Ideas wanted for social & fund raising for lower school

abimonster02

Our school holds 2 fayres per year one at Christmas and One in the summer. Like others have mentioned we use non-unifform days to generate items for stalls. One stall that is always popular a stall for adults where we wrap bottles - some full, some empty, again these are taken from the donations sent in. People pay per go and get to pick a bottle if it's full they get to keep it.

We also do envelope games, one for adults one for children. We put envelopes on a board and each envelope has a prize in. Prizes vary from a free go on one of the stalls, to a toy or ticket for something that has been donated by a company e.g an entrance ticket to a localattraction or a meal etc.
We also run a disco every half term. The evening consistents of 2 discos one for years 3 and 4 and another for years 5 and 6. These are usually good fundraisers.

Other fundraisers used are:

Recycling ink cartridges, mobile phones
Yellow Moon Catalogue
on line fundraising eg everyclick


Have also heard people using cd bell for plant sales

car boots
bingo nights
auctions
fun runs
Nearly new sale ( like NCT) where sellers donate 30% of amount made to the PTA.
ladies night ( get therapists in to do treatments and charge for tickets)
Sponsored bounce


I think it is necessary to be aware of the current economic climate and try and find things which parents can benefit from too e.g. car boot sale,nearly new sale like the nct runs

hopethis helps

Savvy_Sue

walshy42 wrote: »

has anyone ever run a mothers room, basically a room in school where the children can buy presents for their mum for under £5. any ideas where to get presents free, will be asking for toiletry donations/ unwante gifts from parents
thanks

When I WAS doing this, we were charging 50p! And we weren't limiting it to presents for mums. Bought a lot of similar gifts from our local 'cheap tat' shop, things like tea light holders, biros, small photo frames, soaps. Perhaps easier to have less choice, and charging £5 surely makes it very difficult for families with more than one child?

blue_monkey_2

One good game for fetes - we had it at our last fete and it was VERY popular with the dads (might want to have some different age groups as winners though) was a terracota plant pot with one hole in the bottom, a wooden spoon and marbles on a tray. Turn the pot upside down with the hole at the top, try to get as many marbles into the plant pot but you cannot touch the marbles with your hand, they have to be picked up with the spoon and spooned into the hole. VERY popular and the dads spent the whole time trying to outdo each others scores!!

slummymummyof3

We do Bags2School twice a year - give out collection bags to all pupils and they return them filled with old clothes/footwear/bedding/curtains etc. They are collected from the school at either 09:30 or 15:30 on a pre-arranged day by company and approx 4-6 weeks later you get a cheque. It is fab.....not labour intensive and easy money for the school.

We always do a chocolate tombolla at our fete - it often does better than the normal tombolla (particularly at xmas)

abimonster02

Do you have outside traders at events e.g people selling books, jewellery etc? Some committee's will allow this and charge per table this amount can be from £5 upwards. I have heard of committees charging £30 for a stall.

Our PTA does not allow people from "outside" to have a stall as they believe that families come to events with a certain amount of money and they would rather have the full amount that they spend than a small percentage which they would get if they spent on an outside traders stall.

Itsworth checking out ifany parentswork for a bank or company that does fund matching. I know Barclays do this. If an employee helps out they will match the amount raised on the stall they work on up to a certain amount.

hth

Laura_Ellis

The How2Fundraise website provided by the Institute of Fundraising is a good resource for fundraising ideas and advice: http://www.how2fundraise.org/

You might also like to look at my post on the GuideStar UK forum for more resources for fundraising advice:
http://forums.guidestar.org.uk/Topic1679-11-1.aspx

artichoke

blue_monkey wrote: »

We do camping & BBQ on the school field, family pays £5 to pitch their tent and you have games, a BBQ, Hot chocolate, sing song, etc....

this sounds like fun, do families actually camp out all night? if so are the school willing to have the building open all night for toilets? We live in a rural area so i think it would be quite safe - but i am thinking we could organise a rota of dads on security duty thoughout the night to ensure no one else enters the building???

I am trying to think of fundraising events that bring the whole school community together. From my own point of view i would rather pay money to go to an event and experience, rather than buy some 'clutter"....

camping sounds great as even those who don't usually go camping could just drive / walk home if it got too bad in the night for them.

I am thinking that some families would be able to provide extra tents for those who don't have a tent..

it sounds very sociable - a bbq and hog roast , rounders and other games on the school field, camp fire songs as the sun goes down,

i know it would be very weather dependant, but it might work!

anyone any experience of such an event?

art

walshy42

I finally held ny mothers room on 16th March, the gifts were all donated from parents/staff. The gifts were wrapped and ranged from £1 - £4. at the end of the sale we had raised £310 for the P.T.A. funds. children were really excited about buying presents for their mum. Will deffo do next year

Savvy_Sue wrote: »

When I WAS doing this, we were charging 50p! And we weren't limiting it to presents for mums. Bought a lot of similar gifts from our local 'cheap tat' shop, things like tea light holders, biros, small photo frames, soaps. Perhaps easier to have less choice, and charging £5 surely makes it very difficult for families with more than one child?

walshy42

can you give me the website please. How much do you get per bag on averge

thanks

slummymummyof3 wrote: »

We do Bags2School twice a year - give out collection bags to all pupils and they return them filled with old clothes/footwear/bedding/curtains etc. They are collected from the school at either 09:30 or 15:30 on a pre-arranged day by company and approx 4-6 weeks later you get a cheque. It is fab.....not labour intensive and easy money for the school.

We always do a chocolate tombolla at our fete - it often does better than the normal tombolla (particularly at xmas)

dig4victory

Laura_Ellis wrote: »

You might also like to look at my post on the GuideStar UK forum for more resources for fundraising advice:
http://forums.guidestar.org.uk/Topic1679-11-1.aspx

Laura, if you are still around, this link doesn't work anymore. Is it defunct now?