May I plunder your fundraising ideas, that I may appear sage and oracle-like at the Parent Council Meeting? (winning smile)

[keeptakingthetablets]

Please?

I don't think anyone can hear the words "Sponsored .... (insert suitable disclosure checked, health & safety approved activity)" or "Beetle Drive" again without crying.

How do you raid purses subtly, and with flair?

Our biggest find-raiser last year was a black tie ball. £25 a ticket IIRC and we all got glammed up and it was really good. Money from ticket sales and raffle prizes (£5 a go for top quality stuff like signed CDs and £50 vouchers etc) and auction (signed England shirt, luxury day out at Formula one etc) raised £4k!!!

A lot of work by the committee tho getting prizes donated. But it was such a good night I think the tickets will sell better next time as word of mouth spreads.

Also we do fashion shows with local chappie who brings along M&S end of line stuff and sells it at bargain prices - eg £5 for a top, £30 for a coat - you can try it all on and buy what you fancy. £3 a ticket and we reckon to sell 50+. We keep ticket money, he keeps clothes money, do a raffle as well and a good night out again (tho not a massive fund-raiser - v little effort tho which is always a winner).

Another good fund-raiser last Christmas was the disco, parents come too (infant school) and with wine and beer sales (lot of alkies ) we made £700 for not a lot of work really. Compare that to Christmas fair which made £1100 but is MASSES of hard graft.

wow sofiaames that's a lot of money. (faints at thought of spending £50 at school fair).

Kaz33 that's fab, I too am impressed by yr promise auction.

Soupy - thanks, wasn't my objections. lol at your last line, that's pretty much what I said at the meeting.

You could easily spend £50 on a day out including a meal in London for two children. The idea is that you get people to spend it on the school instead. The inflatable bouncy castle slides are awesome and the kids absolutely love the fair. Our school is fairly large, though so there are enough attendees to make it work. Also I live in a fairly wealthy neighborhood where people can afford to spend the money. It's actually a nice mix because the cachement area for the school includes a poor hispanic neighborhood and a middleclass jewish neighborhood too, so there is a bit of everything at the school.

Another brilliant one I came up with last week(!) was CINEMA NIGHT!!

A recent DVD and refreshments for the children from 3.30-5.30pm for £2.50 pp.

This will make loadsacash for very little work and means the parents get childcare for an extra 2 hours!!!!

Also, a school local to me, raised £4000 in a year using this website. I am plugging it round school at the moment.

www.buy.at.com

link didnt work. sorry.

We live in an inner city area with lots of delis, trendy gift shops etc. A local school's PTA have produced a really nice recipe book, with pupils own recipes in. It's being sold for £5 a copy in the local shops, and seems to be doing well.

A great fundraiser for our preschool was to invite a semi-pro photographer parent into events such as the nativity, Barnardo's toddle etc and allow parents to order prints from her pictures which we ordered from Photobox and sold at a profit
An hour of her time, couple of hours of mine and bingo! 300 euros (am in Germany)
Also, the children decorated those cloth bags - which you can get in all the supermarkers out here for 20 cents or so - and parents bought them as Christmas presents for grandparents etc.

We bought calico bags and did a very good design on them (yours for a small donation smile and sold as a eco/get rid of plastic bags theme. We have sold 150 at last count in school of 180 pupils.

Kaz33 - I am interested in this - Please could you tell me where you sourced the calico bags from

Our PTA does lucky numbers, we pay £4 a month and the number is the bonus ball on the lottery - prize is £10 a week and rest goes to the school.

We also have the bags for school, yellow moon, easy fundraising and a summer and xmas fayre.

They recently had the children draw themselves and these were put onto bags and tea towels.

Is your PTA a registered charity? If so then parents with a give as you earn scheme can donate money through that. I give £10/month, comes out before tax, can't say I notice the difference and that's £120 year! I feel very smug