Fundraising Ideas
for High School Trips
Planning a trip for high school students is taxing. The where and when portion of the trip is daunting enough, but the how can be the hardest part of all. Many school budgets aren't rigged for field trips, and certainly not for the kind of abroad trips taken by high school groups today. Once you have decided where you want to go, when you will go and how you will get there, you might find yourself short of funds to execute the plan. That is where fundraisers come in. There are many innovative DIY fundraisers that will have people excited to participate and contribute to the trip.
Best Seat in the House
This activity raises money through the sale of raffle tickets. Sell raffle tickets for $1 apiece one or two weeks before a game or performance given by a sports or drama or debate team. The winner of the raffle gets to sit in the best seat in the house at the event. To make the best seat even more desirable, ask a parent or furniture store to donate a love seat, couch or armchair to the cause. Place the comfy seat onstage or as close to the action of the performance as possible. If the seat can fit more than one person, allow the winner to pick someone to sit with her. At halftime or intermission order pizza and sodas to be delivered to the winner. One school who performed this fundraiser had a teacher dress up as an old maid and serve the refreshments. When a teacher won the raffle they gave him a rickety chair to sit in--for laughs of course. Have fun with it!
Penny Challenge
This fundraiser is simple and effective. Give each homeroom a bucket for pennies. Tell the students to discard their extra pennies at their convenience. The room that collects the most pennies at the end of a designated period receives recognition and a prize. All proceeds go toward the organization whose trip is coming up. An advantage of this fundraiser is that it can be done year round, proceeds can be collected at any interval, and a grand prize can be given at the end of the semester or school year to motivate kids to continuously donate pennies. Because it is homeroom based it can be run in conjunction with other fundraisers that are schoolwide.
Garage Sale
In this fundraiser you can hold a schoolwide garage sale that takes place in the gym or on the playground. Have students bring in their items, as well as items their parents want to donate. Set up a reasonable pricing scale and invite parents and students to shop the sale one evening after all things have been collected. You could make this a multi-fundraising event with multiple activities happening at once. In another part of the school (perhaps the theater) you can have a cake-decorating contest with cakes baked and donated by PTO members. You can also hold a goldfish racing contest. Have students pay $1 to participate. Set two 10-foot-long gutters next to each other. Fill them with water. Drop a goldfish in each one and see whose goldfish gets to the end of the gutter first. The winner keeps the fish.
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