5 Top Holiday Fundraising Ideas for Schools

Take Advantage of the Holiday Season with These Fun and Festive School Fundraisers.

Whether you celebrate a religious holiday or simply enjoy the holiday season, the end of the year is a fun and festive time. It’s also an excellent opportunity to take advantage of the festivities with a holiday-themed campaign.

Holiday fundraisers for schools are commonly product fundraisers; however, events, contests, and simple digital campaigns are wonderful options. This article discusses some ways you can tap into the giving season!

Holiday Fundraising

A key fundraising component is looking for a theme, event, or reason to launch a campaign. A theme drives the fundraiser, informing how it is presented or sold to the donors. A holiday theme is a bonus, as the holidays are a giving time.

Capitalize on this by using fundraisers that double as gift-buying opportunities for your donors. Fundraisers that include products such as novelty items, gifts, and gift wraps are phenomenal uses of the holiday season. And don’t forget- holiday events are a fun campaign option too.

5 Types of Holiday Fundraisers for Schools

BFI offers five-holiday fundraising packages. Each one offers its own unique set of products and goodies available for purchase. The five available holiday fundraisers include:

Heartland Goodies and Gifts

Heartland Goodies and Gifts offers baked goods, candies, novelty gifts, wrapping paper, and more. The brochure has an online store so schools can sell it in two ways. The fundraiser features big brands such as Hershey’s, Reese’s, and Cinnabon. The average price per product is $17, and schools can earn a profit margin of 40% of sales.

Happy Holly Days

Happy Holly Days offers a wide assortment of products for your potential buyers- 100 products, to be exact. Offerings include gift wraps, kitchenware, snacks, candles, flowers, and more. The brochure has an online store to widen the buyer market; the average product costs $15. Schools earn a 40% profit margin.

‘Tis the Season

‘Tis the Season offers a brochure and online store, including kitchen and home accessories, wrapping paper, jewelry, candles, and more. The average cost is $18, and the profit margin is 40%. This fundraiser also offers a ship-to-buyer option for schools that don’t want to deal with collecting order forms, money, or receiving a product delivery.

$10 Snow Much Fun

The Snow Much Fun fundraiser offers an array of products, all for only $10 each while earning 40% profit from each item sold. Products to choose from include gifts and wrapping paper, kitchenware, chocolate, snacks, jewelry, and flowers. Schools can sell in person and online.

Season of Joy

The Season of Joy fundraiser offers novelty and holiday gifts, wrapping paper, chocolates, flowers, candles, snacks, and kitchenware. Schools can sell online and in person with an average product price of $15. Schools earn 40% of sales.

View the brochures and additional information here to learn about these holiday fundraisers.

Holiday Fundraising Event Ideas

Double up your raise by hosting a holiday fundraising event. Bonus points if you promote your product fundraiser at the event! Charge an entry fee or ask for donations to profit from these events. Additionally, you can sell snacks and beverages such as hot cocoa or cider, cookies, and other seasonal goodies. You can also choose to sell holiday-themed school spirit gear at the event.

A few holiday event ideas are listed below.

Wreath Making Party

Host a wreath-making party. Purchase artificial holly, flowers, and other decorations like felt snowmen and snowflakes. Use wire wreath bases and decorate away! Similar events include ornament decorating, snowflake crafting, pinecone painting, wrapping paper events, and other make-your-own decoration ideas.

White Elephant Gift Exchange

The white elephant gift game is a fun and popular choice. Participants bring a gift of similar value to exchange. Everyone sits in a circle and passes to the left until a timer goes off or a judge calls to pause. Participants open and take home whatever gift lands in their lap during the pause!

Holiday Festival

A holiday festival is a wonderful way to maximize the holiday spirit while raising capital for your school. The options are endless for music, snacks, costumes, and a gift exchange. You can add a pay-to-enter snowman building contest or even a bake-off. A festival offers multiple routes to raising the funds you need.

Author Bio

Clay Boggess has been designing fundraising programs for schools and various nonprofit organizations throughout the US since 1999. He’s helped administrators, teachers, and outside support entities such as PTAs and PTOs raise millions of dollars. Clay is an owner and partner at Big Fundraising Ideas.