Unique School Fundraising Ideas
You want unique school fundraising ideas and we got them! Fundraising Zone has been providing school fundraiser ideas for almost 50 years. Now the word “unique” has been defined as, “being the only one of its kind; unlike anything else.” And so everyone wants to try something “new ”or unique because they get bored of doing the same old thing year after year.
However, here is just a word of caution. Please don’t throw a winning school fundraiser ideas money maker for school out the window just because you have done it before.
For instance, year after year our three top school fundraisers are our Winter Wonderland, Snackin in the USA, and Popcorn Pleasures fundraising brochures. Traditionally these are our top sellers because they work. Schools have raised thousands of dollars using these brochures. They contain unique fundraising items that your friends and family will want to buy. And finally, these are all high profit fundraisers for schools.
Gift Wrap
Snacks
Sell Popcorn
We suggest that you closely look at combining these unique fundraising brochures with the following unique school fundraiser ideas.
A Unique School Fundraiser that does the Job
Here are three unique fundraising ideas for elementary school.
Lemonade stand.
Kids have been raising money with lemonade stands for decades. Well here is the good news. They still work and can teach your children valuable lessons about life and business.
You can add your unique twist to the modern lemonade stand by using organic lemons, cane sugar and filtered water.
Or you can create a contest or challenge for which lemonade stand sells the most lemonade. Finally, maybe you can come up with a unique twist to get free publicity. Have each of the children create a poster or sign they can hold up. Contact your local news reporter or news station about your lemonade stand and tell them why are you were selling lemonade.
Timing is everything!
What is the best time to hold your event?
It is when there are a lot of people present in your community.
The best location?
For instance, think about all the parents waiting by a school bus stop waiting for their kids!
The benefits?
- Easy to organize— Avoid all complexity!
- Great way to reach out to your local community.
- Charge a modest price and your supporters will be glad to give you their money.
- Very low overhead cost.
- Easy to calculate your expected return on investment.
Polar plunge for elementary students
There are polar bear clubs all over the country that regularly swim in cold water.
How can you do this?
In this unique school event, the students get sponsors to support them to jump in a cold pool or lake. This will take time for parents to help organize. However, it will be worth it because you will attract many more supporters for your local nonprofit event.
The team that generates the most donations wins a prize.
Safety first!
Of course, this will require adult supervision to make sure everyone stays safe.
- Organize this so you have fun while being safe.
- Be sure to get written permission from the local parents ahead of time.
- The day of the event have a local life guard available.
- Have plenty of warm blankets and hot chocolate on hand!
Polar plunges have successfully raised money at school with students willing to be polar bears for a good cause!
If you don’t like the idea of jumping in ice cold water, then you may want to consider one of our unique fundraising brochures. These are popular because you can stay warm and dry, and still raise money for your school!
Dunk the teacher grade fund raiser
This is a very fun fundraiser for elementary students.
Think back to when you were in grade school.
What if you could DUNK your teacher?
How would that feel?
As you can imagine, it generates on a lot of excited energy! Students look for sponsors to donate to your school’s fundraising campaign. Whoever raises the most money gets to dunk the teacher!
Principal for a day fund raiser
This is a very unique idea that can be combined with your cookie dough, popcorn or snack fundraiser at school.
Just suppose the child that sells the most merchandise got to be the principal for a day, They got their own desk in the principal’s office, they got a clipboard, and get to carry the radio. Furthermore, they get to order lunch for themselves. They will get to be a big shot for a day. This can be a great motivator for some elementary students that want to be a grown-up for a day.
Unique middle school fundraisers
Kiss a goat campaign for junior high students.
Imagine kissing a goat!
How does it work?
In this unique fundraiser, students get to nominate potential goat kissers. Then they get to vote with their spare change. Whoever gets the most money gets to kiss the goat!
Remember to use social media!
