If you’re looking for an easy PTA or PTO School Fundraising Idea, look no further than starting up a School Store! For my kids’ elementary school, we run one every other Friday during their lunch period. We set up tables in their main lobby and sell items ranging from .25 to $5.00. Kids that bring money are allowed to stop by after they’ve eaten lunch and before they’ve headed out to recess.
I love shopping for the school store and I figured I’d share our tips for what we do to bring in some extra cash for our PTO. This is one of the EASIEST ways to raise funds for your school! Last week alone we raised $700 off of materials that didn’t even cost us $200, and every penny of profit goes right back into the school! Without further adieu, here are some tips on easy school fundraising by running a school store without having to turn tricks.
Where to source items for your School Fundraising/School Store:
Head to Amazon to get the most bang for your buck. For our school, the kids ages range from kindergarteners through fifth grade. We like to have a variety of toys in the following price points: .25, .50, $1.00, $2.00, $3.00 and $5.00. From there we then try and get boys and girls toys as well as unisex toys for every price point.
Knowing what we want to make off each item helps us narrow down items we are looking at online. Things we sell for a quarter cost us about 10-11 cents. Things we sell for a buck cost us about half that. And the things that we charge $3.00 for tend to cost us just over a buck. Lastly, items we sell for $5 cost us around $3.00. Just make sure you aren’t price-gouging too much! When the parents see what their kid got for their five bucks, you don’t want it to look cheap AF. If you over-price too much, it’s likely the parents won’t continue to let their kids shop at the school store.
Make a spreadsheet:
List items you have, what they cost you, what you’re charging for them, and what your net profit is. I made my own spreadsheet in Xcel pretty quick and it’s easy for me to update as we get new stuff in or sell out of other things. This is totally optional though if your PTO or PTA doesn’t want to track every cent.
Be mindful of what you’re selling at school store!
The kids shopping our school store are currently obsessed with these giant vinyl stickers that they can put on their water bottles, skateboards, or i-pad cases. When we buy a giant bag of stickers off Amazon, we then have to weed through to remove inappropriate ones. (In our last batch there were ones with beer cans, and good ol’ marijuana leaves for example.) Also, ditch anything political. These are kids, they don’t give a shit about a Bernie Sanders or Trump.
Make age-appropriate choices:
The big items for our kindergarteners tends to be squishy animals while the older kids dig the water bottle stickers and pop-it keychains. You don’t want to ruin a perfectly good school fundraiser by selling inappropriate shit.
Take requests!
I had a little boy last week who said he really wants to see more rubix cubes. So next week, I will have more! Treat the students like you would adult shoppers where you want to get repeat business.
Add holiday items for upcoming holidays.
For our first School Store coming up in January, I had Valentine’s Day themed toys like these mochis, heart-shaped stress balls, and heart necklaces.
I am all about giving you guys the easy way out, so here is the exact list of what we are currently selling in our school store!
School Store $.25 items:
For our cheapest items we offer pencil grips, bouncy balls, glow sticks, and sticky hands.
$.50 items:
race cars, slime, 3D erasers, and plastic parachute men are always a hit!
$1.00 items:
Slap bracelets, scented erasers, stackable crayons, mochis, scrunchies, and Among Us accessories are our go-to items!
$2.00 items:
Mini rubix cubes, fidget snakes, Minecraft toys, fun notebooks, stretchy fidget toys, bracelets and popsicle lip gloss.
$3.00 items:
Pop-its, small stuffed animals, fidget spinners, pencils with fun toppers, stress balls, light up rings.
$5.00 items:
Water tubes, fidget slugs, Among Us plushies, baby Yoda figurines, slow-rising squishies, and dumpling stress toys.
Hopefully this gives you a good idea on where to start with your school fundraising! We made $700 last week just off selling all the inexpensive items you’ve seen above. Let’s be conservative and say it all cost $200. If you make a $500 profit every other week, that’s an extra $1000 PER MONTH! Multiply that by the 9 months kids are in school and you’re looking at a profit of around $9,000 of free money for your school!!! Plus, if you volunteer your time, you also get to know the kids which is what makes it so fun!
You don’t even have to run your school store weekly. There are months where our school has a lot going on (as well as our parent volunteers.) So we have it just once or twice a month. That’s the beauty of school store – you can make it your own thing!
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