School Fundraising, Even in the Summer

June 16, 2016

Summertime is nice to take a break from the regular hustle and bustle of the school year. But if you’re doing school fundraising in the summer, know that you have a lot less competition for the attention of people who get bombarded with solicitations to buy stuff. Besides, a lot of people slow down and clean up during the summer months, which means it’s an excellent time to collect all those empty ink cartridges they excavate from the back corners of office drawers.

We’ve talked before about how school fundraising is a good way to teach valuable business skills and instill a sense of entrepreneurship in young people, and adding a fundraising element to the summer months is a good way to carry that message forward.

School Fundraising with a Summer Fair

A school summer fair or a street fair fundraiser can be any size, from a small group event based on games and contests (with an entry fee), to, if you have bigger goals, a street fair with arts-and-crafts booths, games, and entertainment. Street fairs are a great way to raise money for your school through admission fees or tickets for individual games or rides.

Consider putting out a barrel to collect empty inkjets cartridges and small electronics in exchange for admission, contest entries, or discounts.

Here are some event ideas:

Art Crawl

Students can submit their favorite pieces of artwork from the school year for display. Charge one ticket to the gallery and let people vote for their favorites

Face Painting

You can get a face painting kit at the craft store and take tickets or money for people to get designs on their faces. Have a “flash” book on hand with hearts, rainbows, skulls, or whatever your face painter can draw quickly.

Lip Sync Contest

Get your old boom box out of the garage and let people dance around to their favorite tunes. Charge an entry fee or charge for “vote” tickets

Balloons!

You don’t need a helium tank to have fun with balloons (But it wouldn’t hurt). And you can get biodegradable balloons for environmentally-friendly fun. Get those long balloons for balloon animals (there are tutorials on YouTube), or get tiny balloons and do a balloon stomp, or have a Water Balloon Dodgeball Contest.

Decorated Potato Contest

This is a Thing at state and county fairs, and it’s fairly easy to do. Grab a giant sack of potatoes, toothpicks, fast-setting glue and construction paper, charge an admission fee and let people’s imaginations run wild as they come up with Potato Heads from their favorite shows, books and stories. Winner gets a free sack of potatoes!

The Dunk Tank

Yes, the rental of the dunk tank is going to cost some money. But put the right people in the seat, and you’ve got an excellent way to raise funds. Maybe the school Principal, or a well-like teacher (or even a not-well liked teacher might help generate some goodwill) This should be the highest-ticket event

Thanks to Tim Evanson for the photo

Start raising funds for your cause!