Fundraising is an essential extracurricular activity in schools as it helps the children to develop social skills and allows them to drive change in their communities. While there are many school fundraising ideas you can explore, it is crucial to choose one that would not pose too much of a challenge for the kids.  

To have a successful fundraising event, you would need to match your school’s fundraising idea with the age groups or grades of your students belong to. In this article, we will share different fundraising ideas you can explore with school children in various grades and age groups. 

Preschool Fundraising Ideas 

1. Gardening

This fundraising idea allows the little ones to be productive and create an eco friendly environment. Pick a planting day and let the toddlers get involved with growing simple crops like lettuces, tomatoes, and other vegetables. After the harvest, you can set up a farmer's market where parents can purchase the crops and make additional donations. 

2. Art Day

 Art can never go wrong with toddlers, and it gets even better when there's a fundraising campaign attached to it. You can upload images of the different creative pieces on your school website and get parents to place orders and process payments via a Formplus payment form. 

3. Read-a-Thon

Get a local library to donate books and host a read-a-thon for your fundraising campaign. Parents and other stakeholders can make donations for every child via a Formplus online donation form as they reach specific reading milestones. 

4. Carnival

This is a fundraising idea that can be executed by children of all ages. Parents and teachers can volunteer to perform tricks at the carnival, and you can also raise money from the sales of food and costumes during the carnival. Interested persons can also register to attend the carnival via the Formplus event registration form. 

5. Bake Sale

Fundraising campaigns work perfectly with cookies, cakes, and pastries. Groom your little chefs and get them to create delicious snacks from your bake sale. You can host the bake sale during the open day or PTA meeting to raise funds for your project. 

6. Karaoke

A karaoke is an exciting fundraising idea for preschool children. You can create an event registration form on Formplus and add a payment field to collect ticket fees from attendees. During the event, students and teachers can take part in the karaoke. 

7. Movie Night

Obtain the written consent of the parents and guardians of the students through an online consent form so that they can participate in the movie night. You can raise funds from the sale of movie tickets and different items during the movie. 

8. Meet-and-Greet

Make your students' dreams come true by inviting their favorite celebrity over to the school for a meet-and-greet session. This event would help you improve on the publicity for your fundraising campaign, and the star can also donate to encourage others to do the same. 

9. Crafts Day

During a crafts day, the children can learn to make different crafts like gift cards and photo albums, under the supervision of their teachers. You can sell these items online and offline to raise money for your fundraising campaign. 

10. Sports Competition

Keep the children agile, fit, and healthy as you raise funds for your school project. Choose a specific day and get the children to compete in a series of fun sporting events. Parents can make donations as the children participate in each sporting event. 

11. Treasure Hunt

A treasure hunt is a simple and exciting fundraising activity for kids. Parents can donate items of value for the treasure hunt and you can raise money from the sales of food, drinks, and snacks during the event. 

12. Gift Wrapping

This is an easy way to raise funds from members of your community. Set up a gift wrapping stand and let the kids help out as you offer gift wrapping services to interested persons. You can collect payments for your services via a Formplus payment form. 

13. Face Painting

Nothing screams fun more than a face painting event. Everyone can get involved in this, including the teachers and parents, and you can set up donation boxes in the event premises. Fix a flat-rate price for the face painting, and allow attendees to choose the face painting design that they want. 

14. Yard Sales

It costs almost nothing to execute this pre-school fundraising idea. For starters, teachers, students, and parents can donate neatly-used items for the yard sales, and you can create an e-catalog for these items on your website. You can embed an order form on the page to collect payments for checked-out items. 

15. Cupcake Wars

This is like a cook-off but with cupcakes. With the help of the adults, students can bake their best cakes and have a face-off at the event. Event attendees would need to donate to attend the event and vote for their preferred cupcakes. 

16. Book Sales

Encourage kids and parents to donate used books for your book sales. You can merge your book sales with another fundraising event like a bake sales or art exhibition. Use a Formplus order form to facilitate checkouts and transactions. 

17. T-shirt Sales

To pull this off, you can partner with a t-shirt company to print cute tees for children. With the permission of the parents and guardians, you can use the toddlers as fashion models and upload their pictures to your website’s e-catalog section. Link a Formplus order form to the page to facilitate purchases and payments.

