Fund raising

[LosOjos]

Hi all, looking for a bit of advice.

 

I've been running a code club after school for a few weeks and one thing that has become apparent is many of the kids who attend don't have PCs at home. What I'd love to do is buy them all their own Raspberry Pi starter kits so they can take them home and continue learning all the things we do at code club in their own time.

 

The school isn't in a position right now to be doing this, so I want to try to raise the funds to do it myself, however I've never done anything like this before.

 

Has anyone here done anything similar? How did you go about it?

 

Is there a good online platform similar to Kickstarter for charity fund raising?

 

Assuming the fund raising goes impeccably well and I have money left over, I planned to either buy the kids extra materials to help them out (books, electronics kits) or see if the school would store the money for me to go towards doing the same for future attendees to the club - are there any potential legal problems I need to be aware of there?

 

Any advice will be greatly appreciated; I'm hoping to have a plan of action by the new year, then go full throttle to try to raise the cash before the end of the school year

[localzuk]

How many kids are in the club? Reason I ask is, if its not a huge number, running an event like Bingo or a talent contest usually brings in a nice chunk of cash.

[LosOjos]

How many kids are in the club? Reason I ask is, if its not a huge number, running an event like Bingo or a talent contest usually brings in a nice chunk of cash.

 

We have about a dozen regulars, fag packet calculation puts that at roughly £600 to buy them all basic starter kits (i.e. the Pi, KB/M, PSU and HDMI cable)

 

Bingo could be a good one to run at lunch time...

 

EDIT: just realised there's no 'thanks' button in this forum! Will dish out rep where it'll let me (unfortunately means if you've helped me out recently, I won't be able to - sorry!)

[localzuk]

We ran a "christmas craft fair" last week, to raise money for charity. People made little craft things and cakes etc... We also raffled off some stuff. Think we made about £650 out of it. It was open to the public though, so that is something you'd need to consider.

[witch]

Ask if the school as a whole can run something which will benefit the code club children. I say this because if the children themselves are expected to bring in cakes etc it could get very expensive for them and if they don't have computers at home, money could be the issue.

Can they or you, create a computer game or something that people could pay to have a go at? (with a small prize?)

Cake sales always go down well. As do "guess the number of sweets in the jar" Not a huge moneymaker but every little helps.

Do you have a parent group? Can they raise money for it?

[LosOjos]

Ask if the school as a whole can run something which will benefit the code club children. I say this because if the children themselves are expected to bring in cakes etc it could get very expensive for them and if they don't have computers at home, money could be the issue.

Can they or you, create a computer game or something that people could pay to have a go at? (with a small prize?)

Cake sales always go down well. As do "guess the number of sweets in the jar" Not a huge moneymaker but every little helps.

Do you have a parent group? Can they raise money for it?

 

All very good questions, I'll have to look in to it. Money is certainly an issue for many of our children you're quite right, this is why we have a relatively high number without their own PC at home, so I am keen to avoid anything that will cost them money. At the same time I don't have a fortune to fall back on myself! Love the idea of some sort of game/competition though - cheap to set up and can raise a fair bit of cash.

 

Daft question (possibly) - would cash prizes be deemed gambling and therefore illegal? I mean, if I were to say that the winner gets 10% of the entry fees, would that be an acceptable prize?

[witch]

@LosOjos

Some more ideas:

 

 

Art with a heart - use pupils' artwork and turn it into fundraising products for parents to purchase

 

Perfect as gifts around Mother’s Day and Father’s Day

 

Art Attack – run an arty competition for pupils to create artwork based around a fun theme

 

After school party

 

Auction

 

 

 

Bring and buy sale

 

Book sale

 

Battle of the bands – Great fun for everyone. Ask older pupils to lead on organising the event

 

Bingo

 

BBQ

 

 

 

Cake sale

 

 

Coin trail – ask every pupil to bring in spare change, lay them all out in a trail and see how far around the school you can get

 

Car wash – get the sponges out and get the whole school involved in washing parents’ cars. Perhaps best as a Summer term activity

 

 

 

Disco – sell tickets and encourage your pupils to get their dancing shoes on

 

Design and sell items depending on the time of year – calendars, Christmas cards, Mother/Father’s day cards, or Easter cards are all great ideas

 

 

Disney day – a magical twist to your usual mufti day. Ask pupils to pay a set donation to dress up as their favorite Disney character for the day

 

 

 

Easter egg hunt – Hide chocolate treats around the school and set hints and clues for pupils

 

Easter egg decorating – ask pupils to paint and decorate eggs for parents to purchase

 

 

 

Fancy dress – ask all the pupils (and teachers too) to dress up as their favourite character for a day and pay £1 for the privilege

 

Fun day – run an all day event

 

Fête

 

Fashion show – This might be something your older pupils might like to run themselves (with your guidance of course)

 

Fun run

 

 

 

