More Fundraising Ideas
- Birthday Cupcakes - NEW
- Bookstore Book Fair
- Coin Collection
- Cooking Night
- Donation Drop Box
- Dues & Donations
- Fitness Fair
- Fundraiser Insurance
- Ice Cream or Yogurt Shop
- Independent Vendors
- Lollipop Bouquet
- Night of Shopping
- Pizza Sales
- Plant Sale
- Spelling Challenge
- Spirit Day
- Sports Equipment Cleaning -NEW
- Sports Equipment Sales -NEW
- Sports Tournament
- Tubing -NEW
Have a collection day or week when people can drop off their used sport items (bats, balls, gloves, helmets, nets, etc.). Then you have two options:
- Have a yard sale and sell as much as you can all for profit; or
- Team up with a local used sporting goods store that buys & sells used items (i.e. Play It Again Sports). Sell the items you've collected to the store. A local store we spoke to said they can offer the cash equivalent of about 1/3 of the item's value. So a baseball glove (in good, sellable condition) with a retail value of $18, would net you about $4-6.
Keep in mind that the store may not purchase everything from you. They will generally take items in good, sellable condition of which they don't already have a large inventory.
Organize an equipment cleaning/sanitizing fundraiser at the end of hockey or football season. It's important to get equipment cleaned before you store it for the summer to kill all of the bacteria and mold that has formed over the year. Doing so keeps kids safe from rashes, MRSA, etc.
Find a sports cleaning service in your area. They have a special machine specifically for cleaning sports equipment.
Offer a special rate for your fundraiser. If the service is typically $40 ask the cleaning company to offer a $35 rate for the cleaning of a whole set of equipment. A whole set of hockey equipment would be helmet, shoulder pads, elbow pads, pants, shin pads, jock/jill, skates, and the bag.
Then ask the company to give back a percentage of sales (i.e. 10%, 15%) back to your school.
Offer a birthday cupcake service. A small group of school volunteers would bake homemade cupcakes for students' birthday and deliver to the student's classroom on their birthday -- perfect for busy Moms who just don't have the time to bake their own. This is very similar to Moms baking for a bake sale and selling them at the school.
The cost of ingredients for 24 cupcakes is approximately $10.00:
- 2 boxes of cake mix @ $1.99 ea. = $3.98
- 2 cans of frosting @ $1.50 ea. = $3.00
- 6 eggs = $0.90
- vegetable oil = $0.35
- sprinkles = $1.00
- cupcake cups = $0.99
Therefore, offer to bake & deliver cupcakes to a classroom of 24 students for $20.00. Cost = $10 and Profit = $10. Multiply that times 200 students and your profit would be $2,000.
Hints: Use coupons to increase profit even more! Be sure all ingredients are peanut-free.
A second option would be to team up with a local bakery. You take the orders, they bake the cupcakes, and you pick up and deliver them to the classroom on the day of the student's birthday. With so many peanut allergies, make sure they can guarantee a peanut-free product.
For an added cost ($5.00), you could also offer a singing telegram service to accompany the delivery of the cupcakes with a customized song from Mom & Dad. Create a few samples for people to choose from or let Mom & Dad create their own.
If you prefer something other than cupcakes, you could offer candy, lollipops, cookies, caramel apples, and a fruit basket for a variety of options.
Contact an area ski resort or snow tubing park and turn a half-day of school ino a fun day of snow tubing.
One Massachusetts ski area offers 2 hours of tubing for $25 per person (group rate of just $19pp). At the bottom of the mountain, there's a lodge in the parking lot and a booth selling hot chocolate, fried dough, etc. Or bring your own lunch/snacks. Another park has group rates as low as $12pp.
- Plan a fundraiser or family fun event Monday through Wednesday for the best rates.
- Plan it on a day when the school has a scheduled ½ day. The kids get out at 12:30 and you could be tubing by 1:00pm!
- Want to make it a fundraiser? Charge $4-$6 above the reduced group rate, but a dollar or two below the regular individual rate.
