Welcome students! With back-to-school at full throttle, we’ll be learning about the best ideas for schools to raise money, build community, and give every kid the educational experience they deserve.
Schools should not underestimate the value of fundraising. Without fundraising goals, schools miss out on launching exciting new programs and initiatives to improve the quality of their students’ educations.
For the homeschooling teachers out there, back-to-school is a great time to build a community, introduce new families and current families, and raise funds for the school year.
To save you from having to search for ideas, we did the research for you. We drew on our experiences to find some of the top-performing fundraisers that help districts grow revenue for key programs and help homeschooling teachers raise donations for the school year.
Read on to find the perfect fundraiser ideas for schools!
5 Innovative School Fundraising Ideas
Tiltify Personal Crowdfunding
Receiving online contributions is an easy way for students and parents to reach their fundraising efforts.
That’s where Tiltify Personal – your online fundraising platform for schools - comes in!
You can create a Tiltify Personal fundraising campaign for yourself, a loved one, or raise money for your school.
The beauty of Tiltify Personal is that distributing campaigns via social media can help you reach a wider audience.
Share the Power of Gifting Through Tiltify Personal
Whether it’s for school supplies, unexpected expenses, or supporting local initiatives, Tiltify Personal fundraising empowers you to make a difference when you need financial hardship help.
Here’s what you can do with Tiltify Personal:
- Launch flexible online fundraisers for anyone in need. Whether for yourself or your family struggling to afford school supplies.
- Keep contributors engaged with incentive tools like milestones, rewards, and polls.
- Seamlessly leverage popular streaming & social media platforms like Twitch, YouTube, Instagram & TikTok for real-time gifts during livestreams or leveraging pre-recorded content.
- Ensure secure and simple payment via trusted partners.
Text-to-Give
Which student or adult doesn’t have a smartphone these days?
Text-to-give is a great option for schools to communicate financial needs to parents and guardians.
You can use text-giving software to create a unique fundraising phone number and keyword.
When contributors text the fundraising phone number, they’ll receive a link that routes them to your mobile contribution page.
You can also allow supporters to simply text the amount they want to give and a specific keyword.
This helps supporters to support your campaign whenever and wherever it is most convenient for them.
Dine Out to Donate
Partner with a local restaurant for Dine Out ot Donate, where you guys can set a percentage of the proceeds to be donated to your school of choice.
This is a great fundraiser for students and their families, experiencing the local dishes of their community.
To draw more attention, advertise on social media and high-traffic areas and also ask the local restaurant to post and promote the event on their social media platforms.
Staging A Play
Theater is a great way to donate to a purpose.
There are many plays that students can participate in, some examples include:
- The Wizard of Oz
- The Phantom Tollbooth
- Alice in Wonderland
- Bye Bye Birdie
- West Side Story
Charge an entrance fee to see the play. Offer concessions for additional funds to help your purpose.
Cook Off
For students who love to cook or bake, a cook off fundraising event is perfect for raising money for school.
Students can pay a small fee to enter the competition, and attendees can pay a small fee to be taste testers.
Students can make tasty dishes like:
- Chili
- Mini burgers
- Tacos
- Brownies
- Pies
Keep in mind about food allergens and be sure to make everyone aware of ingredients found inside your dishes.
8 Easy Fundraisers for Schools or Homeschooling
Who doesn’t love easy fundraisers for raising funds for school?
Here are some good ones:
Guessing Jar
Grab a clean glass jar and fill it up with candy, beads, legos, rocks, marbles, or paper clips.
Not only are guessing jars cost effective, they are extremely easy to organize and perfect for a school fundraiser.
To increase your potential fundraising opportunities, have several different jars in different sizes to allow students and faculty and parents to pay to guess each jar’s contents.
Allow multiple entries per person. Guessers can pick up the jar and turn it around to guess.
You can also set up tables around high-traffic areas around the community to help reach a broader audience, especially for those raising homeschool funds.
Used Book Sale
A great fundraising idea that emcompasses the local community is a used book sale.
Ask your community, family, and friends for gently used books.
Once you have enough books, sell the books at a discounted price.
Not only do you declutter and help others do the same, you can raise money for your school or your homeschooling organization at the same time.
Movie Night
Having a movie night fundraising event is a low-cost way to gather parents, students, and teachers together for a night of entertainment and fun.
Show a movie in your school’s auditorium or set up a projector on your school’s football field for an outdoor experience!
You can sell tickets to the movie night event as your gifting amount.
Offer snacks at an additional price to rake in more donations!
