10 Best Virtual Christmas Fundraising Ideas

By Kids' Kastle Holiday Shoppes on November 9, 2020 / Holiday Fundraising, School Fundraising Ideas

Top 10 Best Virtual and Creative Christmas Fundraising Ideas

Brainstorming fundraising ideas for this winter isn’t an easy task. Schools can’t rely on traditional holiday shoppe fundraiser, snifty pencils, dances, or other large events that involve gatherings. While some companies, like Kids’ Kastle, offer hybrid and virtual secret santa gift shops, this isn’t something that all schools have access to or it doesn’t pull in the same funds that schools need.

To help get motivated and create some holiday cheer, we’ve put together 10 virtual and creative winter fundraising ideas any school can take advantage of. We focused on low-cost, easy set-up, and maximum interest levels. We hope that these holiday fundraising ideas excite all students from elementary school to seniors, and can complement your normal holiday gift shop fundraiser.

A Snowman Building Contest is a Fun Holiday Fundraising Idea

We love the snowman building contest because it’s flexible for virtual and online school set-ups! If you’re having an in-person school holiday shop fundraiser, you can schedule the snowman building contest to run the same day. This allows your visiting student and family groups to keep social distance as they build outside and shop inside, and it creates decorations everyone can enjoy!

Even if you’re not doing a Christmas shop fundraiser, you can run your snowman building contest one of two ways. Invite families out to build their snowman at safe distances on the school grounds, or have families make the snowmen at home and send in pictures with the students standing by their creations!

A small fee to enter with an affordable prize will get families active, involved, and raise funds easily for your school.

Host an Ugly Sweater Contest

This is another Christmas fundraising idea for schools that works for schools on-line or in person. For students and families who come on-site to shop your school Christmas shop, have them dress up and pay a small fee to enter the ugly sweater contest. Have a few different prizes you can reward at the end of the shopping day to celebrate the winners — people can vote, or you can have a panel of judges from the PTA or student council.

If all of your school holiday fundraisers are staying online, host the contest virtually! Students and families can either submit photos that everyone votes on, or you can do a virtual video session, like a fashion show! Either way, everyone will have a great time voting, dressing up, and chatting about the holiday.

Think Outside Traditional School Christmas Shop Ideas and Involve the Family Pets

One great thing about virtual fundraising ideas is that you can think about how to include the pets of the students! Have students and families submit photos of their pets dressed up in holiday outfits, celebrating winter holidays, or matching their owners in look-a-like contests.

Families and students will love showing off their pets and getting creative with photography and outfits. Post the photos online and let the voting begin! Have a small fee to enter with fun prizes families will want to win — maybe it could even be a free gift from your school’s Santa gift shop or something for the pets themselves.

Make Your Holiday Gift Shop Fundraiser a Virtual Silent Auction

A fun school Christmas shop idea is to create a virtual silent auction! Students love the traditional holiday gift shop fundraiser, and this adds an additional element to help get parents, families, and community members involved.

Work to create partnerships with the community, and offer prizes like gift baskets, gift cards, discounts, meet and greets, and more. The great thing about a holiday virtual silent auction is it can run for an extended period of time, it can raise plenty of funds, and it shows a community connection.

These also offer gift ideas to those placing the bids, so you’re more likely to see people engaging and promoting the sale.

When in Doubt, You Can’t Beat a Raffle for a School Fundraiser

Raffles are a tried and true school fundraiser idea, and it’s one everyone can take advantage of, online or in person. Just like with your silent auction, team up with local community businesses or creatives for some fun and exciting raffle prizes.

Whether these are tailored to the kids and come from your holiday gift shop, or you create something for the parents, it’s sure to create a buzz of excitement.

Raffles can be hosted both in school and virtually, and you can choose between shipping the items or having local pick up stations. Raffles have the potential to be limitless with funds, and are easily promoted. No matter how elaborate or simple you decide to go, look into your options for a raffle this season.

A Fun Holiday Fundraiser Idea is Wreath Sales

Consider the members on your school’s PTA and other teachers and parents that get involved each year with the fundraisers — chances are, you know more than one crafty and artistic person who is a wiz with homemade items. A wreath sale is the perfect opportunity to take advantage of those crafty skills from the parents and teachers in your community!

Pull together a group to create holiday wreaths, and involve the help of the students! These can then be sold online or in person to raise money for your school. This is a great holiday fundraising idea because each wreath is unique, handmade, and comes directly from the local community and even from the students themselves. It may involve a bit more prep, but is well worth it for the fun.

