fund raising ideas please

[surprise]

Hi, we're a pre school that's desperately short of cash. have done all the usual sponsored events, village fete etc etc but looking for some other new ideas. does anyone have any tips to pass on? also will be doing our local summer fete so any unusual ideas to add to our tombola etc would be most appreciated. or any donations if you're feeling generous

Slave auction.

yougt people (teachers etc) to offer themselves up as slave for an hour then people bid. if they are the winning bidder they get to order said person abuot for one whole hour. they normaly have to do a bit of garden mowing or put up a shelf etc. its all quite good fun and you raise a fair amount.

when i was on the pre-school committee, we did.
a sponsered tub fill every 2 years, where the child was provided with a camera film tub and was sponsered for the most amount of items, used to raise quite a bit of money.
for tombolas on stalls, we did..sweetie jars, every child had to fill an old jam/coffee jar with sweets and decorate it, then they go on the tombola stall.

bump - could do with some ideas too

Here's ones I've done/known about:
Chocolate morning

Scarecrow trail

Ladies shopping night/morning where you get commission/set fee for table, charge admission
Fashion show/clothes sale party (someone comes and sells kids/adults clothes from shops/catalogues etc. - commission and admission charge.

Quiz sheets - make up a quiz, sell sheets for £1 to parents/through local shops etc. Highest number right wins £10 etc after closing date. Display answers on notice board.

Bottle stall at fetes - have a board with 30 squares on. Put 30 bottles - perfume. wine, nail polish, pop etc on. Have 100 blank lolly/craft sticks, 30 numbered ones. Mix them up in a bag, charge 20p a stick/£1 for 5. Numbered ones get corresponding prize. Ask for donations of prizes from businesses/shops/parents. You'll need about 60 prizes as you replace them so the squares look full. (Alcohol only for kids who have adults with them)

Barnardos sponsored toddle at a nearby zoo, them park etc - we got discounted entry.

Gym bags/tea towels/mugs printed with the kid's drawings etc - plenty of companies do these.
Printed school logo bears/school sun hats/ t-shirts etc.

Bag packing at supermarket in return for donations

Get Barclays to match your funds raised at an event.

Community grants/sure start/awards for all/lottery fund.

Themed party night - if can't have it at school, hire a hall and have a pirate/beach/halloween theme etc - stalls/games/food/disco etc - everyone chips in time or items.

Might think of more later!!

yep, thoought of more

Webb Ivory, Yellow Moon, Usborne catalogues

Summer barbecue

Bags2schools scheme - I think there's a website. It is life-changing! You fill up blue bags with old crappy blankets, shoes, handbags, clothes, curtains cuddly toys, they come and take it all away, weigh it and give you really decent money for it.
We have a modest roll at our playschool and manmaged to raise £100 - which is almost more than we raised at our summer fiar which took months and months of organising.

quite a lot of grants available for pre-schools

find out about this

esp. local councils etc

fullmoon - do you have a contact for bags2schools? have googled but can't find anything. thanks to everyone - some great ideas there. this time next year we'll be millionaires!

will find one for you surprise - please remind me after half term if neccessary - I presume it's a national scheme, we are in yorks.

Hiya,

I haven't read all the posts. I am Chairperson at my dt's playgroup and we have recently completed a "Sponsored Bounce".
It was really easy. Hand out sponsorship forms and get the children to jump on a trampoline for approx 20 times. No adults allowed though :)

I did a sponsored skydive. Raised loads. fancy it?

or does that sort of thing have to be for a charity?
Sorry.

yes, auction of promises is another good 'un. We raised £500 which was unbelievable for us. But it was a lot of hard work - mainly because we had so few parents on the committee so, as is often the case, a huge amount was achieved by very few people. But if that's not a problem, can recommend it. It is incredible who will offer 'promises' if you are cheeky enough to ask, plus everyone can offer something. We had everything from mini-break in a local hotel right down to someone offering to wrap Christmas presents. And everything was bid for.

We just did an auction of promises and raised £3500 for our juniour school.

Be cheeky ask local businesses for donations!! Letters to head offices for chains, and tell them what you want a meal for two, a free cake.
Often local shops will help out as well.

Approach local estate agents - they are always looking for advertising.

We got one to sponsor our auction catalogue, also gave a cut price sale as a prize for our auction.

Or estate agents boards advertising your fete in peoples gardens for £25 each. Our local council doesn't like it, but maybe its not been done where you are!

we just ran a fairly successful pub quiz.
The pub lets you have the venue for free, local quizmaster donates his time for free.

the winning table gets "a night out on the town".
we went to 6 pubs in town and asked them each to donate a round of 4 drinks, a local chip shop donated 4 fish/chips and local taxi donated a ride home.

great prize for the winning table. very easy to organise, each committee member only had to ask one pub. do up some vouchers on the computer. ask parents to donate a cheap bottle of wine/roses/biscuits and raffle them half way through the evening, this doubled our takings.

make the most of free adverts in the local newspaper/radio/church bulletin, plenty of posters around town before hand.

thanks so much to all of you for taking the time to respond. have loads of ideas to give the committee next week now! definitely chase up the grants thing too.

If you are looking for more ideas one event I have been to was run by a local playgroup. They do a shopping night, works well at christmas but can be done anytime.

Get local companies in to run stalls, e.g. toy shop, gift shop, fancy toilettries, candles, jewelery, body shop at home, virgin vie, etc. try other charity groups like PDSA and health awarness groups. Charge a certain amount for table rent, plus a donation for the raffle from the retailers.

As well as a raffle they had things like lucky straws to win bottles and there own second had kids clothes and bottle stalls.

They provided a basic buffet and charged for entry, the pub gave them the use of the function room for free and the mums all happily bought loads as they all had a good drink .

Could be combined with things like auctions or race nights.

As a preschool - you could register on this label company and with every purchase the kindy gets a % - cheques are sent every few months and it is no big deal.... people can continue to support preschool when they have left - and of course - we all have to label clothes, books, schoes, hats etc... works well and not a lot of input from parents as such.

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our kindy applies for grants - very helpful. Another one they did was a recipe book - got parents/relatives to donate recipes - had local business sponsor pages to help with printing etc. Then anything they made was a profit. WOrked well.