Fun run vs. other school fundraisers: what your school keeps

Every PTA and PTO board eventually has the same conversation: "Last year's sale brought in $18,000. Can we beat that with something else?" It's a fair question, but the headline number is the least useful figure in the room. What matters is how much of it the school keeps, how many volunteer hours it took to get there, how much money the board had to put at risk first, and how many times families were asked to open their wallets along the way.

This article compares the fundraisers schools run most often, explains how the money actually flows in each one, and offers a simple way to decide which to run and how to combine them. Every fundraiser here works well for some schools; the goal is to pick on purpose rather than by habit.

The questions that matter more than the total

Before comparing anything, agree as a board on what you're measuring. These eight questions cover most of what separates a good fundraiser from a draining one.

1. How much do we keep after costs? Gross sales and money kept can be very different numbers. Ask what percentage goes to a vendor, what the event costs to put on, and what card or platform fees come out.
2. How many volunteer hours does it take? Count everyone: the chair, the committee, the parents sorting boxes or running a booth. Burning volunteers out one year costs you the next.
3. What do we have to spend up front, and what if it flops? Some fundraisers ask for deposits, rentals or inventory before a dollar comes in. Others cost nothing until money arrives.
4. What does it ask of families? Buying a product, buying a ticket, attending an evening event and simply donating are very different requests, especially for families who are stretched.
5. Who gives? Some fundraisers draw almost entirely on school parents. Others reach grandparents, neighbors, coworkers and local businesses. A wider circle means less pressure on the same families.
6. Can every child take part equally? If the fun part depends on what a family can spend, some students will sit on the sidelines.
7. How much class time does it use? Teachers and principals will ask. An assembly and an event hour are different from a week of disruptions.
8. How hard is it to repeat? A fundraiser that gets easier each year is worth more than one you have to reinvent every time.

How the money works in each type of fundraiser

Catalog and product sales

Students take home a catalog of gift wrap, candles, kitchen items or similar products, and families sell to relatives, neighbors and coworkers. The company supplies the catalogs, the prizes for top sellers and the products; the school keeps a percentage of each sale, set out in the contract.

The trade-offs: There's little or no upfront cost, and buyers get something for their money, which some people prefer to a straight donation. But a large share of every sale pays for the product, so the school needs much higher sales to keep the same amount as a donation-based fundraiser. Then comes handling: collecting order forms and money, checking totals, and a delivery day when boxes arrive and volunteers sort them by student and class.

Questions to ask the company: what percentage the school keeps, whether prizes are paid from that share, whether there's a minimum order, and who handles missing or broken items.

Cookie dough and food sales

These work like catalog sales, with two extra complications: the product is perishable and often frozen. Delivery day has a hard deadline, families must pick up promptly, and you need a plan (and a freezer) for orders nobody collects. The money flows the same way: the school keeps a share, the rest pays for the food. Check your district's rules on food sales and allergy policies before signing anything.

Galas and auctions

An evening event with tickets, sponsorships, a silent auction and often a live auction or paddle raise. Galas can raise large sums from a relatively small number of generous donors, and they're a genuine social highlight for the parents who attend.

The trade-offs: They're the heaviest lift on this list. A committee typically works for months soliciting auction items, selling tables and planning the evening. Venue, catering, rentals and entertainment often need deposits well before tickets are sold, so the board carries real risk if sales are slow. And the people buying tickets are mostly the same school families, so the gala tends to concentrate the giving on families who can afford a night out, and the ticket price itself can leave others out. Many schools that run a gala treat ticket sales as covering costs and count only auction and paddle money as profit.

Restaurant nights

A local restaurant gives the school a share of sales from diners who mention the school (or bring a flyer) on a set evening. There's almost nothing to organize beyond a flyer and a reminder, and families get dinner out of it.

The trade-offs: The amounts are small, because the school receives only a slice of each check. Restaurant nights are best seen as community builders and a nice way to support a local business, not as a primary source of funds.

Spirit wear

T-shirts, hoodies and hats with the school logo, sold at a markup. Spirit wear builds identity, gets worn to every game and field trip, and keeps selling year after year.

