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)
We deal with so many schools on a daily basis who approach us as they have a “wish list” or perhaps more of a vision or dream shall we say for some playground project or other. This could be a new playground with safety surfacing or a new outdoor learning facility.
But…and this is always the but…they do not have the sufficient funds available. The PTA has done their level best in these difficult Covid/lockdown times to raise as much money as possible and the school budget coffers are still looking a little empty. So there is still a deficit to be found.
So another option to look at is grant funding. And here we can help.
A specialist company we work alongside help schools achieve their financial goals by offering a “free funding health check”.
Their dedicated team of twenty qualified bid researchers will research all of the possible grants and opportunities that may be available to your school which undoubtedly will save you a lot of time which you might not otherwise have during the busy school day.
There are over 150 different funding bodies to look at so their approach makes everything a lot easier.
Once they have identified and ascertained the most suitable and relevant funders for your project, we are then able discuss the options available to you going forward.
For more information on this service, please do contact us on 01832 275902 or email: info@hideouthouse.com
https://i0.wp.com/www.hideouthouse.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/play-towers-in-recycled-plastic.jpg?fit=1903%2C700&ssl=17001903adminhttps://www.hideouthouse.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/logo-300x129.pngadmin2021-02-17 16:17:492021-02-17 16:24:59Assistance with Funding for School Playground Projects
But the first question we always ask of schools is this – how much time do you realistically have to give to this? Raising money is something that typically requires quite a bit of effort on all stakeholders’ behalves – researching applicable grants, reading all of the funding criteria, completing and submitting bids, knowing what makes a successful application or not, re-submitting if turned down originally etc.
But at the Hideout House Company, we can offer you a solution and a way round all of this. Firstly, we don’t just rely on one particular avenue for funding (e.g grants) as we feel that it makes much more sense to pursue a varied mix of initiatives so as to maximize opportunities and thereby reach your funding target a lot faster. Our proven method involves accessing grants (and we can tell you which ones we would recommend you apply for and which are applicable), crowdfunding, unique PTA fundraising ideas, company or corporate sponsorship, the exploitation of revenue generating streams (such as renting out your existing school grounds and facilities) and we can also offer part payment plans whereby you can pay in annual, monthly or termly instalments over typically three to five years. If you have already raised some money towards your playground project, then you can have the equipment installed now (and the children can enjoy the benefit of it immediately) but this gives your school the flexibility to pay in pre-arranged instalments over a longer period of time which can work within your budgets. Once we have your quote drawn up, we can easily give you some quotes for using this option.
We have built up many associations and partnerships with specialist companies who can help you with all of the above and we have proved that they work. We have also put together a comprehensive and informative page on our website which can be found on this link: School Grant and Funding
Basically, we can get you from A to B a lot faster and with far less hassle.
To see our comprehensive product range of school playground products, please have a look at our website www.hideouthouse.com
And then please get in contact with us so that we can talk through your project with you, offer some suggestions and advice and explain how we can help with funding opportunities.
The Hideout House Company
Tel: 01832 275902 or email: info@hideouthouse.com
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We are currently looking to talk with schools who might be interested in our “Ambassador” customer referral programme.
Before committing to a final decision, we understand and appreciate that some schools like to see our products “in the flesh” as it were before purchasing so if your school were prepared to allow other schools/interested parties to come and see what we have supplied to you, then we would be prepared to offer you the following to compensate for your time and troubles:
* A discount off our quote
* A customer referral commission to your school or PTA if we manage to achieve a firm sale after the interested party has been over to see you
All you have to do is be prepared to show other interested parties our product or products (nb we are not asking you to be an extension of our sales force by the way as you can be totally impartial if you so wish) and ideally feature whatever we have supplied you on your website somewhere (usually within the news or PTA section) with a link back to our website. We will co-ordinate all of the meetings too and in some cases might even attend ourselves and do the “viewing”.
Or if you did want to recommend us off your own back to other local schools or schools in your federation for example, then again the above benefits would apply. But we would obviously need to know that you were the referring source.
We really don’t think it is going to be that many visits for this to be a major inconvenience to your school and if it is, then just let us know and we shall just take you out of the programme if you so wish.
