Cool Ideas for School Fundraising

A school fundraising activity is always a great idea to help your school raise the money that it needs with the help and participation of the whole community. It is also an excellent way for students to understand the value of money and to learn that hard work pays off.

With so many fundraisers happening all around, what would differentiate your fundraiser and make it stand out from the rest? What would make people choose to support your cause? What fundraising activities will be mutually beneficial to both your school and to those prospective financial supporters? These are some important questions that you need to ask yourself before actually deciding on what fundraising activity to have. Once you have answered them, you can then move on to deciding what type of fundraiser will most likely work for your school. To help you with that, here are some school fundraising activities you can choose from.

One of the latest and most innovative school fundraising activities nowadays is Scrips. It is the use of paper as a substitute for money. This concept has actually been around for ages but it has only been utilized for fundraisers just recently. What happens is that during a fundraiser, the school would sell Scrips that they bought at a discount. For example, they would sell a $50-worth Scrip for the local grocer that they only bought for $45 to a community member. The local grocer is promoted, the fundraiser makes money, and the supporter purchases something that he can actually use.

A similar concept to Scrips is a fundraising concept referred to as “Schoolpop.” A supporter simply has to shop at participating online stores to make money for your school. Every time they make a purchase online, a certain percentage of the total cost will be rebated back to the school.

One fundraising idea that would surely encourage community participation is a community business bazaar. Invite parents and other community members to feature their businesses in a school bazaar. This will allow them to promote their products and services to the entire community. The participants will be assigned to their own booths and the school can charge a rental fee for each booth. Furthermore, they can charge entrance fees for those who want to check out the local community wares.

Auctioning services or talents of students or local community members is another brilliant way to raise funds for your school. Come up with a list of participants and the corresponding talents that they have or services that they would render and organize an auction night. For example, a student can donate a six-hour babysitting service to the school for free. The school will auction this service off to the highest bidder and will earn the cost of the bid.

Lastly, you can always choose the safe route and go with some tried and tested fundraising ideas. These include bake sales, garage sales, community car washes, ticket raffles, movie premieres or special screenings, talent shows, quiz bees and the like.