Keep Your School Fundraiser Simple with a Movie Night

Movie nights are a great holiday fundraising activity for families from your school because you can host them outdoors with minimal investment or planning. With a quality projector and a large lawn space near the school’s exterior walls, you can project any movie you wish onto the side of the school.

Set up can include chairs from the school, or make it picnic-style if the ground hasn’t gotten too cold, and ask families to bring blankets as the night grows chillier. Snacks can be bring-your-own, or you can sell treats that families have made as part of a concession stand to increase fundraising funds. This is a great way for kids to take a break, get outdoors, and for parents to relax, all while helping your school.

An Interactive Holiday Fundraiser for the Kids is a Scavenger Hunt

While families are waiting on their school santa shop gifts, ask them to take part in a scavenger hunt. Once your local area is seeing a lot of Christmas and holiday decorations, have families drive or walk around and look for items on the homes, like icicle lights, an inflatable Santa, a depiction of Rudolph, and others! They can take pictures or cross the items off of a list and submit them after a couple of weeks.

If you prefer to stay indoors, make the scavenger hunt happen online or in students’ homes. Have them submit photos of holiday decorations and ordinary objects around their house, instead. A small fee to enter with affordable, enticing prices can do a lot. Plus, the kids will want to participate and the parents will enjoy the activity.

Consider Cooking Lessons for Your School Holiday Shop Fundraiser

Many school fundraisers include food, dough, and similar items during one season or another. If a member of your PTA or a teacher is a wiz in the kitchen, take your food holiday fundraiser one step further and offer cooking lessons. The great thing is, these can happen online, right over video chat.

You can tailor your food fundraiser to parents with quick dinner ideas and healthy lunch items made in under 15 minutes, or you can make an activity for the kids, like holiday cookies or other fun treats they’ll want to make. This is a great option for every family and provides a skill many people are interested in.

Wrap Up Your Christmas Shop Fundraiser with a Virtual Talent Show or Telethon

Don’t let your holiday shop fundraiser be the last hoorah of the year. Take your student’s talent show online with a fun telethon! Kids can record their acts right in their living room, and you can have teachers or parents provide informative and fun craft projects, educational moments, or comedy sketches inbetween acts.

Think back to PBS when viewers would pledge money and be entertained as they watched the show. You can even note that you will have a parent or teacher complete an incredibly goofy act if certain funds are raised while the telethon is happening, like pouring ice water over their head or cutting their facial hair. Be creative! A lot can happen online.

Your Holiday Gift Shop Fundraiser Can Be More Online

Just because normal fundraising activities are out, does not mean your school is going to lack the proper funds and holiday cheer this year. Use virtual learning and online tools to your advantage, and think about simple ways to keep kids engaged that excites families and parents. With a little community effort, your holiday fundraising this year can go a long way.

Unique School Fundraising Ideas

By Kids' Kastle Holiday Shoppes on July 18, 2020 / High School Fundraising, School Fundraising Ideas, Spring School Fundraising

Unique School Fundraisers

Fundraising Ideas for Any Grade Level

It may be early for the holidays, but school fundraising can happen any time of the year and shouldn’t be put off until just winter. When trying to raise money for various programs and a bright new school year for both faculty and staff, taking advantage of fundraising for every season can be the most beneficial way to go.

School fundraising is great all year round and can utilize a host of different school christmas shop ideas. If you’re looking for unique school fundraisers in New Jersey, companies like Kids Kastle cater to every grade level with creative school fundraising ideas. Some of the best school fundraisers are those that are simple and unique to your area, and a company based in your location can help recommend the most successful fundraisers they have helped to host.

Here are just a few holiday gift shop fundraisers that you can tweak to your liking or use as is. Whatever you choose, remember that school fundraising is supposed to be fun, and the best school fundraisers usually involve the entire school as much as possible to maximize the fun and to make the students and faculty realize that this will have an impact on everyone.

Cookie Dough Fundraisers are a Tasty Idea

Is it making your stomach growl and your mouth water already? A Cookie Dough Fundraiser could be held in a couple of different ways, but the preferred method is to sell homemade dough that can be specially made for each individual order.

It’s a lot of work to be certain, but with dedicated and capable workers and volunteers for a good cause, this could work, and be a sweet treat that could earn a lot of goodwill in the community and for the school. If homemade cookie dough isn’t an option for your cookie dough fundraiser, there are plenty of companies that offer catalogs you can utilize instead to get the word out!

Candy Fundraisers Attract a Lot of People

Candy fundraisers are typically something you’d see for baseball, softball, and other sports’ teams, but there’s nothing like a good candy drive, especially if you buy in bulk and give people options when purchasing what they want.

