PTA - need good fundraising ideas . . . help

[ellenrose]

Have joined PTA and it seems as if some of the stuff they are doing is the same as when I went to the same school - any ideas for fundraising that have worked well?

Friend suggested this which worked well at her friend's school in the summer. PTA go to supermarket, buy shedloads of ice cream and cornets and sell them outside school on a Friday. They make a killing.

buy at site .. you set up a portal for your school .. communicate the address and then when people click into retailers through this portal you get the marketing commission from a wide range or online retailers: like John Lewis, Amazon etc}

also do the same with The Book People

And with Yellow Moon from Baker Ross

Minimal effort (apart from collecting email addresses from parents and reminding them to use the portals)

ice cream sold outside school in summer would PISS ME OFF ROYALLY

Even more worthwhile then Twig

Our PTA have recently had a fashion show which was a brilliant fund-raiser. It was held in our local Matalan who opned the store for two hours on a Sunday evening, first hour was for the fashion show - they set up a catwalk and provided all the clothes (PTA committee members, inc me chose the outfits for our models) - and the second hour was for the people who had bought tickets to shop - 10% discount. The models were kids at the school, parents and teachers.
The PTA made over £1000 in one evening; everyone had a great time and I'm sure Mataln made an absolute fortune too. All in all on 'win-win' situation. We're definitely going to repeat it next year.

I would be incandescent with barely concealed mutterings

What a brilliant idea - although I think I might get in trouble with their healthy eating plans (and I'm already in trouble with my own healthy eating plans having made Soupdragons Flapjack recipe and stuffed the lot )

Thanks for the links as well - I know they do Yellow Moon but will look into the others as well.

Any more?

we've done fashion shows too .. but a company comes to the school and parents / teachers are models .. we charge £5 for ticket and 2 glasses wine (women only) and then get commission on sales of clothes ... fun and much money

Oops, crossed posts - liking the fashion evening too, didn't realise Matalan did that.

get kids to design christmas card pictures ... then make up cards (choose as many pics as possible) .. and sell them to parents

do a jumble sale after christmas .. 50p entry .. communicate to whole community ... people can't wait to get rid of crap and other people can't wait to buy it ... for minimal effort we raised £700 (of course we sold hot dogs .. organic sausages in french bread and cakes and coffee too)

cake sale in school works ... parents bring in small biscuits and cakes .. kids come and buy them at appointed times .. they cost 10p each .. teachers spend a fortune .. and leftover cakes sold to parents after school

ellenrose, I think it was an arrangement with the local Matalan rather than something they do nationwide - not 100% sure though.

Another thing we're planning is a family celidh (bring your own food and drink) with a ceilidh band. I'm in Scotland obv so don't know how it would go down in England or Wales but maybe you could do something along that line,

big long line of pennies in the playground.

I was asking this question recently too. heres a link to the other thread, some good ideas on there click here

We are just in the process of organising a christmas fair and a christmas shopping night. Will let you know how they do.

Are you pre-school, infants, primary or secondary ?

primary school and would love to hear how your events do.

chocolate tombola always v. popular at every summer/Christmas fair.

Hi ellenrose

I'm on a primary school one too (and an infants)
Will keep you informed about any suggestions we have.

Hiya
Can I do a sort of hijack and ask for fundraising ideas that would work for a very small school (under 15 pupils and only 8 sets of parents)
tia

How about having a Pampered Chef evening - 10 - 15% of all sales will be donated by Pampered Chef to the school (or any other charity) - good fun (you can do Can't Cook, Won't Cook or Ready Steady Cook or something) and you get to see and touch a lot of the things in the catalogue. Now is a great time to do it with people thinking about Christmas presents, but other times of the year would also work. Anyone in Yorkshire who's interested, let me know, otherwise, see the PC website and put in a request for a contact.

DD's school do an auction evening. It's quite an event to organise but raises a huge amount of money, therefore they only tend to do one every couple of years.
All items are donated by all sorts of people - businesses, parents and teachers. They can range from a box of chocolates, bottle of wine, a parent to do a pile of ironing up to a sleepover for four children in the school hall with the headteacher. I can get a list of other prizes if you are interested.
Everyone takes their own drink and nibbles and it's a really fun evening.

mistlethrush - I'm in Leeds & we've been talking about Pampered Chef for around Easter time - can you give me more details?
[email protected]

Thanks!

Spookler1 - very interested in the auction evening so a list would be great if you can get it?

okay will find one for you. It raises a couple of thousand pounds for the school normally.

Bag packing at local Tesco