More often than not, parents are expected to pick up the slack when it comes to elementary school expenses. That means each school team that your child wants to participate in, and each club that the school offers will cost you extra money for supplies and equipment.
Elementary school fundraisers can be a great way to make up the costs of away games, new sporting equipment, and even new chess boards for the chess club. However, if you are a parent or teacher, you want the most bang for your buck.
Organizing elementary school children for a school fundraiser can be an exhausting ordeal. And if you don't make enough money with your fundraiser, it can be very disappointing for everyone involved.
That's why we've done the homework for you! Check out our most effective and easy elementary school fundraisers.
Talent Shows and Concerts
Elementary school talent shows or musical concerts are an effective way to raise funds for school projects because the whole student body is involved. This means the parents, friends, and family members of the entire student body will come out to support their little ones in the spotlight.
School concerts and talent shows are a great way for students to showcase their talents and gain some confidence. These concerts are also an easy way to make money by raising funds through ticket sales.
And while tickets sales are a great money generator, the school can offer fundraisers that complement the concert or talent show, such as:
- Pay to have your picture taken with one of the performers
- Offer signed autographs from the performers for a small fee
- Sell concessions such as beverages and popcorn during the event
School Calendars
Another simple and hassle-free elementary school fundraising idea is the school calendar. These are most popular when they are handcrafted calendars featuring a variety of student artwork.
Alternately, you can feature class or team pictures for each month of the year such as the glee club, book club, math club, basketball team, football team, or any other sports team.
All you need to do is take the photos with a decent digital camera, and then contact a local printing press to print a bulk set of calendars for your students to sell to family and friends.
Holi-grams
This is one of our favorite festive fundraisers, and it's a great excuse to give the school a reason to fundraise at peak giving times with colorful holiday cards. Students can use school-supplied construction paper and supplies to make card backgrounds and festive shapes. Then they can use black markers to write “to” and “from” messages.
Holi-grams can be created by students before each major holiday – Christmas, Easter, Halloween, Mother's Day and Valentine's Day – and distributed around the community for a small fee.
Bake Sales
A bake sale is a popular fundraiser, because come on – who doesn't love sweet treats? To run a successful bake sale, you'll need support from a large number of parents at the school. Send home a volunteer sheet with each student asking that parents commit to baking one item for the sale.
Alternately, let them know that parents who don't bake can purchase store-bought items. Also remember to canvass for several parents who can volunteer to sell at the actual event. Be sure to market the bake sale by setting up a Facebook page, or by posting paper flyers around town at grocery stores and other public locations to drum up community interest.
Green Fundraising
You can't go to a grocery store anymore without your own reusable grocery bags. It's either you bring your own or you pay for the cheap plastic variety. Well, a great elementary school fundraiser, and one that's equally fantastic for the environment, is selling earth-friendly products to parents, grandparents, and other people in your community.
Fundraising companies offer a variety of green gifts such as reusable bags, recycled home and office products, seeds for flowers and vegetables, bird feed, organic teas, beauty products, candles, and hemp clothing.
And better yet, you can use the green influence of these products to tie into Earth Day class projects and lesson plans for the kids.
