To ask your best ideas to raise a lot of money quickly?

[Readytomakechanges]

DD's primary school is in desperate need of £15,000.

I've been tasked with coming up with fundraising ideas.

I've never done anything like this before and I have a job, so probably not the best person for this, but there are no other parent volunteers.

Have any of you hosted a really successful fundraiser?

Kazzy That is true but you need to think about the demographic when thinking about what 'inclusive' is to that group. It matters. I've been in schools where a lot of the parents couldn't afford to take part in some of the things suggested here and they wouldn't raise money. And in others that raised that sum of money through one-off events, targeting an affluent group of parents. That's why I asked the OP.

Don't think it matters, anyway. Loads of suggestions and she is going to be more than capable of working that out for herself.

I'm sorry OP but I am confused. Why is the school in such "desperate" need for £15K? Is it for running costs? is this for trips or PTA? Is this a state funded school?
How has this deficit occurred? Is the school under threat of closure?
Will there be ongoing need for financial support?
It's s huge amount to be desperate for, and a few cake sales may be papering over underlying cracks.

I know many PPs are well meaning, but without more information it's not much more help than arranging deckchairs.

I hate to mention the C word but our Christmas fayre always raises around 3k. A lot of making and hard work involved but easy money. Ours is normally first week of December so not long away. Halloween disco or possible spooky movie night in fancy dress watching in school hall. Same could be done at Xmas. With the likes of the polar express, marshmallows and hot choc served

Lots of good ideas.

Any wealthy/famous school alumni who might be prepared to chuck some money your way? My DCs' old primary produced a professional goalkeeper who'll always donate generously to specific appeals such as school minibus, as well as an actress who donates money and retweets re fetes/boot sales.

Christmas and summer fayres were the biggest fundraisers at my DD's primary, but you need a lot of help. Maybe allocate a couple of stalls to each class, and get parents of children in the class to organise.
The school where I volunteer hold a film night every half term, one for YR - Y2, followed by one for Y3-6. Charge for the entry, then they sell drinks, sweets, popcorn, glo sticks etc.
They used to run a tuck shop after school every Friday, but some parents complained about selling sweets. It then became every month, and is now every half term. Raises a lot though, especially during the summer when they sell ice lollies.

Ask parents who work for large corporations whether their firm has a 'match funding' scheme as part of its corporate social responsibility policy - many, including Barclays, Lloyds, Ford, KPMG, M&S etc do, and will match either the full amount raised by an event organised or part-organised by an employee, or up to a set limit.

Also, get the school registered on easy fundraising. That way, when you shop online at certain retailers (e.g. Amazon, Trainline, M&S - loads of them) you get back a (small) percentage of what you spend. Very, very, easy - you just have to persuade people to use it! It doesn't cost them anything other than the price of what they buy.

Fundraising challenge between classes/groups that can sign up. If you can give each a little 'seed money' to start them off even better. Get a local business to offer a prize for the team who can raise the most.

To be successful it needs to be for a good cause I think

What’s it for?

If it's 2 form entry, so around 420-ish pupils, you are looking at raising £35 each child. It really depends on the area as to if that's a reasonable amount to ask for.

Agree with asking local businesses and wealthy residents if they would help towards it. Depending what its for, try to get an appeal in the local paper. (If local businesses won't give money, if they'll donate raffel prizes, that's a good start, also ask if local churches will sell the raffel tickets as well as trying to sell them to parents at the school).

Tea towels, discos with BBQs, asking each class to raise a set amount each etc is going to help, but if you are in a poor area, the likelyhood of each family being able to suddenly find £40+ each child (which it will be once you've taken into consideration costs), isn't going to happen.

What's it for? There's some pretty good grant schemes out there. Awards for all lottery grant is a pretty simple form... can apply for up to £10,000.

£5,000 is probably an easier amount to raise from some of the other fab suggestions.

If you want actual help and ideas, it might be a good idea to provide some more details. If you have taken in the role of fundraiser then asking on here seems like a bit of a cop out, especially if you are going to go back to the committee and present the ideas as your own. It seems a very large amount of money for a school to need so desperately, and for them to expect one person to be able to facilitate.

Yep, we need to know what it's for, how long you have to raise it and how big the school is (and the sort of area the school is in, wealthy, struggling etc). A 2 form entry school, you need to raise £36 per child. A 3 form entry school, you need to raise £24 per child. It's a lot of difference. And if it's a 1 form entry school, you are trying to raise £71 per child.

I could happily hand over £25 through the year to the school in dribs and drabs. I would be less likely to give the school £70+ between now and Christmas.

A nearby school raised that much last year with a Masked Ball. Fairly wealthy area tho.

How quickly do they need the money?

Im on DD's PTA, DS' PTA and work in a different school so these are ideas from across 3 schools (I wouldn't recommend doing all of them at the same school in the same term, the parents would hate you)

Film night. we go to the cash and carry and do a little tuck shop (which makes next to no profit but means we don't have to pay for snacks) and use a DVD one of us already owns, we do it over two evenings with different films, so one for reception and ks1 and one for ks2 and charge £5 a head.

