Best (and worse) school fundraisers

[TellerTuesday4EVA]

If your DC's school has fundraising events throughout the year could I trouble you to ask for the best/worst in your opinion?

We are a recently formed PTA group and there hasn't ever been one at the school so we are starting from scratch. We have some good ideas but would love to know what have been the most positively (or negatively) received.

Especially interested to hear from parents involved in the fundraising to know which ideas were the most successful revenue wise.

Thanks so much in advance.

Easter egg bingo seems the best for us - kids enjoy it, parents don’t mind it (some even enjoy it), it raises a good sum for little cost (families donate Easter egg prizes) and is pretty easy to organise.

Quiz and fish & chip night. Get local takeaway to deliver fish & chips. A bar makes a good bit of money (get the drinks on sale or return). If you don't have a resident quizzer who could write your quiz, you can get loads online or your local pub might help you out. Or PM me - I've written a couple for my DCs' school!

Offer parents the chance to give (eg) £50 in return for never being bothered by fundraisers again. I can guarantee you'll make quite a lot of money.

Family movie night.

Bar for the parents, pizza on sale, sweets and popcorn.

Summer and Christmas fairs
Children's discos
Quiz night (adults only)
Mothers Day and Fathers Day sales.

A really easy, low effort, is textiles collections.

At the moment, our easiest is a school lottery.

I'd start with the last 2 if I were you - minimal volunteering required.

My dcs school used to do a whole school sponsored walk (they could do a lap round the playground, school and field) during school day once a year. There were different distances for the different ages I think, from memory.
1/2 went to a nominated good cause and 1/2 to school funds.
Every child was asked to ask for sponsorship. Even if people could only raise a pound or two, it soon adds up if you have a typical school with 7 years and 2 forms per year. Most people managed a few more £s and there were always some that raised loads.

What milk said. The constant requests for disco money, fair money, smartie tube money, money to wear non uniform etc all school year is utterly tiresome. Ask for one off donations, I would pay more not to be bothered with all the other requests throughout the school year.

Same as milk never understood despite repeated suggestions why the school never just set up a school fund.

Fireworks night with bbq and other stalls. Run by a local professional company. It's the biggest money raising event at our school.

Cake Sales. One every half term. Don't need to bother with homemade. Parents buy the packs of 12 donuts from Sainsbury's that cost £2 sell them individually at £1 - Kerching !!
The cupcakes that cost about £3.50 for 12 - sell individually for £1.50 - more Kerching !!!

After school treat stalls did well last year and the kids loved them. Things like ice lollies or pick & mix did well. And chocolate tombolas.

My dcs school used to do a whole school sponsored walk

God no, not sponsored anything.🤦🏼‍♀️

A sheet of paper with room for 25-30 names? The days of being able to pop round ask your relatives, the neighbours and the nice people who run the corner shop for 20p or 50p are long gone.

Beetle drive

We usually have a few small events during the year and one large event every year. Small events include wine and cheese evenings, community cinemas, beetle drives, etc. Our large fundraisers have been sheep racing. (Live in a rural area). A little like horse racing but with sheep!) and music festival. Music festival takes up a lot of time and effort but raised over £10k at our last event.

Book sales are good. Just stick with picture books and paperbacks suitable for ages 3 - 11 (I am assuming this is primary). You have to be clear when asking for donations. Say clearly "no baby books/adult books etc"
Have a simple set price. I usually did 50p each. Sometimes £1 for a more long solid Year 6 type novel. Picture books I often did 50p each or 3 for £1. Never turn down a child if all they have is 37p - sell them the book !!

My Dses’ Primary school PTA ran a Hundred club - parents bought shares - one share cost £1 per month. Every three months, half the money raised went into the PTA coffers, and the rest was shared out between three share holders, each share being an entry in the draw (first, second and third getting £50, £30 and £20).

Parents liked it because you simply signed up with a dd for however many shares you wanted, so very little effort required, and the PTA liked it because it gave them a steady, predictable income stream.

I liked it because I won first prize once.

Recycled uniform sales at the end of every half term- every item £2.

Cake sales half termly- parents donate, everything £1.

We have fantastic spring/autumn fairs. Big mix of little stalls, games, makes the school an absolute fortune.

Personalised Christmas cards always bring in a lot of money.

Tea towel- to really get money out of it do it per key stage- each kid draw a self portrait.

Christmas present room- all presents are £2 (all bought from the pound shop). The kids LOVE this and it's a huge success every year- parents pay in advance (so you can buy the exact right amount of presents) and the kids get to come in, choose a gift and wrap it up.

Oh and we hate anything that requires sponsorship. It encourages unfair competition between the kids.

Thanks all some great suggestions, thank you.

Agree with the yearly donation, I've always said that would be my ideal but the head is against it and wants to go with a more school family/ community feel.

@Juiceey I really like the Christmas present idea, I haven't heard of that one before. Do they buy for a friend or family member? Just wondering how you would make sure you had the right gifts number of gifts for each category, is that info given beforehand?

Movie nights for the kids with a small sweet stall
Quiz night (more work than movie night)
Collection on the door after each class assembly / Christmas show.
Christmas card / tea towel / mugs - kids do their own design

The presents are for adults, so it's aimed for parents/grandparents. They tick male, female, neutral in advance when they pay.

We don't do @SDTGisAnEvilWolefGenius's idea but I'm going to suggest it, it's great!

I also forgot- pTA are always plugging for parents to use www.easyfundraising.org.uk

Our school sold hot drinks and pastries at sports day.
Over the last half term before summer they had frosty fridays in the playground after school. Ice creams/lollies for 50p, there was always a big queue.

Most popular stall at any of our fairs is the jam jar tombola stall. Get parents to fill a jam jar with sweet or small toys (I collect crackers that and Maccy D toys for this). Sell tickets 5 and 10 numbers win a jar.

Also some companies that parents work for gave a charity budget you may be able to utilise. We have one parent who is able to double our profit once a year through his company.

I cant recall the xmas card company we use. Basically kids draw a picture and it gets made into a card with profit going to PTA.