P.t.a. Help & Ideas Needed!

nikiyoung

Hi to all

Sorry I thought this might not be the best place for this but if not please can you point me in the right direction!

Right, have been to my primary schools PTA night (second child started school this term) and have been brewing on it for a few days along with some other new mums and we were wondering if your schools PTA have done any money spinners (Christmas fair, Halloween, Summer evening events) that have really grabbed the parents attention and helped those school funds!
We have written to loads of big company's asking for donations of gifts but out of 80 letters NOT ONE PLACE has donated a gift! .

The ideas / events already held are:-

A Christmas fair has stalls with a few crafts and refreshments and Father Christmas.

A Summer fair after sports day which has stalls and a draw to win prizes.
but I personally think that we could do more.

So the question is.... What does your school do for PTA events?
All ideas taken and all will be shared with other PTA's who see the thread!

Thanks in advance

Niki

Hardup_Hester

The best money spinner we ever did was when we put out an appeal for empty baskets & unwanted toiletries & then combined them to make gift baskets.
A Victorian sweet counter also went down well.
Both were a lot of hard work though.
As for asking companies for gifts, they get thousands of requests, so they seldom give anything.

FunkyFairy

I was the chair of my DD's PTA last year and the biggest money raiser was a may ball. it brought in £2500

annie-c

Try asking local shops/stores for donations, maybe in exchange for free advertising at the event? Local people are probably more likely to be generous and support a cause that means something to them.

nikiyoung

FunkyFairy wrote:

I was the chair of my DD's PTA last year and the biggest
Money raiser was a may ball. it brought in £2500

Thanks to all

Funky Fairy
What did you charge for tickets? Was it at the school or was it somewhere else? and were kids invited?

Thanks
Niki

foreverskint

how about a family disco night. This was always a popular one, we used to buy tickets and get a request with it for a plate of food to bring. This was placed on the buffet table and everyone helped themselves. Either bring your own booze or ask a pub to provide and outside bar.

Great fun night and no need for babysitters.

Or a barn dance, ( another bring your own food and wine event) but great fun.

quiz nights

brains now gone blank lol.

skintchick

A bring and buy?

Penny_Watcher

PTA do LOADS of stuff at DS2's school.

Weekly cake stall. Each class takes turns to bring in cakes, buns, HM flapjack, HM biscuits etc which are sold by the PTA outside school on a Friday. As there are 10 classes in the school it works out at about 3 times per year for each class.

Second Hand Uniform Stall. There are a couple of ways of doing this. One is the items are simply donated and all profits go to the PTA. At DS1's school the uniform is V expensive. I understand that they do a 50/50 sale there (PTA gets 50% - parents get 50%). As the new blazers go at £40 a go, it's a quite popular stall:rotfl:

Christmas Fair The PTA 'sell' stalls to the parents who can then in turn flog their own items. There is usually a cake stall as well. Xmas decoration stall. Someone did Virgin Vie once. Tea and coffee cafe is a good money spinner too.

There is also a 'Secret Santa' room where for £1 the children can go (without Mum & Dad) to choose a present for their parents. This works extremely well. Usually the gift are cheap and cheerful eg Ikea mugs, bars of nice soap, handful of Quality Street etc, etc. - the idea being to make a nice profit without 'ripping off' the children (d'oh - obviously:rolleyes: ) The presents are wrapped individually for the children in Santa's Secret room and little Johnny can take his gifts home and surprise Mum and Dad at Christmas.

One year they had a 'Have your photo taken with Santa' room. Parent dressed as Santa against a wintery back-drop, digital camera, use of school PC & printer, contribution towards ink used and some photo paper. Bob's your uncle


Promise Auction. Exactly what it says on the tin. We had allsorts of promises, from grass cutting and hedge trimming to car washing, knitting lessons, dog walking - can't remember any more.

School BBQ Another good fund raiser. The PTA sell food tickets in advance so that they have some idea of numbers that they are catering for. The ticket money can then be used to buy the meat & bread buns. Donations of salad are asked for from the pupils. Usually there are lots of other stalls too. One of the favourites is 'Chuck the Wet Sponge at Your Teacher' stand.

That's all for now, but I'll post again if I remember anymore.

kiwichick

I'm not a part of our PTA yet but will be come the AGM next week.

There are a couple of things I know ours do though;

* they too have a may ball and though I dont know the details it is a HUGE success with parents.

*they sell hotdogs to the children each friday, I *think* its £1 per hotdog, goes down well with parents and kids but does mean someone is on site to cook etc each week.

*they also do fathers and sons nights and mothers and daughters nights, again I dont know whats involved just yet but may have more of an idea after the AGM.

* they have 2 lots of discos held on the same night. An under 7's which runs from say 5.30 - 7pm and then an under 12's which runs from say 7.30 - 9pm. The kids LOVE these.

*this summer they had a local nursery take hanging basket/window basket orders which were then delivered to the school. The school obviously took a small percentage of the price of each.

Other than the good old School Fete I cant think of anything more.

HTH,
Allison

FunkyFairy

nikiyoung wrote:

Thanks to all

Funky Fairy
What did you charge for tickets? Was it at the school or was it somewhere else? and were kids invited?

Thanks
Niki

Yes tickets were £35 each which included a buffet. It was at the hotel in the village that did not charge us for the hire of the room just the buffet.

It was a child free night a chance to dress up and be yourself not someones mum for a night lol

gooismeid

We've had much more success asking for small prizes from smaller local shops (and hairdressers, florists, gardeners, that kind of thing) than from the big companies. The notable exceptions being some theme parks and Man United's museum, who are always up for donating a few tour tickets to us (and we do write to Man City as well - I think we got a team strip last time, when we'd told them that United had donated something...).