Free Fundraising For A School

How do you organize a fundraiser? Often times fundraisers start out with a cause. They start out by somebody identifying a cause that needs funding. Sometimes the cause is for someone who has had an accident. Sometimes the fundraiser is for a sporting group. Still other times the fundraiser is for a school, church, or other charity. Whatever the cause or organization may be, the need for funds exists, initiating the fundraising need.

There are traditional methods of fundraising. Car washes, bake sales, and candy sales are traditional fundraiser activities. Are these methods of fundraising really effective? These fundraisers require an outlay of cash upfront for supplies, cookies, candy, or other product that will be sold, hopefully at a profit. There is a form of fundraising that does not require any upfront cash outlay from your school or charity. This form of fundraising is called pay-for-play fundraising, or PFP fundraising.

PFP fundraisers are events that are put on by the school or charity in coordination with an event or party rental company. Traditionally party rental companies charge schools for rental equipment such as bounce houses, slides, obstacle courses, or other games or inflatables for schools to use at their fundraiser. This often means thousands of dollars outlaid by the school or charity upfront.

Under the PFP structure there is no cash outlay upfront. A PFP works best for a school carnival. School carnivals happen all the time at almost every single school in the country. School carnivals should always be viewed as a fundraising activity, as well as a fun time for students, parents, and teachers.

What happens with PFP is that the school doing the fundraiser and the party rentals meet upfront to discuss the event and lay out the details on timing, age groups, and number of kids that will be at the school carnival. After those details are hammered out, the school and party rental company agree on a price per ride structure that makes sense for both parties. Most times, one dollar per ride makes sense for most school carnivals.

PFP can also utilize bracelets where every child has the opportunity to purchase a bracelet for unlimited rides. Often these bracelets cost anywhere from ten dollars to twenty dollars, depending on the quantity and size of the rides. This is the option that most kids pick because they can usually get more than ten or twenty rides in one hour at a carnival that may last four or more hours.

How does all this translate into fundraising for a school or charity? This part is easy. The organization and party rental company agree upfront on a revenue sharing structure that works for both parties. Most of the time this revenue sharing structure leaves more money to the party rental company than the school, however this is to be expected. After all, the party rental company is outlaying costs of fuel, labor, time, setup, taxes, depreciation, and they also have to make a profit. However, this has saved the school money upfront because there are no rental fees to be paid before the event!

This structure works great for both parties if the attendance is robust at the school carnival. If the attendance is poor this structure may still work out for the school, but not so well for the party rental company. There are no costs to cover for the school, so any revenue brought in is mostly profit. The party rental company, however, does have certain costs that need to be covered. This really shows that the PFP model works very well for the school, no matter what happens!

Try PFP at your next party by contacting your local party rental company. They should be receptive to this structure as there is tremendous upside on both sides of the table.