25 Genius School Fundraising Ideas That Are Fun, Fast and Easy To Manage

There’s no dancing around the fact that school budgets are tight, so here are 25 of the best school fundraising ideas to try out in your primary school.

Fundraising events, donations, and raising money for good causes can help keep a school budget afloat. From read-a-thons and karaoke to Christmas events and sponsored silences, there are lots of fun ways of easy fundraising in the school year to raise money.

One headteacher even took part in the Great North Run just to raise money for school visits for children at his school. Dave Shaw at Spire Junior School in Chesterfield has already had to lose one teacher and one teaching assistant, he is teaching part-time himself and his deputy is teaching full time so they can save money.

The thing is, this is not uncommon. Teaching staff always go the extra mile to find extra pennies and raise funds needed for their school. Fairs, fetes, tombolas, talent shows, battle of the bands, fancy dress, and non-uniform days have become the bread and butter for schools looking to raise money and hit fundraising targets.

That’s why we’ve put together our top list of school fundraising ideas to raise money more effectively (and have fun while doing it)!

Notes on fundraising in schools

These school fundraising ideas have been brought together with primary schools in mind but many of them are equally suitable for high schools. As with all fundraising efforts in school, it’s important that all stakeholders know who’s responsible for which aspect of fundraising and what the fundraising goals actually are.

If your parental engagement is high and you have an active Parent Teacher Association, please communicate with them at every stage.

You’ll often find that there’s a member of the school PTA who’s either trained or just naturally adept at fundraising or grant applications and it makes sense to use their skills.

When it comes to school fundraising, parents, governors, teachers, Senior Leadership Team, we really are all in this together.

1. Primary school crowdfunding

Crowdfunding is an online fundraiser that many of you will have already used to raise sponsorship. Think about how you could use it to benefit the school. Which school fundraising activity will you raise money for – perhaps a walk-a-thon or running event?

Sites like Just Giving and Crowdfunder enable you to set up a fundraising page and explain what you are collecting donations for and what it is you are doing.

This a great opportunity to let people know why your efforts are important and how they will benefit children.

Everyone can get involved by sharing the fundraising initiative around on social media with their own personal take on why the school deserves funds.

Alternatively take a look at Rocketfund, a site set up by Nesta, specifically for schools to raise money for digital projects.

2. Community grants for primary schools

It is always surprising how few schools make the most of what and who is around them. Local businesses and local restaurants might seem distant and uninterested but you’d be wrong. They are very often interested in supporting their local schools with a grant because they want the school and children to succeed.

A community grant is something that businesses offer to non-profit organisations so one of the best school fundraising ideas is to research the top companies where you live and find out if they make grants to schools.

3. Make use of free information that’s out there on primary budgets

Free material is a great way for schools to get more information on raising money in innovative ways, so download what you can. Third Space Learning’s guide to help maximise your primary school budget is a great place to start.

Created by talking to headteachers, former school inspectors and experts, it can help your school raise money without scrimping and scraping and without sacrificing the things that matter to your school.

4. ‘Grants 4 School’

Visit Grants 4 Schools and find out about different grant schemes available to you. This site is a one-stop funding information service to schools. It provides a comprehensive grants database allowing schools to search for relevant grants and funding sources.

5. In-kind donations for your KS1 & KS2 pupils

This isn’t a common fundraiser which is all the more reason for considering it. You could ask individuals or local businesses for an ‘in-kind’ donation. This might be to offer a specialised service (e.g. accounting), products for class, materials for events, resources for the school grounds and so on.

There are more people willing to give something away or offer a service for free than you realise.

6. Primary school ‘Amazon Affiliates’

Amazon Associates provide a share of all sales generated from links to its website. It allows schools and other non-profit organisations to generate revenue each time a purchase is made with an affiliate link.

For every purchase made through these links, your school could earn up to 10% in advertising fees from Amazon’s affiliate program.

Making this work is all about clear communication with parents so they know exactly what they have to do and how. It’s very simple. They just need to set it up once and then ignore it! Your primary school fundraising sorted, quite possibly for the duration of that parent’s time on Amazon as most people never bother to change their charity of choice.