Guess the number – this could be everything from buttons in a jar to ping pong balls in a bucket – charge 20p, 50p or £1 to enter depending on the prize

 

Games day – Let pupils bring in toys and games to play with on the last day of term and ask for a donation in returnh

 

Halloween – party/fancy dress/quiz – anything ‘scary-themed’

 

It’s A Knockout - embrace some 70s TV nostalgia and set up your own wet and wacky obstacle course

 

Indoor Games

 

Jumble sale – Ask pupils to bring in one toy, book or item each and hold a jumble sale. You could also hold a cake sale at the same time to raise even more

 

Jokes – Ask each pupil to bring in their favourite joke and a £1 or £2 donation and hold a class or assembly dedicate to joke telling

 

 

Lunch - why not choose a theme with your class or invite a chef from a local restaurant to cook and the pupils make a set donation for this extra special scrumptious treat

 

 

Mufti day – tried, tested, and loved by pupils everywhere! Ask pupils to pay a set donation (£1 or £2 each) to wear their own clothes to school

 

Magic show – Invite a magician to the school or ask budding magicians in your school to get together and hold a magic show

 

Music show/concert/practice – This could be an existing concert, asking musical pupils to play in a gig or getting sponsored to practice their musical instruments. If you hold this through Practice-a-thon then your school can choose to keep 25%

 

Non uniform day

 

Netball

Olympics themed fun day – get excited about the Olympics all over again by holding your own version – you could even split pupils into teams and give them names of countries

 

Pyjama day – Ideal for nurseries and younger pupils but fun for everyone, ask pupils to come to school in their favourite pyjamas with a donation in hand

 

Promises

 

Poets corner – run a writing competition for all of those budding poets in you school

 

Quizzes - This works well run by teacher for pupils, by older pupils for younger classes, or even pupils setting quizzes for parents after school. Source prizes from local business and get quizzing

 

Raffle – Exactly what it says on the tin – you could source prizes from local businesses and/or parents and sell tickets

 

Sponsored - Walk, swim, run, sing, dance, skip, or sit in a bath of beans - and ask for sponsorship while doing so

 

Sports day – Tie in your fundraiser with an existing sports day to make it as easy as possible.

Sponsored silence – challenge pupils to stay quiet

 

Sponge throw! – Ask pupils to donate in return for getting to launch soapy sponges at you and your fellow teachers. Best done on a sunny day

 

Talent contest – Do you have a pupil who thinks she’s the next Kylie, or thinks he should be in Diversity? Hold a talent contest for them to showcase their skills! You could make it TV show style by nominating judges to pick the winners

 

Treasure hunt – Put together a treasure hunt, split pupils into pairs or teams and let the detective work begin! Ask a local business to donate a prize for the winning pair/team, and set a suggested donation amount for entering

 

Uniform day for teachers

 

 

Variety show – You know that your pupils are talented, so why not let them share that with the world? As part of the school day or after school with parents, this is a fun way to build pupils’ confidence Volunteering

 

 

 

X Factor singing competition

 

Xmas card recycling - get people to bring them in and use deckle edge scissors to make labels for next year

 

 

Zzzzz – Hold a sponsored sleepover at school. To make this event even bigger you could join up with other local schools and hold one big sleepover

 

Zumbathon

Edited December 18, 2014 by witch

[fiza]

Our kids are doing this right now. As far as I know they are writing to local businesses telling them what they are doing and asking for donations either in monetary terms or in equipment the companies don't require anymore. They also did a couple of hot chocolate stalls during breaks and lunch. With these cold days they certainly got a good few customers!!

[LosOjos]

Reviving this thread, I've now got a loose plan in place. I'm going to trek to the top of Scafell Peak and ask for sponsorship for doing so.

 

I'll get some sponsorship forms printed, but I'd really like to encourage people to sponsor me online if possible, but I'm struggling to find a suitable platform. Most I can find require you to raise for a charity (i.e. the money goes directly to the charity, not to yourself) so I can't use those. JustGiving allow personal fundraising, but at a cost of £15 a month - I'd wipe out about £60 straight away doing that!

 

Kickstarter needs a funding goal, which means I'd need to set a minimum through that to see a penny of it, which I'm not keen on in case I end up getting a lot more donations "cash in hand" and miss out on any through Kickstarter due to missed funding goals.

 

Another idea I had was to set up a static page on my personal website with a Paypal donate button, problem with this is I think I'll struggle getting anyone who doesn't really know me to donate this way; having a recognised fundraising site backing you will give more confidence in the legitimacy of the whole thing I think! Not that I'm expecting huge amounts of donations from strangers, but I think there are a couple of clubs I'm involved in who might raise a little cash for me through association and I don't want to put anyone off.

 

Has anyone done anything similar and if so, which service did you end up using?

[spadam]

If it's for school couldn't you get the donate button and an article added to the school website and then direct donors to there for online donations? I'd have thought being on the school website should lend the air of legitimacy you need.