The months leading up to the holidays are the perfect time to hold a fundraiser for your Parent Teacher Organization (PTO), especially when you choose the right fundraiser!
Because money can be tight during the holidays, with families buying gifts and handling other end-of-year obligations, it’s a great idea to center school fundraising ideas in one of these three distinct categories:
- No Brainer Buys: Something families would probably buy anyway.
- Ready Made Gifts: Something families can give as a gift.
- Time and Hassle Savers: Something that saves parents and families the run around.
These fundraising ideas work equally well for all levels of K-12 school, including elementary, middle and high school parent groups.
Let’s dive into these categories to get a clearer idea of what you can offer to raise money for your school and PTO around the winter holidays.
No Brainer-Buys
The holidays are a great opportunity to run a fundraiser based on seasonal products that are likely already on shopping lists as holiday necessities.
There are so many different fundraising options that are a good fit here.
This gives families the opportunity to purchase these items from your PTO and support the school and get a to do list items checked off at the same time!
Make a list of things families are likely to be purchasing during the holidays for family and friend celebrations and offer one or more of them in a pre-holiday fundraiser.
Some seasonal product suggestions to get you thinking:
- Evergreen wreaths and garlands
- Gift Wrap
- Coffee, cider, tea and hot chocolate
- Cookie dough
- Candy and chocolate
- Pies and cakes
- Strudels and pastries
- Wine and spirits (partner with a local retailer and have pick up off school grounds)
- A chance to win cash (because who wouldn’t like to win right before the holidays?)
Add anything else families use or give during holiday gatherings and New Year celebrations to your list of fundraising options.
Local Vendor Opportunity
A bonus of many of these products is that they are available from local vendors.
That means you can deepen your PTO’s relationship with an important part of the community, business owners.
Using local vendors also means the money spent stays in the community, so you’re essentially investing in your community by doing business locally instead of with a national company or brand.
Local vendors can sometimes even offer lower than average prices compared to non-local businesses, do get a pricing quote to fully consider all options.
Don’t assume local businesses will be the more expensive option or not have products to make your fundraiser a success.
Business owners can help source what you need and may have insights about what sells and what doesn’t at this time of year.
Ready Made Gifts
The next category of holiday-appropriate products includes items that can be gifted to teachers, family, friends, neighbors, and so on.
Event Tickets
Schedule a night at a local indoor water park or family amusement center for a time right after the holidays.
This allows families to give the tickets as a present to their kids, which can encourage more fundraiser participation.
Novelty Items
Specialty-shaped pasta, candles, and other similar items also make for great gifts since they’re often things people wouldn’t buy for themselves.
Cookie Dough
Cookie dough also fits this category since freshly baked cookies make for a thoughtful holiday host or hostess gift.
Chocolate, gourmet popcorn and nuts
Treats like these are always appreciated as a gift and offer a chance for the purchaser to treat themselves.
Raffle baskets
Collect donations from family, friends and local businesses and create high value gift raffle baskets.
Offer a mix of themed raffle baskets to capture attention and give everyone a reason to either bid (if doing a silent auction) or purchase raffle tickets for a shot to win.
Time and Hassle Savers
The last category of holiday fundraisers with great potential focuses on saving time—a resource that’s always scarce, especially during the holidays.
Offering a product or service that saves parents and families time can be a big winner during this stressful time of year.
Gift Wrapping Service
A unique idea for a service that will definitely save families time and hassle is to set up a gift-wrapping station.
Parents can bring gifts to be wrapped and wait while their order is completed.
Just remember, this requires a lot of organization and good labeling to ensure packages don’t become intermixed!
Parents’ Night Out
Offer to watch students while their parents run errands, do some holiday shopping, or just get some much-needed alone time for a few hours one evening.
This event requires a lot of volunteers on hand to keep everyone safe.
Recruit volunteers from the high school to care for the kids who attend.
Many students need volunteer service hours for National Honor Society, Key Club or graduation, so your PTO can help them get hours for a win-win collaboration.
Plan some activities to keep the crowd happy, by showing a movie in the gym and offering quiet reading in the library.
Restaurant Nights
Scheduling a dine-to-donate night at a restaurant is a smart move in busy holiday months.
Who doesn’t want an excuse to skip meal prep and dishes?
Try scheduling a different restaurant night every other week for maximum profits.
Think pizza one week and sub sandwiches the next.
Mix up the cuisines to offer a variety of options.
Offering a dine-to-donate event more than once a month won’t be too much; it gives families multiple chances to participate.
Sell Beyond the School
One last suggestion for maximizing holiday themed fundraising reach.
Many of the fundraising ideas outlined in this post work well for non-school families too, so don’t skip this chance to get the wider community participating in your fundraising.
Go beyond the walls of your school to maximize your fundraiser’s earning potential and advertise the fundraiser to community members.
They’ll love that they’re able to support the school and save themselves time and trouble of hunting down holiday must-haves and gifts.
Need help publicizing your fundraiser beyond the school?
This post covers different ideas for how to publicize and PTO events and the same strategies can be used to promote your fundraisers too.
Over to You
The holidays present a wonderful opportunity to raise some serious money for your school parent group, especially when you’re strategic about selecting the right mix of products, services and events.
By specifically working with the holiday timing, your group can leverage the opportunity and come away with a fat check to fund your group’s programs and activities.
Happy fundraising!