7. Click and fundraise

It’s not just Amazon either. The Easy Funding website is something else to get involved in. It’s effortless fundraising really.

Whenever a supporter (friends or parents usually) shop online, they login to the website and start shopping with over 2,700 retailers. Every purchase generates a donation for their chosen PTA from the retailer.

For similar ideas try The Giving Machine and Go Raise.

Read more

• How to save costs on your primary school budget
• SLT in school leadership toolkit
• The secret of school leadership: Keeping it Simple
• Effective leadership in schools: 7 tips

8. Primary school lottery

It may be hard to imagine but one in four schools now have their own lottery and these are popular and an effective way of raising money. They also sound like a nightmare to run but they don’t have to be.

Visit Your School Lottery for an easy way to get things up and running. Supporters can join for as little as £1 per week and it doesn’t cost the school anything.

9. Teacher baby photo competition

Always popular, teachers (and ideally SLT and other school staff) bring a photograph of themselves as a baby into school and children have to match the baby photo to the member of staff. This can be incorporated into a school fete or as a stand-alone competition for a small donation.

10. Book fundraising in your school

Another excellent school fundraising idea is book project fundraising. Small fees from book sales can support the school community. It also helps develop children’s artistic skills and raises the profile of their writing skills.

Sites like Fundraising Cookbooks enable you to create professional quality cookbooks using your pupils’ recipes, which you can then sell.

11. Franchise your primary school

Tea towels, mugs, bags, cards, aprons, bags for life, bears, calendars, school labels – the lot. Personalisation is key because it fuels ownership. Every year of my teaching career I have been part of the ‘tea towel’ fundraisers.

Children draw an image of themselves and these are grouped as a class and a school onto a product. ‘Self-portrait’ fund-raising is always popular because it feeds into keep sake culture of sentimentality and children love seeing their artwork on merchandise.

Try looking at these websites for more ideas:

• Initiatives Fundraising
• Fat Chilli
• My Art Project
• School Bears
• Stamptastic
• Calendars for Schools

12. Key Stage 1 & Key Stage 2 Cake bake sales

It’s a classic. It’s tried and tested school fundraising idea and it works. Parents, volunteers and supporters of your school can donate homemade cakes, biscuits and bread and an event can be held where these are sold off to raise funds.

When done in the style of a Great British Bake Off, they are a crowd puller and crowd pleaser and a reliable fundraiser that can generate a surprising amount of money.  They are a great social occasion, they get many people involved and they don’t cost much to set up and run.

Combine this idea with a cookbook fundraiser where parents and grandparents contribute their most loved family recipes which are then compiled and published as a school cookbook – including school dinner recipes too!

13. Primary school bingo night

A sociable and popular game, bingo is a fun and easy to set up making it a great fundraiser that parents and children can do together. To raise more money, you can always sell food and drinks too.

A bingo night linked to a certain day or festival makes the evening extra special and allows for more fun fundraising in school. St Patrick’s Day is always a popular day for a bingo night.

A twist on traditional bingo nights is ‘Rock and Roll Bingo’ which replaces bingo balls with clips of popular music from the last 5 decades and the numbers on the card with the artists and song titles – see the Rock and Roll Bingo website to get started.

14. Primary quiz night

Quiz nights are also relatively easy to organise and can raise significant sums of money. They are an excellent way of bringing parents, teachers and pupils together in a fun social context as well as other members of the local community. For primary schools, ‘are you smarter than a ten-year-old’ is always a great place to start. It’s hugely fun to watch your pupils beat their parents on matters of the curriculum while also raising funds at the same time.

This could also become a regular feature in the school’s event calendar. Food and drink can be included in the ticket price (e.g. £10 per person in teams of 6 including a fish and chip supper). If it’s adults-only, get an events licence from the council and sell alcohol for extra cash. It’s also a good chance to throw in a free raffle (everyone brings a prize).

15. Bollywood ball for primary pupils/parents

For a really fun evening, you could organise a Bollywood extravaganza with Bhangra music, Indian food, dancing lessons, decorations, Henna tattoo – the opportunities are endless. Transform your hall space into a Bollywood set and ask everyone to dress in a Bollywood theme.

