How to Make Fundraisers Fun for Both Students & Parents
Teachers work diligently to develop engaging lessons and classroom activities for students. Whether you’re finding creative ways to explain important concepts or trying to make homework fun, your goal is to create positive, impactful experiences for your students. The same concepts should be applied to your school’s fundraisers!
With fundraisers, however, you also have direct involvement from parents to consider. How do you strike a balance between making your event or campaign fun for students and their parents? We’ll cover these three tips in more detail:
Choose fundraisers that appeal to both audiences.
Offer valuable incentives for students.
Make parents’ lives easier.
As you start planning your next school fundraiser, make sure you think about engagement from both students and parents throughout every step. Let’s get started with how to choose the right fundraisers.
1. Choose fundraisers that appeal to both audiences.
This may seem like a no-brainer, but it’s easier than you might think to get caught up in the excitement of a new fundraising idea without stopping to consider the needs of both students and parents.
Even if you’re tempted to dive right into planning, take a moment to ask the following questions about any fundraiser you’re interested in hosting:
Will the fundraiser need parent volunteers? If so, what roles will they play?
How much can students participate in the fundraiser? Can it be student-led?
Can students and parents work together to fundraise?
How demanding will this fundraiser be for parents?
Will this idea be exciting for students?
How much have parents and students engaged with similar fundraisers in the past?
Let these questions jumpstart your thinking about how much a certain fundraising idea appeals to each group, then reevaluate your initial fundraising idea based on your answers. This can help you find new ways to improve any less appealing aspects of the idea.
To see these questions in play, let’s look at the example of an elementary school cookie dough fundraiser. This fundraiser can be student-led without designated parent volunteers, but it will involve students working together to sell cookie dough with their parents. You can easily lessen the demands on parents by using an online store for sales. And, the prospect of eating cookies in the near future will definitely excite students!
2. Offer valuable incentives for students.
Once you’ve selected an idea that will appeal to everyone, focus on making the fundraiser more exciting for students. One simple way to add fun elements to any kind of fundraiser is by providing incentives, either for student participation or achievements. Depending on your students’ age range, these incentives could include:
Fun prizes for younger students, such as a pizza party for the top-selling class or small toys for carnival game winners.
Volunteer hours for high schoolers that will provide a boost to their college resumes.
Exciting products any student can buy in a product fundraiser, whether treats like cookie dough or merchandise like t-shirts.
Aside from these tangible incentives, teachers and parents can also emphasize to students the valuable lessons and skills they’ll learn from fundraising. From goal-setting to money handling to increasing confidence with responsibility, students can learn a lot from fundraisers, complementing what they learn in the classroom.
3. Make parents’ lives easier.
For parents, the best way to make fundraisers more appealing is to lessen the demands on them. Your students’ parents have a lot on their plates. Anything you can do to make their involvement simpler will be a win!
Parents will be much more likely to enjoy your fundraiser when you focus on making these three things easier for them:
Volunteering: If your fundraiser is an event, like a school auction or carnival, you’ll need plenty of parents to volunteer their time. Make the volunteering process easier by letting them register online and providing straightforward training sessions that quickly tell them everything they need to know. To make training and volunteering more fun, provide free food!
Donating: Parents are more likely to donate when they know their donations have the power to make a real difference in their kids’ education. You can make it easier to increase donations by helping parents take advantage of matching gift opportunities. Provide resources informing parents of how to check if their employers will match donations to your school. Emphasize this easy way to make a greater impact.
Parents’ daily lives: Some fundraisers have the potential to benefit parents even after the fundraiser ends. For example, discount card fundraisers can provide parents with numerous coupons at local businesses. According to ABC Fundraising’s list of top fundraiser ideas, buyers can use these discounts over and over for a full year. Saving money on everyday purchases can be a big incentive for parents!
If your fundraiser currently requires a major time commitment from parents, brainstorm ways to cut down on the need. You can do this using technology, additional staff volunteers, or by decreasing the overall scope of your fundraiser. When in doubt, ask parents directly how you can make their experience better.
Final Thoughts on Making Fundraisers Fun
Along with these tips, there are plenty of other ways your school can get creative to add fun elements to your fundraisers. Use technology to engage students and parents in new ways, or explore resources like Best Fundraising Ideas to find unique school fundraisers that will excite everyone involved. No matter which direction you choose, just remember to prioritize both students and parents!