10 Ways to Help Us Raise Money for Our School

Our budgets are tight these days, so more often than not, extra money is needed to give the children the equipment and experiences they deserve. Informal fundraising techniques can be a fun and interactive way for all our friendly parents to help us secure the money needed for resources, extra staff, or school trips. Every donation is vital so here are some ideas to help us raise those extra funds. Please email the school admin email if you have suggestions about further fundraising, admin@st-bernadette.blackpool.sch.uk.

  1. Sponsorship or Community Grant

Firstly, a great way to raise the money or secure the resources is through a partnership with a local business. Maybe you know a local business owner willing to partner with schools, wanting to see the kids thrive and achieve in the same way that they have. A little research may be required here to find successful local businesses, but then try reaching out to their owners to see if they’re interested in discussing ways to help.

Alternatively, there are many grants available for schools through both the government and other channels. Typically, you will be able to apply online using the provider’s website. This guide can help you to write a successful grant application and secure your funds.

  1. P2P Campaign

The peer-to-peer campaign is a fundraising strategy that aims to empower you to raise money on behalf of our school. The social media platform has made peer-to-peer campaigns simpler and effective as it helps it maximize the effects of a fundraising campaign. You can utilise P2P fundraising to boost awareness of an event, get more supporters and potential donors involved with our mission, and raise funds.

P2P fundraising also encourages our students to get involved in helping others while they are doing some good for the community. Elaborating the reason for the cause for which we are raising funds and the impact of how the funds are spent is an essential step in getting our parents involved in a P2P fundraising event.

  1. Read-A-Thon

This is a sponsored event with a difference, as it helps with children's literacy too. They'll love getting involved, and we’ll see an upswing in children reading.

Our pupils will be sponsored to read as many books as they can within a time limit, say, within a month. They can log how many books they've read on a specific sheet, and sponsors will pay them for each book they read. They love the competition, and it's a great way to raise funds.

  1. Sponsored Walk

The traditional approach of holding a sponsored event is still very popular. Everyone loves a challenge. Getting our pupils involved in something that they can actively do is a wonderful way for them to see results from achieving a goal. Seeing children engaged with a challenge is also a positive way to bring in sponsorship. Social media offers opportunities to publicise our event and let people know what we are doing. Facebook even offers a fundraising option which enables us to capture donations that we might not otherwise have got.

  1. Online Giving Forms

One of the most effective ways of raising money for our school is by using online giving forms. Create user-friendly, intuitive online giving forms. These forms make raising donations easy for all types of donors and supporters.

The forms are hosted on the internet, which enables supporters to donate regardless of their location and when it is convenient for them. For a seamless experience, we should include these features in our online giving forms:

  • Brand the donation form
  • Optimise the online donation form on all devices including mobile phones
  • Provide various options and recurring intervals
  • Ask for information but do not make it compulsory
  • Keep it simple
  • Aim for a few clicks

When online giving forms are made to be convenient for supporters, we won’t need to worry about losing gifts from potential supporters. When donating online takes a few minutes, the community will love making donations to all of our fundraising events.

  1. Use Social Media

Whatever type of fundraiser is planned for the school, it can reach many potential supporters through social media when compared to other types of communication. Some fundraisers are meant to be shared via social media. As well as teachers, parents can help a lot by posting about the campaign on the school and personal social media platforms. Social media platforms like Twitter and Facebook are the most effective when it comes to promoting online fundraising events.

After setting up student’s donation pages, we can encourage them to share posts across their social media platforms or ask our parents to do so. Furthermore, we can take this a notch higher by posting a reminder on our school website and social media pages.

  1. Crowd Funding

Most of us are familiar with charity giving platforms like JustGiving. This is usually because you will have sponsored a friend or relative who has taken part in an event or sporting endeavour to raise money for charity. But JustGiving also provides a route to access crowdfunding as a source of income generation for schools.

The really great thing about this method is that people can donate at any time and from any location. It’s a great option to have running alongside our other income generation schemes.

  1. Sponsored Litter Pick

A sponsored litter pick is another opportunity to get our students, parents and the wider community together. There are lots of resources available to help you with organising a litter pick, and Litter Action has information on their website. Check with our local authority because they may well be able to help provide us with the equipment needed. This is also something that gives the children a tangible sense of what’s been achieved. Counting the number of bags of litter collected is a great visual example of how we impact our environment.

  1. Schoola

Schoola is a fundraising platform that PTOs, PTAs, principals and schools can use to raise funds. Anyone from the community can function alongside local businesses to include offers that save funds for our parents, raise a significant amount of money our school, and offer authentic advertisements for local businesses involved. It is usually a win-win for the parties involved. Schoola does the most, it handles hosting, process payments, and promotes a school-community connection.

Schoola went global in 2015 after partnering with Malala Fund. Five prominent clothing brands and thousands for individuals’ donors have donated clothing to be sold on the platform to promote Malala’s mission of providing quality education and getting rid of barriers to safe education in the vulnerable communities around the world.

  1. Online Donation Tools

Receiving online donation is important for raising funds from our parents, alumni, grandparents and local businesses looking to give back to the local community and our school. There are a lot of online donation tools to help you lift the weight of having to plan and organise for the fundraiser.     

Make sure the online donation experience is seamless and easy for donors and then contact all of our school’s supporters or potential donors. By making the entire online experience easy to interact with, you will raise more money.

 

Hopefully these above ideas will help you to raise those all-important funds needed to allow us to continue providing a great educational experience.