18 Best Elementary School Fundraising Ideas

Elementary school is all about setting a solid foundation for kids’ education and fostering a lifelong love of learning. Like any other organization, schools also need funds to provide the best services possible. If you’re looking to raise money for your kid’s elementary school, the following elementary school fundraising ideas can help you get started towards meeting your fundraising goals.

No matter the amount of money you’re trying to raise, the following ideas can help get you on the fast track to running your very own successful fundraiser. They can even be used as middle school or high school fundraising ideas too!

One of the easiest ways to break your fundraising goals is by selling raffle tickets. The concept is simple. Students sell people tickets. You draw a single ticket from a pile, and give half of the proceeds to the winner, with the other half going towards your school or nonprofit organization. As an added bonus, many 50/50 raffle winners donate their winnings back to the cause they’re supporting.

• We give you the fundraising tools and donation forms you need to get donors signed up and spread the word about your event in person or through social media.
• Donors sponsor a brick or tile that they can customize with their own message and clipart.
• We use a high-quality process to laser engrave each brick to your donors’ specifications.
• We send you the bricks.
• You display the bricks in a public setting, like a walkway to your school.
• People for years and years can see the lasting impact of your donors’ generosity.

A Read-a-Thon fundraiser® is a fantastic way to encourage a lifelong love of reading in youngsters while also getting their school the resources they need to keep students engaged. The goal of this event is to have kids read as much as they can during a set period, during which parents and community members can pledge donations for every book a student reads.

Further encourage a love of reading with this effective fundraising opportunity. Have a local library and community members donate old books to be sold to students and their parents for small donations. You may just be surprised at how popular these events are!

Tasty treats and money for your school? Talk about a win-win! It’s no surprise that bake sales are classic fundraisers. They’re easy to set up and everyone loves to participate—especially young kids with a sweet tooth.

If a bake sale doesn’t offer enough incentive to potential donors, try upping the ante with a cook-off. Since elementary school students are still quite young, family members or older students will likely have to help the younger kids bake a special dish to enter into the competition. Have people vote via donations for their favorite dish!

A car wash is a great fundraiser that can engage not just the school community, but local community members too. All you need is a space to host the event, a set time, water and buckets, soap, and towels. This event is usually best when you make it a multi-grade event, so students of all ages can participate.

A walk-a-thon raises money while also getting students up and active. Local community members can sponsor each student, donating a certain amount of money to your school for every lap or mile a student walks. You can further boost funds by selling event-based t-shirts.

Pick up the pace with a fun run, a truly fun way to get kids active while raising money for their education. Set up a race course—preferably no more than a mile, given the students’ ages—and collect entrance fees from participants.

• Scavenger hunts
• Tug-of-war competitions
• Relay races
• Jump roping competitions
• Obstacle courses

Let grade schoolers show off their hobbies and passions with a talent show. It’s a fun school event that can include not just participants, but other students and family members as well. You can raise money either by charging parents entry fees to the event or by having participants pay to enter. The choice is yours.

A simple fundraising initiative that can be fun for the whole family is a movie night. Simply set a time and date and show a movie, all for a small fee. You can boost donations by running a concession stand stocked with snacks and refreshments.

Movie nights don’t have to be a one-time event, either. You can have them all-year round and make each night follow a holiday theme, like Halloween or Christmas.

If movie nights aren’t interactive enough for your school, why not try a game night or trivia night? Have participants donate to the school, and then let them play board games or answer hard-hitting questions to their hearts’ content.

Setting up an online fundraising page is a great way to make extra money for your school all year, not just during the school year itself. Simply set up a donation portal on your school’s website using a secure online fundraising platform.

This tactic works best when it complements, rather than replaces, other fundraising efforts.

A great way to get elementary school students engaged and raise funds is to host a school spirit week. Have each day of the week have a special theme and let students offer donations to participate. For example, one day can be a pajama day, where students are allowed to come to school in their PJs if they bring a small donation.

If you want a massive return on a small investment, there may be no better fundraiser than a silent auction. Local businesses, like local restaurants, can donate items (gift cards, coupons, products, etc.) to your fundraising event, where students, parents, and staff members can silently make offers on each donated gift.

For a truly scholastic fundraiser, try hosting a spelling bee and charge parents a small admission fee to see their kids show off their smarts against their classmates.

A truly tasty way of raising funds is to host a pizza party, where participants make a small donation to get pizza during lunch one day. If you’re lucky, you may be able to convince a local business to donate the pizzas, saving you expenses and increasing the pure profits that can go towards school supplies and other necessities.

• 24/7 chat support from real people
• Templates for flyers, posters, and other promotional materials
• A FREE library of fonts and clipart for your donors to choose from
• Video templates that you can customize to promote your event online
• A massive fundraising packet that helps you get started
• A customizable donation page for your website
• And much, much more!

Want to get started? Contact us today to begin implementing a truly unique elementary school fundraising idea: a brick fundraiser!