School Fundraising Ideas & Strategies

Making the most of your school’s fundraising is crucial for driving your school’s mission forward. Fundraising supports many things, from improving school facilities to keeping extracurricular programs up and running for students.    

Getting donors excited to give to your school can be challenging. But this guide for K-12 fundraising strategy and ideas is here to help you maximize your campaigns and boost your efforts. Creative school fundraisers can effectively engage your community and help your school raise more money than ever.  

These expertly curated webinars, guides, success stories, and school fundraising ideas will set you on the path to achieving your goals, supporting your teachers, and elevating your students. 

How To Promote A School Fundraiser 

Fundraising benefits extend from improving school facilities to keeping extracurricular programs up and running for students. But getting donors excited to give to your school can be challenging, so we are sharing ways to maximize your campaign and boost your efforts. Unique school fundraisers can effectively engage your community and help your school collect more money than ever. 

Explore the following ways you can make the most out of your school’s fundraising campaigns this year.  

Get the Kids Excited to Fundraise for Their School 

The kids are the ones who will inspire their parents to get involved, so it is crucial to motivate them. Kids will typically care more about the prizes they can win than the fundraiser’s goals, so offering great incentives is crucial to maximizing their participation. If you want to get your students begging their parents for help, provide a fun incentive, such as a game day, a bounce house during recess, a pajama party, or a water balloon fight. 

Promote Your School Fundraiser on Social Media 

Social media is a valuable tool for sharing and maximizing your efforts. These tips can help you promote your fundraising campaign on various social platforms: 

• Share all the details: When posting about your fundraiser, be sure to include all essential details — the more information you provide about where and how to contribute, the better.  

• Be clear about your goals: Clarify your specific campaign goals, and be transparent about how the funds will benefit the school and the student body in your posts. 

• Create a special hashtag: Using a unique hashtag for your fundraising helps you track of your posts and shares.  

• Utilize photos: Incorporating eye-catching photos is a great way to help your fundraiser posts stand out. Using images can make content more engaging than just including text. 

• Share on multiple platforms: Extend your campaign’s reach by sharing it across social media. 

• Maintain your visibility: Social media feeds can be very busy, so it is vital to post your fundraising details multiple times. Post regular reminders to keep your event top of mind for your followers. If the platform you’re using offers this option, you can also pin an informative post to make it easy for people to find the details. 

• Encourage sharing: Don’t forget to ask people to share and repost your fundraiser details. Your school could even do something special, like a pizza or ice cream party, if a certain number of people post about the fundraiser.  

• Link back to an online fundraising page: Your school can use social media to guide supporters to virtual fundraising pages where they can donate directly.  

Use Online Giving Forms  

Your school can maximize fundraising efforts by utilizing online giving forms. Digital forms make it simple for supporters to donate to your efforts, allowing them to donate wherever they are. 

Consider the following suggestions for crafting the most effective online giving forms: 

• Use your school’s logos and colors: Make your form look more official by incorporating images of your mascot and school colors. 

• Keep it simple: Convenience is the number one reason to use an online giving form, so it is beneficial to keep it short and straightforward. Filling it out should take less than a minute.  

• Suggest donation amounts: To make your online giving form even more streamlined, add buttons with suggested donation amounts so donors can easily choose their gift. 

• Utilize recurring donation options: Another way you can enhance your form is by adding a feature that allows donors to opt in to recurring donations.  

• Optimize your form for mobile: Your school can make online giving forms even more convenient by ensuring they work well on mobile devices. That way, people will be able to donate right from their smartphones.  

• Share a fundraising thermometer on the form: Showing your fundraiser’s progress with a fun graphic can encourage donors to give more to move your campaign closer to its designated goal.  

Host a “Non-a-Thon” 

Your school can also use online giving forms to hold a “non-a-thon” and collect donations with minimal work from students and parents. Consider the number of people who would rather give money than worry about baking treats for a bake sale or selling raffle tickets! A “non-a-thon” fundraiser is effective at attracting donors who would otherwise opt out of your efforts entirely. This type of fundraiser works by setting up multiple giving levels on the online form. Supporters can choose from these options to make an efficient, streamlined donation. 

