Easy PTO and PTA Fundraising: Top 5 Ways to Make Money for Your School
Posted by jess leoh on
Here are five PTO fundraisers that can make money for your school. If you’re a member of a parent-teacher organization (PTO), or in some states called a Parent Teacher Association (PTA), you already know that PTOs and PTAs provide necessary support for your school’s community.
Schools of all sizes increasingly rely on parents to help provide the funds for essentials such as library books, classroom reading nooks, prom parties, playground equipment, PE equipment, band instruments, and more.
While PTO or PTA fundraising can be a challenge, there are some simple ways to raise money for your school. Here are our top 5 quick and easy PTO fundraising ideas.
- Sell custom school T-shirts and hoodies—no advance purchase required!
Cost: 0
Difficulty: 0
Earning Potential: $$$$$
Raise money for your school without leaving your sofa. Broken Arrow T-Shirt Printing and Embroidery provides an easy-to-use, highly profitable fundraising platform for school PTOs and other organizations.
Unlike other platforms, there are no upfront fees or minimum raise requirements, and you can get started in just minutes. Simply call or text one of the Broken Arrow fundraising experts at 800-810-4692 and your personal expert will create a school PTO fundraising web store for you.
On your school’s PTA store, you can sell custom school apparel such as T-shirts, hoodies, backpacks, hats, jackets, warm-ups and more. Keep it simple with one or two items or sell a whole line. Your expert will help you decide what will work best for your school and your needs. The Broken Arrow expert will also take care of the custom design work and even suggest pricing that will ensure your products will sell.
Then all you do is share the store’s web link with students, faculty, and family members. You can post it, e-mail it, text message it, or, even better, do all three. That’s it! Broken Arrow does all the rest of the work for you: Broken Arrow collects the T-shirt sizes and the money, prints, and ships the T-shirts (or any other apparel you choose to sell) directly to the buyers, and then sends a check for the profits directly to you. Fundraising could not be easier. To learn more, check out Broken Arrow’s fast and easy fundraising video.
- Set up a fun run.
Cost: $ (for prizes)
Difficulty: √√
Earning Potential: $$$
Come up with a creative theme for a neighborhood 5K and fun run! Getting students and their families pumped to spend the day walking, jogging, or running with the whole crew is a great way to make some extra cash for your school.
Charge a per person or per family entrance fee. A costume, seasonal, school color (order those fundraising T-shirts first!) or even a zombie theme is a great way to get everyone involved.
Start at the school and walk through the grounds and/or nearby neighborhoods for a morning of school pride and be sure to offer refreshments (water is a must) and prizes for fastest, funniest, and more! Prizes can be gift certificates or discount coupons donated from neighborhood businesses or school T-shirts or backpacks.
Do you want to make your fun run bigger and better? Invite food trucks and musicians to participate and donate a portion of their tips to your cause.
- Host a community breakfast or dinner.
Cost: $$ (for food, unless you can find someone to donate it)
Difficulty: √√√
Earning Potential: $$$
Hosting a community meal will engage your supporters and raise money for your PTA and can become an incredibly popular local event that you can repeat seasonally or annually.
Borrow your school’s cafeteria or find a local event venue to host your event, then organize a delicious meal, such as pancakes, beef burgers, or spaghetti, and invite the entire community. Recruit plenty of volunteers (a local restaurant chef is a bonus) and plan your dinner well in advance. Do you prefer an easier fundraising method? A local restaurant may be willing to host a dinner for you and provide your school a percentage of the proceeds.
- Hold a raffle night.
Cost: $$ (unless all the raffle items are donated)
Difficulty: √√√
Earning Potential: $$$
A raffle fundraising can make your school some extra dollars. The key is to make sure everyone knows when and where the event is taking place and that the prizes are good enough for people to show up and bid. Combining your raffle with another event, such as a bake sale, fun run, dinner, or school sporting event ensures a pretty good crowd.
Solicit some great in-kind donations from local businesses to offer as prizes, then sell raffle tickets in the week leading up to your event.
Set up a box for donations that don’t require a bid. You might be surprised at how many people are willing to give without getting anything in return.
- Plan a book fair and book swap.
Cost: 0
Difficulty: √√
Earning Potential: $
Book fairs and swaps are a classic PTO fundraising method. There are several companies that can bring a book fair to your school, but you can also host your own. Promote your event by posting flyers, texting, word-or mouth, and e-mailing, then allow students to donate books in exchange for tickets, which can then be used to ‘purchase’ other books.
Give students the option to purchase tickets, too! This can be a great way to promote reading while raising some quick funds.