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?

[Readytomakechanges]

Sorry for being so slow to reply. I've just finished work.
Some great suggestions.
Money is for a new book scheme. Area is not well off.
I'll update.

[ICJump]

Can you look at grant funding? Rather than trying to raise small bits at a time

[LilyMcClellan]

Get celebrities/artists/local businesses to donate items and auction them off.

[FreakEmOut]

We got a local real estate agent to donate commission from the sale of a property to the P&C in return for exclusive advertising in the P&C space.

[SemiNormal]

I'm not sure what the requirements are for Tesco Bags of Help Scheme but could be worth looking into www.groundwork.org.uk/Sites/tescocommunityscheme It says grants of up to £4,000 are available. I've seen in my local Tesco that they have a choice of 3 local fundraisers people can choose between to support and there are often schools requesting help for different things ie sports equipment and the like. I know it wouldn't raise the full amount but it's still a big chunk if you can get it.

[Want2bSupermum]

I help with fundraising for our school district here in the US. It's a very mixed area in terms of income. We raise hundreds of thousands of dollars.

You need to identify who your targets are. I'd split it into large national companies who support education (such as PWC/EY/KPMG/Deloitte, conglomerates such as unilever, p&g and retailers such as Tesco etc) and apply for funds. Second apply to foundations. A letter and post to Mark Z followed by an email to Sheryl S got us $10k from the FB foundation. We also got money from the bill and Melissa gates foundation.

Then you have local businesses who can donate. Every year I go around with a couple of others and collect unused stationary.

I want to sell advertising space on the school wall to local businesses. They think I'm crazy but I know I could easily raise serious money doing that.

[sukitea]

Sorry if this has already been mentioned but when doing events that the children need to pay for (such as disco) you need to gauge the economic situation. If it is a high number of FSM then at £5 per ticket may be cost prohibitive. It isn't kind to have something fun that half of the DC can't do.

[PoppyPopcorn]

You'll stuggle to raise that quickly. We are a 400 child school in an affluent area and make that in a year.

SOme of our big fundraisers are the least time consuming - we invested in a gaming licence which allows us to sell raffle tickets in advance and run lotteries which is low effort, high reward.

I think you also need to task someone to investigate what grants and awards are out there. Our local airport has a charitable fund for projects on the flightpath into the airport and regularly dishes out £2 - £3k for projects in schools and clubs. All you need to do is apply. We've also had money from supermarkets - those put your plastic disc in the pot things. There are loads and loads of charities supporting literacy and reading so there might be money out there if you research.

[sashh]

Samosas, depending on where you live.

I took 100 in to thank the school staff after a placement (from me and another student).

Some of the staff thought they had to pay as it's a way they raise money. Buy from a sweet centre and they are 25p and sell them for 50p. Maybe ask to leave them and a collection tin in a local high school staff room. You could make it a regular thing, say on a Friday.

Check out local round table / rotary clubs for donations.

Get hold of the 'grant making trusts' directory.

I did this at uni, I created a spreadsheet of every one I could apply to, I then wrote to the first 100 of them asking for application forms, I wouldn't get that many replies but the ones I did often gave me money.

This was as an individual not as a 'good cause' the smallest amount I got was £10 and the largest £2500.

www.dsc.org.uk/publication/the-directory-of-grant-making-trusts-201819/ You should be able to get a copy from the library - it might be reference only.

[BeyondThePage]

Start a 100 club (or we have a 200 club)

Everyone who wants to take part contributes a pound a week and gets a number allocated - paid termly in advance - and every month there is a draw with a £50/£25/£10 prize draw.£85 pay out for a £400 take every month - for ever... (ours is so popular it is a £170 pay out for an £800 take - every month... forever... over £600 a month for very, very little effort).

[Papafran]

That's a huge amount of money. How about the school staff do it themselves by applying for a suitable grant from a charitable body rather than putting the entire burden on one parent. If all the responsibility is on you, I would find a reason to back out of it. Otherwise you will get the blame for 'failing' to raise 15k (which you inevitably won't, especially as it is in a deprived area, no matter how many bake sales you have).

It's wrong that schools should have to find the money themselves for something so basic as books. That should be state funded.

