PTA fundraising ideas, little and often

[sborber]

I've recently joined the PTA at my DC's very small school in the local village. First time being in a PTA so pretty clueless, but keen to help out as they desperately need it.

It'd be great to hear from fellow Mumsnet users who have had success in fundraising for the PTA who can share what worked/what didn't work?

We've pretty much nailed down the two main events for the year ahead - there's only a couple as we have few members and not a lot of volunteers to help us run them.

So, I'm interested in anything that might be steadier throughout the year - smaller, incremental fundraising that sort of generates cash in the background. Do such things exist?

Are there any good grants we should be applying for?

Thanks for all help and advice in advance 🙏

Bump - anybody!? 😅🙏

One school I used to work at would have a different class do a cake sale every Friday afternoon. So you only needed to buy or make cakes maybe once a term, but each week they made money.
School discos.
Xmas and summer fair.
Easter hunt (hunt for pictures around the school one day after school then get a small egg at the end)
Selling ice creams after school in the summer every Friday ‘frosty Fridays’

Are you near an Asda? The Joe Wicks cash pot for schools is a super easy way to raise funds - we're at just over £200 raised via this so far for DS school.

corporate.asda.com/newsroom/2024/02/09/asda-rewards-makes-millions-available-to-primary-schools-with-industry-first-loyalty-programme-giveaway

Waitrose do something similar

Scarecrow trails
Easter egg hunts
Halloween trail
Summer fayre
School discos
Bingo or Quizzes (maybe bi-monthly)

Ask people for cash to not participate. I'd give you 20 quid per kid per year happily to not have to give a quid every few weeks on top of my already busy life.

Easy:
Cake sales
Ice lolly sales
Grandparents day cafe
Bags to school
Book sales
100 club

Medium effort:
Quiz night
Wreath making evening
School disco

High effort:
Fairs
Circus
Colour run
Scarecrow trail

There's a great Facebook group for PTA ideas.

Set up an Amazon Smile charity page so people can do their normal shopping there and the school earns some credit each time,

The texttiles recycling bin was a winner for us - we got a fixed amount for every sack of textiles we sent off. It's was positioned so that the public could access it too and was well used by the community.

We used to do a plant sale in spring - a local nursery came in with loads of stock and we got 15% of sales - lots of hanging baskets etc, and apart from taking money on the day, not much effort.
Our biggest fundraiser was a teddy tombola- ask everyone to donate old soft toys, wash them all and then make every other ticket on the stall a winner - we had 100's and made loads of money for zero outlay.

Friday treats at pick up:

Winter - hot chocolate and chic chip brioche/pain au chocolate for £1

You need vacuum flasks for the hot choc and those multi packs of brioche from Aldi. We luckily had a playground shelter we could use to set up in over winter.

Summer - ice lollies for 50p

Buy boxes of ice lollies from local supermarket and take to school in a cool box or insulated shopping bag.

As well as the normal events we do sales of small gifts for Mother's Day and Father's Day, usually just plants or chocolate.

Would the headteacher allow a Break the Rules Day? Nothing major but each kid pays 20p or 50p per rule broken e.g. odd socks, crazy hair, wearing jumper backwards, squash instead of water.

Movie night was probably the easiest - Friday after school once a term. charge £5 for a bag of pop corn & a drink. Put on a movie.

The big money spinners were always ones that included bar takings; summer fair, bingo night and race night (the pre-filmed ones). Make money from bets & horse sponsorship and organise a fish & chip delivery. Family Friday night entertainment so popular with quite a lot of families.

Chocolate raffle or tombola. Like a normal raffle or tombola, but ask people just to donate sweets or chocolate. Easy to find something what every your budget (for the majority, even its just a 50p chocolate bar out of a multipack). Then make bundles for a raffle, or just as they come for a tombola.

Exactly this. Me and all of my parent friends said we’d happily give £50 a year to not be asked to do anything.

