This year our fundraising brain cells have been stretched to the limit. It’s a fine balance between respecting that some people’s circumstances will have changed unrecognisably, and the urgency to raise money for playgrounds and reading books when school deficits are growing.
Our approach has been to create low budget ideas, that give people ways to enjoy the great outdoors kit out their children for less money – and save the planet at the same time – and run an online raffle.
Online Second Hand School Uniform Sale
Using our PTA sales platform (PTA Social) we put all of our second hand uniform online in the summer. Many children grew out of clothes over lockdown so we had a good supply. We sell jumpers for £2, skirts, dresses and trousers for £1.50 and t-shirts for £1. This makes everything affordable. We only sell the best things. Marked items are sold for 50p, some go straight into our clothes recycling collection point.
A summer sale helped a number of parents get uniform for their children before term started. Plus, the uncertainty over school closures meant people were less inclined to spend money on brand new clothes if there was a chance they would be hardly worn.
It’s been a great success bringing in a fast £200 so we are continuing this sale permanently and will use it to push Stamptastic in January.
To comply with Social Distancing, We did it all as a click and collect from my home. So I quarantined the items that are donated before dealing with them. Then I bag purchases and leave them labelled in my porch for collection.
Fundraising Treasure Trail
As lockdown eased people wanted ways to enjoy the outdoors so we created treasure hunts/trails around the local park, and a cycle hunt around the area. We sold hunts on our system for £3 per family and £5 to do both the walking and cycle hunts.
We hid letters around the park for the children to find using maps and when unscrambled they spelt a code word. The cycle hunts were more involved covering about 8km. During the hunt children had to observe landmarks, read information boards and find answers to questions we set. Taking letters from their answers they could make a code word.
We had some stock left over from events at Christmas so we created a goodie bag that people could win if they sent in the right code word. We ran this as a prize draw, selecting a random winner.
We also gave people the option to top up their hunt purchase with a one off donation. Numerous people did this, and between a summer hunt and a Halloween one we made almost £700. Not bad for something that only took time and effort to create.
Christmas Fundraising During Covid
Our Christmas plans involve a number of virtual events and a raffle. We have teamed up with a local estate agent to provide a games console as a top prize and supported local businesses by buying vouchers. We’ll sell the tickets on Parent Pay, as parents use this system every day, clearly stating the terms of the raffle as we would on a raffle ticket. This ensures we are compliant with our lottery licence.
It’s a very quick way to bring in funds and avoids any cost overheads associated to producing a ticket or using an online raffle service. We’re hopeful we’ll continue our lockdown successes and keep the PTA alive!
Sam Crowe. Beaver Road Primary School, Manchester
(Beaver Road Primary School is a member of The Stamptastic PTA Rewards Scheme) and received a £30 fundraising voucher for writing this blog post. If you would like to write a blog post for us please join our Stamptastic PTA and Schools Facebook Group to find out more!)
Other PTA Tips Blog Posts You May Find Useful:
Top Tips For Running a Quiz Night
Top Tips For Running a Coin Trail
Top Tips For Running a Christmas Fair
Top Ten Tips For Maximising Profit At Your Summer Fair
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