PTA fundraising ideas

[LovingTheSunshine]

Hi
I am on the school PTA committee & wondered if you are happy to share fundraising ideas?
Let me know - we all want to support & raise money for our schools / children.
Thanks :)

well apart from the summer fair, our regular fundraisers are the discos (which i hate but hey they kids love them)

we have also done teatowels with faces on
suttons seeds
second hand uniform sale
50/50 prize draw

Personalised christmas cards - doesn't feel like you're begging for money yet is quite a good earner.

Christmas Fair, invite local traders to run a stall for £5 or £10 PTA run a raffle and do refreshments. Good earner with little effort. Publicize in local paper or parish magazine.

Bingo - good fun and a money spinner.

Our school sells cakes and crafts when the school is a polling station.

We have a trivia night, disco and a silent auction.

pumpkin - they didn't sell well at our school at all, because they are quite pricey and school families are from a less well off area, so probably depends where you are

Christmas cards are good, as are tea towels.

Christmas Fayre always earns loads as does the summer one but intensive on effort.

Christmas hamper raffle.

Kids disco.

"Phil the Bag" or Bag2School-they pay 50p/kilo of recycled clothes/shoes donated. We do 2 collections a year and raise £1000!!!

Sponsored bounce-hire a bouncy castle and kids are sponsored/bounce.

Film and popcorn for kids.

Quiz and curry for parents.

Good luck!

International food sale
2nd hand uniform sale
2nd hand book sale

(all items donated by parents for Summer & Winter fairs.)

At DD's school, we used to raise money using Yellow Moon. Got free catalogues from YM, sent them home in book bags and parents would buy direct from YM but school got a percentage of their spend. We didn't, to be honest, raise an awful lot but it was very little effort and a job that a parent could do as a self contained thing at home (as in write explanatory note, staple to catalogues and sort out the required number for each class).

Also did a similar thing with Northbrook Fundraising, which sold mainly Christmas gift wrap. Bit more effort than YM though, because someone had to collate all the orders to make a master order, and then sort it all out into individual bags for distribution once it had been delivered. DD used to enjoy helping me do this!

We also used to do Kids On The Catwalk. Company turned up in the evening with a lot of clothes, and about 50 children volunteered to model them and walk across the stage. Afterwards, parents could buy clothes from racks which were set up, by the company, around the hall. I think the school got 10% of sales by way of commission. We charged the parents a (small) entry fee to see the show, and also sold refreshments and had a raffle on the night. The children used to really enjoy it.

Oh, and some of the best fundraisers are the Christmas Fete (Santas Grotto, toy stall and 'secret parent presents' tom bola) and the summer fete (bouncy castle, coconut shy, auction)

We also organised a fire walk at one school which was amazing!

At my DS's previous school the PTA raised a lot of money from a calendar. They took a group photo of all the kids in the school with a January birthday, and used that for the January page, and so on for all the months. They sold these during the autumn ready for Christmas, and almost everyone bought one (not an affluent area at all, I seem to think the calendars were well under a tenner). Made great Christmas presents for grandparents whilst gently reminding them of birthdays ;-)

One of the mums took the photos in the school hall and I think they just did a bulk "photo calendar" order from an online company - they sold so well that they had to order in more. I thought it was a great idea.

does anyone have any recommendations for christmas card printing places? had a quick google but there are many! would be good to get one recommended which is reaasonable cost but still nice quality

No longer on the PTA but we had success with a whole load of different events and ideas - here's a few (some good and some not so good!)

Christmas & Summer Fayres - the children love them and they do raise money but really hard work for the committee
Christmas cards - really successful year after year
Tea-towels - good as a one off
Race night - great family event

Family quiz night - more fun if you include questions for the children
Recipe book - quite a lot of organising but a bit different
Talent completion - X factor type of thing - very well attended for several years, made good money with bar & food sales

World party night – food & entertainment from different cultures & countries – all food donated – really successful every time

Several companies which offer % of sales using affiliate/ID link – don’t think I can post web links but let me know if you want to know more
Also check if any parents’ employers offer a matched funding scheme – lots do. We got £1000’s from Barclays!

Pennies from heaven! – just ask everyone to bring in all the loose change they have at home, lots of people have a jar – it’s amazing how it adds up

Someone mentioned Kids on the Catwalk – this worked well for a couple of years but then sales dipped, but easy to organise as the company have it down to a fine art.

Not so successful were the Car Boot, Ice-skating, barn dance

Good luck
PS DD is now raising money for her school expedition so I think I will be revisiting some of these ideas myself!

Not great at this time of year, but one of the biggest annual fundraisers at my DTD's school is ice cream Friday - summer term, every non-wet Friday, straight after school - ice cream cones in the playground. The organisation is impressive - kids buy a ticket for £1 at one table (manned by adults) then split off to queue for their chosen flavour - one table per flavour, manned by Yr 6 kids. They get tubs of local farm ice cream and cheap cornets. Tubs kept inside til needed and then one adult keeps check and brings new tubs out as and when.

The other biggie is sponsored bounce - a bouncy castle is hired for a day- out up in the school hall. Kids get 1 min each to do as many bounces as they can.

Also, they had their Xmas fair today - last week they had a non-uniform day but instead of paying for it, they have each child a plastic pint glass and asked them to put sweets in it and wrap it up - they were then sold as "mystery jars" at the fair.

The PTA at this school makes thousands every year. They are scary, but uber effective.

We had our parents' pub night last night. Food provided by local curry house. We ran a bar and provided darts, table football and pool. Made a room out like a pub (local pub donated beer mats and towels). Fairly easy to run. Tickets £12.50 a head to include food. Curry house did £7.50 a head food. Raffle as well made just over £200 which was straight profit as all the prizes had been donated.