Elementary school fundraising is a great way to raise extra funds to support development of educational and extracurricular programs, sports, music, arts and more. It can also be a great way to teach children about teamwork, school spirit, and working to accomplish a goal. With hard work and cooperation, anything is possible for your school.
Not only can elementary school fundraising efforts bring in financial support for school programs, but these initiatives also have the ability to teach children about how good it feels to give back. Children are wonderful fundraising participants when given the right direction and incentive. They are enthusiastic about almost everything they do, after all. They learn so many new things every day and they are genuinely interested in the activities offered through their school, including fundraising and being active.
To make your Elementary school fundraising ideas a success, you need to engage your students and parents in the effort. This can best be done by awarding prizes, sharing progress on your fundraising website, and making the event easy and fun for your families. The best elementary fundraisers that we see are active, fun events such as Fun Runs, Color Run Fundraisers, and readathons; all of these events encourage the activities that you want to see in your Elementary school children. With the implementation of a DoJiggy Peer-to-peer or Crowdfunding Website, these events are easy for volunteers to run and more successful.
Let’s face it, your fundraising campaign will be much more fun, engaging and successful if you offer prizes. As parents and teachers know, children are motivated by prizes or incentives for doing a good job. Having a well-planned and enthusiastic fundraiser kick-off and establishing attainable goals and prizes or rewards can be very effective to motivate students and parents alike to raise more money for your school.
Kids love prizes of all kinds and will work hard to earn even very small prizes. We recommend that prizes for Elementary school fundraising are structured in this way to encourage everyone to participant and not leave anyone behind:
See more on our blog on how to encourage your peer-to-peer participants to fundraise.
One factor to consider with elementary school fundraising is that parents must be heavily relied upon for much of the workload, so gaining support of the parents is key. If you are a parent, you already know this! It is also important to note that parents are usually most enthusiastic about fundraising during the elementary years. They are not yet burned out on school fundraising programs as they may be once their children reach high school (but here are some tips for high school fundraising to avoid this). Their children are new to school and parents tend to be much more involved and willing to volunteer when kids are at this age. It’s parent involvement that makes for the most successful elementary school fundraisers. So, encourage parents to be proactive and engaged by volunteering for a committee or event. Not only should students talk to friends, family, and neighbors, but parents can help by reaching out to co-workers, church groups and other social networks. Our social media integration makes this easy for busy parents.
Often elementary school fundraising is managed by Parent Teacher Organization (PTO) or Parent Teacher Association (PTA) groups. We find that these fundraisers are the most successful, since parental involvement is so key at this age. If your school has a PTO/PTA or booster club, be sure to approach them with your fundraising ideas and initiatives. Read more on PTO fundraising and how to motivate parents for PTO fundraising campaigns.
While cookie dough and candy sales fundraisers are still proven to be successful methods for school fundraising, other alternatives are gaining in popularity. Many schools are looking to add an element of environmental awareness and health consciousness to their fundraisers and therefore, activity-based fundraisers have become more and more popular. Doesn’t this sound like a good idea for your little ones? They certainly can benefit from fundraising ideas that don’t involve having sugary treats around the house. These creative elementary school fundraisers should be positioned as fun events rather than a task, and as something children can enjoy working on with their friends and family.
DoJiggy recommends the following Elementary School Fundraising Ideas:
We have helped hundreds of schools raise money online with healthy, active fundraisers. We are dedicated to your school’s success! See more details on hosting a school walk-a-thon, the best fundraisers for schools, and more creative school fundraising ideas. Or contact our dedicated Sales team to learn more about our fundraising software and how we can help with your events – without taking a percentage of your fundraising profits.