School fundraising efforts can help fill critical gaps in student and teacher needs where existing funding falls short. These school fundraising ideas will help you reach and engage your community to run a successful fundraiser without requiring large groups to gather.

(Let Us) Find a Local Sponsor

School budgets rarely meet all of the needs in a school community, and sponsorships with the local business community can be a great way to bridge this gap in funding, especially at a time when businesses are struggling and could use support from their local communities. So why not work together? If you are interested in having us search for a paid sponsor on your behalf, create a Digital Deets account and we will begin searching for you. If you already have a sponsor in the local community, Digital Deets has different sponsorship levels they can choose from. Partnerships between schools and local businesses are a win-win for the entire community, and most importantly the students, so what are you waiting for?

Selling Face Masks & Branded Merchandise

Selling branded merchandise such as shirts, hats or varsity jackets can be an important source of revenue for schools. Now more than ever, there is also a demand for face masks to be worn in public spaces. This is a great opportunity to raise money by selling branded face masks to show pride for one’s community while also showing respect for others’ personal health and safety. One option is to go to ABC Fundraising’s face mask page, where you can upload your school’s logo, have masks printed featuring the logo, and have the masks shipped to your school. From there, the masks could be picked up from your school or mailed out. To make this (or any other school fundraising idea) work, you will need a reliable way to contact different members of your community. Digital Deets is the school communication app that centralizes your messaging and ensures everyone stays in the loop.

Coupon Books for Local Restaurants

It’s always important to support local businesses, so if you were looking for an excuse to order takeout for the third time this week, look no further. Coupon books to local restaurants and businesses can be a great way to raise money while supporting your local community. There are companies that sell coupon books for different regions for a less labor-intensive option. You could also take it on yourself to find local businesses that are interested in participating. No matter which route you choose, coupon books are a great option for your next school fundraiser. Digital Deets gives schools and businesses another way to work together by allowing themselves to be sponsored by a business. Once a business has chosen a school to sponsor, they can display messages and targeted offers to the larger school community. The coupons that businesses make available could also be shared directly to Digital Deets so nobody misses out.

Read-a-Thon Fundraiser

Read-a-thons are great fundraising options because not only are they relatively simple to run, they encourage students to read, and rally the community around that goal. In the same spirit of encouraging students to read, read-a-thons are commonly combined with book swaps to build a sense of community and ensure students have access to books. Another benefit of a read-a-thon fundraiser is it doesn’t require any selling. Have participants set reading milestones, either by pages read or some other metric, or just have volunteers pledge money to the fundraiser. These also make for ideal sponsorship opportunities because of the aspect of social good they provide. For this type of fundraiser, it’s especially important to make sure you get the word out to all relevant school users and community members who could donate books, pledge money, participate by reading, or volunteering in some other way.

Hold a Virtual Talent Show

If you and your school are adjusting to an online or blended learning approach and are physically together less than usual, you are probably looking for ways for your school and students to feel the sense of community that comes with coming to school five days a week. Holding a virtual talent show is one fun way to have members of your school display their unique talents and personality. You can use the talent show to raise funds by allowing community members to livestream the event for a donation or purchase a recording afterwards if they weren’t able to tune in. Offers from local businesses can act as prizes and also give the business valuable exposure in the lead-up to your event. In promoting your upcoming virtual talent show, you also have the opportunity to share messages about your school’s fundraising efforts. Digital Deets is an ideal platform to do that because our platform gives you one central location to contact parents so that nobody misses out.

Direct Give Campaigns

There’s a saying that it takes a village to raise a child, and the same could be said for pulling off a successful school fundraiser. A school fundraiser relies on local volunteers to get the necessary reach. The local aspect of school fundraising is what makes peer-to-peer fundraising such a powerful tool. There are many different platforms you can use to achieve this, but the idea boils down to empowering volunteers to solicit donations from their own network. This has the advantage of broadening the number of people engaged in your cause and can be a powerful approach when communicated to and amplified through a relevant parent-teacher organization. Many schools already do some sort of direct solicitation of donations, but what makes this approach particularly powerful is how volunteers are empowered through things like customized landing pages where volunteers can solicit donations from their network. This type of approach cuts down on the work you have to do as volunteers already have the tools they need to make emotional appeals to their network for the cause you’re looking to raise funds for. Digital Deets is an ideal platform for helping you get necessary information and assets out to volunteers who are invested in the success of your campaign.

Create an Amazon Wish List

You may not think of Amazon as a school fundraising platform necessarily, but being able to accomplish a fundraising goal virtually or without having to gather large crowds is more important now than ever. If you have specific needs in your class or school that aren’t being met, an Amazon Wish List is one option for communicating those needs with interested members of the community. Such an approach works well for essentials like cleaning supplies and electronics for remote learning. It could also be used to purchase things like new books, puzzles, art sets, science kits, and other fun educational items, which all too often fall to the teacher to buy out of their own pocket. Creating a digital wish list is one way of appealing directly to volunteers. It has the advantage of being specific (“we want to raise this much money to get this many new tablets with improved built-in cameras, speakers, and microphones to facilitate remote learning,” for example). This can lend itself well to a peer-to-peer fundraising campaign. You could also consider using the wish list in conjunction with an online raffle or themed event, such as a Reading Challenge.

Which Fundraising Idea Works for You?

Every school fundraiser is unique to the community the school is in. Especially at a time where school doesn’t look the way it has in the past, and typical school fundraisers that involve large groups may not be practical for the time being, now is a time to get creative and think outside the box. Whatever path you choose, you are going to want to make sure nobody in your school or community misses an update about your latest fundraising effort, because what affects our kids affects all of us. Make this easy by signing your organization up for Digital Deets and centralizing all your school communications, including email, so that nobody ever misses a message.