Carnival Ideas for How to Raise Money for Your School

Every year my children's elementary school has a school carnival to help raise money. The following is a mixture of the things my elementary school does and some of my own ideas.

Having a non-profit carnival fund-raiser takes some good planning, but the reward is fun and worthwhile. Not to mention that it can raise a good amount of money for your school.

On Friday, the volunteers go in and set up classrooms with fun games and activities. One adult is in charge per classroom to run the game. High school kids might be interested in doing this also. My oldest daughter, who is almost 14, has helped the past few years. She helps set up and run a simple activity like nail painting or face painting.

Early in the year, start recruiting local business for donations. Most of the time businesses are more than happy to help with non-profit organizations. You can request donations for prizes, coupons, cups for drinks, bowls, napkins, plates etc. If you can get most of the simple things from the business, you can make a more specific donation request for the parents that will be more useful. Designate a safe area at the school to keep all the donations collected so they are in one place and ready for when it's carnival time.

Have a gift basket raffle. A few weeks before the carnival give each class a gift basket theme and ask them to bring in items for that theme. The items are then grouped together in gift baskets. Beside each basket is a container where you can put your raffle ticket that has your name, address and phone number. A few ideas for gift baskets are family fun night (movies, games, popcorn etc.), coffee & tea, dog or cat basket etc.

Bingo is always a fun way to raise money and have lots of fun. Designate a classroom where you can set everything up. People can buy Bingo cards with tickets. Give instant prizes to the winners. Even without the whole carnival theme, hosting a Bingo Night every few months is always a fun way to raise money.

Go directly to jail. At one of the carnivals my children had at their old school, they had a jail. If you can't find a fake jail cage, designate an area for the school jail. Volunteers can dress up as police officers and jail keepers. A person is arrested when someone 'pays' to have them jailed. The catch is, you have to find someone to bail you out, and you can't use your own tickets. The kids always have fun locking up their principals and teachers!

ARummage Sale or Auction is another idea that can be held with or without the carnival. Parents can donate 'would be yard sale items' to the school and either auction them off or reserve one room for a rummage sale.

Cake Walks are always fun also. If you have a local bakery ask if they would like to donate donuts, cakes, cookies or other goodies for the cake walk. Parents can also donate home baked goods.

Labels for Tickets Option. One last idea is to allow the option of bringing in Box Tops, Campbell Labels or other things your school is collecting in return for tickets. This will encourage more people to clip and keep them. If the kids know they are going to get tickets for them, they might hound their grandparents and relatives a little more to collect and save them. In the end, the school will still benefit.