Fundraising ideas, events and tools for school parent groups
January can leave a PTA flat: the Christmas fair is over, the WhatsApp group goes quiet and the same four people are still doing everything. This six-week reset focuses on community energy, micro-volunteering and one simple cash-first fundraiser rather than another big event.
Raffles and tombolas can eat volunteer hours and leave everyone bored of the same prize hamper. Here are five lower-admin alternatives for UK PTAs in 2026, with realistic margins, time estimates and the safeguarding and payment bits worth sorting early.
Hall hire is up, donations are down and the volunteer list looks thinner than the tinsel. Here is how to rebuild the traditional Christmas fair around 15 stalls that cost almost nothing to run, price them sensibly and still bank a proper profit — without wrecking the committee in the process.
Every AGM, the same silence when the chair asks for nominations. Rather than treating a five-person committee as a crisis, let us treat it as the shape most school communities actually have — and build a PTA that runs well, asks less and lasts longer.