Ideas for school fundraising?

Dionysus

I suspect our school is not alone on this issue.

We've just had our staff meeting and the finances are worse than abysmal - easily the worst in living memory. Subjects have simply been removed for the first time in the school's very long history and the staff room is looking the worse for the absent teachers....

Long story short: we all agreed that we need to raise funds for the school immediately. Previous years have resulted in a few thousand to cover the shortfall but it's clear we're going to need several multiples of that this year and none of the staff has experience fundraising at this level.

Apparently, because we are a school (albeit non-profit) we cannot apply for charity status. Is this true? This could have been some incentive in terms of donations being refundable through tax. Additionally, some supermarket chains (I understand that Superquinn is one) will not allow you to backpack there unless you are a registered charity. What are our options?

More generally, what ideas have you used in your school for fundraising successfully in the past?

Thanks.

Dionysus

Dionysus wrote: »

Apparently, because we are a school (albeit non-profit) we cannot apply for charity status. Is this true?

When my son was in primary school and we were making voluntary contributions, the school was also able to claim the PAYE element of the contributions. But whether your school can do that that might depend on the status of the school. If you want to clarify the position, give the Revenue Commissioners a call. IIRC, the people who deal with tax relief for charities are based in their Nenagh office. Try 067-63400 and ask for Charities Section.

highly1111

With this suggestion it's the parents who end up paying and they might already be bled dry but it's a sure quick fire way to raise money and that's a non uniform day.

Also, depending on where you school is - in terms of sense of community - a table quiz is a great way to raise money. I once raised over 7k with a table quiz - you should be able to get a room in pub or hotel for free (as they'll get bar receipts) and also raise through a raffle at the same event.

Also, if a famous sports player is a past pupil it might be worth getting in touch to see if you could get a signed shirt or something which could be raffles??

Finally you don't have to be a reg charity to backpack at tescos. My sports club raised a fortune one sat. But you do have to apply months in advance to get a date.

Hope this helps.

byhookorbycrook

http://www.schooldays.ie/articles/fundraising-ideas

TheDriver

1st things 1st, your BOM needs to tighten in the spending because we all had to stop spending and realise money is a lot shorter and no school should be running out of it.

2nd thing, I see a lot of schools out there doing the bag packing thing and it annoys the crap out of me when no one can tell me what exactly the money is for except something like "making up the shortfall in the kids activities" hence no one wants to give money to vague ideas

so go for defined events such as a well run table quiz. At the end of the day, its the parents that will be giving money and all you need is an event to make them think they are having a nice slightly expensive night out rather than forking out money to a school whilst complaining about teachers salaries etc.

Best of luck with it

Paddyo

As regards the charity status - the school might not be able to apply, but the patron of the school may already have done so.

I know the Dublin Diocese is registered and all school under their patronage can use the charity registration number.

Im not sure how that will help though - unless you have money on deposit and dont want to pay DIRT - but it does not sound like it from what you are saying.

Specific fund raising is the way to go - i.e. to purchase a whiteboard, school sports jerseys etc - make sure you ask for money for a specific thing

Rent the school rooms out to people for night classes etc

Good luck with it all
Paddyo