For the busy parents, hosting a virtual movie night can be an option. Teachers, students, and parents can use Tiltify Personal fundraising to receive gifts without having to be at the actual event.
Bake Sale
One of the most traditional types of fundraising ideas.
Hosting a bake sale not only brings in contributions, it supports the community. They are easy to set up and can be run by students, parents or teachers.
Whatever your flavor, a bake sale is an ideal solution for a great fundraising idea!
Here’s a pro tip for starters: offer gluten-free, dairy-free, or vegan options. You should package your delicious treats attractively for better engagement.
To start, you can request baked good donations from your school community. Bake sales encourages the student body to participate in fundraising for a good purpose.
Car Wash
Another tried-and-true easy fundraiser for schools and homeschooling is a car wash.
Relatively easy to set up and can be led by students, parents, and teachers.
Great for student athletes who want to raise funds for new gear or equipment.
Students can:
- Pick a date
- Advertise the time and location (spread the word!)
- With minimal supplies like soap, water, rags, and wax
It’s that easy!
Offer different “packages” at various price points to drive contributions for your campaigns, and don’t forget the tip jar!
Talent Show
Let your students show off their talents with a talent show!
Talent shows encourage students to showcase any type of skills they are great at!
Talent can be something like:
- Singers
- Dancers
- Musicians
- Comedians
- Jugglers
- Breakdancers
You can stagger the performers so that similar performances don’t happen right after each other.
To earn gifts, you can sell tickets for the event, concessions, have professional photographers take photos of the performances, and sell promotional items.
Advertise ahead of time, like on social media or via posters around the town.
Karaoke Night
Similar to a talent show, but more fun, especially for those who don’t mind making a little fun of themselves.
You don’t have to be a talented singer to rock Karaoke Night.
Encourage students and teachers to form teams or sing individually.
You can sing or lip-sync to your favorite songs.
You can charge an entry fee for the event and use the money to support school activities or buy new gear.
All you need is a karaoke machine and tv/screen/projector.
You can make it competitive by selecting students and faculty to be judges.
Fashion Show
Great for any age, fashion shows can be used to engage your school’s community.
Partner with local boutiques and stores and have them showcase their clothing and accessories.
You can charge an entry fee and raise additional gifts by selling the clothes featured in the show.
8 Unique School Fundraisers
Bubble Walk
Great for little kids, a bubble walk is a mix of obstacle course and a leisure walk.
Find an outdoor venue where you can unleash bubbles in. You can create different enclosed sections so participants can “wade” through a puddle of bubbles.
You can charge an entry fee as funding for your fundraising event.
Color Run
Just think how fun it would be to run through a heavy sprinkle of rainbow dust.
Color run is a great school fundraising idea. It’s easy to set up and great for different ages.
Find a local race to participate in. Many races will donate a portion of the proceeds to your school.
For additional ideas to raise gifts:
- Sell T-shirts
- Sell Water bottles
- Sell Snacks
Scavenger Hunt
A scavenger hunt can be a unique school fundraising idea for any age. Depending on the age of your participants, you can make the scavenger hunt simple and keep it to a small part of the school, or you can make a large scavenger hunt and involve the local community.
You can charge an entrance fee for each individual or team that enters the contest.
You can also create a themed scavenger hunt to make it more fun or have participants dress up based on a theme.
You can set up volunteers and judges to give awards to the best costumes.
Dance A Thon
“Slide to the right, slide to the left, jump three times…”
Who doesn’t love dancing the night away?
A dance a thon is a fantastic fundraiser that brings together students of all ages to get moving and grooving for a purpose.
Students can pledge to dance for an amount of time or sponsor a dancer.
You would just need a DJ and a large space venue.
You can charge a fee to enter the dance or have students create their own fundraising pages they can share with friends and family for support.
You can add snacks and drinks for the event and promote it as early as possible.
You can ask local restaurants to donate food to your event and make it a dinner and dance a thon.
Read A Thon
Calling all bookworms!
Fun fundraiser idea that performs especially well in schools is the read-a-thon.
A love for reading can help students be successful throughout their education. You can also help your students practice their reading skills and raise money.
Parents will enjoy watching their children read for pleasure, making them much more likely to contribute to your campaign.
There are a few ways to track reading:
- Pages read
- Chapters
- Books
- Time (minutes, hours, or sessions)
Have family members or friends sponsor students, for every 15 or 30 minutes the student spends reading outside of school, they’ll gift a certain amount of money.
Walk A Thon
Want a simple, healthy and active fundraising event?
The walk a thon.
Walkers typically raise money through pledges based on distance covered. This is a great way to get your steps in while you’re doing it!
