Anyone got any fundraising ideas for a village pre-school?

[JODIEwantsanewname]

I've just joined the committee for my DS's Pre-school and the fundraising sub-committee have both stepped down. I'm thinking of taking on the role of fundraiser, but need some ideas to take to the next meeting. We are seriously short on funds and need to do something drastically, other wise fees will need to go up a great deal

The ones I've thought of are,

1/ parents drop off unwanted stuff and I'll sell it on e-bay.
2/ having a 'spring fayre' (christmas was a no-no as the school, the 2 churhes and the WI each did one and they felt they didn't want to 'swamp' people)
3/organising a sponsered something or other for committee and staff to do, not sure what yet though, any ideas welcome.

What does your pre-school do thats successful?

We do, off the top of my head -

• a sponsored bounce (kids on the trampoline)

• summer fair
• play mornings (out of term, a morning where kids and parents can come, pay 50p to play, plus there are stalls selling crafts, Usborne books etc and we get 10% of takings)
• tea towels, mugs with kids art on (there are companies that can do this for you)
• red house bookss
• sell photos and DVDs of Christmas nativity

Auction of promises (donated by parents - 2 hours gardening, evening's babysitting, use of holiday home/caravan, making a cake, etc)?

Thanks for those ideas ladies! the auction sounds good!!!! we do have some good bakers and a gardener and someone who works in tele, so he normally puts in a good raffle prize!!!

Our next meeting is in Feb,so I'lllook into those and knock 'em dead with some great ideas!

we do pub quiz, Christmas bazaar, tea towels with hand prints/ pictures . photographer once year. Can;t think what else off top of head.

Also see if any of your parents work for a company offering matched funding. We had a Live Band Night which raised £340 and Barclaycard matched it pound for pound.

Our company funding matching requires that the activity good for you (i.e. running/walking/swimming etc)

Live band night sounds intersting! I'll put the feelers out.

Do Barclaycard do still do the funding?

We've had a couple of pub quizes and they hve been successful!

an afternoon Barn dance and tea might be worth a try... a bit more "family" than a night time thing.
Or in teh right part of the country with the right venue... an under 18s night with live band or a baby disco .

Barclaycard still do it, but you need to have someone who works for them help with the event. One of the Dads are oor Pre-School did.

The Band night was easy - band sets up themselves - I just needed to get the Entertainment Licence and the beer and wine. We did a raffle too.

Worst bit was trying to sell the tickets.. we did it end of November and I think it was too near Christmas.

Ours has had

BBQ in someone's garden (huge country estate really), with little stalls (cakes, plants, books etc).
Sponsored walk/cycle ride
Childrens' disco (under 7s so older siblings could come too)
Parents doing sponsored runs
Red House books
Photos (preschool gets small % of sales)

These are all such fab ideas. thanks

I'll jot them all down and take them to the next meeting x

We use an internet fundraising sit which works like the cahback schemes.I will put the referral link but take it away if anyone objects.

www.easyfundraising.org.uk/referral/3756

It costs nothing to run but if you can get the parents to use it you may get on well.

thats a good one Babyice. Thanks x

story evening. Kids come back to school in their PJ's at 6pm teachers (also in PJs) read bedtime stories mug of cocoa and biscuit. Best dressed teddy comp and a raffle of a hamper(donated stuff books toothbrush flannel hot water bottle etc)home at 7pm! It's a really easy and fun thing we charge £2.50 to come we have done it twice second time we had 100 children (our school only has 125)

Our school parents associtaion has a ladies night once a year.
We have people donate wine and nibbles. There are a few of the mums who either do or have friends that do virgin make-up, body shop, Jamie Oliver, Pampered chef, florists, baking etc etc.
We sell tickets for the night and ladies get a glass of wine and some nibbles.
Local companies are begged for raffle prizes and the at home party people that get a stall have agreed to donate their commision from sales on the night.
Get treatments and make-up done from those ladies etc.

It always goes down really well and generates a reasonable amount of money from it too.

Last year we did a Race Night with the parents. You get a company in who run the whole thing for you for about £100, charge £5 per ticket for the adults then the company runs "races" which the adults bet on. It was great fun, particularly as we also applied for a license and ran a bar there. The more beer the Dads had the higher the bets were. Think it made about £500 and a great night was had by all.

The biggest single fundraising event was a sponsored teeth clean for Healthy Living Week which raised a staggering £600 in sponsorship money. The children got a free toothbrush and sticker for taking part.

We also run regular Teddy Bear's picnics, with donated cakes sold which usually raise about £120.

We also ran an Easter Disco and a Halloween Disco for the children plus their friends and siblings. Charged £2.50 per ticket and sold tea and cakes to the parents which raised about £250.

What helps with all these events is the matched funding, we had some parents who worked for Lloyds TSB and they matched our events last year to the tune of about £1000 in total. We also had a £500 donation from Barclays and a laptop from IBM. It's well worth finding out where your parents work!

Hope that helps!

Mel

we are in the process of organising a ladies pamper evening.

Basically we are getting local businesses ( handmade jewellery, nails, hair, facial etc) to pay for a stand, and then selling tickets.

Think we can make £300 - £400 and Barclays have pledged to mach whatever we raise!

Also had a christmas draw to win a turkey which raised £75

Oh I went to a pamper evening at my nephews school it was great.

Quiz also a good fundraiser.

We are thinking of using one of the fund-raising projects that are around. Funmats are advertising on face book and looks interesting. Anyone any experience of this?

Caz - why/how is Barclays matching your takings? Did you approach them and just ask them? What do they get in return - do they advertise at the event?

Sorry - I'm also trying to plan one of these things now!

Ones we do yearly:

Hallowe'en party for all the kids under 12 in the village... lots of sweets, food, dancing, party games. Stops them trailing the roads trick or treating so parents love it.

Raffle for Xmas hampers. Everyone is asked to bring in a few bits to make up some hampers. Each parent is given a sheet of 20 lines, 2 euros each. They sell them (or buy them if they can't be bothered trying to get people to buy them) We sell a few by leaving them in shops to be filled out too. ... this is our major

Ones we have done or are planning on doing:
sponsored walks
ice cream party
bag packing at supermarket
entered playschool in charitable competitions
had christmas cards printed with kids drawings on them

Also, make sure you've applied for every government and charitable grant going... most of our income is from these!

Daisy & Dash Ltd (the company i co-created) have fundraising option for nurseries. if you're interested contact me at [email protected] and i will send you some more info xx

Yep - I would add Graduate Leadership Fund as a major source of funding for us for this year (plus quite a lot of money from companies the committee members work for!!)

Not quite sure what the yep was about

£5 car wash - washed by adults! - every few months on a Saturday morning.