Easy fundraising wins

Summer fetes and colour runs are fun, big earners for PTAs, but let’s face it, they require a massive investment of time and energy, as well as an initial outlay of funds. Plus, the cost-of-living crisis combined with our increasingly busy lifestyles means time and money are two things in short supply to many PTAs. 

The good news is that there are ways of fundraising that offer easy and low-cost planning, whilst yielding almost pure profit to boot. Non-event fundraising does exactly as it says – it enables you to raise money without planning and hosting an event. 

Not only does it reduce expenses, meaning practically all donations benefit the cause at hand, but you don’t have to worry about factors outside of your control (like the Great British weather!) ruining your day. Plus, it’s a great way of involving everyone within your school community too! 

Here are some of our favourite ideas. 

Sign up to Easyfundraising

This shopping affiliate scheme offers the opportunity to generate a steady stream of income throughout the year, without costing your supporters a penny! Once signed up, every time your PTA members, teaching staff and parents shop online, a small donation is paid into the school fundraising pot. 

As a PTA, you’ll need to ​‘register your cause’ and then encourage everyone to sign up – easyfundraising can provide you with ideas to encourage this. There are over 7,500 participating retailers, and with each purchase there is a prompt to donate cashback to your PTA. Over 9,000 PTAs are already using the platform, raising over £7 million from their school community shopping online. Sign up at: easyfundraising.org.uk/parentkind

Get recycling

If you want to do your bit to protect the planet while fundraising, consider a recycling scheme that swaps unwanted items for cash. Here are just a few: 

• Bag2School provides a collection service for pre-owned clothes. After you’ve registered, every child is provided with a bag to fill. Encourage your school community to have a good old wardrobe sort out and return their bags by a set date. On the pre-arranged collection day, the Bag2School driver collects all the bags and takes them to be weighed; payments are made based on the total weight. 

• Terracycleuk also offers free recycling programmes, whereby your school becomes a collection point for specific items of rubbish: for example, crisp wrappers or food pouches. There is a range of recycling options, with companies offering a cash incentive for collecting and returning this difficult to recycle waste. 

• Empties Please is a scheme collecting printer ink and toner cartridges in exchange for ​‘points’. These points can be swapped for ​‘green goodies’ for your school such as bulbs, trees, bird houses and gardening tools. 

Hold a Skills auction

Discover peoples’ hidden talents by organising an online skills auction and offering up the services and skills of parents and guardians to the highest bidder. From gardening and housework to computing lessons and dog walking, there are plenty of useful things that your community would be prepared to pay generously for at a local skills auction. 

Make an anthology

Make memories and raise funds by encouraging students to write short stories and poems, then collate them into an anthology to sell! Other options include school yearbooks and photobooks, which create great memories. Making copies to sell doesn’t have to cost much: consider using school photocopying and binding equipment or ask for support from local printers. 

Host a ​‘Big Night In’

Bear with us on this one, because although it might sound unlikely, it can work well! A Big Night In involves selling tickets for families to stay at home. This is a great inclusive event, since it’s as cheap and easy for families to take part in as it is for your PTA to arrange. Here’s how it works: 

• Pick a theme or an event: for example, a games night, movie night, pyjama party, final of a TV talent show, televised event e.g. The Eurovision Song Contest or a sporting event 

• Suggest families get together if they want to, or arrange to link up on the night in a Facebook or WhatsApp group 

Use our posters to spread the word. 

Run a school Lotto

Perhaps your supporters might like to try their luck in a weekly or monthly lottery? You can organise one yourself – for each ticket bought, a percentage goes to the winners’ pot, with the remainder going towards your school fundraising. It will take a bit of work to get started, but once established, it offers a route to receive regular donations.