- Is it a Family Fun event? Charge an extra $2 and give each person a bonus snack & drink.
- Avoid bus fees by selling the tickets only - families drive themselves.
Run an internet search to find a tubing park near you. Here's some we found in Massachusetts:
Remember to always check the park's website and call their sales department to confirm best available group rates, times, and restrictions.
Organize a fundraising night with a local ice cream or yogurt shop (or even a local restaurant). Arrange with the owner or manager of the shop that on a set night for every customer your school brings into the shop, a portion of the sale will be donated back to the school. Advertise with flyers to all students. The kids will have fun socializing with their friends and the shop will enjoy the added publicity and increased business. Also consider teaming up with a local pizza shop.
Have fewer fundraisers this year by planning a PTO Ideas' Educational Challenge. We show you how to plan this Spelling Challenge in-house so you can hold onto close to 99% of the profit! Imagine these profit levels:
- 200 students: potential profit of $12,000 or more
- 400 students: potential profit of $24,000 or more
- 600 students: potential profit of $36,000 or more
Click here for more information on the PTO Ideas' Ultimate Educational Challenge:
Invite fitness coaches from local health clubs or your local high school, school nurses, nutritionists, massage therapists, and chefs and hold a Fitness Fair. These professionals will likely volunteer their time and in exchange they will receieve exposure for their business and be able to distribute their brochures. Students and parents pay $1-$3pp to enter the Fair and get expert advice:
- Learn fun exercises
- Review their family's eating habits and learn how to make improvements on them.
- Take blood pressure readings and measure body mass index
- Learn to dress for your body type and feel better about yourself.
- Sample new fruits & vegetables
- Learn to cook healthy or make a fruit or veggie smoothie
Many PTOs collect dues from its members. Dues are paid at the beginning of the school year and range anywhere from $5 to over $100 per year. Paid dues entitle the member to voting rights at the PTO meetings.
In lieu of a set fee, the PTO may opt to collect donations at the beginning of the school year. In this case, families donate cash to the PTO. The amount donated is up to each individual family. Small schools of under 200 students have been known to collect $3,000-$4,000 using this method. The school PTO receives 100% of the money raised and parents receive a tax-write off for their donation.
Online donations are also becoming more popular because students can email family and friends around the country asking for their support.
Every school should have a Donation Box in their front lobby. Make a box from a simple plywood box construction base and a clear plexiglass box placed on top. The plexiglass should have a swing top with a locking latch (to remove and safeguard the collected cash) and a thin slot to drop the money through. Paint and decorate the box with children's handprints or inspirational sayings from the students. Place the unit on wheel casters so the box can easily be moved to the location of any event.
Save your pennies because they add up! So do nickels, dimes, and quarters. Pick one day each month and ask each student to bring in a set number of one type of coin. In September, bring in 25 pennies; October, 5 nickels; November, 3 dimes; December 1 quarter; and so on. In just these 4 months, 200 students will have collected $260 dollars! Keep the amounts small and chances are every student will participate. Let them drop them into the Donation Box.
Sell slices of pizza for lunch. As an example, send home an order form selling tickets at the beginning of the month for every Wednesday of the upcoming month. One slice costs the student $5 and 2 slices cost $6. If the pizzas are donated at a discount, the sale of one slice will cover the cost of the whole pizza and all other slices are profit. This works in a school where the kids have to bring their lunch because parents will pay the excess just not to have to make lunch. Try to get drinks and a fruit or cookie donated to offer as part of the paid lunch.
Team-up with a local bookstore. One school in Concord, MA offered a Fall Book Fair at a local bookstore. Teachers, friends, and authors offered book readings and signings throughout the day to entertain the children while the parents shopped. The school received 10% of total sales, including gift certificates. Also available was a Teachers' Classroom Wish List so parents could purchase teacher's gifts.
Have a plant sale at school. Ask a local nursery to support your fundraiser by donating or selling plants to you at a discount, in exchange for advertising of the nursery's name on all flyers. Parents familiar with splitting perennials each year, may also be willing to donate some plants from their own gardens.