Hold an Online Auction 

A “non-a-thon” may not catch everyone’s attention. Another way to engage donors who are not interested in actively participating in a fundraising event is to hold an online auction that allows participants to give with little effort. Like traditional auctions, online auctions allow participants to browse auction items, place bids, and receive winnings. Just be sure to: 

• Get the word out. 

• Utilize photos. 

• Pay attention to local and state regulations. 

Use School Merchandise for Fundraising 

School spirit is a powerful tool for boosting your fundraiser, and selling merchandise can help you meet your goals. Items that showcase your school’s mascot and designated colors can be big sellers for your fundraiser.  

School-branded apparel, such as T-shirts, hats, and sweatshirts, is a great place to start. You can also sell branded school supplies and merchandise, including mugs, notebooks, tote bags, stickers, and magnets as part of your campaign. 

Setting up an online store is an easy way to get people to buy products from anywhere and on their own time. You can also have your supporters shop in person at designated merchandise sales, where they can see the products.  

Fundraise at School Events 

Another way to make the most out of your fundraising campaign efforts is to utilize school events such as dances, concerts, and field days. These events are a great way to engage with the local community. Setting up a booth to sell raffle tickets or collect direct donations is especially easy and can be very effective.  

Utilize Athletic Events  

Fundraising is the lifeblood of school-sponsored sports teams. Athletic departments often rely on annual fundraising efforts to cover expenses such as uniforms, equipment, and travel. 

With so many expenses, sports teams rely heavily on donations to keep their organizations up and running. Consider fundraising at athletic events to identify donors eager to support the team and the athletic department. Here are a few ways your campaign can use games and matches to your advantage:  

• Passing out flyers 

• Selling raffle tickets 

• Setting up a school merchandise table 

• Hosting a bake sale or a concession stand 

Leverage School “Celebrities” 

Another way to enhance your fundraising is by leveraging your “celebrities.” Every school has a few staff members who fall into the “celebrity” category, meaning they are especially beloved and connected with the students.  

Whether it is the principal or a few popular teachers, you can use these figures to your fundraiser’s advantage. Get them involved by having them do something special if the students meet donation goals. Some fun and wacky ideas include: 

• Dunk tank: Set up a dunk tank at a student assembly or pep rally and allow students to attempt to soak the “celebrity” for a funny way to celebrate meeting your goals.  

• Pie in the face: Seeing someone get a whipped cream pie in the face is always a good laugh. Your fundraising team can set up a pie-in-the-face station where people can pay to toss a pie at their favorite teachers and faculty members.   

• Head shaving: A hair-shaving event is a unique way to celebrate meeting your donation goals, and the faculty’s bald heads will serve as a good reminder to students of their hard work.  

Launch a Peer-to-Peer Fundraising Contest 

Peer-to-peer fundraising can be very advantageous for collecting money for your school.  

This strategy requires participants to fundraise for your campaign through their personal networks. Make it a competition with a prize for the students who collect the most donations to get the kids more motivated to be involved! Healthy competition can work wonders for campaign efforts.  

Here are a couple of tips to boost your students’ peer-to-peer fundraising efforts: 

• Set students up for success: Before the contest starts, ensure they are prepared and understand your fundraising goals. Give them tips for asking for donations and communicating with potential donors.  

• Keep it fun: Encourage your campaign participants to enjoy the competition without taking it too seriously. Keeping the efforts lighthearted can inspire more kids to get involved.  

Your school can utilize peer-to-peer fundraising software to manage these donations and keep administration simple.  

Get the Parents Engaged 

One of the most effective ways to maximize your campaign’s impact is to engage parents. Parents require different motivators than their kids do, and it is essential to make participation as convenient and easy as possible for them. Give them different options for how they can get involved, such as: 

• Sharing fundraising details and links on social media 

• Volunteering in-person 

• Organizing events 

Fundraising Ideas for Schools 

Schools across the US raise billions annually to fund “extras” for their students and staff. If you raise money for a school, you know many of those “extras” are really necessities, and you also are aware that there are many ways you can fundraise to support field trips, programs, technology, scholarships, and more!   

Whether you want to start something new or refine your existing school fundraiser, these ideas offer turnkey, creative, and goal-achieving campaigns and wrap-around events to help your school fundraisers get straight A’s with your donors and stakeholders.  

