Balloon Raffle
Holding a balloon raffle is fun for groups of all ages and can be a super easy way to fundraise!
All you'll need are some balloons and raffle tickets. Before inflating the balloons, place a raffle ticket inside each one. Sell each balloon for a dollar to students and teachers. Once you've sold them, announce the winning raffle ticket.
Everyone pops their balloon to see if they're the winner. Whoever matches the chosen raffle ticket gets a small prize.
You'll raise money in no time!
Jellybean Count
Everyone's heard of a jellybean count, and most people have participated in one at least once in their lives. There's a reason so many schools (and businesses) have jellybean counts - they work.
Have students pay $1 to guess how many jellybeans are in the jar, and at the end of a week of guessing, make an announcement over the school's intercom of the winner, which will be the person who guessed the number closest to the amount of jellybeans in the jar.
The winner gets to keep the jar of jellybeans, and you have just raised money in a snap!
Fish Tank Fundraiser
For a simple fundraiser at virtually no cost, try a fish tank fundraiser!
Buy a fish tank (a big bowl or box will work too!) and place it in a central location with lots of foot traffic. Place instructions that students and teachers can drop off their spare change and bills to fill the fish tank as quickly as possible.
Haunted House
BOO! Don't worry, it's just fundraising money dressed up for Halloween.
A haunted house is another great fall-themed (and specifically Halloween themed) fundraiser.
Make a haunted house out of your school's gymnasium or cafeteria. A mixture of spooky and goofy is always a good combination, and the ratio here depends on the age group of students who plan to attend. You could even have two separate sections, one for younger kids and one for high schoolers, depending on how much space you have to work with.
Have teachers work the haunted house in order to add some entertainment. The students are sure to get a kick out of seeing their teachers dressed up!
Charge $5 ahead of time and $7 at the door, then show your haunted house guests a scary (or silly) time!
Pumpkin Sales
Students and their families are going to buy pumpkins for Halloween, so why not take advantage of this seasonal fundraising opportunity?
Start by calling a local pumpkin patch or farm and see if they are willing to sell pumpkins in bulk in order to give your school a good deal. Many local farms want to support their communities, so finding one that will be willing to help out your school shouldn't be too challenging.
Your school's parking lot is an easy answer for the question of location. It's free to you and usually empty on the weekends.
You can either do a pumpkin sale on one weekend of the month, or you can do a sale for several weekends leading up to Halloween. It might even be beneficial to do a sale the night before Halloween (even if it's on a weekday) because some students and their parents will wait until the last minute to get their pumpkins.
Have a few teachers and parents who are willing to volunteer their time work the pumpkin sales. This, combined with the low cost of setting up the sale, will result in lots of fundraising revenue!
Straw Draw
The premise is so incredibly simple, you'll be wondering why you haven't done it already!
At the front of your school, or in another prominent location with lots of foot traffic, set up a table with a basket full of straws.
Each straw should have some kind of reward attached to it. For instance:
- An extra 15 minutes of recess.
- An extra cookie at lunchtime.
- A special parking spot (for high school students).
Students can pay a certain amount to select a straw each day. You can also have a separate basket for administrators and teachers (with different rewards, obviously!).
Penny Wars
Penny wars are some of the most fun fundraising games there are, and they're applicable to elementary students all the way up to high school students. This is an awesome fundraiser for many reasons, but the best is that setting it up is almost no cost to you.
How it works:
- Each class/grade gets a large glass jar.
- Each jar is clearly labeled and placed in a central location at your school.
- The goal for each class is to fill the jar up with as many pennies as possible over a week's time.
The goal here (and the part that's going to raise the most money) is to sabotage the rival class jars. The students do this by putting coins and bills other than pennies in the jars.
So, 10 pennies would be cancelled out by a dime, 100 pennies would be cancelled out by a dollar, etc. The team with the best total is the winner!
