Summer Fete Tips for Fundraising

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Summer Fete Tips for Fundraising

A summer fete is an event that is highly anticipated on the school calendar and an ideal event to raise funds for your school. This could be for new play equipment, or a school canopy for example. It’s important to get the summer fete right because it will be one of your key fundraising events of the year.

It’s also a great opportunity to get the wider community to support the school and encourage parents to join the PTA.

Save The Date

The first aspect is to pick a day and a date for your school’s summer fair. Is it going to be an after-school event or on a weekend? Saturday is a very popular day for school fetes but first, consult with your school’s headteacher. You could also have a chat with parents at the school or members of your PTA to get an idea of what days and dates are popular.

Then you can share your date with everyone giving them plenty of notice. Make sure you share the news everywhere, this includes social media groups for both the PTA and your school, the school newsletter and see if you can put a notice up somewhere visible, perhaps on the school noticeboard. The more people who note down your event in advance the greater attendance you’ll get.

Consider How To Improve on Previous Fairs

Try not to work from scratch. Consider past summer fetes and decide what worked well, and what was enjoyed. Consider this from different angles and try to make it positive. So hotdogs were popular and made a lot of money but the two parents on this stall were exhausted. Then keep the hotdogs, but add a rotation so volunteers spend less time on this stall.

Another example would be if you had a cake stall but the vast majority of cakes donated were from the local shop, you could change the criteria. So instead of a donation, try running a bake-off competition or a cake competition with a prize for the best bake. This way there is a greater incentive for everyone to bring in homemade creative cakes that are likely to be more popular and sell better.

Make Sure Your Planning Is Inclusive

You may have an established PTA team, including friends and parents you’ve worked with before but consider each event as an opportunity for new members to join your planning group. If parents feel involved in planning this exciting event they will have greater ownership and enthusiasm and this will be passed on to others! If you find it challenging to manage a larger group of people, then put volunteers into sub groups for planning.

These summer fete tips focus on having a strong start for your fundraising planning. If you start well you will gain support and help with your planning, build on what you have achieved in the past, and hopefully have a wonderful summer fete with lots of great ideas.

Able Canopies Ltd. design, manufacture and install canopies and shade structures at schools, nurseries and educational settings to enable year-round Free Flow Outdoor Play and Outdoor Learning.
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Summer Fete Tips for Fundraising

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