Student-Focused Fundraisers  

No one understands the impact of your school better than your students. By involving students, you can raise much-needed funds for the programs they care most about! It’s best to set a goal for student participation and offer a fun prize when students meet it. For example, consider offering an end-of-year field day as a reward for meeting their goal(s).  

These are just some of the top fundraising ideas that allow for student participation:  

• A-Thons: read-a-thon, dance-a-thon, spell-a-thon. Students encourage people to pledge money for every book they read, every hour they dance, or every word they spell. You raise money while students learn while having fun!  

• Concert or Art Show: Support your music and theater programs with a concert or showcase featuring your upcoming year’s performances. Selling tickets, concessions, program ad space, and flowers are great ways to generate revenue for your needed arts programs. Show off your students’ talents with a school-hosted art show. You can host a special night and auction off their projects, or you add them to your existing auction or gala.    

• Contests: Have a school-wide reward – such as a pizza party, ice cream social, or movie day –  for the group that raises the most! Or, let each grade or class create its own reward for achieving a fundraising goal. Some fun ideas include:  

• Choose a brain break, music, or the schedule for the day   

• Extra recess  

• Homework passes  

• Pie a teacher  

• Trade seats  

• And more!   

• School Dance: Use ticket and concession sales to fundraise. Note: Ensure the tickets aren’t too expensive, so that every student can participate.  

• Field Day/Carnival: These are ever-popular options that get students excited! You can charge students for carnival games or field day activities. If you’d like to involve the community, consider hosting the event on a weekend and inviting families to attend.  

• Student “Coupon” Books: Convert the popular local business coupon books into something students will want to purchase. Include coupons for a no-uniform day, extra-long recess, or first-in-line privileges for the bus.  

• Talent Show: Think about ways to get your students to showcase their passions and talents while raising money, such as battle of the bands, talent shows, karaoke competitions, and more. You can sell tickets to the show and/or have people vote on the winner using donations!  

• Theme Nights at Sporting Events: Host special theme nights at your sporting events and charge a premium for tickets to those games. For example, you can have a Star Wars night at your football game or a Space Jam night at your basketball game. Let attendees know in advance and ask your students to vote on ideas! You can host costume contests, fun halftime activities, and other special events to make it truly memorable.    

Classic Sales-Based Fundraisers  

Classic sales have been a cornerstone of school fundraising for many years. While magazine and wrapping paper sales may be declining, there are still several popular sale options available for schools. While you might want to break out of the mold and do some less traditional fundraising, too, don’t feel like you have to abandon the classics completely.  

• Bake Sales: Depending on students’ ages, have students or parents bring in baked goods to sell at a sports game or during lunch.  

• Candy Grams or Flower Sales: Around the winter holidays or Valentine’s Day, consider selling candy grams or flowers at school. Hershey Kisses, candy canes, daffodils, or carnations are affordable options that your students can send to other schoolmates and classmates.    

• Class Arts and Crafts: Offer class art projects for sale in auctions or individual art projects for sale on a piece-by-piece basis.  

• Dress Drives: Ask students to donate past homecoming and prom dresses and save them to sell the following year. This is an excellent way for students to support the school and purchase dresses at a bargain.   

• Give Back Programs: Partner with companies that let you get cash back when your students or parents make purchases. Kids’ clothing companies, pizza restaurants, coffee roasters, and more offer a portion of sales in a set period of time. These opportunities may offer cash back, all of the money from coupon/card sales, or a percentage of sales of goods.   

• Greeting Cards: If you’re raising money for your art programs, consider having students create greeting cards for purchase by parents, grandparents, teachers, and the broader community.  

• Neighborhood Discount Cards: Neighborhood discount cards allow purchasers to earn discounts at local stores, eateries, and shops. Cards are sold for $10 to $20 each and are valid for one year. It is beneficial for businesses, and they set their participation parameters. Bonus: It supports families in your neighborhood. 

Year-Round School Fundraising Ideas  

Having a couple of big events throughout the year is great. However, some fundraising ideas enable you to set it up once and continue fundraising throughout the year.   

