PTA - easy and well supported events/fundraisers?

[BlackOrangeFrog]

Hi, looking at helping the primary school PTA.

Can anyone share experience of what kind of events/activities/initiatives are well attended and/or raise money?

The area is relatively affluent, only 3% of kids of pupil premium for example. However, obviously am mindful of money regardless of income.
They do the usual Halloween and Christmas parties etc and a summer fête and all that

Was wondering if there was any point in things more focused in adults, so maybe wreath making workshop or cheese/wine tasting evening.

Please help wise MNers 🙏🙏

We do a pub walk. You pay £3 or whatever to register and are given a route and you buy whatever at local pubs (it’s a family friendly route that can be scooted or biked or pushchair friendly). At the end, there is live music, drinks and hog roast to buy at the village hall. It is a big event to organise and does require you live somewhere with a walkable route between pubs (we are rural, so quiet roads and footpaths), and you need to book in music and a food vendor for the end. Marshalling is all parent volunteers, and there are a few stops along the way that sell drinks, snacks, cake and an ice cream stop that are also run by volunteers. But it’s a well attended event and I think this year we raised £5000.

I’m not crazy about the drinking focus personally (I’m sober and don’t drink), but I don’t think it’s different from say, wine and cheese tasting, and does mean that childcare isn’t an obstacle to attendance (it’s afternoon to early evening).

Great idea 💯

Adult School Disco / Summer Ball (depending on how posh you want to make it!

Our kids school did this a couple of times and it was a good laugh. You can either go swanky or go 90s themed 😁

B-movie night? Old classic daft film on projector, popcorn, tuck shop sweets to buy.

Ooh or how about an afternoon Family Rave? I've been to a couple of these (not PTA ones though) and they were great fun. Banging tunes, glow sticks, disco lights, fizzy pop, and all finished by 6pm 👍🏻

Fish and chip quiz supper was always popular but more of a social than a fundraiser

Both kids now in university so my primary parent says are some while ago but something we did that was a quick and easy fundraiser was an after school family event with an entertainer with stalls for drinks and snacks. The entertainers used to charge £100 or so and we made money on ticket sales and drinks and snacks. They were popular because younger children could come if the parent stayed or helped. Used to raise £250 or so for minimal effort.

Oh and for purely fundraising there's the anti-effort fundraiser where people just make a donation in lieu of running a bake sale or attending an event!
We had a sheet made up where people could tick a donation option, eg.
£1 to not have to buy a raffle ticket,
£2 to not have to buy a cupcake
£5 to not have to attend a quiz
£10 to not have to bake cakes for a cake sale
£50 to be absolved of all guilt and never attend a fundraiser ever again.

Supposed to be light hearted and obviously you can come up with your own ideas and prices.

Fireworks display is the biggest earner but a lot of organisation involved of course.

We used to do a family bingo & quiz night. Prizes donated. Participants paid entry fee which included question paper & tea/coffee/squash.

Beetle drive.
The beetle body parts correspond to numbers on dice.
Head
Legs
Body
Eyes
Antenna
Wings

Tables of 6 make the teams
Each person takes turns to throw dice & draw relevant body part. First to draw whole beetle wins the round.
Even the youngest pupils enjoy this one.
Set the number of rounds before you start.
Again donated small prizes & entry fee (I think it was £1 for adults & 50p kids)

Curry and quiz night
Wine tasting
Wreath making
May Ball

Bingo!

Our school also sells Friday treat bags on the last Friday of the month after school - popcorn and some sweets in a paper bag £1 each and they always sell out £300 at a go.

We held a music festival, started with the kids groups then local high school rock band, then a couple of covers bands and finally a band that actually was a bit famous but member lived in the village so they did it pro bono. Local pub sorted the alcohol included licence and gave £1 per drink sold to the school, thus risk free on that front, £10 adults, £5 kids included a choice of hot dog or burger.