Sell flats of various plants (annuals & perennials in 4" pots) for $1-$2 above the purchase price. Also, ask the nursery if you can sell gift certificates for them (sell a $25 gift certificate, $20 goes back to the nursery for the sale, and the school keeps $5 as profit for the fundraiser). This is a great idea since gift certificates will draw traffic to the nursery and will likely result in sales above and beyond the certificate value.
Purchase clear, lightweight plastic bags in bulk to wrap the sold plants or save plastic grocery bags. Consider having this sale the week prior to Mother's Day or during Teacher Appreciation Week so plants can be purchased and given as gifts to mothers and staff.
Many malls and stores now offer a night of shopping for those who have purchased a ticket to the exclusive event. This is generally offered around the November/December holidays. The mall/store will open after hours to allow people related to the school to buy tickets to enter to shop. They generally offer special discounts and in some cases silent auctions, entertainment, and prizes.
The ticket sale money goes to the school and maybe even a portion of the sales. As an example, one Massachusetts school sold tickets for $10.00 each - the school received $7.00 of each ticket and $3.00 of each ticket went to the Simon Youth Foundation (Simon Mall, Burlington, Mass.). Contact the management office of a mall or discount department store near you to see if they offer this popular promotion.
Organize a sports tournament (basketball, softball, soccer, etc.). Arrange to have several teams compete against each other. Teams can be made up of parents, students, and school staff. Charge a small admission fee to each player ($5-$10). Proceeds will go directly to the school. Reserve the school baseball or soccer fields or basketball court, depending on the type of tournament. Be sure to obtain appropriate approvals from the town or school to host the tournament on school or town property. You can also have a concession stand and sell water, sports drinks, and snacks for a profit.
As parents we all have so many fundraiser requests come our way during the school year. At the beginning of the school year, why not sell fundraising insurance. The buyer would be free from participating in any fundraisers for the school year.
Insurance can be sold for any dollar amount ($25 to $150). To determine the price, estimate how much money you generally raise per person each year.
Print insurance cards; wallet-sized cards printed on colored card stock and laminated, stating something like:
- "Fundraiser Insurance, Good toward all fundraisers at the XYZ School, For the period September 1, 2008-June 15, 2009", or
- "Fundraiser Insurance, The holder of this card is exempt from participating in XYZ School fundraisers, September 1, 2009-June 15, 2010"
Pajama Day, Hat Day, or Tie Day. Turn any day into an event. Where your pajamas to school just for fun. Or decorate hats or one of Dad's old ties and offer a small prize to the funniest one. Charge $1.00 for participation. Distribute popcicles or lollipops to anyone that joins in the activity.
Tupperware, Discovery Toys, Avon, Jafra, Mary Kay Cosmetics, Lia Sophia Jewelry, and Silpada Jewelry are typically sold through independent salespeople at in-home parties. However, these salespeople are always looking for new and innovative ways to promote their business and welcome the idea of working with a school on a fundraising event. Consider offering a book party for one week by distributing catalogs or flyers featuring products for sale to all school parents. Typically the vendor offers 50% of their profit to go to the school. To locate an independent representative in your area, search online. Or, ask around since it's highly likely that a parent in your school is a representative themselve or knows someone who is.
Families host a cooking night as a fundraising event, where one parent volunteers to teach how to make an appetizer, one teaches a meal, and one a dessert. All other attending parents pay for the cost of the meal plus whatever dollar amount you want to raise. The fun is cooking, eating, and socializing while also raising funds for the school. Donated food will help increase the amount you raise. (Idea submitted by LisaM, Mass.)
Make a lollipop bouquet using lollipops and colored tissue paper. Secure the bouquet with an elastic band and ribbon. Distribute flyers to purchase the bouquets for someone special. Parents may buy one for their child, a student may buy one for their teacher, or friends may buy them for each other.
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PTO Ideas has provided you with ideas for planning an event. This information should not be used as a legal reference and may not be all-inclusive. We suggest consulting with the head of your school or any other essential professional.
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