Get ready to nail your first PTA meeting! Learn what to expect, how to contribute, and the key terms you’ll need to know to participate with confidence.
Updated July 24, 2024
Here’s a list of 10 great ways you can celebrate the start of the school year and raise some funds too! With events from hosting a movie night to a back-to-school tailgate barbeque, these ideas will help support your fundraising goals from the very first day back!
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Run Your Back-To-School Events with FutureFund
Our platform comes with powerful tools that can help you fundraise for your school more effectively from the very first day of the year. These include:
- Ready-to-go campaign templates so you can sell tickets or items for different events.
- A built-in messaging system you can use to announce your fundraisers and provide details.
- Opportunity to create volunteer sign-up lists to optimize parent and community involvement.
- Powerful financial reporting tools to help you track your earnings, stay compliant, and plan future fundraisers more effectively.
Get started with FutureFund today or book a demo to see how it can work for you.
Donation Campaigns
These campaigns encourage parents and volunteers to donate directly to your school group. FutureFund makes it easy to collect money online during the campaign, but you can also combine these campaigns with in-person events to make your fundraiser more meaningful.
Learn how to run a donation campaign with FutureFund here.
Tip: Use FutureFund’s messaging system to announce the fundraiser and include a link to the online campaign so that people can still donate even if they can’t attend the event.
Doodle Drives
Set up several stations for students to move between and color pictures that describe what they’re excited about this year. While the event is going on, everyone gets a chance to meet new friends and share their pictures with family!
Set up donation jars at each station and ask contributors to donate what they can. Each station can collect for a different grade level, goal, sports team, or club. Include a QR link for the online donation campaign on the jar so that attendees have the option to donate online as well.
Pizza Night
Although you can sell tickets to an event like this, you can also go with a donation per slice! Just remember to set up your QR code that gives everyone the opportunity to give donations through the FutureFund platform. The kids get to socialize with their friends, the parents get to mingle, and the PTO can start putting out feelers for new volunteers.
Breakfast Bars
Pair a meet-the-teacher experience with a breakfast bar setup to hand out morning treats, as well as receive donations. Invite supporters to donate any amount while having the opportunity to mix and mingle with the faculty.
First-Day Photoshoots
Celebrate the students’ first day back by hiring a photographer and providing props for them to take silly first-day-of-school photos with their friends. Not only will this be a fun way for students to bond with their schoolmates, but it’ll also be a really nice keepsake to look back on.
Set up a way to take donations for the photos and you have an easy and sweet way to gain funds for the school.
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Get StartedPurchase Campaigns
Any kind of fundraiser where you sell physical items or event tickets is a Purchase Campaign. Add each item you want to sell to your online store in FutureFund by creating a specific purchase campaign for it.
Learn how to run a purchase campaign here.
Tip: Always run Purchase campaigns alongside physical events like school spirit wear sales, since this allows you to make sales 24/7 and lets people make purchases even if they can’t attend the event.
Popcorn & A Movie
Create a movie night to remember by setting up a projector and some cozy bean bag chairs in the gym. You can even lean into the time of year by selecting a back-to-school-themed movie to screen. Sell tickets through the FutureFund platform ahead of time and then sell concession goodies at the event, because every movie is better with a bucket of popcorn!
Back-To-School Health Fair
Embrace the “fresh start” feeling of the back-to-school season by setting up a wellness check event for your school community. Entice attendees with games and food, but, more importantly, arrange to have health care professionals in attendance to provide wellness checks including blood sugar screenings, blood pressure screenings, mammograms, vaccines, HIV/AIDS testing, or dental and eye screenings.
Tailgate Barbeque
Host a tailgate cookout for staff, students, and their families. Sell tickets for the event through FutureFund so that you know how many people to prepare for. Families can avoid the stress of meal prep for a night as they ease back into the school routine by spending time with each other, faculty, and friends instead! The event will also be a great opportunity to sign-up volunteers to support other events throughout the year.
Back-to-School Bash
Sell tickets to a fun back-to-school bash! Select a fun theme for the event like a carnival, Hawaiian luau, or superhero theme to get everyone excited. Make sure to have plenty of treats, games, and activities set up with the help of volunteers and other community supporters. This is a great event to seek sponsors for, they can hand out their merchandise and receive some free publicity (benefits for both!).
A-Thons (Pledge Campaigns)
An “A-Thon” fundraiser is a special kind of pledge campaign you can run in FutureFund. Once you create the campaign for the event, students who sign up to participate each get a link they can use to collect donations from family and friends.
Find step-by-step instructions for successful pledge campaigns here.
Tip: The link you’ll share when you create the campaign is what you’ll use to sign up student participants. When they register for the event, they’ll each get their own unique link that they can use to raise money from members of the school community.
Escape Rooms
Convert the gym or a few classrooms into an escape room, then let students and their parents try their best for an hour to crack the codes. If you have several classrooms set up at once and allow the students to do it in groups of 5-10 then everyone should get to try their hand within a few hours. Have students set a time goal for how long it will take them to “escape” and collect pledges from friends and family to support their goal using a FutureFund pledge campaign.
Back-to-School Color Fun Run
What could symbolize back-to-school cheer more than a colorful Fun Run?! Organizing your Fun Run is essentially like running a Jog-A-Thon, participants register to run a certain distance and collect pledges as encouragement to meet their goal. Except this time the run includes colorful powder, so make sure to tell participants to wear a white t-shirt and sunglasses to get the full effect without getting it in their eyes.
Want more inspiration? Explore our whole list of A-Thon fundraisers!
Frequently Asked Questions
How can I use FutureFund’s messaging system to promote my back-to-school events?
FutureFund’s messaging system lets you:
- Send messages to every parent in your school community or filter your audience to reach specific groups.
- Create unique sender profiles to make sure the message is always coming from the appropriate party.
- Use customizable message templates to save time when broadcasting updates or announcements.
Should my school fundraiser be a Purchase or a Donation campaign?
Use Purchase campaigns to sell event tickets or physical items (like baked goods, merchandise, or arts and crafts).
Use Donation campaigns to collect money from community members in support of a specific goal or cause (like a food drive).
How do I sell sponsorships with FutureFund?
FutureFund displays sponsors on your school group’s online directory once they have agreed to make a contribution. You’ll be able to set the price for sponsorships on your own—but our team can provide guidance and support if you’re not sure what to charge.
How can I use FutureFund to track my fundraiser’s success?
FutureFund gives you the ability to generate financial reports for fundraising campaigns in just a few clicks. To do this, navigate to Store and click the Reports tab near the top of your screen. Then choose Campaign Summary from the drop-down menu and click Generate Report.
