School Fundraiser Prizes: 18+ Ideas to Inspire Students

Your next school fundraiser is just around the corner, and it's time to start drumming up excitement throughout your community. Reaching your fundraising goal will allow you to create more fulfilling learning experiences for your students, but some of your students might need a little extra inspiration to put in their best efforts during the campaign. An easy solution? School fundraiser prizes.

In this article, we'll discuss how you can incentivize your students with school fundraising prizes and share some of the top reward ideas to consider. Here's what we'll cover:

• How Do School Fundraiser Prizes Work?
• Read-A-Thon's Prize Center: The Best Approach to Fundraising Prizes
• 18+ Popular Ideas for School Fundraiser Prizes

You need your whole school community to rally together for a successful fundraiser. With just a little thought and creativity, you can keep your students energized throughout your campaign and raise the funds you need to fuel your school's growth.

How Do School Fundraiser Prizes Work?

While your students' families and other community members may be more than happy to pitch in to support your school, your students themselves might need more encouragement to become active participants in your fundraising efforts.

Your school can present prizes to individual students who raise a certain amount of money, reward the top-performing class in each grade, or both! The flexibility of fundraising prizes means that you're bound to find an approach that suits both your school and its students.

Read-A-Thon's Prize Center: The Best Approach to Fundraising Prizes

Hosting a Read-A-Thon is a well-loved fundraising idea among schools everywhere. Unlike other common fundraisers, such as popcorn sales or movie nights, Read-A-Thons promote a spirit of learning and boost literacy while bringing in funds for your school. Plus, the Read-A-Thon platform simplifies awarding fundraising prizes.

When you start a free Read-A-Thon fundraiser, you can choose between two flexible profit options:

• School-Sponsored Rewards. In this model, your school sponsors and handles rewards for students. You can browse over 100 prize coupon templates that will be printed and shipped to your school at no cost. Plus, the Read-A-Thon platform helps schools set student reading and donation goals for earning their rewards. At the end of your fundraiser, your school receives 80% of total donations in cash.
• Read-A-Thon Prize Store. If you select Read-A-Thon's prize store model, your school will directly receive 75% of total donations in cash. On top of that, students will earn points as their friends and family support them, which they can spend in Read-A-Thon's online prize store of toys, books, and games. These will be packaged and shipped to your school at no additional charge.

No matter which option you go with, your school can opt into Read-A-Thon's Disney contest to make your fundraiser even more engaging and memorable. Twice a year, students will have the chance to win an all-expenses-paid trip for four to Disney. Since participation is key to a successful campaign, the Read-A-Thon platform pulls out all the stops when it comes to inspiring your students to read.

How to Start a Read-A-Thon

A Read-A-Thon is easy for any school to implement, regardless of your fundraising experience. Since this online fundraiser requires minimal planning and very few volunteers, you can get started in just three easy steps:

1. Sign up for a free Read-A-Thon account. It takes only five minutes to create a free Read-A-Thon account. Administrators, teachers, and students can then log in to manage and record reading minutes. Each student will have their own, personalized donation page that their friends and family can visit to make donations and show their support.
2. Promote your school's fundraiser. The platform comes with all the marketing materials your school needs at no cost. You'll be able to use printed and digital flyers, kick-off videos, stickers, and pre-written emails to spread the word about your fundraiser to families and other members of your community.
3. Monitor your fundraising progress. Read-A-Thons require less than one hour per week to manage. With a real-time reporting dashboard, you can easily keep track of your fundraising progress throughout the event. For example, you can view your school's total donations earned, total minutes read, and top-performing classes all in one convenient location.

By posting regular updates on your fundraising progress and highlighting enticing school fundraiser prizes, you can maintain excitement among your students from start to finish.

18+ Popular Ideas for School Fundraiser Prizes

While your students will have varying preferences on the types of school fundraising prizes that will interest them the most, you can't go wrong with the following ideas:

Cost-Effective School Fundraising Prizes

Even if your school or PTA has a limited fundraising budget, there are still plenty of interesting prizes that you can offer your students, including:

Fidget Toys

From kindergarteners to middle schoolers, students all across the board want to get their hands on fun gizmos and toys to hold their attention. Rubix cubes, mini-puzzles, slime, and slap bracelets are just a few examples of popular fidget toys that perform well across a wide age demographic.

Inexpensive and entertaining, these gadgets are great incentives to keep the wider student body engaged throughout your ongoing fundraising initiatives.

School Supplies

Every student needs school supplies, but you can make them even more special with these interesting variations:

• Glittery pencil grips
• Furry pens
• Jumbo pencils
• Fuzzy notebooks
• Rainbow pencil sharpeners

Students will jump at the chance to personalize their school supply kit with these fun, tactile, and interesting prizes.

Accessories

Give your students something special to show off in and out of the classroom with these cute, wearable prizes:

• Cloth bracelets
• Novelty rings
• Wristbands
• Buttons
• Temporary Tattoos

To provide an extra marketing boost to your campaign, you could even brand this merchandise to your school or the current fundraiser you're hosting.

Books

At the end of the day, the kids participating in your campaign are in school to learn, not just raise money. So why not further cultivate their education with prizes that center around reading?

Give students the chance to win sought-after children's books, graphic novels, and other eye-catching titles that align with their reading level.

Homework Passes

Between classes, extracurricular activities, and personal hobbies, your students have a lot going on in their lives. When they have a lot on their plates, they'll appreciate a little flexibility when it comes to homework assignments.

Designing and printing homework passes is an easy, low-cost way to incentivize student participation in fundraising. Depending on your teachers' preferences, you might allow students to either skip a homework assignment or turn it in one day late.

