The Fund for Public Schools: Supporting NYC Public Schools

Read the Tool Kit Introduction to get started in the fundraising process. Consider the event guidelines and suggestions below to decide if an event is the best fundraiser for your school.

Events are a good choice for your school when:

you want to get a lot of people involved from all areas of the school community,
you are looking to promote your school,
you want to celebrate while raising money with your students, teachers, and parents
you want to honor or recognize someone in your school community.

Step One: Evaluate your Resources

Before starting a fundraising event, the organizer must consider:

Space – where can a fundraiser be held? How do I reserve that space and is there any cost?
Staffing – who can volunteer at this event? Do you have interested parents, teachers and community members?
Student Contribution – can the students act as organizers and/or volunteers?
Scheduling – how long will this take to plan and implement? What other upcoming events are scheduled by the school (e.g. parent-teacher conferences, science fairs, etc)? Should the event coincide with the date/time of another event or be scheduled for another time?
Audience – who will be attending this event? Can we promote this event enough to ensure there will be good attendance?
Goal – what are you trying to do in addition to raising money? Do you want to involve parents, involve kids, promote the school?
Budget – is there any cost to this event? How much money do you have for food or decorations or other supplies? Some of the event examples provided below require laying out money in advance, but some do not require any money at all. Also remember that many event supplies can be donated by businesses if you solicit them, or can be sold to the school at a discount. You can ask a business to sponsor an event and pay for supplies and promotion costs.

Step Two: Review Event Suggestions and Select a type of Fundraising Event

Keeping in mind your resources (above), consider what you are trying to raise money for. Can you tie the fundraising event to this program or project? For example, if you are raising money for art programs, consider putting together a gallery of student work. If you need money to upgrade the library, have a book fair or a read-a-thon. If you want to improve your auditorium, do a movie night.
Do some research. Below is a list of event suggestions, but you can also go online or to the library to research event ideas, or ask other schools what type of fundraisers they have had. Try Beyond the Bake Sale: The Ultimate School Fundraising Book by Jean Joachim, a NYC public school parent.

Step Three: Planning and Promotion

Organize a committee to plan the event. Take into consideration time needed for each step, facilities, supplies, student involvement, volunteers, and funding needed for initial event purchases. Have a sub-committee for each piece of the event (i.e. a food subcommittee, a publicity sub-committee, etc) and have a point person on each sub-committee. Give each sub-committee a specific agenda and assignments. Create a timeline for each sub-committee.
A strong method of communication within the school community is important to the success of any fundraiser; a school newsletter that gets home to the parents is a popular idea. These do not have to complicated or fancy printings – a short newsletter with message from the principal, parents association and teachers, along with a calendar of events or reports on recently past events is sufficient. Various local businesses could place a classified ad in this newsletter to offset the cost of printing. The school website and the parent association should also be used to advertise fundraisers and recruit volunteers.
Solicit for donations of food, drinks, decorations or supplies for the event. Approach local businesses and ask for free or discounted goods.
Remember to invite VIPs to the events such as your local City Councilperson, Regional Superintendent, Local Instructional Superintendent, Borough President, business leaders and local BID (Business Improvement District) representatives.

Step Four: Execution

Have periodic committee meetings to make sure tasks are being completed, to provide encouragement and to troubleshoot problems.
Carry out the event! Have fun.

Step Five: Follow up and Debrief

Report on the success of the event. Summarize and recall any problems/issues and how they were resolved or could be resolved for future learning. Summarize the amount earned from the event and how that corresponds to your goal. Publicize the success in school communications so everyone knows the results of their hard work and effort.
Thank your volunteers and participants. Send thank you letters to businesses that donated supplies, provided promotion, or helped the fundraiser in any way. These letters should be on school stationery and signed by the principal and fundraiser organizer. Showing proper appreciation to a business that helps your school gives you a better chance of having their participation in future events. Keep a list of donors for reference next year.
Record the process you followed for easier execution for next year, and consider creating goals for next year’s events. Refine your timeline and include notes on this year’s event in a file to be passed to next year’s organizer.

