Fundraising Directory

Easter, with it’s chocolate and Easter Bonnets and chocolate and hot cross buns and chocolate … provides lots of opportunities for some fun (and yummy) Easter fundraising. Aside from the religious elements of Easter, it has become a celebration loved by children and adults alike (because, chocolate!) and if you can raise some extra dollars while you’re celebrating then that’s an added bonus.

We’ve got ideas ranging from easy to traditional and some a little more involved, so there should be something for everyone!

First and foremost though, when you’re planning your fundraiser, it’s important to keep in mind that Easter falls in the school holidays. It’s also a time that families go away so don’t choose dates that coincide with public holidays as this could affect attendance levels. Depending on the type of fundraiser you are organising aim for the weekend or week before school holidays.

Choose events that are suitable for your group or community – even perhaps offering a grown up’s event and a kids event – and it’s sure to be a winner!

Easter Egg Hunt

This type of event can be small or large scale but ideally you’ll need an area large enough to be able to hide lots of eggs. Unless you live in cooler parts of Australia, it’s probably not the best idea to use chocolate eggs, as they’ll only end up a squishy mess. You can substitute chocolate eggs with plastic ones that can be picked up from cheap shops and pop a small toy of lollies (that won’t melt) inside. Charge a small entry fee per person. You could make it a costume event and have a prize for best dressed and why not add an Easter themed bake stall to your event for some extra cash.

Easter Egg Decorating Contest

An easy class event to organise. You will need to supply eggs (preferably boiled or with the yolk and white removed), craft items and glue and let the kids go for it. Have the teacher, principal or someone else impartial decide on a winner, award them a small prize (a chocolate egg or stickers) and then the kids can take their hand designed eggs home at the end of the day.

Easter Bunny Breakfast

Kids love to meet the Easter Bunny, so invite your community to school early one morning for breakfast. If a school day doesn’t work you could try a weekend event, even an afternoon tea in the park. If you’re providing breakfast, it doesn’t need to be complicated, BBQ sausages are good at any time of day, aren’t they?! Bacon and egg muffins, pancakes are all easy to cook as well and not expensive. You can charge a small fee for breakfast and then all you’ll need to do is find a volunteer to dress up as the Easter Bunny. They can walk around and do a meet and greet with the kids. You could even ask for a gold coin donation to have a photo or a ‘selfie’ with the Easter Bunny.

Easter Bonnet Parade

You can’t go past the traditional Easter Bonnet Parade. And although this one is not necessarily a fundraiser on its own, it can combined with fundraising add-on’s such as a sausage sizzle, bake sale or a raffle.

Chocolate Drive

The perfect time of year for a chocolate drive. They are easy to organise and can raise some great profits for your group. Remember to always provide families with an ‘opt-out’ for these types of drives though. Check out our chocolate drive suppliers that can help you organise your fundraiser.

Hot Cross Bun Drive

Hot Cross Buns have evolved into several new varities over the years: with fruit, without fruit, chocolate chip and more. Many bakeries offer hot cross bun drives which are typically run as order form drives. Contact your local bakery to see if they offer this service.

Easter Raffle

Easter Raffles would be by far, the most popular option. One of our freelance writers, Anlina Jones, offers her advice on making the most out of your Easter raffle.

Organising an Easter raffle for your school/pre-school can be an easy way to fundraise. Like all fundraisers the key to success is in the planning, and seeking donations for the raffle items.

Raffle tickets are inexpensive and can be purchased from office supply stores, discount shops and often from supermarkets. You will need to make a decision regarding how you would like to sell your tickets to families. Some schools send five or ten tickets home per family, with the option to purchase more tickets if they would like to. Other schools prefer to sell tickets to parents during drop-off and pick-up times, so think about what will work for your school. Keeping the ticket prices low such as $1 will encourage more ticket sales.

Commence a few weeks prior to Easter by sending a notice home to families requesting donations for the hampers. If you are opting to send raffle tickets home to families, attach them to this notice to minimize your workload. Include some donation suggestions on your notice and be sure to mention what you are fundraising for to help motivate families to participate in the raffle.

Donations need not be entirely chocolate eggs, after all not everybody likes chocolate and you can suffer from chocolate overload at this time of the year! Donations could include any combination of:
• Easter themed items such as chocolate eggs/bunnies, soft toys, Easter craft packs
• gourmet food items such as jams, preserves, flavoured oils and biscuits
• children’s books, colouring books, craft sets, sport balls
• baskets to use to build the hampers.

You could also seek donations of items or vouchers from local businesses, sporting clubs and play centres to include in your hampers. Approach your local gourmet deli or estate agent and ask them to donate items (or an entire hamper).

If you find yourself inundated with donations make up one large hamper as the major raffle prize, and a number of smaller hampers for runners up. If you don’t have enough baskets to make up all of your hampers you can use shallow cardboard boxes covered with wrapping paper. Draw the raffle during school assembly or after an Easter Bonnet Parade. To make it even more fun, you could have egg and spoon races or sack races during lunchtime with teachers competing wearing bunny ears; the kids will love it!

Easter Class Raffle Alternative

A different approach to the Easter Raffle is to run a separate raffle for each classroom. Families will still donate items and purchase raffle tickets, however the hamper will remain in the child’s classroom and the winners will be drawn from each class. Funds raised from the sale of the tickets will be passed on to the teacher to subsidise additional classroom supplies and other ‘add-ons’ that teachers generally pay for from their own pocket such as reward stickers and class prizes. Motivate the children to remember to bring in hamper donations/money by giving them ‘House Points’. Parents may prefer this option as they can see the direct benefit to their child’s class.

Check out another of our articles for suggestions on maximising your raffle ticket sales.