[Papafran]

I want to sell advertising space on the school wall to local businesses. They think I'm crazy but I know I could easily raise serious money doing that

Holy shit. Yes, you are crazy Want2b...

[RJnomore1]

Awards for all application for £10K.

Ideas above for rest.

I'm a bit concerned it's for a reading scheme though. That's an essential.

[Want2bSupermum]

papa I could raise $500k a year doing this. We have 47% on FSMs. It would put these kids and their families through programs to really make a difference. Also there are a lot of families who don't qualify for FSMs who are really struggling with childcare over the summer. We already pay insanely high property taxes so it's important what we raise is outside of taxes on residents in town.

[Papafran]

I am sure you could. I just think it's massively ethically troubling to sell advertising space on the walls of a school, thereby subjecting children to adverts. I think people probably have a different view in the US but here there is a resistance to schools being seen as corporations. From my point of view at least.

[Want2bSupermum]

How is it different to sell advertising space for a school event and on the exterior wall of the school where parents pick up and drop off their DC? About 40% of the households in our school district are making more than $200k a year. It's prime space for lots of companies looking to market to parents.

Anyway, back to the OP, we too have to raise funds for a lot of programs which should be funded by the taxpayer. There are grants available here in the state of NJ and lots of charitable foundations who are focused on giving to causes such as yours.

Take a look at Walmart/Asda. They gave us, via Jet.com $10k last year and stock us up with items such as water bottles and snacks to sell during football games.

[Kazzyhoward]

I just think it's massively ethically troubling to sell advertising space on the walls of a school, thereby subjecting children to adverts

Depends on the adverts. If they're local businesses such as electricians, plumbers, double glazing, etc targetting the parents, then no problem. However, if it's a big brand targetting sweets/sugar drinks at children, then clearly a massive no-no.

[InvisibleKittenAttack]

so not a well off area, then next question, how big is the school? 1,2 or 3 form entry? (the likelyhood of you rasing the funds purely from parents kind of depends how much you need to get out of each family).

As it's for books, any local authors you can ask either to donate directly, or if they will offer 1st editions/signed books for a book auction - you could write to a range of children's authors and ask them all to donate a signed book. (Eg a signed first edition of a Harry Potter book would get you around £1,500 if you do an online auction.)

Anything that means that as well as asking the parents, you are raising funds from outside the school 'family' will really help.

[AnneElliott]

Our PA raises a lot of cash. Easiest and quickest ways are a quiz night (with a bar) and we also do the 100 club.

Also an Xmas shopping night getting local craft/shop people to hire s table for £20 works well.

[InvisibleKittenAttack]

A quick one to do this week, is send out an email asking for old £1 coins, put a collection pot in main reception/in each classroom. If you can get a general e-mail out to parents tomorrow/Wednesday, you should get a few.

Another is school collection boxes, send home card printed out with self assembly boxes, encourage children to decorate them then assemble and put any spare change in for the school funds. If you can encourage a few parents to take them into work places to leave for anyone with a few coins to throw in, even better. (Our school did this last year, over half came back in and the average amount in them was around £10. That was over £3k raised with minimal effort, although the office and PTA staff hated counting out all the pennies).

You could also do a 'left over holiday currency' appeal, again in a large school this should get you quite a lot, worth someone from PTA sorting it all out at the bank.

[iammargesimpson]

That's a huge amount of money for volunteer parents to make, surely there's a committee and you're not expected to do this alone?! If so, you need to ask for other parents to help as it's way too much responsibility. We raise about 10k a year at our local school through various ways- a bag pack at a local supermarket at easter or Christmas, a raffle with cash prizes and/or prizes sponsored by local businesses, a six week run of a second hand shop in the local town, and each family is asked for a small contribution (20). There's some great ideas on this thread, all very doable but only if you have a really good group of parent volunteers to pull it all together.

[iammargesimpson]

Also if it's for school text books, why don't the school do a rental scheme? Each child is charged a fee per year for book rental.

[TheHobbitMum]

Our schools biggest fundraiser seems to be the chocolate tombola at the fete but you could always hold an afternoon fundraiser? The school has 2ir 3 Fridays where it is non school uniform in exchange for a chocolate donation. Then the chocolate is added to a very large tombola. Maybe you could hold an Christmas fayre after school? Good luck