• Coin Wars: Have a jar in each classroom and let the students put their loose change in it. Create prizes, such as an extra recess, for the class that raises the most money each week or month.  

• Online Donations: Create a donations page on your website that lets people donate at their convenience. You can also establish a monthly giving program for individuals who wish to make a more significant contribution to your school.  

• Raffles: Host raffles at events with large crowds, such as sporting events or concerts. You can offer a 50/50 raffle, in which the winner receives half of the total, or a raffle for a specific prize. Tip: Ask students to sell the raffle tickets at events to increase engagement and participation. 

• School Store: Set up a school store on your website where people can purchase school spirit wear, accessories/gear, or other items.  

• Text-to-Give: Reach donors where they’re the most active: on their phones! Use a text-to-give campaign to aid fundraising efforts throughout the year.  

Parent-Focused Fundraisers  

Give the parents a night out with a fun event hosted at the school. There are many ideas, ranging in formality and ticket price, so you can mix and match event types throughout the year to create a fun year of fundraising.  

• Dinner and a Movie: Do you have a great outdoor space or an auditorium and a projector? Host a BYOB and BYOF picnic movie night. You can include the students in this and play a family-friendly film, or make the event just for parents and play something that’s just out of theaters.  

• Gala: A more formal fundraising option, a gala is an opportunity for parents to dress up and spend a night mingling with other parents and teachers. At a gala, you can host additional fundraising opportunities, such as a silent auction, a live auction, a raffle, and other fundraising games. 

• Paint and Sip: Can your art teacher host a guided BYOB and BYOF paint night or afternoon? You would need to obtain supplies, such as paint and canvas, but it can also serve as a revenue generator and community builder for your school.  

• Parents’ Night Out: Sometimes, getting a babysitter costs more than a night out. If you have a high school committee, club, Scouts, or sports team, offer a Parents’ Night Out! Students can earn service hours, and your organization or school can raise money. Offer babysitting at school, in the gym, or as a movie, game, or sports night. For $25-$40 per family, parents can find an affordable babysitter in a safe place they trust, and the kids will have a great time!  

• Wine and Cheese Night: Ask local businesses to donate wine, cheese, fruit, and other snacks, and allow parents to purchase “tasting tickets” to try different types of wine and cheese.  

• Silent, Live, and/or Online Auction: An auction can be hosted either in person or online. You can incorporate a silent auction into a gala or more informal event, such as a wine and cheese night.   

Community-Wide Fundraisers   

Your town is invested in your school’s success – especially if you’re located in an energized community. This allows you the opportunity to involve the community in your fundraising events.  

• Annual Appeal: Sometimes, the best approach is direct – meaning direct mail. E-mails can get lost, but if you get a letter or postcard in the mail from a student you know, donors may be more likely to open it. Consider sharing student testimonials and mailing them out to your list of past supporters and current families.   

• Crowdfunding: If you have a specific project, team, update, or other purchase your school needs to make, consider using crowdfunding. This allows donors to support specific initiatives, increasing their feeling of impact.   

• Golf Tournament: Hosting a golf tournament will allow parents to compete for a good cause. You can even combine a golf event with a sit-down meal to create a day of fundraising for parents and other donors. You can learn more about golf fundraising events in our helpful guide here.  

• Races: Host a 5K or 10K in your community that benefits the school. You can use the school grounds as a course and ask for local businesses to donate snacks and water for finishers.   

• Restaurant Give-Back/Percentage Night: Many restaurants are willing to host percentage nights, where a specified percentage of sales on a designated night is donated back to the hosting organization. Contact local favorites and see if you can host a night around another school event.  

• Sponsorships: You have more advertising space than you think. For example, you could sell space in your yearbook, on your field fences, or on your painted school windows to a local business willing to make a set donation to the school.  

• Student Services: Allow the community to participate in your fundraising efforts by purchasing a car wash or lawn mowing service. The students can then provide these services with their supplies and tools, or you can provide the necessary materials at a low cost.  

• Matching Gift Programs:  

• Many businesses offer matching gift programs, in which the company matches an employee’s donation to an organization. There are also volunteer grant programs. On your donation form, ask if your donor’s company offers this so you (and the donor) can claim these funds. 

Fundraising Involving Teachers/Admin   

Getting teachers and administrators to participate in your fundraising helps build excitement among your students.  