But we do feel that in these budget tight times, this is a good way for your school to save some money (with the discount) and earn money from the referral system.
We are not looking for hundreds of schools for this programme by the way and location of course is important.
If you would like to know more, please do contact us on 01832 275902 or email: info@hideouthouse.com
We have just been made aware of a new grant from the Aviva Community Trust which schools could be eligible to apply for.
You can apply for quite a bit of money (up to £25K) and having looked at how you enter (they have some very good and easy to use instructional videos on their website of how to apply, how best to apply, how to put an accompanying video together on a smart phone etc), it looks quite straightforward. It looks like it operates a little bit like Tesco’s Bags of Help award i.e. you apply, put your best foot forward as to why your project is important and backed up with photos and video etc and then get in as many votes as you can from the local community. Whoever gets the most votes seems to go before a final judging panel who decide as to who gets what.
It appears that schools with an income of £1m and below can apply (although like all grants they are wanting to support projects which benefit the wider community as well as your school). But this is something which your school could get its PTA behind as well to put forward your bid and drum up a lot of local support.
But there is a deadline date of 10th October to apply!
Worth doing though I think as these grants don’t come around that often but please undertake your own more detailed research on this as I have really only just looked at their website.
https://www.hideouthouse.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/logo-300x129.png00adminhttps://www.hideouthouse.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/logo-300x129.pngadmin2017-09-18 07:14:062017-09-18 07:14:06Aviva Community Trust Grant
There was a very interesting article published recently in the Guardian about how schools are having to find alternative – read entrepreneurial – ways of finding extra ways of generating money to help fund their schools and school projects in the face of increased budget cuts.
Of the 1,200 schools polled, a staggering 42% of them were renting out their buildings and facilities to raise extra money, 13% were busy making contacts with local industry and businesses in order to forge on-going partnerships and 10% were opening on-site nursery provisions.
The gist of the article was basically to say that schools now have to find their inner Richard Branson in order to find ways of meeting the financial gaps between what they want/need and what the Government will give them. Although this may sound a little daunting initially, there are some things you can do immediately but be prepared to think creatively and “out of the box”.
Easy ones first – chargeable and paid for before and after school clubs, rent out your school premises for birthday parties, language schools and weddings even. You have to hand an immediate target audience i.e. the parents and the local community who would all be prepared to support the school and fulfill a need or requirement at the same time.
But here’s where I would be a bit more creative. We supply a lot of Outdoor Classrooms to schools which actually we also sell to venues up and down the country to be used as wedding gazebos. The building is exactly the same – usually an octagonal 4m or 5m gazebo – so you could easily apply to your local registrar office for a license to conduct civil service ceremonies on your premises (a lot of private schools are already doing this) and once granted, you could promote yourself as an all encompassing wedding venue. Weddings are undoubtedly big business and we can certainly speak from experience here as we sell a lot of our buildings as wedding gazebos to venues such as hotels, golf clubs, holiday parks etc and they are all doing very well. You can then use the school building for the reception and as you probably have the grounds, you could hire in a marquee too for the better weather months. When you are not using the building as a wedding gazebo, it simply goes back to being an outdoor classroom. Win, win to use business parlance!
Another area I would tap into is fitness or wellness as it is now called. One of our enclosed outdoor classrooms could easily double up as a fitness suite or studio for yoga and fitness classes which could take place outside of school hours. Or we all like to go on courses nowadays so you could hold classes or courses of all descriptions in this building too outside of school hours. And because it is an independent building from the main school, people can easily come and go. And you have the week-ends when there are no children around.
There are even companies who will help a school rent out their buildings and they undertake all of the marketing and handle the bookings in return for a commission. It certainly is the way forward and schools who do embrace this will undoubtedly do well financially – especially as the future does not hold any hope or promises for bigger Government expenditure in the education sector.
The article from the Guardian can be seen on the link below:
For further information on how we can work with your school on raising extra funds, please contact the Hideout House Company on 01865 858982 or email info@hideouthouse.com
www.hideouthouse.com
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Does your school have sufficient funds in the school budget to pay for your playground/outdoor learning/outdoor classroom projects and if not, do you have enough time to try and source external funding to pay for it?
If the answer to the above is no, then you might want to have a chat with us.
