PTA ideas

[unmumsy]

I have managed to end up as Vice chair having only attended a few meetings. It seems that everyone turns up just so they can say they are on the PTA, there is a lot of huffing, shuffling and clock watching. It's an exercise in how quick you can fly throught the agenda!I get the impression that the same events with the same stalls happen every year, any new ideas get scoffed at.First meeting after AGm is this week and I do have some ideas that I may put forward if I am feeling brave. One is recycling ink cartridges, has anyone else tried this and is it successful?Any other ideas would be fantastic please!!

Not tried the printer cartridge recycling.

www.ncpta.org.uk

Here is a good link for all sorts of things - your PTA might even be a member already.

Our PTA have invested some money in buying collections of books through the school's Book People account.

A set of 16 Michael Morpurgo books costing £17 can then be sold at £2 per book making a profit for the PTA, enabling parents to buy books which are normally about £6 for £2 and earning points for the school to get books for the library.

www.thebookpeople.co.uk

our pta are all about the hardcore gambling. its all raffles with cash prizes here.

movie night in the school hall? entrance fee of £2 per head to include popcorn and squash

then use the whiteboards to show soemthing broadly appealing but not scary

Our most profitable events are the large ones - the Summer and Christmas fairs. However, these take A LOT of organisations. We raised over £7k profit last year.

In terms of events that make money for less organisation, Film Nights for the children are good. You do them straight after school, do little bags of popcorn and sweets.

Adult quiz nights in the evening do well, parents can bring their own booze, you need a quiz master and a prize.

Smaller things - Cauliflower Cards, we have done the voucher books in the past but have stopped these now as they don't make much profit for the effort you have to put in.

I find a good way is to make one or two people responsible for co-ordinating an event so that everything doesn't fall to the same few people every time.

We do -

Fireworks Night - just done, 800 people, raises around 2k
Christmas Discos
Film Saturday
Quiz night
May Ball
Race night
Summer fair - raises 3-4k
Cauliflower cards

We sell drink at evening events and that always make a load of money ; we raise about 12k a year.

Yellow Moon catalogues, a % goes to school;

Does your school recycle its paper and cardboard? A good way to get rid of stuff between kerbside collections, and the school gets money;

A christmas tea-towel, may be a little late in the day for this year but think about it for next, the kids all draw a self-portrait on a square of paper and their name and they are reduced to fit;

A couple of easy-peasy no-hassle ideas for a start, will be back later with more when I have pinned DD down to do her homework...

We recycle printer cartridges but I'm afraid it doesn't make huge amounts for funds.

recycling old mobile phones
recycling old clothes

Those that do movie nights, do you have a special licence and how much does it roughly cost?

Halloween disco
Quiz nights
DD's school also had a t-shirt painting activity after school at £4 a child and then the children wore the t-shirts to the school fete the next week.
Refreshment tables at things like sports day. DD's school Sports Day was very hot and in the middle of nowhere, with lots of younger siblings etc. The PTA could have raked it in as we were in the hot sun for several hours. Likewise hot choc and mulled wine in the winter.

easyfundraising.org.uk

I've raised nearly 100 this year single-handed, telling myself a bit of internet shopping is helping the school

I love the idea of rotating responsibility for events, but we're a small school and only about 8 - 15 max turn up to PTA meetings. This is a major improvement on last year, too.

Summer Fair makes the most (1.5k, but we are small as I said, and its not a wealthy community) but the Pampering Evening does well. Inviting local businesses to have stalls at that and the Christmas Fair brings in a bit, and its easy money.

Recently, we've had a few lovely donations from parents who are leaving the school for various reasons - but thats just luck

FILM CLUB

Register as a charity on Ebay/Missionfish so people can choose to donate percentage of their profits to you.

If you have previous NCT members in your PTA, how about running a Nearly New Sale for say, clothes and bikes and other thigns that get outgrown. Take a 30% commission on sales. Any items leftover can be Ebayed or taken to charity shop (you'll need a spare room or garage to store it in).

Ours did a recipe book. Invite the children to bring their favourite recipes and choose the best. Get them printed up in a booklet (breakfasts/lunch/dinner/supper/treats etc). Add a couple of pictures of the children who provided a recipe and sell it as a little booklet...

We make quite a bit from a DVD club.
Schools buys/gets donations for a number of DVDs and then rents these out for £1/ week.
It's run on a Friday afternoon (just in time for the weekend )at pick up time at the school gates, and the older kids help with issuing/logging the DVDs out.

Not too much work, and you can often get DVD sets cheap on eBay or at charity shops which pay for themselves after one rental.

Younger siblings love it too - and they want all the Peppa Pig/Maisy DVDs which will have been donated by families with older children....

(It's kids movies - U only)

If you run a christmas fair - my dds scholl run a 'longest line' competition for the prizes for the raffle. On the morning of the fair all the children take in their prizes for the raffle. These get lined up in the hall and the class with the longest line gets a prize. This ensures lots of rolls of wrapping paper / brooms / mops and very few out-of-date tins of sardines! Works a treat!!

A friends school runs a santa room - the kids are asked to take in a present worth under £5 which is suitable as a present for a mum or dad. At the xmas fair children pay a small amount (say £2) to enter the room, pick a present for their mum & / or dad. This is then wrapped up for them to take home and put under the christmas tree.

We can also shop on line with 'justgiving' and a proportion of the amount spent goes to the school. It is only a few% but there are some big retailers you can shop at - tesco / amazon so worth it.

Good luck.

Great ideas, thank you! Esp like the idea of a movie night,do you need a licence though?
We are a big school but only 10 or so parents turn up to meetings. We are having a traders evening friday, stall holders are paying £15 per table and donating a raffle prize. Fingers crossed it's good as this was a new idea!
Some how the PTA have raised 10k in the last year, sponsored abseil being the biggest money earner.I won't be volunteering for that event!

Yes, film club is technically illegal as the DVDs all say 'Not for public use etc' but our school does it anyway. Maybe you could get around it by using ex-rental ones bought from Blockbuster?

Get as much free stuff as possible. Non-uniform days in exchange for bringing in a donation to cake sale/adult tombola etc. Blind eye turned to those without a donation. Start writing now to hundreds of local businesses/attractions for refreshment donations/raffle prizes. Do you have a local Scrapstore?

Talk to the traders and see about doing fundraising parties. Eg Pampered Chef is always good, sell tickets for an evening with product demonstration, wine and nibbles and get commission on orders taken.

Oh and keep a diary so you can write a fundraising/events manual for next year.

Lovely thanks!
One more question,do you need a drinks licence if parents bring their own to an event.School not too keen to get a licence and I wondered if there was a way around it at all.

I don't believe that you do. We got a special licence for a one off event to serve alcohol but the rest of the time parents bring their own.

Incidentally a one off licence is not too expensive and easy to get.

You don't need one if the parents bring their own bottles

Can you get away with it if the alcohol is offered for nothing?

what do you mean?

You mean the PTA giving away alcohol? I don't think you should be supplying it, and also, that would cause a distinct problem with profit.