The trade-offs: The margin on each item is modest, and if you buy inventory in advance you take on the risk of leftover sizes. Pre-order windows (or an online store that prints on demand) remove most of that risk at the cost of a smaller margin. Think of spirit wear as steady, low-effort income rather than a big earner.

Direct donation drives

Sometimes called a "no-event" or "skip the sale" fundraiser: the PTA sends a letter explaining what the money will fund and asks families to give directly. No product, no event, no volunteers to speak of.

The trade-offs: Nearly everything given is kept (minus any card fees), and it's the lightest possible lift. But without a hook, fewer families respond, and the circle of givers rarely extends past school parents. It works well as a small annual appeal or as a supplement, and less well as a school's only fundraiser.

Book fairs

A traveling book fair sets up in the library for a week, and the school earns a share of sales, often as a choice between cash and credit toward books for the library or classrooms.

The trade-offs: The main benefit is getting books into children's hands, which most schools value for its own sake. The money kept tends to be modest, especially if the school takes cash instead of book credit. Volunteers staff the register for several days, and class visits use some instructional time. Some families feel pressure when children come home wanting to buy something.

Carnivals and festivals

Games, food, bounce houses and raffles, with income from tickets, wristbands, food sales and sometimes sponsors.

The trade-offs: They carry real upfront costs (inflatable rentals, prizes, food, insurance), need a large volunteer crew to staff every booth, and depend on the weather. The money comes almost entirely from families who attend, and much of what they spend goes back out in costs. Many schools run a carnival mainly for community, and are happy to break even or clear a modest amount.

Fun runs run by a full-service company

Some companies run the whole fun run for you: they bring staff to lead a kickoff, provide the fundraising website, supply prizes and shirts, and run event day. For a school with very few volunteers, that's a real benefit.

The trade-offs: The service is paid for out of what families and donors give, usually as a percentage of the total raised. That percentage is the most important number in the conversation, so ask for it in writing, and ask whether card fees and prizes come out before or after it. A simple way to see the cost: on a $20,000 fundraiser, every ten percentage points the company keeps is $2,000 that doesn't reach your school. Also ask how much class time their program uses.

Fun runs you run yourselves

Your committee plans the event, and an online fundraising platform handles student pages, donations and receipts. You keep what's raised minus your event costs and the platform's fees. Costs are usually shirts, prizes, water and supplies, which local sponsors often cover; the complete planning guide walks through the budget and the rest of the plan.

The trade-offs: You need a committee and an event-day volunteer crew, and the first year takes real organizing. In return, there's no product to handle, nothing to pay up front for the platform, every child participates the same way whatever their family gives, and donations come from a wide circle of relatives and friends who give online from anywhere. It also gets noticeably easier each time you run it. Fun runs aren't the only "a-thon" that works this way; if running isn't a fit for your school, read-a-thons, walk-a-thons and other formats follow the same model.

Side-by-side comparison

Fundraiser	Typical cost structure	Volunteer effort	Who gives
Catalog or product sale	School keeps a percentage of each sale; the rest pays for the product	Medium: order forms, money counting, delivery day	Parents, plus the relatives and neighbors they sell to
Cookie dough or food sale	Same as catalog sales, with perishable delivery	Medium to high: tight delivery and pickup window	Parents and their circle
Gala or auction	Venue, catering and rentals paid up front; tickets often just cover costs	Very high: months of committee work	Mostly school parents who can attend, plus sponsors
Restaurant night	School receives a share of the evening's sales	Very low	Parents and local diners
Spirit wear	Markup on each item; inventory risk unless pre-ordered	Low	Parents and students, some alumni and grandparents
Direct donation drive	Nearly all kept, minus any card fees	Very low	Mostly school parents
Book fair	School earns a share of sales, as cash or book credit	Medium: register shifts for a week	Parents (through their children)
Carnival or festival	Rentals, prizes and food up front; income from tickets and food	High: booths need staffing all day	Families who attend, plus sponsors
Fun run, full-service company	Company keeps a percentage of everything raised	Low to medium	Parents, relatives, friends and sponsors
Fun run, self-run with an online platform	Event costs (often sponsor-covered) plus per-donation fees; with Fun Run Fundraiser, 3.49% + $0.49 per online donation and a 0%, 4% or 7% platform fee by plan, no setup fee (see pricing)	Medium: a committee and an event-day crew	Parents, relatives, friends near and far, and sponsors

A worked illustration: same gross, different results

To make the trade-offs concrete, here's a side-by-side using made-up round numbers. This is an illustration, not data. Your vendor's percentage, your costs and your volunteers' hours will differ, so swap in your own figures.

