With budgets becoming ever tighter, the need to source alternative means of school fundraising and implement successful school fundraising ideas is becoming ever more important. As we sell a whole host of products for the playground, we have worked with schools and their PTAs on successfully using tried and tested methods for raising extra money for our products. These include grant fundraising, crowdfunding, corporate sponsorship, revenue generating activities, novel school events and resources.

All of the above do take time but we can help in this aspect too as we are more than happy to work alongside you on your journey to raise these extra funds.

In this blog, you will see many articles and updates that we publish on the subject and we also have compiled a comprehensive School Fundraising Ideas Guide which you can have access to by emailing: info@hideouthouse.com.

You have to work at it though that is for sure but with so many variables now at a school’s disposal, the road to success has become infinitely straighter and shorter! There are grants coming available all the time (at the time of writing for example Tesco have just launched their plastic bag community fund which schools can apply for and which will fund capital items up to £12K as per link below)

http://www.groundwork.org.uk/Sites/tescocommunityscheme

Corporates With Educational Funding Programmes

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I recently wrote to quite a few large corporations asking them if they ran any programmes or schemes which funded school initiatives (especially with the environment and sustainability in mind). I got a very encouraging response to this so I thought that I would share with you some of these schemes:

1) UK Power Networks – they have recently launched the Power Of Giving scheme, open to community projects within their network area (East of England, London and the South East) which improves the local environment, promotes energy efficiency or renewable energy and reduces demand on the electricity network.

Community groups can apply for between £1,000 and £10,000 per project. Fully details of the scheme, including eligibility criteria and application form, are available at www.ukpowernetworks.co.uk/internet/en/community

2) Tesco Charity Trust – this offers donations of up to £4,000 to charities and not-for-profit organisations in the areas of children’s education and welfare. The funding provides practical benefits in Tesco’s local communities and last year the Trust donated almost £700,000 to local community charities. For further details, please visit www.tescoplc.com/tescocharitytrust

3) 02 Think Big – this company has recently launched Think Big to challenge young people to make positive changes in their community. If you think you have got a great idea, then they will help you get it going. You will receive support, training and funding to make it work. Visit www.02.co.uk/thinkbig or call the helpline 0800 90 20 250

4) National Grid – at a local level, they are particularly keen to support communities close to their operating sites or in areas where they are carrying out essential construction activity. Their “Bringing Energy to Life Programme” focuses on providing positive impacts for these neighbourhoods by funding projects run by community groups that can contribute to important local community needs and provide a range of social, economic and environmental benefits.

5) Southern Water – they currently run a Schools in Bloom competition to promote water efficiency and sustainability and also have a partnership with GaBi which supports environmental product design. In addition, they operate a Community Chest programme whereby schools and community groups can apply for small grants towards eco projects.

6) Wessex Water – this company has an extensive education programme and a Watermark grant scheme that helps schools develop environmental proposals; this is done in conjunction with the Conservation Foundation which is a national organisation.

7) Ecotricity – they run a Schools Partnership programme where they make a donation of up to £60 towards a school project/activity in return for each new customer you help them sign up. Please visit their website www.ecotricity.co.uk

Over to you!

 

How To Approach Companies for Money

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In the great quest for funding, a lot of schools simply overlook approaching local or national companies for donations or sponsorship. And when they have, I don’t believe that they have particularly done it in the right way. But the ones that have done this correctly and to a strategy have, in most cases, got their hands on the moolah.

So you have to imagine yourself and put yourself into the shoes of Mr Boss Man of your target company – he might be feeling the pinch too and wondering where his next sale is going to come from or how he can initiate a wonderful and creative local PR campaign. And then your letter lands on his desk asking for some money for whatever it is you need at the school. Just saying you want some money for x,y and z is not good enough (and I have seen this done pleny of times) – you need to be more emotive and outline very clearly the benefits of what corporate sponsorship to your school will bring to his company.

I have therefore posted below some useful tips on how to approach companies when asking for donations:

Some suggested tips:

1)     First of all ask any of the parents/staff/teachers if they have any contacts in local companies, big or small, whom you could approach. A referral is always the best way to start.

2)     Find out if any of the parents of the children own their own businesses and approach them for donations as they will already have a vested interest in the school

3)     Find out if any of the parents are associated with any trades which the school could use at either a subsidised rate or even better FOC. For example a base work contractor or an electrician.

4)     Approach big corporations as they should normally have some sort of a community engagement budget but make sure you invest a bit of time trying to find out the right person to contact before submitting any proposals

5)     Approach companies who already have green credentials or a corporate social responsibility (CSR) programme – try http://www.greenachiever.co.uk/company-search.aspx

6)     Approach companies whose principal business activities are perhaps perceived to be damaging to the environment and who therefore could use some positive PR to counteract this public perception e.g. oil companies, landfill companies

7)     Write an accompanying letter very clearly stating what you are trying to achieve and how much money you are looking to raise overall in order to purchase a particular item and then include a more detailed proposal using the template we have already drawn up for you. We can also supply to you a library of Hideout House product photos or images which you can incorporate into these documents.

8)     In the accompanying letter tell the company what funds you, as the school, have already raised or can contribute to the project so it makes it look as if you are not just after an easy corporate handout. Tell them also of any other participating sponsors who have already pledged funds.

9)     If you cannot get one company to donate all of the funds, you might want to consider multi-company sponsorship of the product whereby they donate funds to a specific component of the product  – for example, the sedum roof, the wind turbine or solar panel package, the planters, the base works

BE CREATIVE AND STAND OUT FROM THE CROWD!