Alternatively, the classic international evening is always popular too and this showcases music, food, dance and dress from around the world.

16. Don’t neglect to recycle primary school supplies

If you have empty ink cartridges then you can recycle them to raise cash for your school by visiting Empties Please. They collect used printer cartridges and donate the money raised straight back to the school. It’s a great way to raise green awareness and there shouldn’t be a shortage of cartridge donations from the across the school population.

Think about doing the same for mobile phones, DVDs and CDs, currency and jewellery – check out Fone Bank, envirofone and Music Magpie for all your recycling needs.

Plus, generate some extra money through donating your clothes, accessories, shoes, bedding and towels with Rags 2 Riches 4 Schools.

17. Buy a primary school brick

Brick fundraising is a new way to raise money for schools and has been used in sports and social clubs for many years.

The idea is simple – supporters buy or sponsor a brick to be put towards a new building project. This is then symbolically recognised by having a commemorative brick or engraved brick bearing the donor’s name. Visit Engrave Bricks for more on this.

Talking of bricks, what about getting LEGO bricks personalised as a fundraiser? Try out Fab Bricks.

18. Local scarecrow trail

Hold a scarecrow trail around your locality. Families register to build a scarecrow and pay £5 to £10. Scarecrows are placed in front gardens and people buy a trail sheet from the school for £1-£2 including a map of the route.

The trail involves some puzzles to solve and guess the scarecrow (these can be themed and people guess who they are – from Elvis to Hagrid!). They’re great publicity for the school so make sure to get the local press involved.

19. Online auction

What about hosting an online auction as a school fundraiser? Using a site such as Jumble Bee you can easily list any number of donated items that your children, parents, and teachers would enjoy bidding on. An auction can be opened up to everyone in the community to raise more money!

For more of an event and for a school fundraiser that makes a lot of money – in certain circumstances – hold an auction of promises in the school hall. Parents and the local community pledge something that people bid for, for example a meal for two, babysitting service, taxi service, gardening service, or even dog walking. It’s a win-win because bidders end up with something they want and the school raises funds.

20. Primary school car wash

Open up the primary school playground, car park or field and hold a school fundraising car wash on site. It is easy to organise and fun to do that can involve lots of helping hands. Whilst customers wait, offer them some refreshments to make a little more money.

21. Key Stage 2 sleepover

Parents will probably pay a lot of money for this! Children will love the idea of spending the night in school.

Obviously, lots of helpers would be needed and all child protection concerns need triple checking but they can be a lot of fun once a year! Instead of sleeping in school, why not ask families to pitch a tent on the school field from Saturday afternoon until Sunday morning?

22. Primary school spelling bee

A popular in the US for many years, why not consider having a spelling bee fundraiser for children and/or adults. These are more appropriately done in teams rather than as individuals as this lessens the pressure and makes an event a lot more enjoyable. Rounds can be themed according to a topic or subject.

23. Wine tasting

It’s not difficult to see why a wine tasting evening is a money-spinner. One of the best ways to organise this is to involve a local wine merchant who could provide wine as cost price and run the evening for you in exchange for promoting their business.

You could operate the evening as a quiz with a blind tasting. Combine with some cheese too! If wine isn’t the tipple of choice, hold an Oktoberfest instead with beer and music. For something along the same lines, you could suggest a pop-up restaurant and transform your canteen and hall into a professional restaurant.

24. Race night

Race nights showing greyhounds or horses can generate a lot of interest. Companies such as Race Night by Moonlighting and The Events Company and can host a professional and glitzy race night with packages including compere, tickets, film equipment and race footage. You can throw in food and a bar for extra revenue along with a good old raffle.

25. Primary school circus

It’s possible! A truly memorable event is to invite a circus to your school and generate plenty of interest and money. Circus Pazaz provides a fun-filled show and circus lesson skills for lots of guaranteed laughs. Other providers include Happy Circus, National Festival Circus, and Circus Sensible.

If you can organise and sell tickets, you can make a lot of money for your school, providing the interest is high.

Remember, fundraising doesn’t mean running yourself into the ground. With the list above we hope you can run some fun, fast, and highly effective fundraising ideas for your school in a way that doesn’t take an entire term to plan.