• Coffee Cart: Offer parents, teachers, and high school students a weekly or monthly coffee or snack cart in the morning. For a nominal purchase price, individuals can get their morning caffeine fix right on campus.     

• Teacher Challenge: What student wouldn’t love to see a favorite teacher shave their head or be dunked in a dunk tank? If you raise a set amount, a teacher will do something pre-determined and embarrassing. Alternatively, you can have multiple teachers, and the one who raises the most will perform the “embarrassing” action.   

• Teacher vs. Student: Consider hosting a game or tournament – such as sports, trivia, or another activity–with students competing against teachers.  

• Teacher Talent Show: Karaoke, talent shows, and more. Who wouldn’t want to see the talents of their teachers and admins?  

• Teacher/Principal for a Day: With proper guidance, encourage kids to raise money through sponsorships or raffle ticket sales, with the highest raiser (or raffle winner) serving as the “principal/vice principal/teacher” for the day. You can also offer it as an auction item!  

• Teacher Wishlist: Teacher Appreciation Week is in May. Honor your hardworking staff with a teacher wishlist campaign, where parents, community members, alumni, and other supporters can give to fulfill specific teachers’ needs. Set up your wishlist in your fundraising software and share it with your network.      

Scholarship Funding  

• Ask Alumni: Get donors – often alumni – to support a scholarship named after them or their graduating class. There are opportunities for them to use your fundraising platform to host their own event or online giving campaign.  

• Associations: Many associations have established foundations, and it is not uncommon for these foundations to offer scholarships through an application process. There are thousands of associations, and they may want to present the selected scholarship winner with an award at your end-of-year awards ceremony.   

• Chamber of Commerce and Community-Based Organizations: Get a community organization to sponsor a scholarship for a local student. There is an opportunity for the community-based organization to review applications and select the winner, which they can present at your awards ceremony.    

With so many creative and proven ways to fundraise, there’s no shortage of opportunities to bring your school community together in support of students and staff.   

Whether you’re rallying parents, engaging alumni, or giving students a chance to lead, each effort strengthens your school while making an impact where it matters most. Start with a few of these school fundraising ideas, adapt them to fit your community, and watch your school’s fundraising success grow! 

Improve Your School Fundraising with GiveSmart 

GiveSmart’s industry-leading fundraising and donor management software can help boost your school’s fundraising efforts. With our solutions, your school can manage an unlimited number of campaigns and stay connected with all your donors in a single streamlined system.  

Tools, such as Excel spreadsheets, have been widely used to track contact information and donation history, but have many disadvantages, including:  

• Lack of Centralization: This lack of visibility makes it challenging to keep larger goals and objectives in mind when working on campaigns and events. 

• No Software Integration: You can’t connect them with e-mails or automated services to increase their functionality. Everything must be done manually. 

• Difficult to Track Supporters: Traditionally, Excel spreadsheets house one type of data, and you need multiple spreadsheets to paint a fuller picture of your donors and what efforts you need to reach them.  

• Hard-to-Find Information: Having multiple spreadsheets can make it harder to find specific data. 

• Often Inaccurate: Human error is a greater risk with Excel spreadsheets and manual data entry.  

When spreadsheets prove to be unreliable and inefficient nonprofit resources, you need to determine how to track donors and campaign progress for your organization. A donor management platform is a customer relationship management (CRM) solution that helps you better organize and use the data you collect. With more automated features and connectivity, you can drive efficiency and communication through this data-tracking service. 

• Organized Donor Information: A donor management platform will automatically compile and sort your donor information in one place — a donor profile. Whether it pulls data from e-mails or donation platforms, this automated feature reduces input errors and boosts efficiency. Because it stores everything at one location, such as donation patterns, event participation, special interests, etc., you can get a more well-rounded image of your donors and their habits, helping drive more targeted campaigns that increase donations. 

• Automation and Integration: Beyond creating donor profiles, a donor management platform offers several automated features and integrated services. Its centralized database will compile essential information, giving you more visibility of your organization. As you receive donations, it will track how much you have raised, update your thermometer graphics, and add donor information to their profiles. A good donor management platform, like GiveSmart, will integrate with other solutions. You can connect it to your e-mail to send automatic updates, thank you notes, and announcements. It will help you sort your contacts into groups, creating more custom communication methods that better meet your donors’ interests. 

