Creative fundraising ideas for early learning centres!

Creating ideas for your preschool fundraiser is a little different to a run of the mill school fundraiser, which means that you’ll need to be a little creative when it comes to raising funds.

Preschools perform an important task in the community and from time to time require fundraising to be carried out to provide essential resources and services for young children working their way through their preschool education experience.

While some preschools have government support, others are privately owned which means if you want the best resources and facilities, parents and the community often need to take a proactive approach to fundraising to ensure pre-schoolers get quality schooling and care.

While some activities might work for schools, preschools are a little different and as part of the preschool community putting your thinking cap on will be essential to make your fundraising a success.

We have put together some of our top creative ideas for fundraising for preschools so your little one can get the best experience and the finest facilities during their early learning experience.

Cake or healthy treat drive or stall

By asking parents to bring in a slice, cake or healthy treat as a donation, you can put on a parents morning or afternoon tea or even set up a stall as parents are arriving or leaving the centre with goodies for sale.

As well as this, you can set up a Grandparents Day or Mother’s Day high tea and charge a gold coin donation with all funds going towards the preschool.

It’s important to be aware of the fact that chocolate drives and unhealthy fundraisers are not as popular in this day and age and ensuring you have healthy options for preschool fundraisers is essential.

Rent out the rooms after hours

If you do need to fundraise however parents and the centre staff don’t have time to physically do the fundraising, you can consider hiring out the centre after hours for meetings, training or other events.

Preschools and child care centres aren’t used on the weekend, so perhaps consider hiring out rooms and facilities to groups as needed to raise essential fundraising dollars.

Girl Guides, child centre trainers and even first aid groups looking for facilities could be a great place to start for possible groups looking to hire.

Tea towels

Items such as tea towels are a great way to raise funds for preschools.

Used on a daily basis by nearly every member of the community, tea towels can be bought in bulk, packaged nicely and used for a range of fundraising drives from Mother’s Day stalls to grandparents day gifts.

Other items that are a great fundraiser when it comes to branded or personalised items include backpacks, journal books, and branded shopping bags.

Sun smart items

Creating a sun safe message in pre-schoolers early in life is essential, and fundraisers that involve items such as sunscreen and branded sun-safe hats are a popular item for preschool fundraisers.

Hats would need to be available in a wide range of sizes for children from newborn through to 5 years, based on the target market.

You can also create hats as a fundraiser for parents, which can also be a great way to build awareness of your centre in the local community.

Nappy bags

When it comes to the early years, children are in nappies for their first few years, which means that a nappy bag could be a simple and useful item that can be used as a fundraising item.

Printed in a range of colours and styles and with your centre branding, a nappy bag is not only practical but also a great way to ensure your preschool community is supporting a fundraising product that can be reused again and again.

Graduation gift packs

As a child graduates from preschool and enters into their primary school years a graduation is usually held which can be a great idea for a fundraiser.

Graduation capes and primary school gifts such as school bags, lunch boxes and commemorative shirts are a popular fundraiser that can boost your preschool’s fundraising kitty.

You can print a commemorative shirt for your child’s graduating year group so they can have a keepsake or memento of their early learning years before starting primary school.

By proving an order form and a few images of graduation gifts and gear, you can allow parents and families to capture their little one’s first graduation and enter in their next phase of schooling all kitted out ready for school.

Preschools and child care centres can find it hard to raise fundraising dollars however with a little bit of effort and creativity there are plenty of great ideas that will bring in the essential funds your preschool needs to have the best resources.

Form a preschool fundraising committee and put your heads together and you’ll find that getting a little creative is a great way to make fundraising an enjoyable and successful experience for your preschool community.