Christmas fundraising ideas for schools and PTAs

Your Christmas fair works; the stalls, the cakes, the tombola bring in real money, and none of that needs to change. But a fair is one day. A properly run crowdfunding campaign, with a page, a clear target and the right funding behind it, can run alongside it and raise several times more.

This guide isn’t a replacement for your Christmas fair planning. It’s about the funding side most PTAs never look into: working out your own timeline around your actual last day of term, understanding the different ways a school project can be funded, and seeing what other schools have raised doing exactly this. For the basics of a Christmas campaign generally, start with Festive fundraising 101.

Working backwards from your last day of term

Rather than guessing when to launch, work backwards from your actual end-of-term date. That tells you exactly when to open your page, when to push reminders, and whether Giving Tuesday (this year, Tuesday 1 December 2026) falls inside your window at all, some schools break up before it, some after.

Five real ways schools and PTAs are fundraising this Christmas

1. Run a Christmas market or prize draw

A market-style event or a prize draw with donated prizes raises more than a stall alone, especially once you put a page behind it so people who can’t attend in person can still take part. One primary school’s Global Markets Christmas Fundraiser raised £21,817 this way. On a smaller scale, a “12 Days of Christmas” prize draw with 20 prizes donated by local businesses and one entry per £2 pledged raised £910 from 58 supporters at Uplands Community Primary School, proof this works at any size. Keep a prize draw to around two weeks if you run one, Christmas prize draws that stay open two weeks hit target 44% of the time on Crowdfunder, against 31% for draws left open for four.

2. Fix or upgrade the outdoor space

Playgrounds are one of the most common asks schools bring to Crowdfunder. A PSA rebuilding its early-years outdoor play area raised £16,431 in Replace Chestnuts Primary School EYFS Playground, a specific, photographable project that’s easy for parents to picture and back.

3. Cut a running cost, not just fund a project

Christmas is a good moment to ask for something that saves money every winter after this one, not just a one-off. A Friends group funding solar panels to cut the school’s energy bill raised £15,530 in St Margaret’s Collier Street School Solar Project, the kind of ask that’s easy to justify to parents when heating bills are on everyone’s mind.

4. Use a templated sponsored event

If your PTA doesn’t have capacity to plan something from scratch, a templated sponsored event, like Sports for Champions, gives you a ready-made structure. The Layer de la Haye Primary School Fundraiser raised £5,736 this way, a modest, entirely achievable total for a PTA short on time.

5. Support families in your own school community

Not every Christmas campaign has to be about buildings or equipment. A parents’ association raised £21,164 to fund cost-of-living support packages for families in Brookland Junior School Family Support Packages, a genuinely timely idea if you know families in your school community are struggling this winter.

The four ways a school project can be funded

Before you launch, it’s worth knowing there’s more than one way to fund a school project, and combining them the wrong way can cost you an option later.

• A straightforward crowdfunding page. Set a clear target and ask directly, as Cottenham Community Sports Facilities did in raising £15,589 for shared school and community sports facilities.
• A prize draw. Sell tickets to the whole school community, not just people who attend the fair in person, see the examples above.
• Partner match funding. External funders, Sport England, Aviva and local council community funds among them, will sometimes double or boost what a school raises for the right kind of project, typically sports facilities, playgrounds or community-use spaces. Check eligibility with the specific fund before you commit to a target.
• A school’s own match fund. Some PTAs, or a single generous parent, commit to match public donations pound for pound up to a set limit, a strong incentive that costs the PTA nothing until people actually give.

One rule worth knowing before you plan two of these together: a prize draw and partner match funding can’t run on the same Crowdfunder project. If your PTA wants to run a Christmas raffle and separately go for match funding on a bigger project, those need to be two different campaigns.

What Crowdfunder’s own data says

• Friday is the best day to launch. Christmas campaigns launched on a Friday hit target 48% of the time, against 35% for a Thursday launch, worth considering if you can pick your own date rather than defaulting to whenever the newsletter goes out.
• Short prize draws outperform long ones. A two-week Christmas prize draw hits target 44% of the time, a four-week draw only 31%.
• Giving Tuesday is worth a dedicated push. This year it falls on Tuesday 1 December 2026, and brings around 28% more pledges and 34% more raised than a typical Tuesday. If it lands before your last day of term, plan a specific ask for that day.
• Message people directly. Over half of Christmas pledges come through direct or private shares. A message in the class WhatsApp or the school newsletter will do more than a single noticeboard poster ever will.

Frequently asked questions

Do we need to be a registered charity to fundraise as a PTA? No. Most PTAs are unincorporated associations or charities registered with the Charity Commission, either way you can fundraise, and most match funders accept both. Always check the individual fund’s eligibility criteria first.

Can we run our Christmas fair prize draw and also apply for match funding? Not on the same project. See the funding levers section above, you’ll need two separate campaigns if you want to do both.

What if we’ve never done anything beyond the fair before? Start small. Several of the real examples above are modest, straightforward campaigns, not big institutional projects.

Do we need a Gambling Commission licence to run a Christmas raffle? Not if you run your prize draw on Crowdfunder. Check current guidance before you launch, prize draws for charities covers the basics.

Is there a minimum target size worth bothering with match funding for? No. Several of the examples above raised well under £10,000 and it’s still worth checking your eligibility regardless of scale.

Where to go next

• Back to Festive fundraising 101 for the full six-week planner
• Running a Christmas production this year? See Christmas fundraising ideas for arts organisations
• Strong sports facilities to fund? See Christmas fundraising ideas for sports clubs
• Start a crowdfunding page · Check match funding · Explore prize draws for charities

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