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Worksheets for groups raising money in the United States and Canada. Not personal crowdfunding. Affiliated with a product fundraising company — disclosure.

Fundraising ideas for schools, teams, and PTAs

Fundraising ideas for teachers, coaches, principals, and PTA or PTO chairs. Start with who will ask friends, family, and neighbors. Then pick a named program — popcorn, a catalog, apparel, a car wash if that is the honest fit — not a list of cute themes.

Each page is a worksheet: profit dollars first, then labor, then a last-safe-order date. Download the school fundraiser planning guide to take into a meeting, or get a plan with four named matches emailed to you.

Named programs groups actually run

Product, event, or a gift ask. Not a typical-raise figure. Get a plan to see which four match this group.

Product

Popcorn

A snack people already buy. Tins you can show, or a line in a catalog. The ask is food, not a speech.

Easy to explain to friends, family, and neighbors. Fits a $12–$15 tin or a $20–$25 ask. Works in-hand or as a catalog item.

Chocolate

The familiar school bar or box. Sold from a packet, a cart, or a handful of bars someone can show.

Everyone knows the item. Works across elementary, teams, and PTAs when the price a family pays is honest.

Candy

Small sweet items at a $1–$3 ask. Often in-hand. Sometimes a catalog page.

A cheap decision for the buyer. Volume is the honesty check — not a headline percentage.

Fudge

A gift tin more than a pocket snack. Usually a catalog or ship-to-home line, not a hallway table of bars.

Sits in the $12–$15 or gift band. Useful when the ask should feel like a present.

Candles

A gift item. Shown on a table or ordered from a booklet. Not a snack, not a uniform.

Fits PTAs, churches, and adult sellers. Families usually pay $12–$15 or $20–$25, not a dollar bar.

Wrapping paper

The classic catalog roll. Packets go home. Orders come back. Someone sorts rolls unless it ships to the buyer.

Familiar to elementary and PTA committees. Needs a real selling window and a last-safe-order date.

Mixed catalog

One booklet, many items — food, wrap, gifts. Packets, a window, consolidation, often a sort night.

Buyers pick what they actually want. The committee still has to staff the window and the gym unless ship-to-home is the path.

Apparel

Shirts, hoodies, spirit wear. Sizes matter. People want to see it or know the brand before they pay $20–$25.

Fits teams, cheer, dance, and band when the roster will actually wear it. Wrong for a $1–$3 ask.

Tumblers

A show-the-item product. Sits on a table at a meeting. Often ship-to-home after the order.

Usually $12–$15 or $20–$25. Skips a gym full of cases if it ships to the buyer. Needs someone willing to show it.

Scratchcards

In-hand cards. The buyer scratches, the group keeps the sale. Often prepaid — the treasury may float the pack.

Fast when weeks are short and nobody will staff a catalog. Not a no-cash program if you collect envelopes.

Discount cards

A card of local merchant deals sold in-hand. The item is a coupon book, not a tin of food.

Quick, portable, no gym sort. Depends on whether your town still treats a discount card as worth paying for.

Event

Car wash

A date, a lot, hoses, weather, and a crew. Money often in cash or a can unless you pre-sell tickets.

Fits a high-school team that will actually show up for a shift. Does not fit a four-person committee or a last-safe-order catalog calendar.

Auction

Procure items, a room, a night, a checkout. Silent or live. Months of labor dressed up as one evening.

Can work for a PTA or church that already has donors and volunteer hours. A poor fit for a short clock or a small roster that needed a packet.

Thons

Read-a-thon, dance-a-thon, bowl-a-thon: activity plus pledges. The product is time, the money is often gifts.

Elementary and youth groups already know the shape. Hits a dollar goal only if pledges are real, not if the gym is full.

Drives

Cans, coats, supplies, or a pledge board. A drive fills a need in stuff or in gifts. It may not fill a treasury.

Right when the goal is goods, not dollars. Wrong when the motion is “we need $5,000 in the account.”

Gift ask

Straight-up donations

A written ask or a checkout link for a gift — no item in return. Not a catalog with the prices peeled off.

Right when people would rather give than buy, and you can name who will send the letter. Wrong as a substitute for a roster that wanted a product.

Get a plan returns four names that match this group, emailed with why each one fits.

Fundraising ideas by group

Fundraising ideas by type

Need a number before you pick a catalog? Use the profit calculator. Need a printable sequence? Email the planning guide.