How to Raise Money for a School Trip: 8 Easy Ideas
A school trip is a fun and educational experience for students to get out of the classroom and learn in a new environment like a museum or the zoo. The memories students gain from school trips are some that can last a lifetime, whether it’s during high school, middle school or elementary school, but these trips are not always easy to fund.
The quickest way to raise money for an event like a field trip is to start a fundraiser. The money that is raised can help with items ranging from travel, accommodation, and food and beverages. Check out our list of school fundraising ideas that will guide teachers, parents, and students on how to raise money for their dream school trip.
How to fundraise for a school trip by yourself
Whether you’re a teacher, parent, or student, starting a fundraising campaign can be intimidating, but it’s not as hard as you think.
Use these fundraising ideas to raise money and help you reach your goal. Once you’ve decided on which idea you want to try, check out our blog for easy steps on how to raise money online.
1. Try crowdfunding
Crowdfunding combines the power of social networks and the internet to help people through online fundraising. Consider using GoFundMe to crowdfund for your school community. It’s important to create a captivating fundraiser story and to share your fundraiser on social media ensure your fundraising efforts pay off.
Teachers, parents, and students can create successful fundraisers online by starting a crowdfunding page to help fund school events. They can set up a fundraising page, write a strong story about the field trip students want to go on, and share it on social media. Start by asking for small donations as these can quickly add up, then reach out to teachers, peers, and your community to get the most support possible.
2. Get crafty
Get creative! If you have a special talent for making cards, knitting scarves, making delicious baked goods or designing t-shirts, then turn your talents into easy fundraising opportunities.
- Host a bake sale: Ask the school if families and high school students can bring cupcakes to sell at the next football game. You don’t have to be a whizz in the kitchen either, you can simply buy and bake some cookie dough to make cookies, especially if you’re making enough for a football crowd.
- Host an art sale: Do you make art prints, birthday or Christmas cards, or design t-shirts? Put your talents together with other crafty local community members and host an art sale at a local restaurant or a school fair, and share the information on social media so you can make online sales and collect donations that way, too.
3. Go dog walking
Dog walking is an effective way to combine some light exercise with raising money for a good cause.
- Dog walking challenge: Do you have a dog? Set up a crowdfund, set a walking goal with your dog and get your friends, family and community members to donate. Gain sponsorships from local businesses and update your community each time you reach a new milestone.
- Walk your neighbors’ dogs: Ask your friends and neighbors if they need a hand walking their dogs and collect a donation for the school every time you help out.
- Walk-a-thon: Don’t have a dog? You can still raise money for the school by getting sponsorship for a walk-a-thon instead.
How to fundraise for a school trip with your peers
Fundraising with your peers is a fun way to get involved with the high school. If you’re a student, gather small groups of friends and classmates together to get them involved in one of the fundraising ideas below.
If you’re a teacher, reach out to other educators and also collaborate with students to help them contribute to school events or host their own event like a movie night or talent show. Assembling a team to raise money for a good cause is a rewarding experience.
4. Clean up your neighborhood and recycle
Fundraising events don’t have to be driven by selling items, you can raise money by helping to clean up your neighborhood, too.
- Clean up and recycle: Get a group together to create a trash treasure hunt by cleaning up a local area while scouring it for recyclable items you can collect. Take the items to a depot in exchange for money that can be donate to the school field trip fund.
- Host a car wash: Get a group together, and collect donations by washing your friends’, neighbors’, and community members’ cars in a local parking lot.
5. Run a talent show
Get students at your high school to pull together a number for a talent show, whether they’re in a band, a dance group, or like to sing, and see if you can host it at the school. If you can’t find a venue, hold a talent show during the day at a local park.
- Charge a small entry fee for the show or get people to buy tickets and use the money from ticket sales to go towards the fund for a school trip.
- See if local businesses will sponsor the event or donate prizes to the winners.
- Have a raffle to raise extra money at the show. You can give raffle tickets to volunteers who help out at the event to say thank you.
6. Host a book sale
Hosting a book sale at your high school or in your local community is a great fundraising opportunity to help ensure the students make it on that field trip.
- Get your friends, family members, work friends and teachers to donate their unwanted books and share information about the event on social media to spread the word.
- Get people who come to the book sale to sign up to a read-a-thon as a fun way to raise extra money.
- You could also become a reading buddy to a younger student when you go back to school and collect small donations for giving time one-on-one someone who needs a little help.
How to fundraise for a school trip with your family
Tap into your support system for help with fundraising. If you’re a student, your parents will be able to offer help and encouragement for your fundraising efforts, and if you’re a parent, fundraising with your children can provide your family with valuable bonding experiences.
7. Face-to-face fundraising
Go back to basics and go door-to-door in your local community to raise awareness of the issues facing your high school, middle school or elementary school and why you’re raising funds for an educational school trip.
- Go door-to-door around your neighborhood as a family to provide comfort and safety.
- Visit local businesses with your parents to see if they would be willing to donate or sign up to any school initiatives where they can help with sponsorship opportunities.
- Visit any nonprofits that may operate in your area to see if they could team up with your school to help raise awareness about fundraising efforts for school trips.
8. Host a yard sale
Get together as a family and see what items you no longer need and host a yard sale on a weekend. See if your neighbors have any items they want to contribute, or if they’d like to do their own yard sale at the same time.
- Tell your friends and neighbors about the yard sale and have cookies and lemonade ready for when people decide to drop by.
- Increase donations by getting friends and neighbors to host a big sale event in the community or at your school fare.
Start raising money today for a school trip
Going on a trip for school is a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Now that you know how to raise money for a school trip, choose one of these ideas and start fundraising for students and teachers. With GoFundMe’s advanced tools, you’ll be able to easily spread awareness of your fundraiser to increase donations. Whether you crowdfund for teachers, fundraise for yourself, with peers, or with parents, start a GoFundMe today and reach your fundraising goals for your next school trip. today and reach your fundraising goals for your next school trip.