Need some great ideas for quick and easy fundraisers for your PTA / PTO school parent group?
This post if definitely for you!
I’ve got some great ideas that’ll make it pretty easy to add some money to your group’s bank account without needing too much lead time or time investment.
Dining for Donation Restaurant Fundraisers
The spirit night restaurant dining for donation fundraisers are pretty each to run.
Here’s how it works:
1. Call a restaurant in your area and together choose a night for your fundraiser.
2. Send home a flyer or two, make a post or two on Facebook promoting the event and maybe email parents a reminder.
3. After the event, you either stalk the mail carrier for the check or go into the store and pick up your earnings. Easy-peasy!
There’s no investment of anything other than the coordinator’s time.
No incentives are needed either, because food is the incentive.
Everyone needs to eat and Moms will appreciate having a good excuse not to cook.
Restaurants That Hold Fundraising Nights
Need some ideas for restaurants who participate in these types of fundraisers?
Here’s a short, totally not all inclusive list to give you some ideas:
- Applebees
- Buffalo Wild Wings
- California Pizza Kitchen
- Chili’s
- Chipotle
- Chuck E Cheese
- Culver’s
- Dairy Queen
- Five Guys
- Habit Burger
- Jason’s Deli
- Jersey Mike’s
- Longhorn Steakhouse
- Marco’s Pizza
- McDonalds
- Menchie’s Frozen Yogurt
- Moe’s
- Panda Express
- Panera
- Texas RoadHouse
- Whataburger
Don’t forget to check with local restaurants and pizza places too!
I’m sure they’d love to partner with your group.
The key to success with this sort of fundraising is spreading word far and wide to make sure everyone knows about it, so make a flyer to promote your Restaurant Nights.
Not a designer?
This Restaurant Night Fundraiser Flyer Template is a great way to let everyone know about your dine to donates and make it into a calendar of sorts families can hand on their fridge or command center!
This is a fundraiser that school staff will likely participate in if they know about it.
Since the temptation to grab dinner on the way home from a long day of work is very appealing.
Skating Parties
Do you have a local roller rink? It’s a two-fer: a family fun event and fundraiser in one!
Call their events coordinator and get a few skating parties on the schedule for the year.
Locally here in Cleveland, the rink of choice is United Skates of America.
This fundraiser is much like the restaurant fundraisers where there is no upfront money investment and the only “cost” is the time of the coordinator.
It’s a deal that’s hard to beat!
My PTAs typically raise somewhere in the neighborhood of $150- $250 per “party.”
Waterpark Nights
Have a Kalahari, Great Wolf Lodge or other indoor waterpark in the near vicinity?
And by near vicinity, I’m talking about within an hour drive or so.
You do? Fantastic! Call them and see if you can schedule a few school nights.
These work best when the dates align with a professional development day where students have the day off.
It can be a great way to break up the long stretch of time between Winter Break and Spring Break.
Try to snag a date during Winter Break if at all possible, especially after Christmas.
We’ve especially had success with Kalahari Nights when parents buy tickets as a present for the holidays.
No Stuff Fundraiser or Check-a-Thon
This type of fundraiser a few years ago because it struck a cord with so many people who wanted to support the school and the parent group, but didn’t want to buy any more junk.
So this alternative was floated and PTA/PTOs have had really awesome success with it.
There are several different version of this type of fundraiser, but they work the same.
Instead of asking families to buy things, your group will ask for a financial contribution instead.
You’ll need to choose a fundraising platform for this type of fundraiser since you’ll earn way more with an online payment option.
Even More Fundraising Help
Fundraising is hard. I ran it for years as Fundraising Chair, so I get it.
The Fundraising Success Kit is the plan I wish I’d had back then… step-by-step strategies, not a vague pep talk.
It works whether you’re running a classic catalog sale, a full-on a-thon, or anything in between. Publicity plan, templates, forms, the whole planner kit, all set up so you’re not starting from a blank page.
Grab the Fundraising Success Kit here
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Over to you
Adding a few of these quick and easy fundraisers into your PTO fundraising plan is a smart strategy for so many reasons.
Hope you pick a few to add into your money making rotation.
Be sure to check out this massive list of PTO school fundraising ideas if you need more inspiration for a fresh and fun fundraiser.
