Ideas for PTFA fundraising

amanda40

What about a car boot sale for the spring? One of the schools in a local village done one and it looked like quite an easy way to raise money ( And clear the clutter) It was £6 a car, booking in advance. The school hall was open on the day for teas and home baking. I think they got about 40 cars + in the car park so it was a good 'wee earner'. We are organising our first Christmas Fayre for end November. It is usually a Summer one , until vandals burned the gym hall, dining room etc down in March. This is my first as Cair so hoping it goes well. We have lots of cheap games for the kids, 20p Santa hunt, guess the sweeties, Dolls Bday, a lucky dip also 20p (ask McDonalds/Burger King) for unwanted Happy meal toys, they go into a box with small hole cut in it and the kids take a dip! We have a mum coming in to do nails for small charge, Santa, Magic sand, Cake and Candy, beat the goalie,face painting, the kids are all making cards, magnets etc,. We have a tins stall, tombola,raffle - been asking all local business for prizes ie theme parks, visitor centres, shops and fast food - been lucky so far. Week before we will ask kids to bring in books, videoa and unwanted toys. Not sure how much we will raise but it should be a fun day out anyway - which is the whole point. ( nerves are shattered right enough - why did I become Chair? - because no one else would!!!!)

Savvy_Sue

jellyhead wrote:

savvy i realise that the pta are more focused on the stalls that make the most money but it's the games that make the children want to come. after the last couple of fetes there have been lots of comments about it being boring for adults and children alike, just things to buy. people have decided not to bother with future fetes. this time around there are a few games and they'll be mentioned in the newsletter so people know it's not just like walking around a market/jumble. the newcomers who made suggestions were sneered at by the old timers 'we've tried that and it failed' etc. but the newcomers said that it hadn't been tried in the last few years and parents change all the time. any ideas that the old timers think are iffy could always be given a trial, after all it's just another table somewhere, as long as the person making the suggestion is going to staff it and organise prizes etc. it's not going to hurt anyone.

don't get me wrong, I'm not knocking the games, and we always had some AND a bouncy castle which barely covered costs! And as I said, I never said "We've done that before and it didn't work", I used to say what difficulties we'd had and ask how we could work round them! Because there really is no point not learning from past experiences. AND if you have a limited number of people to help, you have to make sure you've got some stalls which will make lots of profit well manned (or womanned ...).

I used to feel, though, that the most important 'job on the day' was running round taking tea to the helpers! Never put myself on a stall for that reason!

The one thing I drew the line at was a repeat of Olympic Egg Throwing, because at the end of the day all the leftover eggs were thrown around and at people and got broken leaving a very nasty mess (not to mention a waste of money!) So after that we did Olympic Balloon Throwing with water balloons.

megsykins

I have great memories of PTA fairs organised by my mum, although I'm sure 'roll the 2p' didn't make much money, it was fun. You're right about making sure there's lots of games and not just stuff to sell. It needs to be fun for the kiddies cos they're the ones who drag the parents along. If you can get the kids involved, maybe decorating the hall during the day or baking in class to sell at the fair, they're more likely to drag parents.

Concerts are always good, Xmas, end-of-term, (our school did a weekly class play which was open to parents) and gives an opportunity to make more cash with raffles, refreshments and maybe a few stalls. Also, if you can, get a professional or someone good with cameras to video the concert and sell the DVD to parents after? Great for those who havn't got a camcorder, and it'll be better quality than most parents own vids anyway.

My MIL does Scouts and has actually stopped doing jumble sales, reason being its more hassle than it's worth as people give junk and she has to spend weeks sifting through for the good stuff. They do two fairs annually with the school - is there a scout / brownie group nearby your school could link with? Apparently the best ever fair was when her (v good looking and flirty) younger brother was manning one of the stalls, all the mums wanted to talk to him and spent loads! Moral of the story: get good-looking male volunteers!

In terms of food, my mum always did hot dogs, bought cheapy value sauages and loads of rolls and sold them for £1 each, used to make loads of ££, also see if you can do food for sports day.

Is there any way to set up an auction on eBay which is only open to the parents from your school? Could be a way to get £ off those parents who wouldn't usually go to events?

jellyhead

ice lollies sell well at sports days and the pta use some of the profit made to give the children a lolly for free.

if you do a car boot sale you could also get the children to wash the cars for a small fee lol!

how about a fashion show? i don't know if there are any companies who'd get involved but if children are modelling the parents will come to the event.

samsdad

I just want to encourage all the posters on this thread who are or were involved in PTA stuff to think of reasons OTHER than raising money to do stuff for the kids. In my view the PTA is there to encourage closer links between school, pupils and parents/helpers, to raise money, AND to help the children have a great time at school. In some respects the fundraising is secondary to the last aim - if you raise money to send kids on school trips, that's fine, but sometimes the most fun can be had out of really simple things which don't raise much money but the kids (and parents) have a great time. School disco springs to mind... as does rubber duck racing, curry nights or a few of the other things mentioned.

Mumstheword

MDUK wrote:

What is easter egg bingo?

All the prizes are easter eggs.
It's so popular now that we have to run it over two nights. The kids and parents love it, and we buy creme eggs in for each child who attends, so that no-one leaves empty handed!

