time. Get a local business or larger donor to provide a big-ticket item. Think along the lines of a nice holiday, or perhaps a washer/dryer.
Then task your learners to sell raffle tickets. Remember to make a big do of the draw to create some excitement. Lastly, post the results on all your school platforms for everyone to see.
Online auctions are a great way to make donations quick and fuss-free. Instead of inviting donors to a physical auction, which would require a venue, set-up, and catering, you can simply send them a link!
It’s the ultimate tech-savvy route to entice bids from your donor base. After all, many of them want to contribute to your fundraising drive, but may not necessarily have the time to attend an event.
When you utilize an all-in-one auction management solution, it makes the process even easier still. Platforms like these allow you to build your own auction website without any hassle and expand your window of opportunity as more people will be able to bid.
Not to mention the fact that you can allow for mobile bidding if you do choose to host an event. The check-out process is also streamlined and you can get paid instantly. This is one of the best stress-free school fundraising ideas out there.
Asking every parent to donate $100 to your fundraising cause in one go is a bit of a tall order. However, $2 every week is not that big of a deal. As such, a cake lottery works really well.
Once per week, say on a Friday, one kid per class brings a cake. This is worked out according to a predetermined roster, which the parents receive at the beginning of the school year. Then every kid in class pays $2 to go into the lucky draw to win the cake.
The lucky winner goes home with a cake for the family to enjoy over the weekend.
This is a classic school fundraising idea. Host a bake sale where parents prepare baked goods like cookies, cupcakes and delicious cakes and their kids will sell them at school at their own stall.
Or, you could host a market day where you sell DIY products made by students (like cards, bead jewellery, etc). Then parents and other students can pay a small entrance fee to the market. You can also include other fundraising activities here like a tombola or raffle to raise some extra funds.
A great and popular way to raise money for your school is to host an annual talent or fashion show. This is a fun event for the kids to prepare for and can give them the opportunity to express themselves. It could even include student bands and other acts to give the show some variety.
Parents and students can buy tickets to the event, which you can host in your school hall.
Host an auction of artworks that were created by your students. You could offer a random sampling of the pieces they’ve created in art class throughout the year.
Alternatively, you could set a given theme and ask your top art students to create pieces specifically for that theme. For instance, if your school is situated in a wine region, your theme could center around grapes and vineyards, etc.
This empowers the students in addition to raising funds for the school.
Kids love the idea of creating somewhat humiliating circumstances for their educators. As such, putting the principal on the spot is a great way to promote in-school donations.
For instance, you could set certain tiers of ‘what Mr/Mrs Principal will do’ based on the funds accrued. This could be things like shaving off their hair, dying it pink for a week, wearing a funny hat or tie for a month, etc.
Gather recipes from your community and compile them into a cookbook to put up for sale. Ask your learners to share their favorite family recipes, or get their parents to do so. Bonus points if it has a little story attached that you could include in the cookbook.
Ask a professional layout artist to donate their time to create a pretty layout. Then print it cheaply and make it available at an affordable price for parents to buy.
Every family has a few items knocking about in their garage or loft that they no longer need or use. Ask them to donate it to the school and set up the ultimate yard sale.
All you need is a few tables and chairs, and some serious organizational capabilities to pull this off. It can be hosted on school grounds, so there don’t need to be any overheads at all.
Try some new school fundraising ideas to bolster your academic institution’s budget in the year to come. Any of the above ideas can work well to raise funds. Just always remember to include student participation in some way so that you can garner some excitement from the kids, which will encourage their parents to donate.
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