The title of the article: How to Pick an Engaging PTA Fundraiser: Considerations

How to Pick an Engaging PTA Fundraiser: 5 Considerations

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PTAs are used to juggling responsibilities and adapting quickly when challenges arise. When planning a fundraiser, PTAs need to weigh each idea’s pros and cons to plan campaigns with maximum opportunities and limited risks. 

When assessing PTA fundraising ideas, keep these considerations in mind to boost revenue, increase fundraising sustainability, and create positive experiences for your students and community alike. 

Your School Community

Practically every fundraiser your PTA hosts will have the same audience: your school community. When planning your fundraising calendar, consider what types of events and campaigns are most likely to resonate with this target audience. 

Ask yourself these questions about your community:

  • What activities will your community participate in? Does your community prefer to buy products, attend events, or support fundraisers where only students participate? Compare revenue and attendance metrics from past fundraisers to understand what types of fundraising activities will excite and engage your community. 
  • How does your community prefer to engage? While many school fundraisers are hosted in person, some members of your community may still prefer online engagement opportunities. Consider how this also impacts outreach—some supporters might engage with your school’s social media and email newsletter, whereas others are only aware of updates mailed to them or delivered through flyers sent home with students. 
  • Are there any community-specific considerations that might impact participation? Every community has its own cultural norms, and these will affect how supporters engage with your PTA fundraiser. For example, a school in a predominantly religious community might know that fundraisers hosted on Sunday morning are likely to see low participation. 

In addition to community members who will attend your fundraisers, consider potential local sponsors. 360MatchPro’s guide to corporate sponsorships advises researching businesses’ philanthropic values to determine if they would support an organization like yours. 

For schools, this means checking if businesses support education, as well as various related initiatives, like children’s health or literacy. Then, you can plan fundraisers that the business would want to connect its products and services to, helping secure its support.

Resources and Staff

Some fundraisers can be planned in an afternoon, while others require several weeks. When setting your fundraising calendar, ensure you have the resources and staff available to manage all of your campaigns and events. 

A few questions to ask yourself when planning your fundraising schedule include:

  • Do we have tools that will support this? Specialized software can automate many aspects of your fundraisers, from collecting donations to tracking student participation. Assess your current software and see if there are any new tools worth exploring. 
  • Will this impact any other fundraisers? Many schools run smaller fundraisers concurrently, such as your football team selling cookie dough the same week as your school carnival. Ensure major fundraisers don’t conflict, take resources away from one another, or lead to burnout for either donors or your PTA.  
  • Do we have enough parent and teacher volunteers? Factor in how many hours planning and executing a fundraiser will take. For example, a bake sale might simply require reserving the school gymnasium for a day, renting tables and chairs, and marketing the event. Then, at the bake sale, you’ll need volunteers who can devote their whole day to setting up tables, assisting sellers, cleaning messes, and otherwise managing the event. 

In addition to your major fundraisers, consider launching a few set-it-and-forget-it style fundraisers. For example, during a Read-A-Thon, students will primarily read and collect donations independently, meaning your PTA will only need to help with promoting the fundraiser. 

Engagement Opportunities

Before appealing to your community for support, ask yourself what you’re actually asking your community to do. Fundraisers with few interactive activities often see lower engagement, as even individuals who want to support it will likely donate and not participate further. 

Plan fundraisers that will hold your community’s interest by considering how you can:

  • Maintain momentum. If your fundraiser spans multiple days, keep donors interested by providing progress updates. Instill a sense of urgency and encourage continued participation with real-time fundraising thermometers and giving leaderboards. 
  • Encourage shareability. Your school’s community is your target audience and one of your biggest marketing assets. Create fundraisers that encourage participants to get their friends and family involved, turning supporting your school into a social activity and attracting more donors at the same time. For example, online fundraisers, such as social media challenges, are highly shareable. 
  • Create positive experiences. The most successful PTA fundraisers don’t just support your school but are genuinely fun to participate in. For example, you might host a range of memorable events, like fall festivals, community picnics, and school musicals. 

These tips also apply to fundraisers where students will be the primary participants. For example, Read-A-Tons get kids excited to and motivated to read. By offering fun prizes, you can encourage them to reach their reading goals. Many schools offer extra rewards for the classes that raise and read the most.  

Potential Revenue

Every fundraiser is an investment of your PTA’s time and resources. Ensure you get a proper return on that investment by hosting fundraisers with high earning potential relative to their costs. 

For example, auctions are known to be intensive to plan and even expensive to host. However, they also have high earning potential, especially if a few opportune bidding wars break out. Conversely, an online shopping fundraiser will likely only bring in a trickle of revenue at any given time, but many programs are free for schools to sign up and then need little intervention to continue operating. 

Additionally, consider fundraisers that can secure continued support. On your school’s merchandise store check-out page, for example, you might include the option for buyers to donate. Or, during a text-to-give fundraiser, you could also encourage donors to make their gifts recurring, so they can continue supporting you after the campaign wraps up. 

School Values

A PTA fundraiser’s primary purpose is to raise funding. However, these fundraisers also reflect on your school’s values. While some fundraisers may be profitable, they might not create the right image. For example, some schools have started shying away from bake sales and candy bar fundraisers out of a desire to promote childhood nutrition. 

Many classic school fundraisers are designed to benefit students and advance common school objectives. For example, walk-a-thons promote physical fitness, and Read-A-Thon’s guide to Read-A-Thon fundraisers explains how these education-based campaigns boost literacy. 

When parents and teachers alike have positive feelings about your fundraiser, they’ll be more enthusiastic about promoting it, inspiring greater community involvement. 

The right PTA fundraiser is different for every unique school and community. When selecting your fundraisers, consider their potential to benefit your school, students, and community against the effort required to pull them off. Create a list of top ideas to start crafting your school’s fundraising calendar. Then, invest in the needed tools to execute your top-earning campaigns.