Seeking alumni donations isn’t just about fundraising—it’s about connecting with former students. By tapping into emotional motivators like nostalgia, recognition, and shared impact, you can inspire former students to stay engaged and give back.
Never let a budget issue keep your students away from the hands-on learning experience of a school trip! Make sure your next trip is fully funded by using the tools and inspiration FutureFund provides in this guide to raise the money you’ll need for every part of your adventure. Let’s go!
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See Also: 15 Fundraising Ideas for Small Groups & Clubs
Run Your School Trip Fundraiser with FutureFund
Our platform comes with powerful tools that can help you fundraise more effectively, especially when it comes to funding a school trip.
These include:
- Ready-to-go campaign templates so you can seek donations or make sales to support your travel plans.
- A built-in messaging system you can use to announce your fundraisers and provide details on the trip you’re planning.
- 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 include an in-person event with the theme of your trip in mind if you want 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.
Direct-Donation Drive
Direct-Donation Drives are a great way to organize a fundraiser that doesn’t require a lot of volunteers or an event location. Donors can send their funds to your fund-collecting service, like Future Fund, and then you can access them for your needs. Consider adding a theme to the Direct-Donation Drive to fit the trip that you’re raising money for!
Letter-Writing Campaigns
Students set aside time to write letters to community members and local businesses outlining the trip’s details and what they hope to learn while they’re away. Ask for donations to help fund the trip and give the details to where they can donate directly online with FutureFund through your school’s account. And watch the money flow in!
Email Campaign
A low-venue, low-volunteer, low-capital fundraising option is an Email Campaign. Similar to the Direct Donation campaign above, you could organize this fundraiser through a series of email blasts that span a month or two. Donors can contribute directly to the trip that your school is planning. You can even set up a competitive angle by grouping grades or creating teams of donors.
Community Chores
Another great way to get the community involved in the students’ education is to complete chores that the community members have in exchange for donations towards the trip! This is also a really great way to let the kids have an active role in earning the money towards their goal. It reinforces the idea that when you work, you get paid and when you get paid, you have fun (or pay the bills).
Once the job is complete, refer people to your online donation page. If you’re looking to raise a lot check out these 15 Fundraising Ideas That Make the Most Money.
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.
Color Run
Give attendees an opportunity to work on their fitness while also working toward getting the trip paid for! Organize a fun Color Run for competitors and run it like an a-thon where participants can register beforehand and grab donations for their work at the event!
Make sure you have prizes ready for the winners and utilize social media as much as possible.
Dance-a-Thon
Hold a fundraiser and disguise it as a dance. Students can take up supporters and register beforehand to get funded for how long they can withstand the music! You can hold this easily inside the school gym or cafeteria—and choose a theme based on the trip itself or the season you hold the event in.
Tip: You can double this with a purchase campaign by selling tickets for those wanting to watch the students participate without having to participate themselves.
Dog Walks
Turn the traditional walk-a-thon into something even more fun by adding four-legged friends into the mix. Invite everyone in the community to come out and walk their pets! Have participants register before the big day and see if local businesses will help support both walkers and dogs themselves.
Purchase Campaigns
Any kind of fundraiser where you sell physical items or event tickets is a Purchase campaign. Add each item type 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 bake sales, since this allows you to make sales 24/7 and lets people make purchases even if they can’t attend the event.
“Tag the Bags” Event
The idea behind the Tag The Bags fundraising event is that your community gathers together to support your club and wish the travelers good luck as they embark on their journey. The fun part of this event is that the community writes well wishes on the luggage that the club will carry with them over the course of their trip, making a way for the community to almost travel with the club.
Have community members donate luggage and have students bring in the luggage they plan to use for the trip. Hold the event, sell tickets for the experience beforehand with FutureFund, and spend time allowing guests to write motivation “tags” for each of the bags.
Pancake Breakfast
Host an event where everyone comes and enjoys a pancake breakfast! This is a great opportunity to combine a bunch of smaller events together to make one big fundraising event, or you can keep this event small and focus solely on the pancakes.
Sell tickets in advance in your school’s online store with FutureFund. This ensures tables for patrons and fundraising for your school or club.
Candy Sales
Food-based fundraisers are a classic option—so why not continue the tradition? Have families make homemade candies and sweets to sell online. Buyers can pre-purchase treats so no one wastes ingredients and then delivery can happen at the school or through the students themselves. You can post your items in your school’s store through FutureFund and advertise the options!
Consider hosting it around a holiday, such as Halloween, Christmas, Valentine’s Day or even Mother’s Day.
Bake Sale
Bake sales are such a great way to fundraise. Families and students alike make homemade baked goods and get them sold. In this new day-and-age, you can post options online and buyers can pre-purchase the treats as we mentioned above. This event can also be run as a ticketed event, making it even more useful to use FutureFund by having guests pre-purchase tickets as well.
Community Car Wash
Sometimes you don’t have to look any further than a classic option—a Community Car Wash! Get everyone excited about getting their car cleaned by posting ahead of time on social media and selling vouchers for a wash online. This option requires a location and the students do the washing.
Frequently Asked Questions
How can I use FutureFund’s messaging system to promote my fundraiser?
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.
How can I use FutureFund to track my fundraiser’s success?
FutureFund gives you the ability to generate financial reports for your 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.
How can I use FutureFund to grow my volunteer pool?
FutureFund has several online volunteer sign-up and communication tools to make this happen. Since the sign-up and the communication stays in one spot, both time and paper are saved in the planning.
