If you’re a PTA parent, teacher, coach, administrator, or anyone else with a strong connection to schools, you’re always looking for fresh ideas for fundraising. The most successful fundraising drives are the ones that not only benefit your school but also excite and engage students and parents in the process.
Depending on your school’s schedule and needs, you can plan different fundraisers throughout the whole year. In this post, you’ll find what you need to know to get started with six great school fundraising ideas for any season:
All these ideas can fit anywhere in your school’s calendar with a little planning and creativity. Try out a few different fundraisers to see which ones are most interesting to students and parents and meet your school’s particular needs.
1. In-Kind Donation Drive
Many organizations benefit from in-kind donations, and schools are no exception. In-kind donations refer to any non-cash contributions from supporters to your organization, including goods, services, and experiences.
While school fundraisers often focus on bringing in money, in-kind donation fundraisers can be extremely effective if your end goal is to get new physical items for your school, like equipment for sports teams, books for the library, or classroom supplies. Make a list of everything you need, give it out to students and parents, and schedule a day for them to drop the items off at school.
The main benefit of in-kind donation drives is that they take the purchasing step out of the process. Instead of asking for money to buy basketballs and poster boards, your school gets the basketballs and poster boards outright. You’ll save time by not having to shop for the items yourself, and your school can use the money that comes in through other fundraisers to support larger projects.
2. Product Fundraiser
Product fundraisers are one of the most exciting school donation drives for donors and students. In return for their generosity, participants get to enjoy a fun reward! This fundraiser can also be really beneficial since a portion of the sale of items people may be purchasing anyway goes directly back to your school.
The opportunities for product fundraisers are endless, but some of the most popular products for schools to sell include:
Delicious treats, like gourmet popcorn, candy, and cookie dough.
Holiday-themed items, like decorations and wrapping paper.
Money-saving tools, like discount cards or coupon books.
Custom school swag, like t-shirts, hats, and travel mugs.
Household items, whether they’re as small as candles or as big as mattresses.
You’ve probably seen kids and parents walking around with paper order forms during product fundraisers, but you can also take your fundraiser online if you partner with an organization that offers fundraising web stores. That way, you can send out a shareable link and get more orders in a way that’s convenient for your buyers and sellers.
3. Auction
If you want a school fundraiser that particularly appeals to local parents, set up an auction. Parents will attend the event and be able to bid on a variety of items that interest them and their families. The highest bidder for each item goes home with it, and the money they pay will go back to your school.
You can set up an auction fundraiser in four easy steps:
Gather items to sell. This fundraiser is another one where in-kind donations will be useful. Contact local businesses or parents who have previously donated to your school well in advance to find people who could provide gift baskets, art, vacations, party packages, or services to auction off. You could also include some items specific to your school, like a VIP parking pass, front row seats to performances and graduations, or lunch out with the principal for their child and a friend.
Spread the word. Send out several emails to parents about the auction, post about it on your school’s website and social media if you have them, and send home a flyer with your students to make sure parents don’t miss the message about the auction.
Set up your space (in-person or online). Your school gym or auditorium may be the best place to hold an auction—just make sure you have enough chairs for the number of attendees you predict will come. You’ll also want to have a food and beverage table, a stage or area where items will be shown, and a place to put auction paddles when they aren’t in use. Otherwise, you can get as creative as your budget allows in decorating the room. If holding an online auction, selecting auction software that is easy for parents to register and bid can eliminate this work altogether!
Run the live auction. You’ll need at least two volunteers to show auction items and call bids, plus a few more to run the food table, take payments at the end, and make sure all the bidding is civil. Or, use auction software to simplify the payment and pickup process.
If you don’t feel that a live auction is right for your school, you can also hold a silent auction. Collect in-kind donations the same way and lay out all the prizes on tables in the event space with sheets of paper for participants to write down their bids, with each item still going to the highest bidder at the end of the night.
4. Matching Gifts Drive
Although many schools overlook matching gifts as a form of fundraising, they can bring in lots of revenue for projects. When members of your school community who work for certain companies donate to your school online, the company they work for will make a contribution to your school as well—sometimes in the exact same amount, sometimes as a percentage of the original gift, and sometimes double or even triple the amount.
