PTA fundraising in non-wealthy area

[pollygon]

Has anyone got experience of running/being on a PTA at a school where most parents are really struggling financially? We've just started a PTA at my DD's inner London primary, which is lovely but really showing the consequences of years of underfunding, with a tired Victorian building and an empty expanse of tarmac as a playground. Fundraising could really help, but I'm keen to have some ideas that don't rely on parents putting their hands into their severely overstretched pockets (eek imagery gone awry). Would love to hear people's experiences/thoughts.

You should approach your local Tesco about being the school that they do their token box for.

If you’re in central London are there any big companies nearby? The one I worked for teamed up with a local primary school so that office workers would come out a couple of times a year to help out with school stuff - eg we repainted walls (company bought the paint), did a new garden, did reading with the kids etc. It was very popular.

It is fairly time consuming but there are all sorts of grants available if you put together a bid. DS’s preschool got a large donation from Veolia (it was something like 70% of the quote for a specific project), local primary school got a lottery grant for playground equipment, and another local group got a large donation from HSBC. It may be a case of googling various big companies and seeing where there might be opportunities to bid.

Our local Tesco also donates food to school events. We have a junior school disco twice a year. It’s free to enter but we cover the costs by selling sweets, hot dogs, glittery tat, tattoos etc. It’s lovely as no child is excluded and they usually have enough money for sweets!

Obviously sweets are bought wholesale etc..

Co op do a school donation thing for school pta’s.
Wild bean cafe will donate food etc for events.
Our school seems to have great success with local big businesses donating staff for working parties (e.g painting, building vegetable boxes etc) as well as stuff for raffles.
Our school sell ice cream after school in the summer (just Iceland packs so 50p fruity rocket type £1 feast type) They also have an after school club that make stuff and then it’s sold after school (snow shakers etc). Hot drinks at parent assembly’s. In the run up to fetes Donate raffle gifts for no uniform.

Local businesses.
Local Churches.
Local Sports teams.
A partnership with a local private school? Many will be happy to co-operate in eg collecting and donating books for the library.

Also hampers for the Christmas fair. People can donate small things that get made into bigger hampers and raffled off. You can also ask local businesses if they’ll donate anything, and any local parents who might make stuff as well. We have a few cake bakers and hairdressers and the like who will offer a voucher.

Oh and a huge thing, find out if you have any parents who work for an organisation that does matched funding. Even in a not well off school you probably have someone, especially in London. Insurance companies, banks, accountancy firms. Many will match what their employees raise for charity. Although maybe your PTA is too new to have charitable status? We get our matched funders to hold the bucket for entry fees at events, or work on the stalls that get the most custom at fairs, and then they double our money for us.

Ask each pupil to bring in 1 small item of chocolate. Put it into bundles and have a raffle.

My company does match sponsorship and also donates an additional £1000 if I completed 30hrs of volunteering at my school. Myself and two other parent in our year group together raised a year's worth of PTA funds just by corporate sponsorship alone. Could you write an email asking parents to check company charity policies? The other parent was an office admin and not a high earner but through her company donated hundreds of pounds.

Absolutely thebsupermarket schemes. A bit of effort to get on them and tell people to selectvyou but much better return than school events.

Grants including Aviva community fund are great for specific projects.

Our PTA has moved to doing fewer events not because our families are that deprived but because most of the profit comes from those few events, and instead put more effort into grants.

Contact all the local businesses for raffle prizes. Many won’t give but you will find some that will.

Cake raffle Friday - have a rota of parents who make (or donate) a cake and sell raffle tickets for a nominal amount each friday. The winner wins the cake. In our school, it became an honour to win the cake

Tesco - apply to do the Tesco scheme. Even the third place project gets £1000.

Apologies if this app is really controversial and hated, but I was impressed by how much one of our local primaries made:

www.oxfordmail.co.uk/news/16998988.classlist-app-provides-botley-school-cash-boost/