I've been trying to think of an adults night out fundraiser and came up with a bowl-a-thon. The parents or teachers get sponsors to pledge donations, the bowling alley in our town has rock-n-bowl night(they dim the lights,run strobe lights, and play rock-n-roll music),and there is a bar that also serves food (then we are not responsible for people drinking). It could be a fun night out, without the pressure of a meeting or kids(except for the bowling part). Still trying to figure out the details. Any ideas....contact me at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Fundraising only works, regardless of the type you plan, if your parents support it. I mean truely support it.....not just say they will and drop the ball when the event happens (like they do at my school)

Our school does have a pretty good number of fundraisers a year. We tell our parents that they are not expected to participate in all of them. They are given a variety so that they can pick and chose which ones better suit them.

We added some new ones this year and the response we got to them has been really good. People overall said they were happy to have something new and not the same old crap year after year after year.

Also, I have learned that parents like adult nights out. This year our school is having an anniversary celebration. We rented a local hall (like a VFW) and it is going to be $20 per person with an open bar. The venue only holds 200 and we sold out of tickets in the first day and now are turning people away. We had checked into finding a bigger venue as some people are upset that they cannot go. This whole experience made us aware of the fact that if we held more events like this it could be a huge source of income for us.

I know from a previous discussion on these boards that some people do not like the idea of School organizations running adult events where alcohol is served. If you do not have issues with that then I tell you events like that can be very successful and people are more then happy to hand over money for a night of dancing, socializing & cocktails. Another organization in our town also holds a byob comedy night. That too is always sold out.

Yes, we do a concert fundraiser. We are about to have our 3rd Annual We Really Care Thanksgiving Music Fest. Our elementary school and the one of the local high school will be performing. Next year we hope to add the middle school for our area.

This year our chorus, instructmental band, performance band and step team will perform. The high school chorus will also perform. One year we had a high school jazz band and another year a high school funk band. Last year, we had one of the head start school perform.

Here is the basic plan:
1. The schools that feed into each other are targeted to participate.

2. Each school will produce a fifteen minute musical performance highlighting the school’s music program.

The school will also produce a five minute oral presentation to be given by an administrator and/or PTA representative prior to their school’s performance, which highlights their school’s music/arts program, as well as PTA and school related concerns.

As a visual challenge, we ask each school to stretch their creativity to produce a 2 minute video tape presentation that highlights their school. These videos will open the music festival.

We would like for each school to extend an opportunity to their art department to furnish student artwork for an art exhibit in the lobby on the night of the music festival. Artwork can be in any medium, showing images of hope, healing, unity, harmony, peace, love or school pride.

3. Each school will be given an equal share of the advance tickets. All proceeds from the sale of the school’s allotted tickets will go directly to that school. As the sponsors, only JMES Elementary School PTA may sell tickets at the door on the night of the event.

4. There will be a thirty minute intermission to interact and visit the information tables where one can gather educational materials which will help us grow and develop into a positive community.

5. Each school will be furnished a table to sell other school-related fundraising items (with the exception of food items). All proceeds from the sale of your fundraising items will go directly to your school. As the sponsors, only JMES Elementary School PTA may sell refreshments (including, but not limited to sodas, bottled water, chips, cookies, and candy) at the music festival.

We hold the event at a local high school with a great auditorium that holds about 750 people. On a rainy night that place was 2/3 full.

We send out press releases and have received media coverage. We also place the event in the community columns of the local newspaper. We videotape the event.

It's a nice way to spend a Saturday evening.

If you could do another type fund raiser, something that would be easy to sell, but raise a lot of money (setting the parameters to think) what would it look like?

I'm researching out just such a thing and have a few ideas, but the more people thinking about it the better.

thank you.

We were asked to wait until school had been in 4 weeks before starting our fundraiser this year and I noticed a large drop because a lot of those people had already purchased from so many by this time. We decided to go in to this year commit to 2 but with the first one doing so bad, I'm afraid we will have to do another. I keep hearing parents ask for fundraisers other than catalogs, but I'm not sure we can risk the loss of sending home candy bars for parents to sell. I have never heard of a concert fundraiser.