Disco, can be put on fairly cheaply and always raises a fair amount. You will be surprised how many people know someone who can help do it very cheaply if you ask around. We then buy sweets from cash and carry and glowsticks from amazon that the children can buy.

Parents quiz night, bring your own bottle so the only real cost is the prizes. At the quiz night there will usually be a raffle and a donation pot too

Christmas jumper day, pay £2 to wear a Christmas jumper with uniform.

Make the teacher an elf, I'm not entirely sure how this came about but year 6 were told if they raised £250 in a week their teacher would dress as an elf for the entire day, they raised nearly £500

Set the older children a challenge of who can come up with a way to raise the most money, you'll be amazed what competitive kids can squeeze out of people. We also gave groups of year 6 £10 a group to set up a stall at the Christmas fair, which their teacher linked into a maths project, they came up with some fantastic games that the younger kids went mad for

There are lots of different things you can get sponsored for doing.

Family camp, obviously one for in the warmer months but £10 per family to camp on the school field, bring your own food and drink, or buy some from the BBQ, if you can get one have a raised little fire pit and sell some marshmallows for the kids to roast. have a little tuck shop.

Then there's the Easter egg hunt, Summer and Christmas fairs.

There are companies that will buy bags of old clothes, toys etc and plenty of parents who don't mind having a clear out.

My school hire out the hall and outside areas, we get a lot in rent from various clubs that use the school in the evenings without really costing us much (as the school is still open for teachers working in their classrooms so the heating and lights are on anyway) but obviously that's not a quick fundraiser

Are you near a football/ rugby ground so you could rent out the playground at £5 /car for secure match day parking?

£15K for what?

Car washing was very lucrative for our primary, getting willing volunteers was hard going though.

A few ideas:
Raffle - approach some local businesses and appeal to parents for prizes
Approach local businesses for cash donations
Horse raising / Casino night. Sell tickets for the event to cover food and put half the ante's into a pot for prizes and the rest as donation
A concert / play put on by the students and sell tickets
Sponsered whatever either by volunteers, students or teachers
School fete / craft fair
Table top sale in hall / playground - set price for each table
Murder mystery night
Dress down day for the students, £2 to wear casual for the day instead of uniform

Bonfire night is another one.

Adding in a BBQ, cake stand and bar also helps raise cash.

For things like that, advertise wider and try to get people who aren't parents at the school to come along as well, this helps because if you do need to get £50+ per family raised, there's going to be fund-raising-fatigue set in, anything you can raise from outside the group of parents will help reduce the burden.

A state senior school close by to us took on a fund raiser person for two days per week. The deal is she has to fund her own salary PLUS raise £x,000 for the school And she is brilliant. And it means that it doesn't all fall down to busy parents to do the fundraising with committees etc. She is a brilliant fundraiser, has great contacts, gets sponsorship for events, organises everything with parental help - the school never wants for much. One thing she did once was when the school needed to raise money for a specific project, she sold 'bricks' and families could buy them and they were then incorporated into the new building and there was a row of plaques inside the reception area with all the donators names. Once you whip up some energy with good leadership funding happens.

One great evening was a ladies pamper night - raised tons. Lots of local therapists paid £x to have a position. Then attendees paid £10 to buy a ticket to attend and get 10-15 minute pamper slots that they could pre-book for hardly anything. The local therapists raised their profile and I got a head massage, a back massage, a mini facial and my nails and feet done for less than £40!

Also google 'phil the bag'. Everyone brings in bags of unwanted clothes on a certain day and Phil The Bag collect the day after and pay by the tonne. Can raise anything between £250-£500 depending on how big the school is. Do that twice a year and it brings in a lot without a huge amount of organising.

Reach out to local business, offer advertising

Thinks such as car boot sales on the field/playground and offer refreshments for extra income. Tea/coffe etc.

If your lucky to be near a sports ground/concert/centre of town etc open the playground up for a car park. Easily get £5 for all day parking for a footy game etc, all you need is someone to open the gates and close then on a night.

Disco’s, cake sales, non uniform days, car washing etc. If your Wanting to build a new wing/renovations etc can you get a local business to donate cash and name the wing after them?

None Uniform days £1 each child, bingo/quiz nights, cake sales, discos. Sell toast at morning break - our old school used to do this and make a fortune. One of the TAs used to go out and buy loads of the really really cheap crappy loaves of bread from Tesco (I think they’re about 70p), willing volunteers ie. me and a mate would toast and butter them then the yr 6s would collect them on trays and sell them for 25p a slice. Most kids would want two slices so we’d make loads.

Christmas craft fair. Rent out tables to local crafters, have buy-able food and drink, carols etc etc. You can advertise on stallfinder/Etsy/locally. Invite the local radio station etc.

Sponsored car wash and valet if you can get the kids to volunteer.

Talent show put on by the students with an entry fee, food and drink, video of show to buy.

Student run restaurant, so lay out tables nicely like a restaurant in school hall the parents pay for a table and the students put together a three course meal, cook and serve.

Obviously most of this depends on older kids who are willing to participate otherwise you best bet is a local philanthropist.