Event Suggestions

Pledge drive

What to do: Send home letters to ask parents to donate money to the school and specifically describe what the money will be used for. Tell a story about the students or the school that personalizes the request and makes it more interesting for potential donors. Consider soliciting local businesses and community groups as well. If your school has an alumni list, send letters to alumni as well. If there is no alumni list, consider researching to see if one can be started. PS 166 Manhattan suggests having a pledge drive for specific programs instead of a general pledge drive to increase donor response.
Resources needed: paper, copying, envelopes, stamps, volunteers to organize mailing, process and record donations
Remember to: Write thank you letters to every donor!
Good for: Schools with little advance money and little experience. Requires a strong writer to compose the letter.

Student art show

What to do: Display student art work in the school and invite parents and community members to admire the work. Ask teachers to help and allow students to create art specifically for the show; mount the pictures on paper and hang around the school. Charge low admission at the door or set up a pledge table at the entrance; possibly sell the artwork to guests or sell refreshments. Consider using this as a fundraiser for art programs. Variations on this theme: academic fair, science fair, woodworking fair.
Resources needed: Space to display the work, student artwork, easels/display case/tables/ability to fasten to the wall, volunteers to set up and break down, and collect admission/pledges.
Remember to: Secure right to use space; work closely with the art teacher to gain his or her help.
Good for: Schools with little fundraising experience; schools trying to raise money for arts programs; schools trying to bring the parents into the school.

Talent Show

What to do: Organize the students to perform a talent show in the school auditorium. Ask performing arts/drama teacher to help if there is one available. Get students on the organizing committee to recruit other students to participate.
Resources needed: Student participation, auditorium/performance space, microphone and sound system, committee to organize, volunteers to sell tickets, volunteers to promote and publicize to school community.
Remember to: sell refreshments at the show – get local businesses to donate soda and snacks or have students/parents bake goods to sell.
Good for: Schools wanting to involve students and parents

Theme bake sales

What to do: Customize bake sales for any holiday that a majority of the school population celebrates. Can be sold at school events, or at local community events. Sell whole cakes or pies for the holidays to allow people to avoid baking. A variation on this theme is to organize a Cookie Swap, by having people donate a variety of cookies and then buyers can go around and fill a tin with various types of cookies – sell by weight. This allows a family to have a nice cookie spread for the holidays without having to bake 10 types of cookies.
Resources needed: Volunteers to bake, a table, volunteers to sell, promotion. If doing a cookie swap, tins to hold cookies, scales to weigh them, the use of the school gym and a series of tables.
Remember to: Be strategic! Hold the bake sale a few days before Thanksgiving and sell pumpkin pies. Sell baked goods and beverages by voting booths on election day. Sell muffins before school, and desserts after school/at evening meetings.
Good for: Schools with little fundraising experience and little money to put out ahead of time.

Example: Another variation on this theme was contributed by PS 236 in Brooklyn. They suggest selling NY pretzels a few times a week in the school cafeteria. A Department of Education approved item, pretzels can be sold for $1.00 while the vendor charges only a quarter of that. The vendor even supplies PS 236 with the mustard, napkins and warmers. It is an easy way to make money for the school.

Halloween Festival (similar to an indoor street fair)

What to do: Organize an indoor Halloween Festival with games, a haunted house, pumpkin painting, costume contest, music and food. Turn a classroom or hallway into a haunted house with decorations from the party store and black cloth/paper. Other ideas include decorating trick or treat bags, having a DJ/dance in the school gym with activities in the hallways or doing face painting. Have everyone (volunteers and attendees) dress up. Charge admission at the door, or sell tickets for games and haunted house. One school suggested having each class create a carnival game to contribute to the festival. Ask people to donate Halloween treats to sell.
Resources needed: A lot of volunteers, Halloween decorations, games (such as bean bag toss), space in the school, volunteer or paid DJ, donated food, pumpkins and paint. Canvass parent and school volunteers to see what artistic talents they have to share for the festival!
Remember to: Start planning well ahead of time. This event requires a lot of volunteers, and they should be organized into subcommittees: games, promotion, security/tickets, decorations, supplies, food, etc.
Good for: Schools that have a strong parent base to get involved, and schools that have some advance money to put out for supplies and decorations before holding the event.

