PTA fundraising ideas for elementary schools

Hello and welcome, if you are here then you are asking the same thing I did. How am I going to help fundraise on my school’s PTA, work from home fulltime and keep up everyday at home?

Our PTA started last year, our first year and I had never been on any PTA or school commitee ever before. Just wanted to help at my boys school and well you can figure out the rest.

I dont have a lot of time to get into how our PTA crew started and I know you don’t have a lot of time either. I will make this a quick hit of some pta ideas for your elementary school and share below.

Let’s be real you have to raise the funds at your school to be able to plan the fun stuff at your school. Here are a few options, you can choose what you want to do, work on one at first so your team is overwhelmed before you work on the next.

Movie Night

A movie night takes some planning but it is profitable and fun for your school community to participate in.

This pta fundraising idea for elementary schools is fun for the whole family.

We played a movie and everyone was invited and to raise funds was simply selling refreshments. We planned this out for months and luckily we did because more people showed up then we expected! So planning was essential.

I shared a full how to story when we did ours this past school year. It took some time for our small pta crew but it is possible and a hit at our school! Check it out here : How To: Move Night

Candy Grams

Candy Grams or Thankful Grams raised money for the school and engaged students in their classrooms.

To make it engaging for the students, our team sat outside school in the mornings before first bell and allowed students to buy a candy gram for their freinds.

We also sent home flyers in every classroom for parents to get engaged as well.

The Flyers had information about the event, when the candy would be given out in class and offered a special offer for parents to be able to buy the whole classroom for $20.

The classroom bonus bundle for 20 dollars made it easy for parents. Most parents see this as a win-win, they didnt need to go out and buy the class packs from their local store we packaged and gave the classrooms the candy grams for them for only $20 bucks.

Note: we wanted to make sure every student got a candygram, we didnt want students to feel left out so if a classroom didnt get a whole class bundle we gave the teacher exta candy grams to give out to students who didnt get one.

You are probably wondering well how many did you have to give out ? There were so many parents that bought the class bundles that only a couple of classes needed us to give extra candy packs- it was so worth it.

Outdoor Festival

This took some time to plan, execute and took team work to say the least. It really depends what kind of festival you and your pta want to have at your school

An outdoor festival could be food trucks and games at your school or simply games and selling concessions or all of the above.

You have to plan ahead of time with your school administration and secure a date, secure vendors and rentals if needed.

Your team has to be sure that the vendors are approved by your school district and secure insurance if needed. This takes asking the right questions and having a good relationship with your school administrators.

We learned from our mistakes on this event but still held a very engaging and fun event and you can too!

Conclusion

Our first school year is over and now to plan the next! Stay tuned for new ideas this upcoming new year.

Please share what works for you.