You can set up routes and dates for the event. If your town requires a permit, make sure you have enough time to secure one.
Request registration fees from participants and promote the event on social media, around the school, and the local community.
Obstacle Course Challenge
Calling all fitness enthusiasts and team building bosses!
An obstacle course event can involve the local community in raising money for your school.
Obstacle course challenges are a physically active and healthy way to rally the troops for your fundraising campaigns.
Find locations with obstacles that you can climb over or go under.
Participants can form teams and collect pledges based on their performances.
You can charge entry fees as a way to raise gifts. Or even add a costume element or team competition element to increase the hype.
To get your supporters more involved, you can request their input on the types of costumes or themes for the obstacle courses.
Hand out prizes or trophies for the fastest completion, most creative costumes, and so on.
For the local community who can’t attend, offer to livestream the event and they can use Tiltify Personal fundraiser to gift you from wherever they are.
Pajama Day
A great way to promote school spirit is with Pajama Day.
This is a school fundraising idea that sure will be a hit at any age.
To raise money, collect small donations from parents in exchange for their kids coming to school in pajamas for one day.
Students and teachers can get a little creative by offering in-class snacks or movies in addition to wearing pajamas.
7 Fundraising Events for Schools
Fundraising events can be a great way to bring more gifts to your school to help with fundraising efforts.
Auction
Schools and auctions go together hand in hand. A school auction is a great way to add gifts to your fundraising efforts.
You can host in-person or virtual auctions any time of year, or multiple times per school season.
You can ask local businesses to offer up services, products, and goodies.
Some great auction giveaway items:
- Parent getaway packages
- Donated lessons
- Local businesses offerings
- Amusement park tickets
- Cash
- Student artwork
You can use Tiltify Personal and social media to add additional coverage to your event to draw more attention and engagement.
School Carnival
One of the most iconic movie scenes is out of Grease, where they had a school carnival at the end of the movie.
A carnival is the perfect event theme for engaging both students and parents.
You can feature games, rides, concessions, entry fees, with proceeds supporting school activities and initiatives.
Game Ideas:
- Darts
- Ring toss
- Tic-Tac-Toe
- Bean bag toss
- Tug of war
- Sack races
To make your event more community friendly, partner with other local businesses. You can increase funds coming into your event too.
Here are some ideas to up your carnival fundraiser:
- Petting Zoo
- Pony rides
- Tractor rides
Field Day
Field Day is an active way to raise money for the school.
Great for the Spring season, when the weather is warmer and kids can enjoy themselves outside.
Field Day can be great for kids at any age level.
Events to have:
- Tug-of-war
- Water games
- Dodgeball
- Bounce house
- Potato sack race
You can charge an entrance fee or registration fee and individual game participation. You can also set up concession stands and contribution booths for additional opportunities to raise funds.
Game Night
If you’re looking for an event that you can do in-person as well as virtually, hosting a Game Night is the event for you.
You can offer game night to students, faculty and parents.
Some great board games:
- Monopoly
- Scrabble
- Connect 4
- Chess
- Uno
- Checkers
To add some friendly competition, offer tournaments. This can be held between individual players or can include teams.
Game nights are a great hit for school fundraisers—providing families and teachers with an unforgettable experience.
This low-cost event is perfect for all ages.
For those at home who want to participate, many online platforms allow for live streaming. You can use Tiltify Personal to help promote and collect gifts from those who are playing elsewhere.
Cooking Class
Doing an in-person or virtual cooking class is not only a fun and educational event, it is a great way to promote local businesses and fundraise for your school.
Contact local businesses or if you have a hospitality field at your local college or university, partner with them.
Use social media to market your event and put posters and signs around high-traffic areas around your community.
For those with a busy schedule and don’t want to miss out on the fun, use Tiltify Personal fundraising platform to help promote the cause and receive funds. You don’t have to be there to still have fun.
Charge an entry fee and include a donation appeal during the class to bring in the most possible funds. Add collection jars around the room to inspire more gifting.
Trivia Night
Who doesn’t love a round of Jeopardy to test your wits?
Trivia Night is a great way to engage your students.
A trivia night encourages students to answer trivia questions, in a team setting, contributing to your school’s efforts. You can rent a space at your local business or host trivia night at your school.
Trivia can be for the student body or opened up to the community. You can make it more interesting and fun by setting a theme for trivia like Disney, Harry Potter, or sports trivia.
Spelling Bee
Great for all ages, spelling bees offer encouragement to young students to develop their vocabulary skills.
Your school can organize a spelling been and allow students interested in spelling to compete.
You can charge parents a small fee to attend this event at your school.
