Being an educational professional places you in the unique position of understanding how well-educated children effect the future. Each child deserves an equal opportunity to pursue their education, giving them a chance to thrive once they are finished with school.
Sadly, that’s not always the case.
As we all know, education is expensive, and schools are [almost criminally] underfunded. Many a time, teachers have to use their own money to buy school supplies and classroom resources. Statistics from the U.S. National Center for Educational Statistics indicate that at least 90% of teachers pay out of their pockets for classroom supplies, with the average teacher spending around $450 per year. To say that’s an alarming statistic would be the understatement of the year.
This means that as a teacher, the pressure is on you to raise the funds that your classroom/school badly needs. That’s why we have put together a list of easy money-saving fundraising ideas that you can use to ease the pressure.
These ideas will increase your school’s fundraising potential and allow your students to make the best out of their schooling experience. Without further ado, let’s get you started.
Create a trivia night
One of the easiest ways to raise funds for your school is by hosting a trivia night. This can be done online or in person, as long as it aligns with CDC guidelines. You simply need to convince parents and/or members of the community to enter either individually or in a group. How do you raise funds from this, you ask? Sell the tickets to participating parents and offer a prize for trivia winners. You could even devise themed questions and appoint a trivia master, probably one of your students, to ask the questions. Easy peasy.
Organize a bake sale
I know this may not be possible amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, but as soon as things are back to normal, host a bake sale. This could be a one-day event where teachers, students, and parents contribute with cakes, biscuits, and other snacks. You then invite parents and their children to buy the snacks during the day and raise money the easy way. Alternatively, you could organize an event where teachers and students show off their cake baking skills, invite people to vote, and charge a nominal fee per vote.
5K Run/Walk
Everyone is organizing runs, so why not get on the bandwagon? After all, nothing beats a run for charity on a summer morning. As is normally the case, runners will have to pay a participating fee. However, you could also encourage them to get sponsors. This could potentially bring you donors from the community and raise money through sponsorships and entry fees. Adding a fun theme like a color run would add some spice to the run/walk.
Perhaps your community is not teeming with active people? No problem. They don’t have to run. You could have your participants simply cross the finish line, allowing you to raise money through entry fees. Win-win for everyone!
Host a school craft sale
Parents and children especially need little convincing to get their creative juices up and running. A school craft sale would therefore be a fantastic idea. You could give each class their own theme to craft and sell their ‘masterpieces’ to other students, teachers, and parents. To adhere to the social distance regulations, you could have the school sell the craft materials and channel the money raised to the school fundraiser.
Face mask fundraiser
Selling school-branded facemasks would be a brilliant idea to fundraise amidst the pandemic. Have an online fundraising platform design masks with your school logo and then use the school website to sell these masks to the local community. Encourage students, parents, teachers, and even community members to support your school by buying the masks and watch them fly off the shelves. You will be surprised at how eager community members are to flaunt their school spirit to the outside world.
School Talent Show
Let’s face it, every school is swarming with talented students and teachers. What better way to raise money for your school than organizing a school talent show where the students and teachers show off their singing and dancing talents? Who knows, you may even discover a raft of musicians, dancers, magicians, you name it, in your school’s version of America’s Got Talent. To make it COVID-19 friendly, you could have parents, students, teachers, and/or staff members record their skits and host an online fundraising extravaganza.
Host a no-uniform day
Arguably the easiest way to fundraise for your school is to have students pay a small amount of money to ‘lose’ their school uniforms for a day and come to school in their home clothes. You could charge them a few more dimes to have them attend classes in fancy costumes. More than a few would be willing to grab such an opportunity to show off their silly side.
Conclusion
As we await the much-needed school funding reforms, who’s to say you can’t take the initiative and supplement your school budget by organizing simple yet fun-filled fundraisers? Your efforts will also save you from using your own money to buy supplies and strengthen the connections between the school, teachers, and the community. The above ideas will come in handy!