18.  Balloon Raffle

This is a simple fundraising idea that you do not have to break the bank to execute - all you need is a pack of balloons, raffle tickets, and cool prizes. Event attendees would have to pay a small fee to pop a balloon and win and retrieve a raffle ticket. 

The kids can help you set up the event by blowing the balloons. 

19. Straw Draw Fundraiser

This works like a balloon fundraising event. Write down different prizes on small pieces of paper and attach each piece to a straw. Participants would need to pay a fee to draw one of the straws from the pack and they get to win whatever prize is written on the paper attached to it. 

20. Flower Sale

 A flower sale is the perfect fundraising idea for summertime. You can partner with a local florist store in your community to purchase the flowers at discounted prices. The kids can help you arrange the flowers in custom floral patterns for sales.  

Middle School Fundraising Ideas

1. Spelling Bee

You can host this as a charity event and invite other schools in your local community to participate. Every participant would need to pay a registration fee, which can be done via a Formplus payment form, and you can also sell tickets for the event online. 

2. Trivia

This is an exciting and educative fundraising idea for middle school students. To raise funds, you can sell food and drinks at the event or ask each participant to pay a small registration fee. Don’t forget to set up donation boxes too. 

3. Costume Day

Choose a day and ask both students and teachers to wear costumes in line with your fundraising campaign. For instance, if you’re raising funds for a medical cause, you can get students and teachers to dress up as different medical professionals.

4. Parents Night Out

The best part about this fundraising idea is that it provides an opportunity for parents to bond with their kids while raising funds for a social cause. During the event, you can have a host of fun activities like raffle draws and face painting. 

5. Jelly Bean Count

This is probably the most popular fundraising idea for middle school because it is fascinating and easy to put together. Fill up a jellybeans jar at a strategic point in your school and get students to pay a small fee for an opportunity to guess how many jellybeans are in the jar.

You can host a small event where the jellybeans would be counted, and the person who guessed the right number or the closest guess gets to keep the jar. 

6. Breakfast Event

Host a breakfast event on the school premises just before you kick off the day’s activities. You can set up a breakfast sale stand at the front of the school where students and teachers can purchase food, drinks, and snacks before going in.  

7. Family Fun Day

You can merge this event with your school open day or PTA meeting. You can set up donation boxes at the event venue and also raise money from different activities like face painting, karaoke, food, and drink sales. 

8. Babysitting

Everyone appreciates a little help with the kids, even if they have to pay for it. You can pair teachers with students, and have them babysit for one evening while the parents are away at work or having a time-out. 

9. Super Hero Day

This fundraising idea allows kids to dress up to school as their favorite superhero. You can send out a brief for the event to parents ahead of time and attach a link to a Formplus online donation form where they can make contributions to the fundraising cause. 

10. School Carnival

At a school carnival, you can raise funds from multiple activities like ticket sales, food and drink sales, and silent auctions. Don’t forget to add different fun activities like karaoke and potato sack races, to make the event more exciting. 

11. Casino Night

Don’t fret; this event is strictly for the parents of the school children. To make things easier, allow parents to register for the game via a Formplus event registration form. You can also add raffle draws to the event, music, food, and drinks.  

12. Video Game Day

Video games put the fun in fundraising and kids enjoy them. To raise funds, parents can pay a fee to get their kids to attend the play video games with their friends. You can also organize face-off competitions to spice up the event.  

13. Camping

Reach out to different organizations to sponsor your camping program or ask parents to pay a small participation fee for their kids. Camping programs also help build children’s social skills and feel what it’s like being away from their parents. 

14. Raffle Draw

Organise a raffle draw for teachers, students, and parents. You can have this as part of the main event and raise funds by selling the raffle draw tickets to participants and other items like t-shirts, food, and drinks. 

15. Quiz Night

Place students into teams and have them compete in a quiz night. One of the teachers can serve as the quizmaster, and you can ask attendees to pay to attend the event. You can also set up donation boxes at the event venue. 

16. Bingo Night

To raise money for a cause, you can organize a bingo night and participants can pay a small fee to play, and stand the opportunity to win small prizes. 

17.  Popcorn Sales

Set up a popcorn stand outside your school and raise money from sales to passersby. Students can assist teachers during the popcorn sales and you can also set up donation boxes beside the stand. 

18. Halloween Bake Sale

This custom Halloween bake sale event should be in line with the theme of your fundraiser. Focus on healthy treats and asking children to “pay” for the goods with pieces of Halloween candy.