Mumstheword

Becles wrote:

Sounds like ours

A form went round to fill in to see what skills parents could offer that might be of use to the PTA/school. My b/f volunteered our mobile disco, and said we'd do all school discos free of charge.

They used our services in the summer when the disco they had booked dropped them in it at the last minute. Everyone gave us loads of postive feedback and asked if we could do more in the future.

We've been very hurt this term as they've had a family night with a disco and have childrens discos planned in December. They are paying an outside company to provide these, and we have no idea why we've had our free services snubbed

I would have a word with the chair, or the head. They may feel embarrassed to ask you to give your services for free each time. We have a mum who does our discos for free, which we do feel is very generous of her, but on same basis, I and others give up our time for free too. I am secretary and spend a lot of time at home doing behind the scenes stuff.

stressedoutmumof1

I have become Chair of the PTA this year! (Why? Because no-one else wanted to do it!!)

We are having a stall at the Xmas light switch on selling glo bangles, a kids disco and a Christmas Fayre this side of Christmas!!

Then we're having a well deserved break and planning in earnest for next year (it's the school's 10th anniversary).

The main problem I find is that the same old people help - and no-one else can be bothered. Our school has 430 kids, and a PTA of only 8!! With little or no help from the teachers!! It's like banging your head against a brick wall half the time - still I enjoy watching the kids faces at these events that we put on and to me that's what it's all about!!

Savvy_Sue

megsykins wrote:

Apparently the best ever fair was when her (v good looking and flirty) younger brother was manning one of the stalls, all the mums wanted to talk to him and spent loads! Moral of the story: get good-looking male volunteers!

Good-looking isn't essential, my DH was manning the 'throw a ring over the snowman' stall and got lots of customers over by juggling the rings when he wasn't busy!

And OUR most successful summer fair was the year we were almost drowned! The day itself was a disaster, financially, but we had loads of stuff afterwards so set the stalls up after school the next week and ended up with more money than I'd expected!

Timing is worth thinking about: summer fair was always on a Saturday, but Christmas held after school, so most parents would be dragged up by their kids. And layout is key: keeping stalls close together is good, any on their own won't get so much business. And any which have to be apart from the main stalls will be quieter, so make these the ones which people WILL go to, like the refreshments and cakes or the raffle and tombola rather than the games.

Poppy9

samsdad wrote:

I just want to encourage all the posters on this thread who are or were involved in PTA stuff to think of reasons OTHER than raising money to do stuff for the kids. In my view the PTA is there to encourage closer links between school, pupils and parents/helpers, to raise money, AND to help the children have a great time at school. In some respects the fundraising is secondary to the last aim - if you raise money to send kids on school trips, that's fine, but sometimes the most fun can be had out of really simple things which don't raise much money but the kids (and parents) have a great time. School disco springs to mind... as does rubber duck racing, curry nights or a few of the other things mentioned.

Us clicky members of the school PTA's;) are always trying to find things that are enjoyable for all to attend but raise money at the same time. Just having fun would be lovely but without our PTA funds the kids would be eating their lunch in a dining hall with peeling paint, using toilets that date back to the 60's, classroom flooring in poor condition, no working blinds at classroom windows, playing on a churned up concrete playground and sharing class whiteboards. Sadly Govt. funding does not provide for such luxuries and PTA funds help to make the daily school experience more comfortable and enjoyable.

Most events don't raise much money. Our last disco just £110 but we only charged 50p entry and nearly all 200 kids turned up. At the end of the evening the kids had enjoyed but the 5 parents who organised and helped on the night were exhausted. I spent evenings ringing around trying to get a DJ for a reasonable price as our usual bargain DJ was busy and searching the net for cheap glowsticks. Then I spent a few hours over the cash and carry getting sweets, drinks and decorations which I then had to lug down to the school. On the night only 3 of us were there 2 hours before hand to set up and decorate the hall, two hours after the disco had finished there was just 5 of us to count and bag the takings, clean the hall, pick up the rubbish, sort out lost property etc. On top of this I'm buying the prizes for the Xmas fayre in a couple of weeks, making sure that games we have from previous fayres are intact and usable, drawing up a list of stalls and trying to get people to man them. I've also bought the raffle prizes, ordered the raffle tickets, collected from the printer, and every week prepare a begging letter to parents asking for lucky dip toys, stall helpers, ideas - basically anything. I'm also attending weekly panto rehearsals. The panto parents buy/hire/make their own costumes too.

It's great that the kids are enjoying the school fayre, disco's etc but it's so much hard work for 5 of us. We all hold down responsible jobs too and are constantly juggling. We constantly try to recruit new helpers that we can rely on. Usually though they will agree to help at one event and declare it too much hard work and you never see them again. The only thing that keeps us going is knowing that our kids are having fun and benefiting from our efforts.

I have to admit this is my last year with the Primary school and I was tempted to refuse to do any organising, helping etc as my DD will not benefit now from the money I raise as we are now trying to raise money for new blinds in school hall. It would be lovely to just turn up and be entertained.

To all those who think the PTA's are clicky - please think again. We love new ideas but sadly they are thin on the ground. For a few years I'v drawn up a small profit loss for each stall which I present at next meeting. We still go ahead with non profit making stalls if they are good fun and if we can get someone to man it.

Sorry for the rant but I have 4 hyperactive girls nagging me at the moment while I'm trying to order Xmas fayre things on line!