Darian Shimy
Published on Jan 20, 2022

15 Event Ideas for Schools

Looking for fundraiser ideas for your school? Here are 15 event ideas for PTAs and PTOs that will help you achieve your goal.
15 Event Ideas for Schools

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Field Day

Pull several smaller events together for a field day! Have booths for food items and games that win great prizes. This is also a great opportunity to include a silent auction and/or a petting zoo. 

For an entry fee, the patrons get access to all of these fun activities plus additional opportunities to give in the form of just a plain donation or purchasing separate tickets to enjoy special events that aren’t included in the entry fee.

See Also: 30 Cool Fundraising Ideas For Schools

Cowboy Breakfast

Spend a Saturday hosting a special breakfast event to raise money for the school! Feature a spread of your community’s most popular breakfast items and include smaller events, like a silent auction, to really bring in the cash. Charge an admission fee per person to enjoy the breakfast and include smaller games for the price of admission or charge separately to play.

crowd gathered for a bike a thon

Renaissance Fair

Hire a renaissance team to come and host an old timey fair for your school. For an admission fee, patrons get to explore the fair and get an idea of what life was like at the turn of the century. 

Host A Bowling Night

Partner with a local bowling alley and host a night where families can come and bowl. When partnering with businesses, they’re usually willing to share a portion of the proceeds with the school for hosting their event there. If not, check to see if you can purchase tickets before the event and resell them to your patrons for the fundraising portion of the event. 

bowling alley

Family Game Night

Host a night where families can come and play board games! For the price of admission, provide a simple dinner, like all you can eat spaghetti or pizza, and access to any board game they can think of!

Family Movie Night

Provide dinner and play a movie for the whole family to enjoy! Make sure to collect an admission fee and have smaller ways that families can give throughout the event, like an envelope wall, if time allows.

Carnival

Hire a carnival crew to come set up their games and rides on school property if space allows and charge an admission fee for your patrons to come and enjoy the games and rides. 

Pro tip: make sure to put signs up a week or so ahead of time to drum up lots of excitement and make the most of your event!

carnival

Pajama Party

Host an event where the kids get to lounge around in their PJ’s with their friends. Have them register beforehand so the PTO/PTA can get a headcount and provide dinner and a movie before their parents come to pick them up. 

Dive In Movie

Collect an admission feel and talk to your local pool about bringing in an inflatable screen and projector to show a movie after a long day of fun in the sun. With the addition of a few tables and chairs and a few calls to some local food trucks, you’ll be able to provide the opportunity for meals for the day and possibly be able to split the proceeds with the trucks.

outdoor car show

March Madness Week

For the price of a donation, host an event for the week, like one of the weeks of March Madness, to allow the kids to show support for their favorite teams! Include a few pay-to-play games and other opportunities to win some prizes to truly make the event a memorable one.

Roller Rink

Host an event at your local roller rink. The local event places will usually share the proceeds of the event with the school without the PTO/PTA having to do much of the work. 

Put On A Sports Clinic

Sports events are always a big hit! See if you can persuade some of your top local athletes to come train young athletes in a popular sport and collect a registration fee when the athletes sign up!

Join the thousands schools using FutureFund
Schools that sign up get full access to all of FutureFund's features—it's free and it always will be.

Breakfast With Santa

Know any Santa’s? Ask one to donate his time and come to a breakfast party! Charge an admission fee for families to come and dine with The Man himself, and even provide an opportunity for families to get nice pictures taken with him for Christmas Cards for an additional fee.

Turkey Trot

Set up a Turkey Trot 5k (or any other distance/featuring any other holiday) for your community athletes. For the registration fee, allow them to do the run and provide some goodies after the race has been finished. 

outdoor car show

Fall Festival

Grab a few hay bales and a few apple bobbing stations and set up a fall festival for your community! The PTO/PTA can decide if they want to have the theme feature thanksgiving, halloween, or a mixture of the two. Either way, make sure to collect an entry fee and make sure to have other opportunities for the patrons to donate to the school set up throughout the event!

15 Fundraising Event Ideas for Schools Pinterest
By Darian Shimy
Darian Shimy is the founder and CEO of FutureFund Technology, a fundraising and selling platform for K-12 school groups. He has 25+ years in web-based technologies, managing engineering teams, and building products.
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