PTA fundraising

[Threetwo]

Hi everyone,

Can anyone share fundraising ideas for their child's school?!

Thank you in advance, all ideas very muchly appreciated
Xxx

One a couple of schools do near me is a scarecrow trail/easter hunt trail type thing. Get families at the school to agree to make a scarecrow on a set theme and put it in their garden for a specific week. Then sell maps at £2-3 each in the local community (ideal if you can get cafes to stock them) and people buy them and go round looking for them. My daughter absolutely loves these, I like it cos it’s getting her out for a walk/scoot/cycle with no whinging!

I assume the families who make the scarecrows fund the resources themselves (maybe offer a prize for the best one or something), so in terms of organisation it’s just plotting addresses on a map and printing and distributing the maps, so quite low manpower I assume.

The things that most schools do must work well or they wouldn’t be so popular. Off the top of my head I’m thinking of Christmas Bazaar, Summer fete, Christmas cards, old clothes collections, second hand uniform sale.

Primary or secondary?
Lots of parental involvement likely, or just a few core people on a shoestring?

It's both, but with a small PTA.

School disco, bingo, virtual balloon race

I'm the Chair of our PTA - a lot will from how big your PTA is (& how many volunteers you can get), how big your school is, what resources you have & how engaged your school community is.
We're a very small village school - we do three big fundraising events a year - Christmas Raffle, Sports Day & Village fete; then smaller ones throughout - non-uniform days, secondhand uniform sales, lolly sales, cake sales, easyfundraising etc.
We've tried some other events but they either don't work or are too much effort for the team we have available. I'd like to try a few new ideas but will see.

This is a fab!

The school is a SEN school so the children travel from all over. I'll have a think how we could adapt it!

Last year our school wanted to buy new books for the library. The PTFA sent parents a link and people gave generously.

There's a group on fb called pta ideas exchange. Very useful!

Christmas hampers, each class does their own, might have a theme, and then raffled off. Cake sales and raffles at school plays. Summer fair and BBQ.

Sponsored walk, discos, bingo, Christmas fayre, summer fayre, raffles, car boot sale, car wash.

School disco/cinema night
Quiz night for the parents and staff.
Beetledrice for all ages.

Bun/cake sale every half term after school.

Colour run

Got someone with a tree shredder and someone with a transit or 2 - offer a service to collect real Xmas trees in the 1st couple of weeks in Jan for a fee.

Small pta, primary age:
Disco
Film night
Cake stalls
Mini fair
. Tombola x2 or 3
. Raffle
. Cakes
. Simple games such as pinpoint treasure on a map, name a cuddly toy

Secondary
A numbers club. Pay say £24 for the year, get a number. A number (or 3) drawn every half term, half money kept, half returned in prizes.

Christmas trees makes us most ££ for least effort. We get parents to pre order then we buy in bulk from a farm. They get delivered about 6am on a cold Saturday morning in December, then people come and pick them up in the afternoon, buying a mulled wine and a mince pie while they're at it

Please, please no sponsored things.

In terms of low effort, things like break the rules day (pay 50p per rule broken - eg bring a cuddly toy, non uniform, crazy hair, nail varnish, make up etc) or a good old fashioned non uniform day are best. However, I know some SEN children find this sort of thing upsetting so if it’s an SEN school these may not be wise.

I get that hassling people for sponsorship can be a pain, but as a parent I’m happy to chuck £5/10 in and not chase family. Very low effort in terms of staffing events if you don’t have many volunteers. Or, if parents are happy to ask grandparents/work mates it spreads where the money is coming from, so not all from school families.

If it is a SEN school then do most kids come in on LA transport?

I know it isn't 'in the spirit' but the parents I know who have kids at SEN schools are up to their eyes in managing life. I do wonder whether there might be desire for a simple 'donations week' or similar?

But then the kids miss out so ...?

I speak as a granny of ten.

If it is a SEN school I assume a lot of these ideas won’t work as parents aren’t on the doorstep. Are there any local companies you can ask to make donations. Online raffle, virtual balloon race sort of things will be something. One local school made a recipe book from recipes from parents with pictures drawn by pupils. Think they had a parent who could help with printing.

with respect to trails etc could you get pictures of something like scarecrows etc and ask parents to ask local shops etc to put them in windows. So children in each location can have some to find, and they might be able to visit another area to find some more, if they are not too spaced out.

If you can’t afford it, you are welcome to say no or just give £1 each time. Maybe have a quiet word with your children if you feel the requests are too regular.

My daughter had 3 sponsored events at school last year. I made the decision to only ask family for sponsorship for one, the other 2 I just donated a fiver myself. I wouldn’t feel comfortable asking too often.

Unfortunately, schools are underfunded and parents are time poor, and sponsored events remain an easy way to get money for little effort/organisation. Our school took thousands on one event done in school time last year. The after school bake sale (which involved 60 parents making or buying cakes to sell and multiple parents and staff setting up, running it and clearing away after) only took £180.

Awk it’s not so much giving a donation, actually- it’s just so awfully monotonous- reminds me of a Jim Royle rant about it.
It just feels wrong to get little kids to pester their families for money.