It might sound like a unique school fundraiser, but in truth, it’s taking an idea and expanding it a bit to ensure that people have more than one choice and can buy what they want while helping with a good cause. Utilizing New Jersey school fundraising companies that offer multiple candy options is a great way to expand on the traditional candy fundraiser.

A Snowman Building Event is a Great Unique School Fundraiser

Next up is creating a realistic goal and budget for your holiday fundraiser. A lot of fundraisers fall short because of budgetary reasons. As a matter of fact, as many as 43% of organized fundraisers fail because of misuse of the budget, according to a recent study. According to the study, the biggest misuse of funds came from overestimating incoming dollars and donations.

When you are creating your budget, it is very important to use dollars you actually have and not to base it off of future donations or fundraising. If you do want to create a budget based on future dollars, then set goals and only use the money if certain milestones are met.

An example would be if we hit X dollars then we are going to host a dinner but if we hit Y dollars then we are going to host a gala; only start planning the events when you hit the right dollar amounts. The most common mistake is to host an event or spend money you don’t have, thinking the dollars spent will bring in a return on the investment. If your event doesn’t get you what you thought, that is when your fundraiser fails.

This is true even for smaller fundraisers or events. If you are raffling off items, offering rewards, or doing giveaways, make sure minimum thresholds are met and that those thresholds will cover the costs of your giveaways.

A Virtual School Party is a Fun Get Together for All Grades

Sometimes, the best school fundraisers are going to be those that will be able to promote some type of social distancing while still keeping things fun and engaging. While a virtual party isn’t quite the same, it’s a fun way to connect with people and maintain a good line of communication among the community.

Games can even be planned online that will be fun for everyone involved, for a small donation of course. Have online raffles, promotions, talent shows, and more! The great thing about a virtual party is that everyone can attend!

A Picnic Can Be a Simple Idea for School Fundraising

Although picnics may sound simple, these are easy to arrange and simple to plan with endless possibilities. The event can be the picnic itself, a competition for the best picnic meal, a picnic on location somewhere new and exciting, or something else entirely. Picnics are great for every grade level and every season.

One of the Best School Fundraising Ideas is a Movie Night

Plenty of people still love watching a good movie with their family, and an outdoor feature is a good way to practice social distancing while raising money for your school. All a person needs is a big enough surface, plenty of space to sit, and a few dollars for concessions, and voila! Investing in a projector and some comfy blankets will really boost the level of the event, and people will be lining up to donate for access to the premier.

A School Play is Timeless

Whether in person or as a virtual showing, donations towards a school play could go a long way towards the continued education and appreciation for the arts that many children enjoy.

The emphasis on the arts is definitely an idea that can help an institution benefit from school fundraising, as many schools have had to cut back over the years. Get the students involved in the play and whether it’s a short production or a longer one that uses every grade level, parents and families will enjoy the show while donating to a great cause.

A Parent/Student Trivia Show Is a Fun and Unique School Fundraiser

Why only allow the kids to have all the fun? This idea can go a long way towards getting kids and their parents together to do something fun that can be modified for each grade level and can possibly earn enough donations to make a difference for various school programs.

Plus, getting parents and children together to think of the answers while competing against other parent/children duos could be a lot of fun as it could test the parents’ knowledge as much as the children’s. No matter what way you frame it, everyone will have a great time!

Talent Shows are One of the Best School Fundraisers

It feels as though this type of fundraiser is overlooked quite often, when it is actually one of the school holiday shop fundraiser ideas in New Jersey to utilize! Talent shows can include singing, dance, art, or anything else! Done online or in person, talent shows use very little finances to begin and can raise a lot of money for those who wish to attend and donate. Plus, the kids get to be the star of the show!

A School T-Shirt Fundraiser is a Creative and Engaging School Fundraising Idea

This is definitely one of the more unique school fundraisers as it’s typically undertaken by a lot of schools in very different ways. In a lot of ways, it does depend on the grade level as to how involved a community might get, as middle and high schools tend to become far more involved in sports and overall design.

However, it is entirely possible to hold a t-shirt fundraiser for grade school, depending on the involvement of the community and the unit cost. It gets the entire community involved and is always a showstopper!

Conclusion

There are many unique school fundraising ideas out there to pour through, and many of them are bound to pique your interest. But one thing to always think about is the community that a school belongs to and what would best serve their interests when seeking to raise funds for your institution. The possibilities are out there, it is up to you to explore them!

School Fundraising Ideas