I cannot stress how important this is and one of the ways you might want to do this is by working with us on putting together a short video featuring the children and staff talking about why the environment is so important and why this product is right for your needs. Have a look at the below link to see an example of this type of video. You can send this out to these companies and perhaps also feature it on the school’s own website.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qIZHVxbGx6U

LAST BUT NOT LEAST – DON’T GIVE UP IF AT FIRST YOU DON’T SUCCEED! NOTHING IS EASY BUT WHERE THERE IS A WILL, THERE IS ALWAYS A WAY.

For more information, contact Simon Fearnehough on simon@hideouthouse.com or call 01865 858982

Website: www.hideouthouse.com

 

The Hideout House Company Ltd, The Oaktrees Centre, 209 Thame Road, Warborough, Oxon OX10 7DH Tel: 01865 858982 Email:info@hideouthouse.com  Web: www.hideouthouse.com

 

Go on Holiday to Fund Your Playground

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This statement might sound a little odd but there is a reason to my madness.

On my recent visits to schools, I am increasingly dealing with members of the PTA rather than the school staff and the reason for this is quite simple – they are paying for the play equipment! So hats off to all you PTA members up and down the country because you are the embodiment of David Cameron’s Big Society (what happened to that idea I wonder) and are altruistically trying to do something positive for your local community without being paid a bean. And I am not even going to say “in these times of austerity” because I think we are all getting a tad bored with this and it is time to move on.

But I also appreciate that probably one of the biggest challenges when it comes to raising money for your school is to consistently come up with new and creative ideas that are going to get people’s wallets bursting open with alarming speed and regularity. There are so many cakes you can bake and there are so many Christmas fairs you can organise before apathy rears its ugly head.

So it got me thinking what I would do in this instance and how my company could help out. And I kept coming back to the fact that if you could raise funds for doing something which you did anyway and even better actually enjoyed doing, then surely this must be the perfect way to raise money. And as the majority of us go on holiday each year (or a short break) and correct me if I am wrong but we actually enjoy doing this, this started to get my creative juices flowing. If I could therefore set up some sort of a holiday booking system (or company) where I booked the holiday on your behalf and got a commission for the placement of business, then I would share this commission with the school. Bingo! You go on holiday on your lovely holiday and whilst you are at it you get to raise some money for the school. Now think if all of the parents at the school did this. So let’s assume 50 parents do and they spend an average of £2,000 on their annual holidays and we get a 15% commission (which we split) – that’s £7,500 for your school and no cake has yet to be baked!

If you would like to discuss this with us or you would like us to come up with some other creative and unique money making ideas for your PTA and school, then we would love to hear from you.

Simon Fearnehough

The Hideout House Company Ltd    www.hideouthouse.com   Email: simon@hideouthouse.com

 

Money Making Ideas for Your School

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We all know that we are living in hard times and need to find alternative ways of raising school funds. So now is the time to find your inner Richard Branson, be entrepreneurial and go out and earn some money for the school.

And a culture of enterprise in schools can also teach children about the rudiments of commerce.

 Here’s some ideas:

1)      Think of the amount of times you use e-bay to sell personal items so why not sell these items instead to parents or the local community and the money earned goes back to the school? Do you grow food on site? – if you do sell this as well. We sell a mobile pop-up shop unit which would help you do just this and here’s another idea. Approach local businesses or retailers and ask them if they would like to sponsor this unit and we can put their name “above the shop” on the header board.

2)      Get companies to sponsor our products and we can put their branding or logos on as recognition of this

3)      Recycle old mobile phones, printer cartridges, CDs, DVDs using our revenue recycle unit

4)      Rent out our classroom buildings to your local community

5)      If you are seeking funding for anything, be a bit creative and put together a school video which features the children talking about why they want this funding and why it is so important. We have some stock videos which you could use for this (see the video page on our website).

Oh and we also operate a customer loyalty scheme whereby we can offer credits and commissions for referral or repeat business. If you help us out, it is only right that we help you too. Makes for good business we reckon. Richard would be proud!

Simon Fearnehough 01865 858982  email: simon@hideouthouse.com

The Hideout House Company Ltd www.hideouthouse.com

Children Know Best

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What is the most effective way of developing an engaging outdoor area which satisfies the needs of everyone?

I must have visited over 3,000 schools in my job over the past 12 years but none compares to a meeting I had just last week which totally blew me away.

For the first time ever my presentation was not to management or the PTA but to the school’s eco and playground council and as a result I found myself staring down at the expectant faces of 20 or so children! My approach was to engage the children and get them talking about their ideal product rather than me blurting on about the benefits of mine. And this is where it became absolutely fascinating.

What amazed me was firstly how much they all knew about environmental issues and how they could incorporate these into features for the building. After an hour, we had created a truly original building with a sedum roof complete with wind turbine and solar panel, water butts for rainwater harvesting which fed straight into planters and a CCTV bird box with a video link back into the school.

We now had a product which the children could actually learn from so it had become an educational resource as well as just an outdoor classroom facility.

We have therefore put together some proposals for the school but the great thing is that the children can take 100% ownership of this project as it is their creation, not mine. They are also a forest school and the school council wanted to have a proper den which embraced the natural setting of the forest. If you click through on the link below, you will see what we have come up with.

Of course you don’t have to engage the children in the design process – but if you think your school children would benefit from us coming along and working directly with them to create engaging classroom buildings, playground or garden areas, then please call Simon Fearnehough on 01865 858982 or email simon@hideouthouse.com

The Hideout House Company www.hideouthouse.com