Go on Holiday to Fund Your Playground

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