19. Chocolate Sale

Make this event more exciting by asking students to bring homemade chocolates for sale. To raise more funds, you can set up a Formplus order form so that interested persons can complete purchases for the chocolates online. 

20. Wreath Sales

Wreaths are very important for the holiday season. You can raise funds from selling natural and artificial wreaths to individuals in your community. Students can help you to put the wreaths together.  

High School Fundraising Ideas

1. Recipe Book

Ask your students to write our different unique recipes and put all of these together in a recipe book. You can create e-copies of the book and ask parents to place orders and make payments for the recipe book using a Formplus payment form. 

2. Charity Ball

At your fundraising charity ball, you can solicit donations from attendees. To successfully host this, you can collaborate with organizations in your community and also sell event tickets to raise funds. 

3. School Sleepover

Host a sleepover event in the school with the permission of the parents and guardians. You can use an online consent form to collect written permissions from parents and guardians. You can raise funds via multiple activities during the event. 

4. Band Battles

School bands are a huge thing and you can always leverage them to raise funds for a social cause. Interested bands would need to pay a registration fee, and you can also sell event tickets for interested persons. 

5. Movie Night

Organise a movie night at the school premises and ask students to purchase tickets to attend. During the event, you can raise extra funds by selling raffle tickets, food, and drinks. 

6. Scavenger Hunt

A scavenger hunt is an exciting fundraising event for high school students. For this event, have participants sign up in groups for a fee to participate. The teams will compete in an around-town scavenger hunt and win prizes. 

7. Fun Run

As the name suggests, a fun run is a sporting event that students can participate in. Parents, teachers, and other individuals can make donations via a Formplus donation form as participants reach different milestones during the event. 

8. Fun Walk

This is just like a fun run. To add more excitement to the event, you can create a theme in line with the fundraising campaign. 

9. Dance-a-thon

Everyone can get involved in this event. Parents can purchase tickets to attend the dance-a-thon and in the venue of the event, you can sell snacks, food, and drinks to raise extra money. 

10. Silent Auction

Encourage students to donate items for this event or create vouchers for services offered and host a silent auction in the school. During the event, participants can walk around for a specific period and write down their names and offer prices on items they are interested in.

11. Charity Concert

At your charity concert, you can raise funds from individual donations, ticket sales, and the sale of other items. Teachers could get creative and invite well-known performers to join them or invite sponsors from the local community.

12. Food Drive

This event involves collecting different non-perishable food items for a local carnival in your community. 

13. Charity Ball

Recreate the Cinderella charity ball for your fundraising event. You can partner with different organizations as sponsors for the event. 

14. Crowdfunding

Crowdfunding campaigns are another way to collect donations from the general public. Students can solicit donations from their friends and family using the Formplus online donation form. 

15. Craft Sale

Encourage students to create different handmade craft items and bring them to the school for sale. You can create an e-catalog section on your website with a Formplus payment form to facilitate payments for orders. 

16. Coupon Book Sale

Partner a well-known bookshop in your community and sell books of coupons for local restaurants, stores, and vendors. In the end, part of the proceeds will be donated to the school fundraising project.

17. Car wash

Create awareness for your fundraising project in your community by hosting a car wash on the school premises. Raise funds by washing the cars of parents and people driving through the neighborhood for a fee.

18. Auction

Create a theme for this event, gather donated items, and host an auction. Make it more exciting by hosting a movie or raffle draw along with the auction. 

19. Fashion show

Partner with local retailers to provide clothing items that can be worn by high school students for a well-organized fashion show. Set up an event registration form with a payment field on Formplus, to collect participation fees from attendees. 

20. Principal challenge

Tie a bet to the students reaching the fundraising goal such as the principal or a favorite teacher shaving his or her head – if you reach your fundraising goals.

Fundraising Ideas for College

1. Candy Crush-a-Thon

This is a fun event where participants can win gifts for finishing the most candy crush levels. You can set up an event registration form with Formplus and use the user redirect feature to send participants to an online donation form where they can make contributions to the event. 

2. Family Recipe Cook-off

Organise an online event where everyone prepares their favorite family recipe. Charge an entry fee and ask participants to bring a copy of the recipe to the event. 

3. Arcade

Host arcade games at a local gaming center in your community. You can strike a deal with the gaming center so that part of the proceeds from the games is donated to the fundraising campaign. 