We have invested a lot of our time and energy trying to understand how schools can successfully find alternative ways of paying for our products and it is working as we have helped a lot of schools recently get full funding for their project. We will work alongside you and tell you how we can help you with applying for grants and which grants are applicable to you; we will tell you how you can now potentially lease our products; we will tell you how you might be able to generate extra income by letting out your existing facilities; we will tell you about how to set up a crowdfunding website and approach local companies for sponsorship. And we have a unique PTA fundraising events night which is something no-one else is doing.
We are more than happy to provide testimonials or put you in contact with schools we have worked with on the above.
If you would like to talk further with us about how we can help your school with funding opportunities, then please contact us on 01865 858982 or email info@hideouthouse.com
eco outdoor classroom
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The Tesco Bags of Help programme has changed slightly as of this August. Applicants can now apply all year round and they will be making multiple grant awards each month. Application and decision times are therefore hopefully greatly reduced.
However, the amounts they will give out are reduced to either £1000, £2000, or £5000.
Applications are now open and you can apply whether you have been previously funded or not.
Programme Information
The new programme is very similar to the old one. Their aim is to support projects which will “promote community participation in the development and use of outdoor spaces”.
What do they mean by this?
They will fund projects that deliver either a physical environmental improvement or encourage the use and long term sustainability of outdoor spaces.
Any non-profits, including schools, are eligible to apply. Grants can be the full amount a project needs, or can just provide a contribution towards the costs.
As we specialise in supplying products to schools which meet their grant funding criteria, then please do visit our website www.hideouthouse.com to find out a bit more about what we as the Hideout House Company do or give us a call to discuss how we can help you with your application bid.
For further information on the Tesco Bags of Help grant please visit:
https://www.hideouthouse.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/logo-300x129.png00adminhttps://www.hideouthouse.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/logo-300x129.pngadmin2016-09-19 13:33:592016-09-19 13:34:24Tesco Bags of Help Grant Scheme For Schools
I cannot think of one school I have worked with these past couple of years who have been able to pay for our products entirely out of the school budget. Sign of these still austere times I guess. So increasingly schools are having to look to alternative ways of finding the necessary funds for their playground projects…and this is where we come in.
I am convinced that in order to be successful, the expression “where there is a will, there is a way” is of paramount importance because I have seen so many schools fall by the wayside because they have simply given up or not put in the required effort. And the other thing I am convinced of is that you need to think outside of the box when implementing your campaign and maybe go outside of your traditional comfort zone – and be a bit more commercially minded. And school governors need to understand this too.
But we also understand that school staff are busy and sometimes do not simply have the time to devote to the cause. We therefore work with schools on how to implement a strategic plan on how to raise the necessary funds and this can involve a whole facet of initiatives which usually run concurrently to maximise the chances of success.
We look at ways the school PTA can help fundraise but we like to come up with novel ideas which inject a breath of fresh air into somewhat fatigued traditional school fundraising events;
We advise on potential grants which could be available for your school project;
We tell you about renting or operating leasing possibilities for our products which now a lot of schools can take out on a typical 3-5 year lease period;
We tell you how to set up a crowdfunding website for your school to help spread the word and give your project a far wider audience;
We tell you how to approach local companies for financial support and donations;
We tell you how you can rent out your existing school facilities to earn a meaningful income (some schools we know who are doing this are getting approximately £30K a year for renting their premises and facilities);
We tell you about our own customer referral scheme whereby your school can earn commissions from the Hideout House Company for referring us to other schools;
We tell you about a scheme we have with the green energy supplier Ecotricity whereby your school can earn money each time someone switches to their tariffs
All we ask in return is that you are dedicated to the cause and are prepared to push the boundaries out a bit more than usual!
For further information about how we can help your school run a successful fundraising campaign, please contact Simon Fearnehough on 01865 858982 or email: info@hideouthouse.com
We sell a lot of outdoor classrooms to schools and ever more so those which are fully enclosed with solid wall panels and glazed panels. The reason being is that schools can use them all year round without worrying about the elements (we can also insulate them if they were going to be heated) plus they can use them as buildings which the wider community can utilise and benefit from too.
