School Fundraising

starbaby2003

We just got a letter home to say the school raised 16k at the annual Christmas Fair. Is this a normal amount?? Seems like a lot. It’s our first year.

Princess Calla

I honestly don't know but you might get a better response in the primary school forum

Fair play, that's an impressive figure from fundraising... People may have been more generous as it's the first year.

Though it does mean next year something along the lines " we raised 16k in 2019, let's make it 20k for 2020" will be trotted out... For some reason I'd an American accent when writing that

shesty

To me that seems like a lot!But then I guess it depends on the size and location of the school?

Digs

It would be a huge amount for my daughters school but hers is small and only has one class of each junior infants, seniors etc. Hers do a lot of fundraising and I’d imagine they would make that in a year ish. So I’d imagine it’s relative to the size of school, unless they gave you a yearly total?

ETA: just saw it’s just from the Christmas fare, that’s a seriously impressive amount!

starbaby2003

Around 500 pupils Suburban Dublin. Yeah fair dues to the people that put the effort in organising them. I was just thinking they would make a couple of hundred quid from a raffle !

2xj3hplqgsbkym

starbaby2003 wrote: »

Around 500 pupils Suburban Dublin. Yeah fair dues to the people that put the effort in organising them. I was just thinking they would make a couple of hundred quid from a raffle !

I can’t see that being possible to be honest. I work in a 700 pupil secondary school. Most fundraising events bring in less than €1000!

starbaby2003

Danielle Spoiled Temperature wrote: »

I can’t see that being possible to be honest. I work in a 700 pupil secondary school. Most fundraising events bring in less than €1000!

I asked my friends whose kids are in different schools around here and they take in similar and more so I think it is. Why do you think they would lie about it ?

starbaby2003

Danielle Spoiled Temperature wrote: »

I can’t see that being possible to be honest. I work in a 700 pupil secondary school. Most fundraising events bring in less than €1000!

I asked my friends whose kids are in different schools around here and they take in similar and more so I think it is. Why do you think they would lie about it ?

spurious

Maybe someone made a large donation? I can't see any reason to lie about how much they made. Then again, perhaps it was a typo and should have been 1600.

starbaby2003

spurious wrote: »

Maybe someone made a large donation? I can't see any reason to lie about how much they made. Then again, perhaps it was a typo and should have been 1600.

A typo was my initial thought too but apparently that amount and more is common. My friend is on the committee for her school and they took in over 30k last year across their different fundraisers. In our school every family gives at least 50 between buying raffle tickets,lines and donating a spot prize. But yes I agree there must be a couple of big donations in there too.

It would depend on what the fundraising was for. My kids Primary school wanted to build an extension and were short about €30,000. They raised €25,000 on a night at the dogs. This was before the tiger croaked.
More recent ones were coffee mornings for gym equipment raising in the region of €1,500.
A good parents association usually fundraise at least once a year, usually for school equipment.
Transition Year outings were funded by the TY students running the tuck shop.

byhookorbycrook

Certainly not common. Lucky them!Is that the only fundraiser all year?

starbaby2003

byhookorbycrook wrote: »

Certainly not common. Lucky them!Is that the only fundraiser all year?

I don’t know to be honest it’s our first year in the school. I haven’t heard of anything else though.

starbaby2003

[Deleted User] wrote: »

It would depend on what the fundraising was for. My kids Primary school wanted to build an extension and were short about €30,000. They raised €25,000 on a night at the dogs. This was before the tiger croaked.
More recent ones were coffee mornings for gym equipment raising in the region of €1,500.
A good parents association usually fundraise at least once a year, usually for school equipment.
Transition Year outings were funded by the TY students running the tuck shop.

Wow 25k in one night !

spurious

Those simulated gambling evenings where they use videos of Australian or American races can make quite a bit.

starbaby2003

starbaby2003 wrote: »

Wow 25k in one night !

Yep. As I said, the tiger was alive and kicking back then.

I’ve been on parents associations for years and all they do is fundraise for various school activities. Mind you, I did get in trouble for refusing to support pub quizzes! My thinking was that it was a table quiz and should be held in a venue that students could attend. Guess where the table quizzes are held now? In the school gym! The students love beating the teachers!

BonsaiKitten

If it's an affluent school community that sum doesn't surprise me. I'm presuming that they did little extras at the fair? Face painting, hair colouring, coffee and tea, sweets, photo booths, raffles, guessing the amount of sweets in a jar, selling child designed items like teatowels etc. It all adds up quickly.

Fall_Guy

It's a massive amount for one event to be fair! I've been on primary school parents committees where 15000 was the target for the year, and near monthly events within the school community and the wider community were required to get close to that figure.

Again, I don't see any reason for anyone to lie about it, but it's certainly not the norm in my experience!

lazygal

Our school does a winter and summer fair. We've had children in it for 3 years and every time the amount raised is 4k approx, so 16k sounds like a substantial sum!

Peppery

Our school usually raises between 8 and 12 thousand every year at the Christmas Fair with a similar pupil size so I would say normal enough with that bit extra because it's the first year. The worrying thing is the massive gap and inequality this causes - a school in a different area would struggle to raise a quarter of that. There seems to be plenty of money in the economy but unfortunately it's concentrated in the hands of landlords and their kids and grandkids.

starbaby2003

Peppery wrote: »

Our school usually raises between 8 and 12 thousand every year at the Christmas Fair with a similar pupil size so I would say normal enough with that bit extra because it's the first year. The worrying thing is the massive gap and inequality this causes - a school in a different area would struggle to raise a quarter of that. There seems to be plenty of money in the economy but unfortunately it's concentrated in the hands of landlords and their kids and grandkids.

It’s our first year not theirs. I think you are right that it can exasperate inequality. It’s regularly covered by the British press but not here. Our voluntary contribution is very small. I know wealth is concentrated but I don’t think it’s with landlords. The people on extreme incomes also don’t tend to send their kids to the local free school.

pwurple

16k is a lot if it's all from parents, not so much if it's corporate sponsorship etc. What would concern me more is that you are not informed what it is for.

The board of management and the school are not supposed to indiscriminately fundraise, it has to be for a specific purpose (Like IT equiment, a trip, etc). I have seen an example where the PA was just fundraising 10's of thousands every year with no remit, (all from parents), and it was being spent on non-school items. ( laptop for a teacher's nephew for example)

Neyite

The parent's association AGM is usually open for all the parents to attend if they wish and it's fairly standard to hand out a list of what was raised in funding and a breakdown of how much was spent and on what during the AGM.

pwurple

Neyite wrote: »

The parent's association AGM is usually open for all the parents to attend if they wish and it's fairly standard to hand out a list of what was raised in funding and a breakdown of how much was spent and on what during the AGM.

Yes, and not only the AGM, but their other meetings too. You also have parents reps on the BOM if you have questions.