PTA's raising lots of money - but how????

[Mae1]

I've been reading on a previous thread about successful PTA raising thousands of pounds a year - via things like Xmas fairs etc. Please can someone tell me how this is achieved?
I'm chair of our PTA and we're now a registered charity, starting to utilise £ 4 £ matching schemes and since Sept 06 have raised £5000.
I need tips on how to maximise this - please offer your suggestions!
Thanks
Mary

Well if you are quick you could just about squeeze in a christmas fair but it may be a push at this late stage.

At our school we have a non uniform day (well this christmas we had 2!) and for the pleasure of that everyone brings in a gift that can be used at the fair. So the first non uniform day the request was for nice gifts, bottles and choccies etc and the 2nd one was to fill a jamjar with whatever you can think of (ie sweets, crayons, novelties etc) They will be used on the jamjar tombola.

We have a cake stall and also sell teas, There is a BBQ, F xmas himself is attending so we have a special 'grotto area' There is also a secret room where only children are allowed and they can choose and wrap a present for their parents. Raffle, tombola, lucky dip, The year 6 children are in charge of game stalls such as 'find rudolf nose' (6 red ping pong balls in a tray of sand and the winning one (prize = a small chocolate bar or similar) has a cross on the bottom. Santas secret map. A grid of squares of greenland (or wherever) and you pay to write your name on a grid numbered square. The square can be either decided beforehand or at the end. Stick the nose on rudolf - a xmas version of pin the tail.

You could also have the choir singing carols

Advertise as much as possible including other local playgroups and schools

Good Luck!

thanks for that furball - but I was trying to get at the actualevents you all run and what they consist of - we had our Xmas fair last week £1500 was made so not bad - but it seems others can raise more! Trying to find out the secret of that success! Thanks again
Mary

DD's school

£1 admission
£2 for a ticket to see santa,
craft sales room - home made gifts sold (name door plaques, jewelley, cards etc,)
white elephant stall,
refreshments,
guess the cake weight,
name the teddy,
tombolas,
raffles,
tea towel sale - (printed kids own drawings,

the school also has a website that you can go through to shop online, and the school receives the cashback from this

Similar things at our school. Some sponsorship from local estate agent, who puts boards up outside willing parents' houses.

£1 admission per adult.
Grand tombola and children's tombola - prizes donated by families in return for non-uniform day
Santa's Grotto - £2 a child
Games like Pull the Cork, coconut shy, tin can alley etc.
Decoration making
Mulled wine and mince pies
Lunches - baked potatoes, pizzas, hot dogs
Teas - cakes donated by parents, teas, coffees
Bar - alcoholic and soft drinks
Silent auction - people bid in writing for various items donated by parents and local businesses
Toys - donated by families
New gifts - also donated, or given by local businesses
Books, CDs and DVDS - again, unwanted items donated
Raffle - all child issued with 5 tickets to sell/buy and tickets sold on day
We have an active campaign of 'door knocking' whereby we go and harangue local restaurants/shops/businesses until they give us something to auction or raffle

At the summer fair we also have a small funfair with some rides, a bouncy castle and some outdoor games like an obstacle course (put together from the sports cupboard and prizes for fastest in each age group)

Hope some of this helps! We are lucky in that we live in an affluent area and people are very generous both in their donations and in their spending on the day.

Hi, our PTA is v. successful at raising money! We do regular events throughout the year with of course the big money pullers like the christmas and summer fetes.

Recently we did a sponsored bounce (on a bouncy castle! Loads of fun!)
Also...special themed days when the dcs can wear special things (like a particular colour for each class) and each child brings in £1 or a box of chocs to be used at the fete, that kind of thing.
Also, cake sales when parents bring in cakes. Doing this in the playground is good as the parents buy the cakes as they walk past.
We had a v. good karate day with a local club which we ran at a profit to the school and was v. good fun.
Discos are always v. popular, quiz nights, also we do family races nights (not sure how they work as I've never actually been to one!) ladies' pampering nights are becoming more popular, book fairs run by publishers (esp. Scholastic are v. good at this and schools get a fair percentage to spend on free books).

Can't think of any more right now but there are lots of mini-events you could do that would get other parents involved and bring in money.

Hi, our PTA is v. successful at raising money! We do regular events throughout the year with of course the big money pullers like the christmas and summer fetes.

Recently we did a sponsored bounce (on a bouncy castle! Loads of fun!)
Also...special themed days when the dcs can wear special things (like a particular colour for each class) and each child brings in £1 or a box of chocs to be used at the fete, that kind of thing.
Also, cake sales when parents bring in cakes. Doing this in the playground is good as the parents buy the cakes as they walk past.
We had a v. good karate day with a local club which we ran at a profit to the school and was v. good fun.
Discos are always v. popular, quiz nights, also we do family races nights (not sure how they work as I've never actually been to one!) ladies' pampering nights are becoming more popular, book fairs run by publishers (esp. Scholastic are v. good at this and schools get a fair percentage to spend on free books).

Can't think of any more right now but there are lots of mini-events you could do that would get other parents involved and bring in money.

Hi, our PTA is v. successful at raising money! We do regular events throughout the year with of course the big money pullers like the christmas and summer fetes.

