15 Fundraisers You Can Run With Little (Or No) Cost

Updated: November 2024

Summary:

• These 15 fundraisers can help you meet your goals without spending a dime—they’re perfect for groups on a tight budget. 
• Most fundraisers on this list are 100% adaptable to your resources. Evaluate what you currently have and work with it to meet your goals.
• Fundraisers that involve selling products can be made more affordable if you can get the items in question donated. Ask restaurants and other local businesses for their support!
• Putting your fundraisers online is also a great way to save money by reducing your overhead costs so that more of the money you collect goes to your school community.

Costume day

Raise money by having kids and their parents donate a small amount to dress in costume for the day. This is an absolutely free fundraiser—and it’s perfect for Halloween!

How to run a costume day event

• Choose a date and start planning for costume day a few weeks in advance.
• Set the rules—use our free school fundraiser waiver form to inform parents.
• Create a fundraiser campaign on FutureFund to collect participation fees from parents—and staff, if they’re participating.
•  Get the word out to parents and students with flyers, newsletters, and social media.

Send out a final update with the results—and any cute pictures—after costume day ends.  

Letter writing campaign

Write letters to local businesses asking for donations towards a cause or the purchase of necessary school items. Get younger kids involved and incorporate educational elements into fundraising by asking them to address the letters or write up some cute thank-you notes.

How to run a letter-writing campaign

• Set up a campaign on FutureFund with a link for online donations. Add multiple tiers to make it easy for community members to contribute comfortably.
• Get students and teachers to volunteer by brainstorming ideas and writing the letters and adding a personal touch.
• Send out the letters: Mail the letters out to local businesses and prominent members of the community or deliver them by hand.

Use FutureFund’s free thank you letter for business donors to express your gratitude at the end of the event.

“Give it up” challenge

This fundraiser is completely free to start and doesn’t even need any volunteers! Ask participants to give up something for a month and donate the money they would have spent on it to the school instead.

What they decide to give up can be unique to each person. A lot of people go with fast food, that second coffee of the day, or the money they would spend on a hobby, like bowling.

How to run a “give it up” challenge.

• Plan the event and frame it as a fun way for families to reflect on habits and contribute to a greater cause.
• Recruit volunteers and assign them roles in FutureFund.
• Kick things off by creating a hype video on Facebook, TikTok, and Instagram.
• Track your progress. Use a donation tracker to show collective savings and donations over time. 

Celebrate your success after wrap-up and use FutureFund’s messaging tools to thank participants.

Community chores

Recruit students to take care of small tasks and chores within the community—anything from painting a fence to helping around the house, depending on a student’s age. The easiest way to set this up is to create a flat-rate voucher for each service call and sell them online.

How to run a community chores purchase campaign

• Recruit volunteers and manage roles right from your school’s FutureFund account.
• Start a purchase campaign and set the donation amount to something you feel fairly represents around an hour of someone’s time.
• Get the word out with social media, school newsletters, and FutureFund’s built-in messaging tools. Or, deliver flyers in person.
• Track progress with a points leaderboard on your campaign page.

This is a great way to get your community more involved with the school, too.

Dog walking campaigns

Ask students and parents to spend time walking dogs for people in your community for a small fee. Create a flat rate voucher and sell it online via a FutureFund campaign.

How to run a dog walking purchase campaign

• Check local regulations to confirm if your school needs to follow any special laws or regulations for animal care.
• Get volunteers to sign up individually or in groups—younger children should only take part with adult supervision.
• Set up a purchase campaign on FutureFund and sell vouchers for walks online.
• Promote your service in newsletters, flyers, and school social media sites.

Say thank you after the campaign wraps up and let people know how you did.

Paper dove drive

Sell paper doves to the community! Participants can decorate each dove they make or write messages on them to give each one a personalized touch. As they create each one, clip them to a piece of string lining the walls of the school or tape them up on classroom walls.

How to run a paper dove purchase campaign

• Pick a meaningful symbol—doves, hearts, crosses, sports logos, and ribbons work well for this kind of event.
• Create a purchase campaign on FutureFund and sell each figure for a flat rate.
• Spread the word with social media, flyers, and school newsletters.
• Send updates to parents and staff from right within FutureFund to help drive momentum.

Let students keep their doves or bring them home at the end.

Sports clinic

Running a sports clinic might take some extra planning—but since most schools already have all of the equipment they’ll need to run the clinic, the costs to host one should stay pretty low. The more popular the coaches, the more likely people are to engage.

Find more fundraising ideas for high school sports teams here.

How to run a sports clinic

• Confirm any special requirements, like vetting potential speakers or having EMTs on-site.
• Send out a waiver to parents with FutureFund’s built-in messaging tools.
• Set up a ticket campaign—FutureFund makes this easy with built-in tools to help you sell tickets and manage reservations.
• Promote your event on Facebook, Instagram, and other social media sites as well as flyers and school newsletters.
• Scan tickets at the door on the day of with FutureFund’s free Turnstile app.

Share highlights from the clinic and thank coaches, volunteers, and participants for their support on social media after event day.

Cooking Class

A cooking class is a fairly simple event to run. All you’ll need to do is secure a chef for an hour-long lesson. You don’t have to spend big bucks hiring a pro, either—see if there are any prominent chefs in the school community willing to donate their time! 