Extended Recess

Recess is a cherished time for students, providing them with a break from classes and the chance to socialize with their peers. A no-cost way to reward classes that raise a certain amount of funds during your campaign is to allow them to have an extended recess period.

You can either have classes end 15 to 30 minutes early before recess or have teachers designate a period of free time during their classes.

Class Trophies

Class trophies can create a sense of friendly competition between classes, encouraging students to work together to boost their collective fundraising results. There are plenty of online suppliers that can provide custom trophies at an affordable price.

You can award trophies to the classes that raised the most money or had the most student participation. To make these prizes even more exciting, consider awarding them during a special school-wide assembly after your fundraiser is over.

High-Value School Fundraising Incentives

If it looks like your students will need a strong boost in motivation to participate in your school fundraiser, consider keeping a few of these aces up your sleeve:

Experience Vouchers

Whether you're providing tickets for entire classrooms or the families of individual students who've raised a lot, these group experiences are a fantastic way to incentivize competitive fundraising:

• Zoo or aquarium visits
• Amusement park passes
• Sporting event tickets
• Concert tickets

You might even be able to obtain these tickets at a discounted price through corporate sponsorships for your fundraiser.

Educational Trips

Students of all ages, from elementary school to high school, are bound to appreciate a change of pace when it comes to their learning experiences. Educational trips are school fundraising prizes that can spark curiosity among your students, whether you visit a museum, zoo, historical monument, or science center.

You can challenge classes to meet a certain fundraising goal to be able to participate in the upcoming trip. To maximize engagement, consider sending a short poll out before your fundraiser to find out where students are most interested in going.

Gift Cards

Any one of your students will jump at the opportunity to shop and essentially choose their own rewards.

For best results, be sure to take a close look at the interests of your students, as well as businesses in your community. This enables you to invest in gift cards for restaurants, retailers, and other locations that your students and their families will genuinely want to visit.

Class Parties

Students will be buzzing with excitement when you tease them with the chance to win an exciting pizza party, ice cream social, and other celebrations.

You can either organize these post-campaign bashes for top-performing classes or turn them into after-school events open to all students if your school reaches a specific fundraising goal.

School Spirit Items

To many students, your school community is like an extended family. School is where they can develop a sense of identity, confidence, and belonging. By offering school spirit items—such as t-shirts, backpacks, hats, and water bottles—as fundraising prizes, you can give students the chance to demonstrate their school pride.

To boost your fundraising results, you can even make these branded items available for sale, so students' families can purchase them to show their support.

Party Bus Rides

Party buses are commonly associated with special occasions. Because of this, arranging party bus rides can provide your students with a new and exciting experience to reward their fundraising efforts.

Consider renting out a limousine or party bus during your school's usual lunch or recess time. Then, invite your fundraiser's top student participants to enjoy a ride around the community, or perhaps even a meal at a nearby restaurant.

Unique School Fundraiser Prizes

These out-of-the-box fundraising incentives will definitely catch the attention of your students:

Pie a Teacher

Get your faculty and staff involved with a wacky pie-in-the-face prize for classes that exceed a set fundraising goal. Fill an aluminum pie tin with whipped cream and invite another educator or administrator to "pie" teachers in front of their giggling students.

The principal and vice-principals could even be pied if your entire school bands together to break particular fundraising expectations.

Silly String War

There's nothing quite like silly string spray to bring out the clown in every student and faculty member. For each classroom that meets its fundraising goal, give them the chance to spend an afternoon on the playground going head-to-head with a fun silly string war.

Just be sure to invest in a non-toxic, skin-safe spray and check that no student is allergic to the chemicals contained in these colorful cans.

Costume Week

Shake up your school year with an entire week of daily themes that involve different costumes, decorations, snacks, and contests for students to enjoy. For example, you might have a Throwback Thursday where people dress as if they're from other decades.

Remember to encourage teachers and staff members to dress up and join in on the festivities!

VIP School Experience

Throughout the school year, students might find themselves getting tired of the same old class schedule. By coming up with some VIP school experiences, you can both incentivize fundraising and brighten your students' day.

For example, you can allow your top student fundraisers to shadow the school principal for a day, enjoy lunch with their favorite teacher, or receive front-row seats at your next sporting event or school performance.

Artistic Privileges

Your school's music, theater, and art classes are all about encouraging students to express themselves and explore their creativity. Consider providing them with some artistic privileges as school fundraising prizes to help them make a meaningful mark on your school.

For instance, you might allow them to paint a classroom ceiling tile, create your school yearbook's cover, or design t-shirts branded to your school.

Behind-the-Scenes Tours

Turn your students into special guests by allowing them to participate in behind-the-scenes tours of your school. Allow them a sneak peek into what goes on at your media center, the backstage of your theater, or athletic facilities.

Or, you can even consider reaching out to local news stations, university research centers, or farms to broaden your students' experiences.

Engaging Your School Community with Read-A-Thon

Learning how to energize and mobilize your school's community is key to successful fundraising. Read-A-Thons allow you to nurture a love of reading among your students while keeping them motivated with all sorts of appealing prizes. Since they're so easy to set up, you can host them during special occasions such as Read Across America or any other time of year.

If you'd like to explore more school fundraising tips and ideas for success, check out our additional resources:

• 10+ PTA Fundraising Ideas Your School Community Will Love. Refresh your PTA's fundraising calendar with these tried-and-true ideas that will wow your school's community.
• What is a Read-A-Thon? How to Host an Engaging Fundraiser. Learn how to host a successful Read-A-Thon and boost student participation in this guide.
• Read Across America: A Guide + Popular Ideas to Celebrate. Read Across America is an important occasion for schools around the country. Explore the top ways you can celebrate with students in this guide.