As you can imagine, this will provide great opportunities for hilarious photos! Be sure to post them on facebook, instagram and pinterest. Then invite your supporters to see them by texting, mail and email too. Next year you can reshare these on social media to get your supporters excited about selling more tickets for your next event challenge.
Where can you get a goat to kiss?
- Reach out to local farmers in your community.
- Ask the parents of the students if they know anyone with a goat.
- Reach out on social media and tell people about your nonprofit event.
- Contact your local veterinarians in your community. They may be able to help you get in touch with an owner of a goat.
Maybe you should also hold a kiss the goat fund raiser!
Ping pong ball fund raiser
In this unique school fundraiser idea your middle school students sell ping-pong balls for five dollars each.
How does it work?
People can either write their name or put a number down on the ping-pong ball. A record is kept to be able to tell which ping-pong ball belongs to which person.
On the day of the ping-pong ball fund raiser, all of the balls are released and the three closest balls to the target win.
As you can imagine, this unique fundraiser generates a lot of excitement! Your middle school group can earn thousands of dollars every year with these unique school fundraising events.
Unique School Fundraisers that Work
So… What’s better than dunking a teacher?
Making a principal sundae using chocolate syrup!
Think back to when you were in high school. How much money would you have raised if you knew you could turn your principal into a chocolate sundae?
This is not only a popular school fundraiser, but it can be very profitable. Make sure you get lots of photos and videos! This will be a very memorable school fundraiser.
Baby photo contest
This is great for seniors in high school.
How does it work?
Have everyone bring their baby photos in. Then you can hold a contest for the cutest baby photo. Parents and family members can vote with their wallets for the cutest baby picture.
A unique twist on this would be for people to guess which baby photo belongs to which high school student.
Looking for more high school creative fundraising ideas?
The best unique fundraisers are creative fundraisers. This means simply taking a popular fundraising idea and adding a unique twist to it.
Pick a unique theme for your fundraising event.
How does peer-to-peer fundraising work?
Then reach out to your peers, associates and coworkers and tell them about your schools vision to help young people. Show them how your school is empowering students to become the future leaders in our community. So never under estimate the power of a peer to peer fundraiser.
Many children outgrow their shoes, sneakers, tennis shoes, and boots every few months during their growing spurts into adolescence.
One girl I spoke to recently grew 7 inches in one year. That means having to buy shoes for your child every few months. Unfortunately, many families cannot afford to do this. Especially if there are several children in the family.
How does it work?
Firstly, pick a unique shoe drive fundraising theme to make it fun for everyone. Secondly, have everyone bring the shoes they no longer wear to school to share with others in your community. Finally, there are companies that will pay you by the pound for the shoes that you donate. Or you can donate them directly to children agencies in your community.
There are philanthropists and local businesses in your community that would be happy to match the amount of money that you raise. This means you can easily double the amount of funds raised by your volunteers with some good planning.
So what can you do?
Start by listing the support of someone who’s willing to match gifts. Make a list of all the parents that have successful businesses or work for a successful business in your area.
Furthermore, do not discount nationwide companies. The bigger they are the better your chance is they will support your school fundraising event for the free publicity. Finally, look for ways to put a unique twist on matching gift fundraising. Come up with unique theme or contest to make this fun for everyone.
So is your church school looking for ways to raise funds for your youth group? This is also a great opportunity to tie in unique Bible-based or Christian themes to your event. Make it fun and memorable.
Guessing games can be a lot of fun for raising money for schools. Just suppose you had a jar full of jellybeans and people could win the entire jar by guessing amount of jellybeans. Do you think people would pay $.50 or a dollar to take a guess and get a chance to win it all?
Now here is the thing. There are many different kinds of guessing games. It is simply up to your imagination.
The class that collects the most pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters wins a prize. How can you make this unique? Maybe the class that collects the least amount of pennies will have to kiss a goat or a pig! That certainly would make it fun wouldn’t it!