Things that just roll along in the background if one person is willing to do a bit of admin and a bit if advertising:

Easy fundraising - get a small amount of cashback for every sale put through their website

Textile recycling as someone mentioned above

Terracycle recycling scheme - I used to recycle crisps packets and pens for our school, receive £1-2 for every kilo I sent them. Both schemes have now finished but they have others you can sign up for if someone is willing to put up a few posters, a collection bin and send off rubbish every once in a while

School lottery, either organised yourself or via a national scheme, have taken part in both types over the years

Matched funding, see if any parents work for companies that will match what you raise for an event. The actual parent might have to be able to say they were actually involved in the organisation or running of the event.

Wonka bars with a golden ticket.
Fill a smarties tube with coins (provide the smarties as a bribe).
The biggest money spinner at our school is fireworks night.
Local estate agents will pay the school if you display a board advertising a school event in your garden.

I'm Chair of our small village primary.
Low effort:
Easyfundraising
Asda Cash pots for school
Non-uniform days / Break the Rules Day
Cake sales
Frozen Fridays (ice lollies)
Secondhand uniform sales

Medium effort:
Tea towels

High effort:
Halloween party
Christmas Raffle
Sports Day
Village Fete

A sponsored something or other that can take place during the school day.

A sponsored dance a thon, sponsored read a thon, sponsored laps round the play ground.

A book celebration day. Bring their favourite book and teddy and have cosy reading time, ask for a small donation. A dress down day for a donation.

Something my dc school used to do was organised a bric a brac sale. People donated toys and books etc then the kids brought money in and purchased some things. All money went to the school

This! I'd happily set up a direct debit or whatever for £5 a month if I didn't have to scramble for change for whatever dress up day it may be!

I second the movie night once a term £5 in the hall and give the kids a little cup with popcorn in pop on a dvd/blu ray and if you do it straight after school parents just do a late pick up. A lot of parents like 1 1/2 hours to themselves.

Mother/Fathers’ day gifts. PTA shop for small gifts, pop them in a cellophane bag and tie with ribbon. They then hold a sale at lunchtime. Parents can give their child £2-3 to buy something of their choice. PTA makes a pound or so profit (more if you can convince one of the big supermarkets to donate some items).

Challenge every family to raise £10 for the PTA. That could involve a sponsored effort, selling something on Vinted, holding a garage sale etc.

Non uniform day or pyjama day, with a voluntary contribution of 50p or £1 per child.

Approach local organisations to ask if they’ll match-fund any monies raised. Some of the big companies have a budget for this kind of thing.

We used to run an amazing fireworks display the week before or after fireworks night (depending how half term falls). It was surprisingly cheap and nothing much to organise as the fireworks company came and set it all up.
We sold tickets in advance for £25 family 4. Got the bbq on and sold hotdogs & burgers. And sold glow sticks, soft drinks & mulled wine. It was a huge fund raiser.
Recyed uniform was also a big fund raiser - we collected it in and sold it on. Had to be in top condition but we made c. £650 in just one term. Very little effort just a bit of storage and organisation. Forms to order and left items at reception for collection and there was no stigma - it got to the point that everyone boasted how they’d prefer to buy recycled items. We also ran recycled uniform sales once term.

Chocolate or wine tombola held at the school nativity or summer play. Ask everyone to bring in chocolate or wine in exchange for not having to wear school uniform.
Children plant and grow veg at school then sell it. Same with plants.
Organise an ‘event’ used to be things like Bodyshop when I was in the PTA marketed as a night off for mums/dads/carers. Sell tickets in advance so people tend to turn up if they have paid. The ticket includes a free drink. Then ask for donations for wine. Morrisons used to lend you wine glasses if you bought the wine from them. Companies such as Bodyshop give you a percentage of their takings.
Carol singing at school. Sell hot chocolate, mulled wine, cake etc. have a collection bucket.

Winter Fridays: Hot chocolate stand
Summer Fridays: Ice-cream/Ice Lollies