You can use a number of different tools to promote a matching gifts drive, including:
Contacting local businesses. Research what companies in your area have matching gift programs and let them know about your school’s drive so they can pass on the information to employees.
Email blasts. Parents will benefit most from information about a matching gift drive at their child’s school since they’re the closest people to your school who would work at a company with a corporate matching gifts program. Send them an email with a shareable link where they can check their eligibility for matching gifts and donate online.
Your school website and social media. To increase your reach, post the donation link you put in the email blast on your school’s website and social media accounts (if the school is on social media). This way, anyone who wasn’t on the email list or didn’t open the message will still have access to the link.
Although many people associate education-related matching gifts with high schools, universities, and educational nonprofits, a matching gifts drive can still work for an elementary school. A number of major companies will match gifts to elementary schools, including Home Depot, Verizon, and The Walt Disney Company. So don’t count this idea out if you’re looking for elementary school fundraisers.
5. Family Movie Night
If you want to bring your whole school community together while raising money for a cause, hosting a movie night will do just that. Students will have a fun time attending with their families and friends, and you’ll bring in donations in several ways.
To set up a family movie night at your school, follow these easy steps:
Decide where to hold the event. The best movie night space will depend on your school’s facilities and the time of year you choose to hold the event. If you hold the event in a month with warmer weather and your school has a large field where you can set up a projector, hosting the event outside would make it even more fun for kids. During colder months, the school gym or auditorium will work well.
Pick your movie. You’ll definitely want something family friendly (G or PG rating) so that attendees of all ages can enjoy it. Keep in mind that even if your school’s students could possibly handle a more mature movie, they might bring their younger siblings with them. Also, if your movie night happens close to a major holiday, you could pick a movie with a festive theme.
Spread the word and sell tickets. Send out email blasts to teachers and parents advertising the event, and post flyers in the school hallways for students to see. As far as tickets go, you could sell them all at the door. But you’ll probably get a better turnout if you sell some in advance, either in person or on your school’s website.
Get some movie snacks and beverages like popcorn, candy, and soda. To bring in more donations, you can sell these at a concession stand for a profit, and/or partner with food trucks, pizza places, and other easy-to-deliver food to earn a portion of sales.
Set up the space in advance and make sure all your technology is working before you open the doors.
Although it requires some strategic planning, the rewards from your school’s movie night will be high–both in terms of donations and family fun.
6. Fun Run
A fun run fundraiser is also a great way to bring your school community together and get everyone excited about your cause. Plus, these events have the added benefit of encouraging students to be physically active. While you can pull off a fun run by yourself, getting some organizations to sponsor the event will help with basic costs so that more of the money your participants raise will go back to the school.
In order to pull off a successful fun run, you’ll need a few supplies:
A way to collect pledges. A useful and efficient way to do so is through your nonprofit CRM. For each pledge collected online or by mail, note who’s pledging to give, and for how much. Then, follow up with pledgers using the contact information in your CRM to make sure they remember to give.
A race course. The target distance for many fun runs is one mile, two miles, or a 5K (about 3.1 miles), with shorter distances usually working better for younger participants. You can set up a course with a start line, finish line, and mile markers in the school gym, on an outdoor sports field or track if your school has one, or at a local park (with permission, as permits may be required).
Snacks and water bottles. Your participants will be hungry and thirsty after they finish running, so you’ll need plenty of water and snacks for them. If you aren’t able to get these donated or sponsored, consider partnering with a local grocery store to buy the food at a discounted price.
Event t-shirts. Most races give out t-shirts to participants to build excitement, and you can thank sponsors by putting their logos on the shirt.
Volunteers. Anyone connected to your school who doesn’t want to run can still be involved with the event since you’ll need plenty of volunteers to hand out the t-shirts and water bottles, set up and break down the course, and keep all the runners on track. You might need a few volunteers who have first aid training in case of an emergency. If all goes well, your volunteers might also donate before or during the event.
Although months with mild weather are the most popular for fun runs, they too can be done at any time of year if you plan well. If the event happens during a colder month, order long-sleeved t-shirts, and set up an indoor course if it’s rainy or extremely hot. You could also pick a theme for the event based on the season, like a Turkey Trot in November or a Bunny Hop in April.
School fundraisers are great opportunities to get creative while bringing in useful donations. With a little planning and experimenting, any of the six ideas here can work year-round and engage your entire school community.