• Easy Reporting: Instead of creating reports manually, the automated features will sort data and build a comprehensive set of information you can use to understand progress and boost decisions. You can save time and effort with automatic reporting. Forgo searching for each piece of data, as the platform will find and compile everything for you. Your organization can make stronger decisions and analyze campaigns with information you know is accurate and relevant. 

• No Need for Tech Know-How: GiveSmart’s donor management platform is simple and easy to use. Complete with several automated features and functions, you can optimize this solution in one click without advanced technical knowledge. The platform brings you all the necessary data, so you don’t have to memorize complicated pathways or learn complex formats. Our program comes with the latest technology to help protect your donors’ private data, from their contact information to donor history and patterns. Automatic updates on your dashboard ensure you are always up to date on your organization’s standing and strength. 

A donor management platform is a perfect upgrade to optimize efficiency and visibility at your nonprofit. GiveSmart designed our donor management platform specifically for nonprofit organizations, so you can build stronger connections with your donors and drive more donations. 

GiveSmart is the perfect partner to support ticketing, donations, auctions, peer-to-peer, and classroom fundraisers in one place. Let us help you make your school campaign satisfying instead of stressful. The GiveSmart platform makes it easy to facilitate a wide range of events, from silent auctions to peer-to-peer fundraising.  

Are you interested in learning more about how you could improve your school fundraising efforts with the help of GiveSmart? Request a demo to get started today! 

School Fundraising Success Webinars 

Let’s freshen up your school’s fundraisers, meet your donors where they are, and connect with your parents, alumni, teachers, and students year-round.   

This sampling of school-related success webinars shares:  

• Creative ideas and data to help you make the most out of your school’s peer-to-peer, event, and online fundraising 

• Goal-hitting school fundraiser examples 

• And more! 

Webinar: The Best Of K-12 Peer-to-Peer Campaigns – Watch Now 

Webinar: Spruce Up Your Fundraising Strategy for K-12 Schools – Watch Now 

Webinar: Best Practices for Engaging Your Donors & Community Through K-12 Spring Fundraising – Watch Now 

Webinar: How to Prepare for Fall Events – Watch Now 

Ultimate School Fundraising Study Guide 

The Ultimate Study Guide for School Fundraising provides tips and tricks to ace your upcoming fundraising events and efforts. Open this fundraising guide for:  

• School fundraising event checklist 

• Event enhancements that delight your donors to fund your school’s needs 

• Unique items for school auctions 

• Proven tips for your auction and fund-the-need 

• Ideas for incorporating students into your fundraiser 

• Ways to re-engage your alumni 

Read Our School Fundraising Study Guide Now! 

Inspiring School Fundraising Examples 

We understand that running school fundraisers can be tricky, but they don’t have to be. Here are some creative fundraising examples from schools that went above and beyond to reach their goals!   

These real-life fundraisers highlight how public, private, and independent K-12 schools found success with their annual campaigns, school stores, sports and arts fundraisers, read-a-thons, and more!   

Get inspired by these fundraising examples: 

• Legacy Gala- Cardinal Spellman High School –Legacy Gala and Chairman’s Challenge 

• School Store- Mountain Lakes Education Foundation – Mask Up ML! 

• Winter Wonderland Walk- Friends of Blaine – Winter Wonderland Walk 

• Read-a-Thon- Burlingame Community Education Foundation 

• Sports Booster- Perrysburg High School Athletics 

• Theatre Boosters- Perrysburg Theatre Boosters 

• Orchestra Concert- Perrysburg Orchestras 

• T-Shirt Sales- Perrysburg Orchestras 

• Giving Day- St. Augustine High School – Giving Purple Day 

School Fundraising Success Stories 

How are other schools finding success with GiveSmart’s fundraising and donor management platform? Read more about these schools making a difference in the lives of their students and families.   

Angleton ISD Education Foundation – See More 

Littleton Public Schools Foundation – See More 

The Elmbrook Education Foundation – See More 

Ready to push your next school fundraiser to the next level? Request a Demo! 

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