6 School Fundraising Ideas with Social Impact

School fundraising ideas that benefit the community.

Many people are more interested in school fundraising activities when there is some social impact to earning money for important causes. We are here to help!

Here are some school fundraising ideas that will add some value to the community and help you stop agonizing about what to do to fund some of your more special school programs. Surely something here will inspire you!

1. Teddy Bear Collect-a-thon

Have people "pay to play" – they bring new or gently-used teddy bears to school and pay $5 for each teddy bear they contribute. The money will go to your school, and the collected teddy bears can go to a local children's hospital, homeless shelter, or school serving underprivileged kids. It's a great way for your school to adopt another school!

2. Create a Wall Mural With Handprints

Another "pay to play" school fundraising idea allows different giving levels. This will require someone with art skills to design a mural that can be traced onto a blank wall and filled in with handprints by contributors.

Some ideas include trees with handprints serving as leaves or the school mascot colored in with handprints. Contributors will dip their hands in paint, place their hands on the wall, and then sign their names under the print. You can charge less for less noticeable areas, more for more prominent areas, or extra for the signature.

3. Sell Healthy Snacks

No selling junk here! These healthy snack fundraiser ideas offer plenty of ways to get a snack fix without compromising good health. You'll be earning money while contributing to the well-being of your fellow students.

4. Capitalize on School Pride!

Nothing beats promoting your school spirit with sustainable and reusable tumblers with your school mascot. And you have options when it comes to selling your tumbler. School fundraising catalogs are the most usual method, but did you know you can also feature your custom tumbler on your online store?

Or, if you'd rather people see the quality of your tumbler before they buy, you can order them up front and put them into your sellers' hands to show. This type of product can really hit home on the importance of enhancing school pride and spirit throughout your community.

5. Have a Walk-to-School-A-Thon

In a previous article, we shared 20 fun and easy school fundraising ideas, including the well-known walk-a-thon. Here's a slight variation of that.

You can make a fundraising event by simply walking to school and back. This is best made into a one-day event in the spring or fall, with a backup date just in case the weather doesn't cooperate. People will collect money for every mile they walk to school (doubling that by walking home!). Students can get specific donation commitments from friends and family.

This promotes healthy habits and socialization as kids walk to school with friends and family (and maybe the family dog), and the gas savings will help wallets everywhere – and help the environment!

6. Guess Who's Pet

One more "pay to play" event – have teachers or much-respected school officials (coaches, principals, etc.) bring pictures of their pets, leaving all their names off. The pet pictures will be numbered and mounted on a board displayed in a public area. People will "pay" to guess which pet belongs to which teacher.

It's fun to finally learn the correct pairings, and even funnier when the votes are tallied for how people thought the pairings should be! Whoever guesses the correct pairings wins a special prize!

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.