P.t.a. Help & Ideas Needed!

1012donna

We distribute yellow moon catalogues.
http://www.yellowmoon.org.uk/
Everyone places their own orders so you don't have to do any ordering and delivering and then the school/committe get a cheque twice a year. It's a very easy and hassle free way to get things done. The catalogues are free and get sent to you twice a year. You can order as many as you wish for no charge. The catalogue always has things in it that you want to buy and not just rubbish which is good.

Gingham_Ribbon

I've had a think about this. I imagine you'll get a lot of response in the families board, so I'll move it over there for you to see what else people there can come up with.

msmicawber

DS's school do most of the above. They're quite successful at getting tickets for local museums and wildlife sanctuaries, etc. Also try contacting the school's suppliers of PCs, stationery, food, etc. as they're more likely to want to give the school a sweetener to keep their business.

When there's a school play, parents are asked to make a donation to the school fund on the way out.

There's a school disco most terms for which there's a small charge and, of course, sweets, pop and raffle tickets on sale.

Harvest festival, where they get the parents to donate items, then buy them back afterwards! (I fall for it every time).

You can get calendars and teatowels printed with the children's drawings. The nursery DS used to attend got those Beau Geste style sun hats printed the nursery logo on fairly cheaply and kept the profit when we all felt obliged to buy them to keep them safe in the sun!

Another good thing that the nursery did was to buy packets of organic cake mix in bulk from a supplier on the internet and sell them for double the price (they cost about 30p, so were sold for about 60p). Because it was such a low cost item, even the poorest parents could afford one and most people bought loads of them and, of course, children love baking cakes.

As you can tell, DS's school PTA are very effective parent muggers!

funky-footprints

a promise auction is something that prooves very successful, you would be suprised how there is always someone in the school who has contacts with a top or football or rugby club. btu a mum offering to do an afternoons ironing or lceaning has the mums bidding like crazy !! A taxi service for the night normally has dads interest !!

another idea is a race night which if organised properley can be competitive and a real laugh.
x

hilstep2000

We did a Race night, where you get local companies to sponsor a race, get people to bet on the night, and sell Irish coffees. We made £500 doing that.
Another idea is ask each class to make up a hamper. One class does a "Baby" one, bibs, shampoo, talc etc. One does a "gardening", "Baking" etc. then you have an auction for the hampers. That way, every child contributes, and it doesn't cost the parents a lot, and if they really want the hamper, the bidding can get fierce!
ideas that don't cost anything for fairs include:
Put a pound coin in a bucket of water. Punters pay 10p and have to cover the £1 with the 10p. Anyone who does it wins the £1. It can be done, but it's VERY difficult, I guarantee you'll make a lot on this one!
Also, get a cardboard box, fill it with sawdust, and bury half egg shells in it. Make one egg a whole one (hardboil it first!). The kids pay 10p to find the whole egg. One pick, and they usually find the empty half! If they do find the whole one, they win 20p. and you put the box under the table and mix up the eggs.
I've used these for years, and they never fail!

nikiyoung

WOW what great ideas.
Thanks to all posters!
I'll be taking all of these ideas to the next PTA ...as I am sure other's will also!

One thing that was a good money spinner at the last christmas fair was a letter to father christmas kids paid a £1 to write to him and got a letter back from father christmas!

Niki

tw1nklestar

some of our best money raisers at our school were - ice skating - a company comes and puts fake ice down and u charge the children to iceskate - silent auction where u write down ur best offer, parents offer lots of things like birthday cake making, chocolate hampers, haircuts, manicures etc., charity fashion shows where a clothes company comes in and uses the kids or mums/dads/nans as models and sells dicounted end of range clothes. Jumble sales r always good cos anything left over can be sold to the rag man. - good luck with it all, as someone who works at a school we cant thank the parents enuff for all their PTA help

emg

I love the idea of the secret santa room - really inspired!

sticher

When I was on my DS PTA, the best event we did was a balloon race. It took a bit of organising, but it was a fantastic event and the children (and parents) loved it.

Everyone bought a balloon and then we released them all in one go - lovely! The balloon that went the furthest won a prize (even had some found in Germany!!) There are companies that provide everything you need, but it does take a bit of organising to inflate the balloons, etc.

We found local shops etc were quite generous in return for bit of free advertising . We also made gifts to sell on Mothers/Fathersday, and had fetes, etc.

nuttywoman

Try Burger King etc for vouchers to donate for raffles, also i once wrote to some football clubs and got some freebies to raffle - even Accrington Stanley sent something.
For summer fairs, one year hubby did Maggot Racing. The track was easily made out of a small wooden box then about 6 lanes put in.We put names on each lane ie: Maggot Dingle, Maggot Thatcher , you get the idea.The kids and adults loved it and was a real money maker.
Must say though that no maggots were harmed during the event.
val