A lip sync fundraiser is the opposite of karaoke. While karaoke is for people that like to sing out loud, lip-synching is for those that don’t! Firstly, you can create videos of each performance. Secondly, you can give a copy of the video to each person that donates to your school. Finally, you can charge an entrance fee for the attenders and an entry fee for any of that want to lip-synch.
So how can you make money for your school by selling recipe books?
Actually it’s much easier than you might think. Ask each family for their best family recipe. You know the kind I’m talking about. The recipe for a meal that everyone loves to eat!
Now your recipe book gives an opportunity for families to brag! You can team up with a local printer to print these for you. Additionally, you can print these online. However, you will have to pay shipping costs. So figure out which way is more profitable for your school.
How can you make your recipe books unique? You can make them holiday specific. For example, you can have a best Mother’s Day meals cookbook.
You get the point.
Additionally, if these are popular and profitable you can create several more of these based on the holiday seasons.
Hold a contest to see who can sell the most recipe books and water prize.
Some schools and raise money by racing rubber ducks.
How does it work?
This can be done at a local lake or pond in your neighborhood. People can sponsor ducks they want to win the race. Everyone has a good time racing money while cheering their favorite rubber ducky!
We have PTA school organizations that have been selling wrapping paper, cookie dough or gourmet popcorn to raise funds for their students. They are good because they are affordable and pay up to 50% profit on every sale.
The most profitable fundraiser of those that earn the most money. For example, if you can create a unique twist on a garage sale or a bake sale you can earn a few hundred dollars very easily. The key is to get your friends and family to donate items that you can sell. This way you get to keep all the profits.
The next best thing is to sell items that you can earn up to 50% profit on every sale. Our school fundraising brochures may be exactly what you’re looking for. This is because we sell unique items that people like to eat and buy.
Are you looking to raise money fast? Then come up with a unique fun theme for your school car wash fundraiser. All you need is a couple of buckets and rags and you are in business.
What kind of unique twist can you add to the old fashion car wash fundraiser?
Why not ask a local restaurant to donate a dinner prize? You can raffle off a free dinner To one of the people that get their car washed. This works for school / church fundraising or for your sports team as well.
Look for a unique theme for your school club fundraiser. Team up with local restaurants that are looking for business on their slowest night of the week. Hold a themed party at the restaurant and make a deal for 15% profit of the business you bringing to the restaurant.
Good Fund raiser Ideas for school #3: Raffle Off an Ipad Pro
Look for ways to combine your school fundraiser with a holiday.
How would this work?
Here are a few examples:
- Hold an “all you can eat” pancake breakfast on Mother’s Day. Advertise it so everyone in your neighborhood can treat their moms to a nice breakfast out while helping your school at the same time.
- Additionally, you can sell flowers on Mother’s Day or Valentines Day. Remember, people will be buying flowers anyway so they might as well buy them from you!
- Furthermore, you can sell wreaths or trees during the holiday season.
- Finally, do a car wash on Father’s Day weekend. Invite people to wash the car for dad.
Spreading the word about unique school fundraising ideas
Holding a fundraiser without spreading the word is like having a dinner party and never inviting any guests. There is nothing more discouraging that having a school fundraiser event that no one shows up for. That is why it’s important to spread the word about your cause.
So pick a unique fundraising theme and include it in your message. Please remember to use every possible way to share your special event and the reason why you are raising money.
So here is the point.
- People will not show up unless you invite them to your unique event.
- They will not buy your schools fundraising items unless you ask them.
- They will not support your school cause unless you give them a reason why.
Now think back to a time when someone asked you for money or to buy something didn’t want.
How did it make you feel?
On the other hand, think of a time when you donated your time or money to something you believed in. How did that make you feel inside?
Now compare the two. Your goal should be to create a unique fundraising experience that people feel good about supporting.
In conclusion, we hope these unique school fundraiser ideas were helpful to you.
We are available for free phone consultations.
Finally, we will be happy to answer all your questions about our unique school fundraising brochures.