Recently we did a sponsored bounce (on a bouncy castle! Loads of fun!)
Also...special themed days when the dcs can wear special things (like a particular colour for each class) and each child brings in £1 or a box of chocs to be used at the fete, that kind of thing.
Also, cake sales when parents bring in cakes. Doing this in the playground is good as the parents buy the cakes as they walk past.
We had a v. good karate day with a local club which we ran at a profit to the school and was v. good fun.
Discos are always v. popular, quiz nights, also we do family races nights (not sure how they work as I've never actually been to one!) ladies' pampering nights are becoming more popular, book fairs run by publishers (esp. Scholastic are v. good at this and schools get a fair percentage to spend on free books).

Can't think of any more right now but there are lots of mini-events you could do that would get other parents involved and bring in money.

football cards are fab. check ebay, they are dirt cheap and if u get 40 sq ones ,, charge £1 a sq either give £10 as prize or buy a prize to that value (bottle spirits, etc?) get parents to do them at their work, pub they go to, school gate, dh's work etc...

whoops, sorry! butterfingers!

Sponsored bounce is a great money spinner for us too - we net £3000 ish for it, and it is not much effort apart from on the day itself.

This year...We have just bought a really fab huge circular outdoor seat (it seats 30 kids plus teacher for outdoor lessons) with an overhead shade in the shape of a flower petal. It also has this thick matting underneath to avoid mud. (it was all v. expensive but i can't remember how much). We've bought lots of benches and outdoor toys for lunchtimes, and over £1000 books for individual classroom libraries, and new wonderful software for the ICT suite. My dd gets the benefit of all this so it's def. worth while to do the stall at the fete / sell cakes once in every while etc. Schools are much worse off in so many ways if they don't have PTAs.

and to answer you cat - most of the money raised the last 3 years has been for improving the outdoors - climbing frames ets - it is nit the equipment that costs the most, but the safe surface to go underneath!

Last year our PTA (180 pupils) made about £12K

Christmas Fair - £3K
Auction of promises - 3.5K
Xmas Fair - £2.5K
Race night - £500
Other - cake sales/coffee mornings/second hand uniform sale/quiz night/tea towels/dvd of school play

We live in an affluent area and there are loads of wealthy professionals as parents. What we are increasingly trying to do is to team up with local businesses and get them to sponsor costs of events. For instance we team up with a local estate agent for our auction of promises, so that our catalogue,champagne and a pledge is all paid by them.

The money has gone on new playground equipment, new reading books and updating our outdoor play area for reception.

PS: How does a sponsored bounce work???

WEll you just hire a bouncy castle for the day / morning (or a big one and a smaller one for little dcs) and get as many PTA parents and others in to watch the kids and count the bounces! They bounce for 1 minute and there are prizes for the best bouncer in each class. Children are sponsored either per bounce or for taking part. Teachers bring their classes into the hall or wherever the bouncy castle is one by one.

Easy to do, lots of fun, not much outlay and a very containable event.

Last year our PTA raised about £25K , money in the past has gone towards building a new library, extra IT equipment , covered areas outside , people from outside to come and work/talk to kids eg artist, travelling threate company to put on Panto.

Various events through year eg

Quiz night ,
Mufti /cake selling days
Film nights
Summer ball
Xmas shopping evening
Kids Xmas party
Summer fete
Summer BBQ
Sponsored bounce - Bounce for a book we call it

In addition to the fairs we also do carol singing, parents' social evenings, summer barbecue, mufti days, sponsored runs/skips/ etc.

Money has been spent on a new kitchen, new playground equipment, books and science equipment, furnishing the new ICT suite etc. Often there are deals whereby matched funding is available from various authorities (ie if the school raises £10k, the authority will give £10k) and sometimes we aim for these.

I am on PTA at my small village school. Total pupils 60! It is not an wealthy area, not a lot of professionals. Any ideas for fundraising in this situation? We struggle as we are small:printing costs for raffle tickets etc. are higher. We manage £1000 max at the moment-but would love to raise more.

OHH how about for next Xmas you could get parents to bid for their children's parts in the navity play - you know £20min for Mary, £3 for a sheep etc etc depending on how affluent your school is? At least you could see you the pushy parents were

if its a small village school how about a BBQ in the summer , get local shops/ farms to provide the goods free.

raffle on the day - no need to print raffle tickets just use cloakroom tickets.

What kind of activities have you tried already ?

jojo - found this website, dont know if its in your area but may give you some ideas

hope it helps

xmas fair this am...

toy stall, cake stall, book stall, sweet tombola, bottle tombola (all these donations from parents/pupils etc. Sweets and bottles donated in payment for mufti day the day before the fair)
Lucky dip, face painting, Santas Grotto, assorted try-your-luck stalls, guess how many sweets in the jar
Sol stalls to card sellers, jewelery, charities etc.
Food like hot dogs, filled potatoes, snacks...
Raffle
Sold advertising space in the programme

This is what ours does. Round about August Bank Hol. advertise stalls for hire by craftspeople, and print and sell raffle tickets with the date of the Christmas craft fair. They hire a local hall as the school hall is too small, and the stall rental covers the charge made by the hall. There is an entrance fee (2 euros) for adults, which includes a raffle ticket. (Ireland - bet on anything here!). The PTA run a cafe - all homemade cake, sandwiches, soup - which is a big effort as it is a 2 day event. There is a school stall selling crafts made by pupils to the doting parents, plus a candle dipping thing. Also guess the name of dolly, how many lollies in a jar type stuff. New this year are Christmas cards of local scenes from old photos. It is marketed as the local town's craft fair (spell it fayre despite my reservations) as opposed to the school fair as that is felt to be more upmarket, ie artisan products as opposed to toilet rolls and glitter! It ends up at about 15k euro per annum.