We just finished with Donkey Basketball! What a hit. More than 20 admin and faculty agreed to play along with a police officer, paramedic and local DJs.
This works on a split with the company. No out lay of money for the donkeys. Tickets were $5 ahead, $7 at the door. 6 and under free. We sold over 200 at the door. Ticket sales below $3000, the school gets 40%, over $3000 the school gets 50%. Yahoo, we sold over $3200 in tickets so we got more than $1600. Plus $750 in concessions (popcorn, candy bars, kid drinks= 50 cents, cotton candy and large bottled drinks=$1). We also did a 50/50 raffle and made $100 for the PTO. Great place to put out Spirit Wear and we also did door prizes at 1/2 time.
Teachers are already lining up for next year!!
I have asked other PTO's for ideas about this as well and what they told me was that unless they charge per activity and get most of the prizes donated, they don't make money. We do a Fall Festival that is not designed to make money but to be an alternative to classroom celebrations and they offer a punch card and each family is charged a fee and all the children get to do the 6-8 activites on the punch card once. This year we made almost 2/3rd of what was spent. Good luck.
The irony of commitment is that it’s deeply liberating-in work, in play, in love. The act frees you from the tyranny of your internal critic, from the fear that likes to dress itself up and parade around as rational hesitation. To commit is to remove your head as the barrier to your life. --Anne Morris
Can anyone tell me what they charge for their fall festival? We have done one for years and charge $5/child 3 and up with adults free. The problem is that we don't really make money on it and it is SOOOOO much work! It isn't really designed as a fundraiser but I wonder if we could do something else like the inflatables and charge more. I think that would be less work for the PTO. The man hours required is incredible for what we do and the clean up is unbelievable. Any ideas?
Lisa Stovall--we just had a Halloween Carnival for our school K3-8th and it's so funny how those 8th graders just love to come, dressed up in costume, esp. the girls. Anyway, we had one of those rental rock climbing walls and that's always popular. (charged $2 a climb, probably could have charged at least $3). Other years, they've had a dunking booth, with a teacher in it and that's always popular. Also, the big inflatables that are like obstacle courses are still even popular..
Shelly
Has anyone else done this sort of thing? I would love to do something like this, but "tradition" is that we have a carnival. Most of the kids say they are too old for the "baby games" that are involved. The biggest attraction is the DJ. I have no idea if it costs any tickets or not. I just want to make it fun for older kids, it's the only fundraiser we do.
