Fundraising Ideas for Schools
Whether you are a school looking to raise money or on a fundraising journey for a school you love, you’ll need to know the best fundraising ideas for schools to maximize your funding. Hosting a fundraiser for schools is an excellent way for staff, parents, students, and teachers to come together for the good of the community and its school.
However, getting people excited about a fundraising event can be challenging when you have the same ideas each year. Since the pandemic swept through in 2020, fundraisers have had to think outside the box for unique ways to make money with exciting virtual fundraising ideas. This shift from in-person to virtual became a huge success, but you need the best fundraising ideas for schools to get the job done.
Explore the many profitable school fundraising ideas and why you need them!
1. T-Shirt Fundraising
Bonfire – Design your own Shirt on Material you’ll Love Don’t we all love a good t-shirt? What’s great about t-shirt fundraising is combining it with an in-person event. About a month before, have t-shirts made with the school’s name, logo, and event name, so all who are attending can wear their shirt on the big day.
Getting custom-made t-shirts is easier than you think. There are companies such as Bonfire and Print full that will boost your school fundraising ideas campaign, help you save money on printed shirts, and create custom print designs everyone will love. Both sites are free to use, have templates and a step-by-step guide to help you with the design process, and will fulfill and ship the orders, so there is one less thing for you to worry about!
2. Online Donations
Receiving online donations is one of the best ways to expand your reach. Create a fun donation landing page and express your school’s needs. What are the objectives of the online donations, the target amount, and how do you intend to use the money to improve the school?
Remember that spreading the word is the tough part and requires attention. Create a Facebook page for the school if you haven’t got one already, and start promoting your donation requests. In addition, you can send a note home with each student and ask them to spread the word. The great thing about social media is how quickly word can spread. When people start to share your posts, you get more of a reach and increase funding. That leads us to the next fundraising idea for high schools – social media.
3. Social Media
Social media ranks as one of the best school fundraising ideas. You can utilize various social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and TikTok. Create an exciting post, express your needs, and use hashtags to further your reach.
You can spotlight your initiatives and get followers involved in the school’s fundraising events. Instagram lets you add a donation sticker to your posts. You can go live on social media platforms with a Livestream fundraising event with an easy-to-add donate button so viewers can donate throughout the live event. Lastly, don’t forget the Geotag. This allows your donation requests to be shown to people in your community and establishes your credibility.
4. Text-to-Give
Who doesn’t have a cellphone these days? Texting-to-give is a great new way for schools to communicate financial needs to parents and guardians. The average donation is $107 for text-to-give fundraising, which can significantly impact your bottom line.
Text-to-give helps you gain ongoing support from the community when school fundraising. Use a text-to-give platform, such as Snowball, that gives you unlimited text, personalized campaigns, and offers reoccurring gift options at a low cost. Donors will text a word like “donate” to the text-to-give phone number for the school and confirm the donation amount. Their credit card information gets saved for future donations, and a recurring donate option will help maximize the funds raised.
5. Crowdfunding
Crowdfunding is one of those valuable high school fundraising ideas that are a must for any money-raising initiative. An online crowdfunding campaign is done on various platforms such as Living tree and Donors Choose. The fundraising management software allows you to monitor the progress, tell your school’s story, and get the whole community involved in the efforts.
Here’s how online crowdfunding works:
- Develop a plan for your campaign and build the outline
- Create an account on your preferred crowdfunding site
- Set up the campaign with the fundraising goals and tell your story
- Make the campaign live and start sharing it on social media platforms
- Monitor the progress of the campaign and adjust if you are not on track to meeting your financial goals.