The internet is pretty much loaded with various fundraising ideas. We have some ideas too; however, does the variety of ideas overwhelm you and create a dilemma when choosing the best fundraiser for your school or program?
Not all fundraisers are created equal, and some may make more sense for your specific situation than others. In this post, we will focus on the most common, popular, and lucrative school fundraisers of all time. Let’s get started!
Bake-off fundraisers
Baking is the all-time favorite pastime for many foodies, and lots of people took up baking as a hobby during quarantine. Rest assured, the common love for food is why you will have enthusiastic participants in this type of fundraiser.
You can encourage participants to make a donation or charge an entry fee to the fundraiser. In addition to that, you can also sell those delicious cookies, pastries, pies, or even cakes for a great deal, which easily gives you a way to increase the funds raised.
Anything-a-thon fundraisers
The possibilities for these types of fundraisers are limitless. Starting from disco fundraisers to walking and even running. You can quickly set up these fundraiser campaigns and encourage the entire community to participate.
It will raise funds for your school events and promote a healthy/active lifestyle, which is an added bonus. For a twist, you can either ask them to dress up in wild costumes or arrange an obstacle course to challenge the expert runners out there.
Either way, these fundraisers are popular, fun, and engaging! They require significantly less investment and are a great way to socialize with other participants!
Feel free to get creative when coming up with your anything-a-thon project. How about asking a group of parents, students, and teachers to form a committee to brainstorm and decide on the type of fundraiser you will host. Including stakeholders in these decisions increases buy-in from those involved and may help further the success of the chosen fundraiser.
Silent auction
A silent auction is another common and successful school fundraiser idea that scores plenty of funds from different communities! It is mainly an event where the participants can browse items up for auction and bid silently instead of calling them out loud.
During the auction, participants explore the available list of items, prompting the bids to go higher. The highest one wins and gets the item!
This charity event is a very generous and simple fundraiser idea that offers a platform for local businesses to receive recognition and even achieve a boost in business. Apart from local businesses, you can also try involving some local celebrities and well-known residents to help promote your fundraising efforts. Local news anchors or public figures make great MCs for these types of events.
Lastly, everything comes down to the community. You never know! You might find someone auctioning their vacation beach house for a weekend getaway or a business owner offering their products and services at lucrative deals!
Face masks fundraiser
With the pandemic still affecting us, face masks continue to be an essential requirement for stepping out of the house. There are countless students taking leverage of this idea and creating fundraisers based on it!
Again, this fundraiser requires minimal investment since you will be ordering the face masks in bulk and selling them at a competitive rate! If you choose some fashionably generic styles, rest assured, your sales will go even higher! However, that might require a slight increase in the overall investment of the fundraiser.
Many students also opt for customized face masks with their school logos imprinted on them. Keep in mind, the more customized the mask, the more limited the potential audience is.
Used Book Fair
You can find avid readers at almost every corner of the lane. There are so many people collecting the Harry Potter series or even Agatha Christie books! Used Book Fairs are potentially very easy to build yet highly profitable school fundraisers that make the most money.
If you have a decent collection of books and novels, you can easily set up an online store or a store at the lane right in front of your school to sell your books and raise funds. Your sales could get even better if your collection consists of timeless classics and unique books that are hard to find or costly. You can make good use of such books and sell them at the best deals in no time!
Restaurant fundraisers
Even though this fundraiser idea may ask for more volunteers and hours of work, it is undoubtedly a great way to gather some traction and funds from people out there!
Reach out to the most popular restaurant in the locality and ask for a special coupon for your school fundraiser! The more restaurants and businesses that participate, the better. Put them all together and sell a book of deals.
Alternately, if you have a restaurant that offers a special meal at a special price for your fundraiser, you can sell tickets so that your school raises money for each sale. These types of fundraisers are a win-win for the school and for local restaurants and businesses.
Tournaments
With the right assistance, you can easily set up active tournaments for your school fundraisers, such as hula hoop tournaments; rock, paper, scissor tournaments; and many more!
This fundraiser is an excellent way to engage more people from different communities in your tournament. In case you are having a tough time recruiting participants for other fundraiser activities, this one will be easier as long as you include some entertaining activities for your participants.
Just set up a nominal entry fee. Be sure to have snacks and beverages available to purchase for even more opportunities to increase the success of your event!
Final Word
The main concept of hosting fundraisers is to raise funds for your school and add value to the community. Arranging these fun activities and events means you are impacting society and working towards a better cause. Well, now that you know the best school fundraisers that make the most money, which one are you choosing for your next fundraiser?
Don’t forget to check out our new LeanStream site to get valuable insights, resources, and solutions to make your fundraiser campaigns a huge success!
