Fundraising ideas for Primary School?

I need some ideas please for fundraising. We cannot do chocolate/lolly drives as we are a healthy eating school. Can anyone give me some good ideas please?

Regards,
Dianne

How about a labels drive? Lots of those vinyl name label companies do them.

My SiL was also a Total Learning consultant and did book drives for schools

I have also seen "fun run" fundraisers as well

Filo O Frame, this a frame that kids can put their art work up on their wall.
Sunscreen (our school is doing this one at the moment).
Plant Bulbs.
Trolley tokens for Coles trolley's. I have one that has a butterfly on it. You put it on your key ring (like the Aldi ones) so you don't have to make sure you have coin on you for the trolley.
Does Geelong have a Geelong Child's like the Melbournes Child? They have heaps of adverstisements in them for fundraising and usually do a special at the start of the School Year on it too.
Not sure if this is appropriate but our Kinder did this one 2yrs ago and my nieces Irish Dance School did it last year. You can go and wine taste and then put the School's label or logo, or design your own on the wines you like and sell them for fundraising. Can't remember who did this one??
Tea Towels with School name on it or re-useable shopping bags with the school name on it.

Hope that helps.

My last school was a healthy school too and in Spring we did bulb drives. Cant think of the company that does them but its like selling chocolates except they are flower bulbs. It was a big hit as a lot of families wanted to plant bulbs with their children.

Last year we did a "count the jellybeans" for 20c a guess. The child who won it was not allowed to get the jar of beans till home time so the "unhealthy" eating was off school grounds ;)

We have also has a professional photographer come in and do family photos. Each family pays $10 for their sitting, which is then donated to the school. Family in return gets a framed large print.

We are looking into Garden Express Bulbs this term. I used to do this with our Kindergarten and it was very popular, with 50% of proceeds going back to the school.

Last year our Parents and Friends committee of which I am a part of put together a Craft Christmas stall. It was very popular and we profited over $1200. We are now looking into doing a smaller version of it for Mothers Day.

garden express do the bulb drives -they do them at this time of year so that you can plant the bulb over winter ready for spring flowering

ummm, most of the ones i was thinking are probably not for healthier schools though (cookie dough etc)

Our school did birthday cards....
A box of 25 birthday/congrats/boy/girl cards that are all handmade i.e they had gorgeous applique designs on the cover. Beautiful cards. Was $30 for the box...so less than $2 for a smart looking birthday card etc. OUr school sold loads.....i can get you the addy if you want...

Thanks girls you have given me some great ideas. We are doing the bulbs this term and we did family portraits at the end of last year which made a big profit.
mbear - birthday cards sounds really good would love the addy please.
With the supermarket tokens would I just need to contact the supermarket direct?
Thanks again.

Regards,
Dianne

Oh and another really good one done by our kinder was bubble bath.
It came in indvidual bath gel packs in charachters such as Elmo, Thomas and girls one like a unicorn or fairy. Info on that one is on their website getfresh
The Sunscreen one we are doing at the moment is through the Cancer Council.
The trolley tokens one is at trolleytokensrus

x Heather

If you want soemthing healthy have a look at the Golden Circle Fun Run. My school do it every year.

We've also done a Sunblock Drive at Kinder. I think that is linked with the Golden Circle one too.

Tell me about it...I went to the P&F meeting for the first time and umm, due to the building works (Thanks Kevvie!) or specifically a mishap with the planning, we now need to find the moolah for not one but TWO new playgrounds.

I can't even bear to think about the number of THOUSANDS (not hundreds) of dollars that is needed (*makes choking noise*). Some great ideas here though.

One thing I did think of, that both families and members of the community might be interested in - is to create some sort of art installation/mural which involves paying for a little patch. For eg, you could sell ceramic tiles @ $whatever, the family then paints/designs it somehow, it's then fired and then installed (on a wall, floor, whatever). So you end up with $$$ and also a beautiful communal artwork at the same time. The simplest version of this I have seen is painted handprints on a wall, you charge $5 bucks to put your handprint (permanently) on a wall - only overhead - paint (and sealer once' it's finished).

Wow these are just great ideas thanks girls and Heather thanks for those sites, I'll check them out.

Regards,
Dianne

Family Potraits - I haven't seen them done as a fundraiser for a couple of years. They used to be each family would pay $10 and have a sitting and get a potrait. I think most of the money went back to the school. The photographer would make their money by trying to sell more photos.

I think Pixifoto do one - check out their website under fundraising. I am sure other companies also do it if you aren't fussed on Pixifoto.

Lots of cinemas also do fundraisers. If there are good movies coming out (like Toy Story 3 in June this year - which might be good for a primary school fundraiser) you might be able to arrange to do a fundraiser with the cinema.

Me again :D

Our creche asked families to submit a recipe their kids love and is quick and easy for busy families.
Put them altogether and then sold a cook book with the creche name on it.
Each recipe had the families name who supplied it and some even supplied a photo of their family making the recipe. It was a huge success and pretty much pure profit as it was put together by the creche.

the local kinder did the fundraising portraits through vision portraits late last year - the packages were simple but pretty good value.

another is through SPC (not sure how to contact them) - they sell bulk tins of fruit or the individual tubs of fruit in a bulk pack much cheaper than retail. my bro's kids have it each year at their school. we buy through them - tomato paste, fruits, backed beans/spag, tomato sauce... works out pretty good value and i think the school make a fair bit. it might be something to organise together look into - i can get SIL to try and get contact details from the school if you need it.