How to run a cooking class event

• Make it personal by finding a chef from your school community or a local favorite to lead the session.
• Sell tickets in your FutureFund virtual store once you’ve determined who will be the chef for the event and what ingredients participants will need.
• Promote your event on social media, newsletters, and hype videos to get people excited about taking the class in advance.

Want to make it even more inclusive? Turn it into a remote party and encourage families to follow along virtually even if they can’t afford to donate or attend in person.

Read-a-thon

Read-A-Thons are a fun way to get students into reading while also raising money for your school. Participants gather pledges from friends, family, or community members based on how much they read over a specific period of time—usually several weeks or months.

How to run a read-a-thon

• Pick a date and time frame—at least a week is best but you can continue a read-a-thon indefinitely if you set milestones.
• Recruit and manage volunteers with FutureFund’s built-in volunteer management tools and free list template.
• Create incentive programs and offer rewards like points, pizza parties, or movie nights for top-performing students, classes, and grades.
• Start a pledge-a-thon and use FutureFund’s free customizable leaderboard to keep track.
• Promote your event in newsletters, on social media, and by messaging people directly from your admin panel.
• Find sponsors. Students and parents can canvass door-to-door in their neighborhood or ask people they know to chip in.

Maintain momentum with themed days, reading goals, regular updates on progress.

Learn more about running a Read-A-Thon here.

Score bucket

All organizers will need for this is a few buckets or containers of some sort and an excited home team crowd watching a school sporting event. When the home team scores, pass the bucket around to collect donations.

How to run a score bucket event

• Set up an external campaign on FutureFund. Link it to your social media pages, your sports team’s schedule, or wherever you advertise information about games.
• Prepare the buckets by decorating them with your school’s logo or colors.
• Promote each game day through social media, newsletters, and word of mouth.

Announce the total raised during halftime or after the game to drum up more support.

Social media challenge

The ice bucket challenge swept the nation and saw several people either doused in ice water or donating money towards finding a cure for Lou Gherig’s disease. Start your own social media challenge where people either donate towards your cause or do a challenge.

How to run a social media challenge

• Decide on a theme or have students submit their ideas and vote on options.
• Create an external campaign to link to outside resources, like a GoFundMe or third-party non-profit donation page.
• Lead by example with a hype video that tells participants how they can join in and donate.
• Promote the challenge with word-of-mouth and regular social media updates.
• Let people submit and reshare content, including their own challenge videos, on Facebook, TikTok, and Instagram.

Keep the campaign going until it naturally falls off. Then, send out a final update with your total take.

Food truck festival

Call local food trucks and invite them to set up near the school or during another event in exchange for a portion of their proceeds. Have your PTA/PTO help promote the fundraiser to your network ahead of time for best results.

How to run a food truck festival

• Recruit volunteers to reach out to trucks, manage your campaign page, and handle setup/tear down the day of your event.
• Manage volunteers and assign individual roles right from within your FutureFund account.
• Pick a location like the school parking lot, a local park, or in some other area within the community. 
• Promote the event through FutureFund, Facebook, TikTok, and Instagram.

Thank each food truck in a social media post at the end of the event to help them attract more attention.

Auction

Auction off donated items or services to bring in cash for your school to cover budget shortfalls or cover the cost of special projects—like a STEM lab. 

How to run an auction

• Recruit volunteers to help you organize the auction and seek out donations from local businesses or parents. 
• Choose the type of auction—live auctions are better for exciting in-person bid-offs, while sealed bids are better for big-ticket items.
• Set a budget for displays and promotions. If money is tight, use what you have—or launch a fundraiser campaign to raise the funds you need.
• Promote your auction with emails, flyers, and school social media posts.

Wrap up and say thank you after the event winds down. Send out updates and thank-you notes to donors, participants, and volunteers.

Restaurant Fundraiser

This is similar to a food truck festival—but you’ll the community to visit a specific restaurant instead. In exchange for the business you’ll bring them, the restaurant will donate a portion of the proceeds when they mention your name.

How to run a restaurant fundraiser.

• Find partner restaurants by reaching out to local restaurants to ask for their participation.
• Promote your restaurant fundraiser on school social media sites or with hand-delivered promo flyers.
• Create an external campaign on FutureFund and tell people to mention the fundraiser by name when they place an order or visit to eat.
• Track your results and post regular updates about your progress.  

Show your gratitude with FutureFund’s thank you letter templates for business donors.

Used book sale/rummage sale

Ask the community to donate books that they don’t want or other items of value for the school to sell in a general community sale. All of the inventory is donated, so the school will only need to provide space and some tables.

How to run a book sale or rummage sale

• Recruit volunteers to serve as door greeters, cashiers, organizers, and canvassers.
• Canvas for donations from families, community members, and local businesses.
• Launch a ticket campaign in FutureFund. Track sales in your admin panel and scan people in at the door with the Turnstile app.
• Spread the word by sharing event details on your social media sites and posting flyers around the community.

Thank participants and share highlights by sending out a message right from your FutureFund account.

Save Money & Raise More with Future Fund

All of these great ideas can help your PTA or PTO meet your funding goals without needing to put down so much money in advance—but the right tools can make your fundraising events more affordable in general! Using Future Fund to sell event tickets or school merch online gives you 24/7 access to a wider base of donors without needing extra volunteers.

Best of all? FutureFund is totally FREE for schools to use, forever. Book a demo here to learn more.