Please tell me about your best PTA fundraisers and especially company match giving schemes

[mumonaptamission]

I'm helping on our PTA this year and our school is really short of funds so we're keen to do everything we can.

I'd really appreciate any ideas generally on things that go beyond the norm/ obvious and also info on match giving from parents' employers as that has caught the eye of our committee.

Not all that many employers do matched giving. I looked into it a while ago for another charity thing and found a few dozen employers who advertise that they do this, so you'll be lucky if there are many parents who work for those organisations. They tend to be big FTSE 100 companies, and those with a US arm seem to be more likely (but not exclusively). I'm sure you've already googled, but a quick look throws up [[http://www3.christs.cam.ac.uk/cms_misc/media/Matched_giving_2010.pdf this] list, which may be a bit out of date but probably isn't too different from the current picture.

Can't help with the PTA thing as DS has just entered reception so no experience yet.

trying link again!

Thanks Spider. I will take a look.

Barclays do it...ours are very generous

My DDs primary school best fund raiser had to bd the auction of promises, where people offer things such as cooking a meal, dog walking, a week in s ski chalet etc etc. we have find this about 5 times now and have raised about £3000-£4000 each time. School is a 2 class intake school in quite a mixed area.

Go to Rag-Bag.co.uk
You collect clothing and they pay you 50p / per kg really easy and they send you everything you need, bags, posters etc.. for free.
I've just done it at work for our charity.

Thanks Bonkers and Marmite.

Rag-a-bag sounds good although I vaguely recall they did something like that when we first joined the school once and then not again, so not sure why it didn't continue.

HI
Our school did an art exhibition, all pupils showed a piece of work. The frames were really nice, and there was the name and age of your child written underneath the work so that you can remember what age they were when they did it. Also the company sold postcard versions of the prints, so if didn't fancy more artwork on the wall, it was o.k you could send a postcard to nanny instead.
School raised £££££'s and kids very pleased with their professional art gallery!

just looked it up, www.facebook.com/MyDidThat

umm does this work [www.facebook.com/MyDidThat]

We have found that a movie night makes good money for minimal effort. We show a film and offer a hot dog and a lolly ( word the ticket so that you are charging for food, not the film). It happens straight after school and most parents relish the idea of not having to pick their kids up till 6pm.

Class cake sales are a real money spinner, each class has one spread out through the year. Parents from class bake or buy cakes, sale happens in the classroom at the end of the school day. It can get very competitive!

Christmas cards designed by the children sell pretty well.

Things I have found make money are similar to already mentioned - an auction of promises, Bags2school and individually created Christmas cards. We also do a cream tea after sports day, Christmas shopping night (local shops/crafts people pay to have a stall, parents can shop in peace and pay for a ticket which includes a glass of mulled wine and mince pie.) We do a cinema night but due to the licensing for showing the film tends to be a 'for fun' event rather than a 'money making' event.

Our PTA is really active and raises £10-15k each year I think. Biggest earner is fireworks night on the school field because it serves the whole community not just the school. Others have included (not all of these are done every year):

sponsored bike round (x times round the field/playground with scooters for littlies if they prefer) - this works especially well I think if you have a specific fundraising goal in mind eg it's for new ICT equipment

cake sales - one every half term

christmas bazaar

summer fete - involving other local groups in the community but each year group has a stall and PTA manages bar and teas/coffees/cakes

kids disco once per term

party nights for parents e.g. live band/pig roast or summer ball

the clothing collection and the design-a-christmas card things mentioned above

mother's day sales - PTA buys in cheap presents e.g. pot plant and sells to children at a small profit

A friend's school did a pamper night with local therapists coming in and sharing their fees 60/40, extra money made from sales of refreshments.

Good luck!

My experience is matched giving is only usually done by employers to employees that are doing something alone or in a small group. I wouldn't expect any to do it for a school fair unless perhaps the main organiser is employed by someone who's willing.

For example I've seen it done for:
Brown Owl (Brownie fair raising money for charity)
Dh's work (team for it's a knockout raising money for dd2's charity)
Skydive (individual for charity)
London Marathon (friend's dh)

Mess can I ask how big your school is to raise that amount?

Sorry - forgot I'd posted on this thread and just seen it again . It's a single form entry primary so around 210 children. It's a village school in a relatively affluent area (I only mention that because I think it's relevant to the amount that parents are prepared to spend on each event esp on refreshments and BBQs etc.)

We did this Circus last year and have booked again for next year. We made over £5,000 from the event. We had a local estate agent sponsor most of the cost of the circus then added in a barbecue and some stalls. It was a great event and everyone loved it!

Every other year our school has a sleep over. The Yr 3&4 kids can sleep over in school, watch movies & have hot chocolate. The teachers all stay too (teacher's in onsies - how cool), the HT stays too.

We drop off at 6.30 and pick up following morning at 9.30!

I think they charged £12 a child, tbh I would of paid more

The kids go crazy for it & it raise a canny bit of cash.

Penny week. There is a competition between classes for which class can brIng in the most pennies/two pences. They need plenty of advanced warning somtheyncan get saving and you need a good group of volunteers to do the counting! There is a small prize for each child in the class that raises the most.

Love the sounds of the circus and penny week! Runoutofideas how big is your school (the profit potential of some events is obviously reliant on size and ours is a smaller school)?

With penny week, we had thought of a jam jar for each child which they then get their parents to fill with small change over the course of the term but hadn't come up with the competition element which would be much more motivating.

Hahaha bet the children and teachers don't get much sleep on sleepover night!! Sounds fun but sadly I doubt we have enough of the 'T' going on in PTA to get our teachers to do that.

We are a separate infant and junior school with 270 in infants and about 340 in juniors. The circus ticket sales info only went out to infants last year. Next year we will sell tickets across both schools to try to fill both nights. The circus seats 600, and we sold out at £8 per head.