4. Social Media Challenge

Create a hashtag for your fundraising campaign and use this to raise publicity for your project via one or more social media challenges. 

5. Fitness Challenge

Set weekly fitness milestones for participants and have participants make donations as they achieve them. Interested persons can sign up online and pay a fee to be part of the event. 

6. Talent Night

You can host a talent night on your school premises and raise funds from ticket sales, food and drink sales and participation fees for games. 

7. Football

Add a little twist to this event by using the guys as cheerleaders while the ladies play football. Raise funds by selling tickets to the event. 

8. TV Show Competition

Think of this as bringing the American Idol experience to your college. You can partner with other organizations in your community to pull this off. The audience would need to donate to vote for their favorite contestants. 

9. Old School Day

Get to relive the 80s with this fun event and raise funds while at it. You can merge multiple activities into this such as a bake sale, costume sale, or karaoke night. 

10. Fundraising Gala

Put together an exciting fundraising gala event. You can partner with different organizations to host a cost-effective event and raise funds through registration fees and the sales of different items during the event. 

11. Scavenger Hunt

Ask students to donate different items of value for your scavenger hunt. Participants would need to pay a registration fee and get to keep any items that they find. 

12. Kissing Booths

This fundraising idea can never go wrong with college students and it even works better when you collaborate with a local celebrity. 

13. Lip Sync

This is just like karaoke but with a more exciting twist. At the event, attendees can make donations to vote for their favorite lip-sync performer. 

14. Dorm Decorating

Students can organize themselves into groups and offer dorm-decoration services to others for a small fee. Students can book for their services ahead of time using Formplus order and payment forms. 

15. Pie Eating Contest

This is a fun event that you can host on a budget. Participants can pay a fee while event attendees can purchase tickets and also donate to vote for their favorite contestants. 

16. Dodgeball Tournament

Students and teachers can participate in this event, and you can charge a small fee for event attendees. At the event venue, you can set up donation stands and boxes to collect individual contributions. 

17. Community Treasure Hunt

Organise an exciting treasure hunt in your college premises and let people pay to be a part of it. Students, teachers, and other individuals and organizations in the community can donate different items of value that would serve as "treasure" for the event. 

18. Give It Up Challenge

Encourage students to forgo one or more guilty pleasures and instead, donate to the fundraising campaign. To create awareness, create a hashtag for the campaign and encourage participants to share this with their friends. 

19.  Spa Night

Another way to raise funds is by organizing a spa night. Collaborate with different spa professionals and have them donate or provide discounted services to benefit your school.

20. Garage Sale

Ask students to donate different used household items that they no longer need. You can gather all of these items in your school and sell them to interested persons at giveaway prices.

Tips For a Successful School Fundraiser

1. Communicate effectively with your students, sponsors, and donors. Always keep them up to speed with different milestones during the fundraising campaign.

2. Ensure that your students are fully involved in the process. Regardless of the school fundraising idea, there is always a way the students can be directly or indirectly part of it. 

3. Draw people into your campaign by providing a detailed explanation of what the fund will be used for. Transparency is critical to fundraising. 

4. Create awareness for your campaign using online and offline channels. You can create a hashtag for social media publicity. 

5. Use an online fundraising form to make the donation process seamless and convenient. 

How to Create a Fundraiser Form with Formplus 

Follow these easy steps to set up your fundraiser form on Formplus and start receiving donations:

1. Sign in to your Formplus account. If you do not have a Formplus account, click here to create one. 

2. On your dashboard, click "create new form" to begin. 

3. Drag and drop preferred fields into your form in the form builder. Click on the pencil icon beside each field to modify it. 

4. Save your form and move to the customization section of the builder. Here, you can tweak the outlook of your form by changing its background, adding your school's logo, and changing the form font.

5. Copy the form link and share it with parents and other prospective donors. You can use social media direct sharing buttons to share your form with your online community.

Conclusion 

There are so many options to choose from when it comes to school fundraising event ideas. However, it is always essential to consider the age and grade of your students when deciding on the right fundraising ideas for your school's fundraising campaign. 

Getting involved in fundraising campaigns is an effective way for students to develop relevant social skills outside the walls of the classroom. To ensure the success of the fundraising event, you can leverage social media channels for publicity, and use Formplus forms to make the fundraising process seamless.