What about Mooo website with personlised bags etc.

the fundraising our school is doing thsi year ( im on teh p&f ) is a golf day. organised trhough the local golf club, they donate 50% of teh days takings to the school as we take over the clubv for the day.
a car boot sale, $15 per car to come i and sell stuff, our area koves markets so this usually makes a good profit, plus the kids organise a drink adn cake stall for the day aswell and a sausage sizzle, cant go hungry while shopping lol
wine trail, we have a lot of wineries so we set up 2 minibusses or coaches and charge $30 A head to go around all the wineries for a day.

day care do a shopping trip to the factory outlets.

raffels are good aswell, we doi one for mothers day, fathers day, easter and christmas.

We did a HUGE fundraiser last year - but it was seriously about 2 months full time job for us on the comittee, so we can't face another for about 5 years

We made a chinese auction night (you have like 80 or 90 different prizes, but you put your tickets into the one you want to win, some cost 1 ticket to enter, some cost more, but that way you can go for what you want, rather than a traditional raffle where you win whatever order your ticket comes out in)

We gave out a booklet to everybody (we got i think around 300 or so ladies there (it was a ladies night) and people had paid for add's in there.

We also had an auction were we auctioned off prizes, including one piece of artwork per class from the school - one of the classes went for $1400 (it was really gorgeous - the boys has superimposed a b&w picture of their class onto a canvas and then painted around it), and we had packages - we got a single new bed, new mattress, new doona, new linen etc that was all 1 auction prize.

We worked really hard to get (and collect) all the donations - ranging from moutain buggy pram, a silver cross pram, to things like an upright freezer, OiOi nappy bag, 3 months gym membership etc etc.

We also sold people a package where they got 1 chance in every chinese auction for like $180 instead fo $250 - we sold around 20 of them which was $3600 just like that.

We charged $10 at the door from memory (i'm trying to block it out it was that much work, i barely slept in days), and they got 2 free tickets.

Offering c/c facilities also helped.

We put on a beautiful supper also.

It was done in memory of our dear friend who was on the PTA with us who passed away suddenly in her sleep last year leaving 5 gorgeous children behind.. it was her dream to do this function so we did it for her.

In the end we made around $28,000 profit.

in the past i have done tea towels and aussie clings that have been great even in a small 30 place daycare centre
another way to get loads of different fundraising ideas is to log into the fundraising directory or have a look in Melbournes Child publication, they usually have some very interesting ideas for fundraising
hope this helps you

We just did a trike-a-thon at kindy. Since they were 3 and 4 year old it was just a blanket sponsorship, but for older kids they could get people to sponsor them per lap. It was held in the evening along with a BBQ selling sausages and steak sandwiches. Together they made around $1000 which isn't bad for a kindy with less than 30 kids.

We also do the Xmas raffle, everyone donates a couple of items and a farmer donates a side of lamb.

For Toy Library fundraising, we cater a few local events - we have done a couple of weddings, funerals, end-of-year break ups. Depending on the scale of the event we either provide a plate each or donate some time for serving/cooking bbq etc.

We also have a stall at the A and P show, again donated baking sold per slice and a needle in the haystack game when kids hunt through the hay for a straw and then get a freddo frog and lollipop.

Kindy also had a hangi recently which is a good fundraiser if you can get the bulk of the food donated and charge per head, but this might be more of a NZ thing lol. However, you could do a cultural theme night (alongside whatever they are learning in class) and have a meal of whatever culture they are studying.

National Geographic have a Trivia Night format you can use to raise money for any schools/clubs etc - you sign up on the Australian website, they send a kit etc, and the winning team from across the country also go in the draw to win a trip to the NT.

Another idea is for the school to sell the Entertainment Books. Then the school gets a cut for each book sold.

Or have a Movie Night at the school. Our school does this in two sessions. They have a Sausage Sizzle and then show a movie suitable for the littlies at around 5 pm and then one more suitable for the older kids at 7.30pm. Usually they are something that has just recently come to DVD and they show it on the Data Projector in the hall. That usually raises a bit of money as each child pays an admission fee etc...

Bunnings Sausage Sizzles. You can make about $2-3k or more. All you need to do is contact your local bunnings and they will send you all the information.

Also, what about a pie drive?

Probably too late but a hot cross bun drive - Bakers Delight do them.

Good luck :)

n2l

I was going to suggest the Entertainment books, SIL's school sells them, not sure how much profit goes back to the school but they are very popular.

My DH's boss's schools often has themed dinner dance nights (bearing in mind it is a private school) where you buy tables of ten, for $x amount, and get companies to donate prizes and stuff for raffles/silent auctions on the night. I'm sure you could do a less costly version if you use the school hall, and ask around for help from parents, eg DJ/band, catering, etc.

This is a great old thread.

Anyone got any other ideas while I'm looking for suggestions?

Thanks.

Our school does shower gel? I know of so many now, books, toys, plants, tea towels.
I really like hand-craft markets :) I think it depends alot on how much you are thinking of raising.
Good luck

tupperware can go well, if someone is willing to do it on spec.


or an "auction" of donated goods and services :)