Ideas for School Fair

If Country Fair was a big hit, my suggestion is that you keep that idea and grow it into an anticipated annual event. Tweak it to remove the parts that didn't work so well last time and/or add something new to it.

A high school here has under 300 students. They have a carnival as their fundraiser each school year. They have not changed the theme in 15 years, they've just fine tuned it. Over time things got added or dropped, depending on what worked and what didn't, ideas and availability, etc. but the general event stayed the same. It remains popular and is an annual community event that spans 3 days over the weekend in September.

Some of the things they have are rides, games, food, raffles, silent auction that fills the gym, live entertainment, bake sale including home canned goods and fresh fruit/veg. It's like they cram a dozen fundraisers into one. They get the support and donations from local businesses too.

If it ain't broke, do t fix it. Just tweek it a bit. Maybe add a couple of new things.

That's a LOT of money and I'm sure you received a lot of community support - since it was also advertising for people who put up their rides/games/market stalls, etc. One of our local private schools just did one of these and it was a wild success. I wouldn't change it - unless you wanted to add some things.

That's a killing - if it worked, then keep a good thing going! The only fundraiser that we've done for our 900 student school that has raised that much money was Boosterthon, so we're sticking with it. We did get push back last year (the first year we did it) from parents who were upset that the company keeps a large % of the funds raised, but we explained that with Boosterthon, we had more participation and raised far more money than any of our other events and frankly, we didn't have enough volunteers to continue to pull off the big events that we used to do so if parents weren't willing to put in some hours, we were happy to outsource to professionals and let them do their thing. I'd keep going with the fair and maybe just change out some of the activities that were less popular (if any) in favor of new ones to keep it fresh.

If it isn't broken, why fix it? If the Country Fair was that popular and raised that much money, I would repeat it again this year. Word of mouth will spread and chances are you'll raise even more this year. People who missed it last year will have heard how awesome it was and show up this year. Maybe keep the same theme and add a few more attractions or more variety of foods instead of overhauling the entire concept. Maybe add a raffle or a cakewalk (if you're not already doing that)...face painting booth (get High School art students to donate their time), maybe? Our elementary school did a carnival type thing every year and it started small. By the time my kids were done with ES, it was a BIG DEAL that EVERYONE went to. We knew what to expect, we knew it would be fun, and all the kids looked forward to it because they'd experienced it before and knew it was awesome. The school raised gobs and gobs of $$ every year! And each year, schools have new families that have never experienced it but have heard about it and want to participate.

I'm also in the camp of "keep a good thing going." Clearly, the school community and the wider community liked this idea, so do it again. Congrats on a great outcome last year!

If this draws heavily on the school community for attendance, you could add a silent auction of "teacher time." Someone below mentioned a similar thing as a raffle, but at our old elementary school, this was done as a silent auction, which could earn a lot more money than a raffle where tickets are a fixed, usually low, price.
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Parents bid on things like "Ice cream with Mrs. X after school for child and one friend," "One free art lesson for one child and two friends with Mr. Y the art teacher" or "Mini-golf with Miss Z for one child and one friend" and so on. The teachers do have to be enthusiastic about this....It always raised gobs of money because parents went crazy outbidding each other for these outings for their kids; people would actually hover (nicely!) over the bidding sheets as the minutes counted down to the close of bidding, and would keep bidding over and over to try to win these things! Over time it became an anticipated thing and kids really egged on parents to bid for these outings.

If the event does draw heavily from outside the school, then you might not want to do this type of silent auction but could use it for another event later in the year, perhaps-- an event that's open just to the school community.

Another suggestion for the country fair might be to ensure you have a few new and different food vendors each year you do it. Be sure to ask back food vendors who were hits, but also seek new ones to keep things fresh. Around here people just love specialty food trucks that do anything ethnic or anything different from the old standbys like hot dogs, burgers, ribs and ice cream.

I would not mess with success. Make last year's fair a tradition. I personally cannot stand our school's fair and can't make any helpful recommendations.

why do something different if the country fair worked?
khairete
S.

We had ours this weekend. Mostly the same as what you listed, but we also had food trucks and raffles of things the teachers offered (my daughter won a trip to Barnes and Noble with a teacher for coffee and two books of her choosing). I don't know what we made, but our school is brand new and only around 300 students.

I've been to many kinds of school fairs. The more fun it is, the closer you place it to the majority payday in your community, the better the weather, and having it effective are all things that make people part with their money.

Consider doing several activities over the school year to raise money.

We've had hot dog night where everyone can come to the school parking lot and buy a hot dog dinner for a few bucks. Kids meals weren't much, maybe $1.50 since most kids will only eat a bare hot dog or two.

We've had 50's dances with a live band that was a quality, professional band. The kids dressed up and some of the adults did too. It was a yearly thing and the cost to get in was maybe $2-$3 for kids and $4-$5 for adults. Thing you have to look out for is that if you make the cost to get in so high that whole families can't afford it or it makes it a hardship then you don't get everyone there. Sold refreshments in the cafeteria. Candy, chips, soft drinks, and other "FUN" foods. Stuff the kids like and don't get very often. Buck each.

Our school had a carnival where they did activities in the gym and in the parking lot there was a petting zoo, a riding area with horses and a few other things but it didn't earn much money. Parents want to have a good time with their kids or they don't stay long and they won't spend money.