Imagine a school of about 400 students that brings in $20,000 in gross receipts either way.

Option A: a catalog sale

• Gross sales: $20,000
• Hypothetical school share of 40%: $8,000 kept
• Upfront cost: none (prizes supplied by the company)
• Volunteer hours: about 110 (40 hours counting order forms and money, 60 hours across 15 people on sorting and delivery day, 10 hours chasing missing pickups and fixing wrong orders)
• Dollars kept per volunteer hour: about $73

Option B: a self-run fun run

• Gross donations: $20,000, say $17,000 online in about 425 gifts averaging $40, and $3,000 in cash and checks
• Card and transaction fees on the online gifts at 3.49% + $0.49 each: about $800 (cash and checks have no fees)
• Event costs (shirts, prizes, water, supplies): $2,000, before any sponsor help
• Kept: about $17,200
• Volunteer hours: about 165 (75 hours of committee planning across five people, 90 hours from 30 volunteers on event day)
• Dollars kept per volunteer hour: about $104

A few honest notes on this comparison. The fun run used more volunteer hours, not fewer; it simply turned each hour into more money for the school. The catalog sale's buyers received products worth something to them, so "$20,000" doesn't represent the same generosity in both columns. And to keep $17,200 from a sale at a 40% share, the school would need to sell about $43,000 worth of products, more than twice as much.

Two adjustments are worth running for your own numbers. First, if sponsors cover the shirts and prizes, the fun run's event costs shrink toward zero. Second, if you choose a plan with a platform fee (on Fun Run Fundraiser, 4% for Plus or 7% for Premium, applied to online donations), add it in: 4% of $17,000 is $680. On those plans donors can choose to cover the transaction fee, which wins back part of it.

How to choose

There's no single best fundraiser, but a few patterns hold up well.

• If you have few volunteers and need a modest amount, a direct donation drive plus one or two restaurant nights asks very little of anyone.
• If you have a small but committed core team and want a large amount, a self-run fun run or other a-thon usually keeps the most per volunteer hour, and the work gets lighter every year.
• If you have almost no volunteers at all, a full-service fun run company or a catalog sale may be the realistic choice. Go in knowing the percentage you keep, and revisit it once your volunteer base grows.
• If your community has a group of families able to give generously and enjoys social events, a gala can raise a lot from few people. Pair it with something everyone can join, so the gala isn't the only way to belong.
• If many families are stretched, lean toward fundraisers where children take part equally whatever their family gives, and where money comes from a wider circle than school parents. Our article on making a fundraiser work for every family goes further on this.

Also check with your principal and district before committing. Many have rules about product sales, food, class time, raffles and how often students can be asked to raise money.

Combining fundraisers without wearing families out

Most schools run more than one fundraiser, and that's fine. The problem comes when families are asked for money every few weeks: response drops, the same generous families carry everything, and goodwill drains away.

A pattern that works for many schools:

1. One big ask a year. This is where most of your money comes from: a fun run, an a-thon or a gala.
2. One or two easy community events. A restaurant night, a book fair or a carnival. These are about connection as much as money, and they ask little of families.
3. Something passive that runs in the background. Spirit wear sales or a standing donation link. Nobody is chased for them.

Then put every ask on one calendar for the whole year, including asks from teachers, clubs and teams, not just the PTA. Count how many times a family will be asked for money. If the answer is more than about once a season, consolidate. Families are far more generous with one well-explained ask than with a steady drip of small ones.

Tell families the plan at the start of the year ("We'll ask once, for the fun run; everything else is optional"), and the big ask tends to land better.

Ready to compare for yourself?

The best way to settle the debate is to run the numbers with your own school's figures: money kept, volunteer hours, upfront risk and who gives. If a self-run fun run comes out ahead, the complete planning guide covers every step from approval to thank-you notes, and you can set up your fundraiser with no setup fee and nothing to pay until donations come in.