Saturday flea market

What to do: Have the school community donate items to sell in the school gym or school yard on a Saturday.
Resources needed: Publicity, right to use school rooms on the weekend, collection bin, volunteers to set up tables, price and sell items
Remember to: Ask local businesses for donations items they no longer need. Sell refreshments at the event.
Good for: Schools with a solid organizing committee and plenty of volunteers to help promote event, collect and organize donations, and work the day of the flea market.

Read-a-Thon

What to do: Organize students willing to read and ask them to have family and friends donate money for every minute (or 10 minutes or half hour, etc) a student can read on a Saturday. Gather the students in the school library/gym/classroom, record their reading time and collect the pledges. This is a great event to raise money for books or the library. There are many variations, such as students could read to an adult for part of the time, adults could read to children, or students could read to one another.
Resources needed: Pledge forms, the use of a school room, a few volunteers to coordinate, books, students who will read for a time period.
Remember: Department of Education policy prohibits students from going door to door to fundraise for their schools so they cannot ask for pledges in that manner.
Good for: Schools with few resources, schools trying to raise money for books or the library.

Spring Auction

What to do: Hold an auction in your school gym for parents and the community. Have local merchants, parents and members of the school community donate goods and services to be auctioned off. Consider having a restaurant donate dinner and charge a fee at the door, or sell tickets to have a table at the auction. PS 261 also suggests combining the auction with a raffle, and tickets can be sold before the event, with the drawing taking place the night of the auction (per Chancellor’s regulations, no raffle tickets can be sold to students). They also provided the fun idea of putting coupons for prizes inside balloons and then selling the balloons for $10. PS 166M contributed the idea of having classes create special one-of-a-kind items on which to bid. The auction is usually a parents-only event. To encourage higher attendance, provide babysitting at the event.
Resources needed: School gym, tables, volunteers, donations from local businesses, microphone. If dinner is served, donated food, plates, utensils, beverages. If a raffle, raffle tickets and volunteers to sell tickets.
Remember to: Pick a theme and make the event a fun, decorative one.
Good for: Schools with a strong local business community, schools wanting to involve the whole family.

Family Fun Night

What to do: MS 158 in Queens suggests hiring a magician and putting on a show at the school. Sell tickets to the event, sell hot dogs and soda in the cafeteria. Decorate with balloons. Parents volunteer their time to work the door and the concession stand.
Resources needed: School auditorium and cafeteria, volunteers, tickets, donated/reduced price food, magician.
Remember to: Ask the school community to donate items (such as books, movies or games) and package them into baskets to raffle off during intermission.
Good for: Schools with some advance money to hire the magician, schools looking to have a family event.

Resources

An excellent resource for describing and planning school fundraising events is a book by NYC public school parent Jean Joachim entitled Beyond the Bakesale, the Ultimate School Fund Raising Book. The book includes ideas for school events, how to run them, timelines and innovations from school fund raisers nationwide. The website that accompanies the book also provides the opportunity to subscribe to a quarterly newsletter for more ideas and advice. Jean’s book was written about in Education World, Gotham Gazette, and the American School Board Journal. Many of the events described in the book are easy to accomplish and appropriate for a school with little or no fundraising/event experience. Others are ambitious and may not work for all schools. Jean is also available to speak to schools and advise on their fundraising programs. Please contact her at beyondbakesale@cs.com.