But the challenge is always funding or lack of it to be more precise. “Love them but we have no budget” is the usual response I hear from head teachers or school business managers. There are undoubtedly grants which you can apply for which will fund these type of buildings but let’s assume that there is no room in the school budget to afford these outdoor classrooms and you cannot get a grant. But you want and need an outdoor classroom for your school. So we have thought “outside of the box” on this issue and come up with following proposal.
Firstly, you can take out an operating lease on these type of buildings (this applies to your school whether it is an academy or within local authority control) over a typical period of 3 years where at the end of the lease period the school then has the option to return the equipment with no further payments or extend the agreement for one final year.
If the school extends for a final year the quarterly payments will be charged at ‘fair market value’, typically no more than 60% of the quarterly repayments on the original 3 year lease
At the end of the fourth year the equipment is then abandoned to the school with no more rentals to pay, no title is passed to the school
So you have the benefit of the asset now but can spread the payments over a period of time or school budget accounting periods. But we still haven’t got the money to pay for the lease payments I hear you cry.
By way of an example incidentally, a £12,000 enclosed outdoor classroom would cost £80 to rent per week over a three year period.
First question to ask yourself…..could the building be let out for before and after school clubs for example and if so, would you have any idea what a school could charge for this? Could the PTA use it or some of the money they raise each year be used to offset the lease payments?
or we have an association with a company who rent out school premises such as sports facilities or halls (for further information on this see my blog link given below). In terms of hiring halls for example they have on their books some smaller schools in a rural setting earning £10-15k per year but the larger halls in busier cities can attract up to £60k of revenue (obviously dependent on the types of activities allowed). They also have an IT system which does all of the administration for the bookings and they do all of the marketing as well – in return for this, they ask for a commission for all bookings taken. All the school has to do is obviously have someone on hand i.e. site manager, caretaker – to let people in and out.
So if a school were to utilise this service, this would hopefully generate enough extra income to pay for the outdoor classroom leasing payments. You already have the school asset so you need to put it out work. But I am well aware that this would have to be run past Governors and many questions would be asked! See therefore some testimonials below from schools who are already using this system.
But all I am trying to do is find a way of not just giving up and saying there is no money. That would be very un-British!
Angela Mellish – Bursar School: St Bernards
QUOTE: “We wouldn’t be without BookingsPlus! It has saved us so much time with the speedy invoicing and online payments. We recently had the auditors in who commented that the system was an auditors dream. The audit trail is tight, and there is a good level of control within the system such as not being able to delete invoices and payments. The ability to add reasons to credit notes and voided invoices provides the perfect picture as to what is happening. From booking through to payment, it is easy to keep track of everything. The auditors said they would recommend the system to other schools, and so would I”
Steve Munday – Head Teacher William Edwards School
QUOTE: “The BookingsPlus system gives us a significant revenue boost, which we have been able to invest in ICT/ technology, sporting equipment and staffing to ensure that we can provide the best possible learning environments and opportunities for our students. Equally importantly it has helped us to become an integral part of the local community by giving local groups, charities and organisations the chance to use our exceptional facilities. Everybody wins!”
For further information on the above or to explore opportunities how we can help your school get funding for our outdoor classrooms, please call 01865 858982 or email: info@hideouthouse.com
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We regularly get asked by schools for a temporary shelter or outdoor classroom which they can either use for their forest school set-ups or for the summer term to provide for shelter from the sun and anything else the British weather can throw at us. So we have devised the concept of a “pop-up” outdoor shelter or classroom.
Manufactured from flame retardant and highly durable PU coated polyester and PVC onto a heavy duty concertina frame, these pop up outdoor shelter can either be supplied as just a white canopy or to make it more interesting and personalised, graphics can be printed onto walls, canopy roof and pelmets. They are available in two sizes – namely 3m x 3m or 4.5m x 3m.
They are ideal for:
Forest schools
Playground sun shade and shelter
PTA fundraising events and school events
Parent waiting shelters
Temporary outdoor classrooms
Pop up shops or market stalls which the children (or parents) can sell products from
And here’s an idea as to how you can pay for them. Write to local companies for a donation and we will print their logo on the product as a participating sponsor.
It is also very easy to assemble and comes with guy lines, pegs and a wheeled carry case.
For further information, please call the Hideout House Company on 01865 858982 or email info@hideouthouse.com
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