10 Great St. Patrick’s Day Fundraisers For Booster Clubs

Introduction

St. Patrick’s Day Fundraisers are great for small nonprofits, PTO’s and booster clubs because not only does it bring in a bit of extra revenue, but it can be incredibly fun, given the celebratory nature  of St. Patrick’s Day! Even if you aren’t directly from Ireland, or claim only some percentage, of Irish roots, it doesn’t mean your organization can’t have fun for a good cause! With a bit of luck, a few creative ideas and just a wee bit of work – your small nonprofit, PTO or booster club can pull off a grand St. Patrick’s Day themed fundraiser!

The holiday of St. Patrick’s Day has its roots in the celebration of St. Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland. As people of Irish descent immigrated to the United States, the holiday because a wider celebration of Irish culture and heritage.  Even though St. Patrick’s Day has become a very commercialized holiday, the focus still remains on celebrating Irish culture, history and heritage.  This means that everyone is expecting fun, green, pots of gold, leprechauns,  clovers  and of course… parties! By no means do you have to provide all of these things, but tying in one or a few of the holiday’s basic elements can be a great way to promote your nonprofit, PTO or booster club’s St. Patrick’s Day themed fundraiser!

Check out these 10 Small nonprofit, PTO and/or booster club St. Patrick’s Day themed fundraising ideas that can help to bring in a bump of revenue for your club.

 

1. Host an Irish Feast

St. Patrick’s day traditionally is known for being a day of feasts, so this St Patrick’s Day Fundraiser ties in quite well historically.

Planning is key, so don’t spare on the menu as there are some fantastic Irish dishes that  can make your event more unique! Offer different Irish foods and try to keep the theme going. Options like Corned beef and Cabbage, Irish Soda Bread, Shepherd’s Pie, Bread Pudding, Potato Soup,  and Irish Stew are all great entree ideas.  To take it one step further, consider having a band play traditional Irish Pub music to entertain guests. If your volunteers are up for it, perhaps pair a silent auction with the event as well.

If your first event is successful, consider turning this Irish feast into an annual holiday fundraiser and team up with local businesses to have them donate foods that reduce your booster club’s costs.

The revenue for this nonprofit fundraiser could come in a few different ways. Presell tickets or offer admission at the door It can be a casual buffet or a full dinner experience with servers and dinner courses. At the event consider having a donation jugs passed around to further add some more revenue. Last, if you add the Silent Auction, you should be able to raise a solid amount all while having a fantastic fun event!

 

2. Silent Auction

As noted, this creative fundraiser can go hand in hand with your Irish Feast. Have a table or tables set up at your silent auction with donated goods from local artists, businesses and crafts people with sheets of paper for people to place bids. They’ll try to win the items by having the highest bid and if they lose, they won’t be out any money. Either way, your booster club profits financially and the businesses and people that donated the items get some much needed publicity!

For auction items, they can be individual items or baskets with a mix of items. Silent auctions are always a great way to engage with the community, have a low cost and also help raise awareness for local community businesses and crafts people. We love win win wins!

 

3. Green Bake Sale

Normally people don’t enjoy the idea of eating green foods, but with St. Patrick’s day being THE day for green, people are willing to make the exception.

Consider having a St. Patrick’s Day bake sale fundraiser with Irish/St. Patrick’s Day themed goods. Items can be dyed green, or traditional Irish desserts, or even just festively decorated to celebrate the holiday. People love buying homemade goods and LOVE supporting local small nonprofits, PTO’s and booster clubs. Have your supporters and perhaps some local bakeries donate items to keep this booster club fundraising costs low low low!

If you are setting up your bake sale at a school or event, consider running a Cakewalk! It’s pretty easy to set up, and can generate some extra bakesale income.  Here is how to do it:  On the ground, set up little pieces of paper with numbers in a circle pattern. Similarly write down all of the numbers on a spinner or put them in a jar.  Then sell the spots for $1 each and turn on music. Have people walk around from spot to spot on the circle,  then turn off the music. With the music off, pull a number from a container or spin a card with an arrow and numbers. Whoever is standing on the winning number gets a cupcake. Continue this for a set number of times and then clear the board for a new  batch of participants!

 

4. Dress Up Day

This idea works best for nonprofits who work with/within larger organizations, as well as PTO’s and booster clubs at the school they support. Given the festive nature of  St. Patrick’s Day, it is the ideal dress up opportunity. People normally add some touch of green or go full out and show off crazy, fun and vibrant outfits. Promote a St. Patrick’s Day dress up contest in advance. For a dollar or two each, you can have students and staff pay to dress this way for the day. Breaking the dress code for a day could well be worth it to the students (just make sure to have rules in place so nothing too inappropriate tries to slip by). Then at lunch, have people vote for their favorite costumes and the winners take home a small prize!

Allowing the students to wear crazy hats for one day in a school with a no hat dress code is a popular fundraiser for any grade level. Plan this St. Patrick’s Day Fundraiser in advance so that students know to get hats, dress-up attire and have their cash ready.

 

5. Sell Green Pins

Another low cost St. Patrick’s Day Fundraiser that can be a lot of fun and bring a lot of profit is selling St Patrick’s related pins.  These can be standard Irish icons like leprechauns, clovers and pots of gold or even the classic “I’m Irish” buttons. If you have really creative types, you might even be able to customize the pins to relate to your booster club, small nonprofit or PTO name/logos. Sell them cheap and supporters would buy one or multiple each just because they’re fun and festive.

 

6. Host an Irish Festival

This St. Patrick’s Day Fundraiser option is bigger time and money investment. Try hosting a fun indoor or outdoor St. Patrick’s Day themed carnival or festival… It can be a lot of fun! Work with companies to have games or prizes donated and sell admission at the door (you can do a set ticket price or ask for a “by donation” amount) or sell tickets that can be exchanged per game, ie. $1/ticket and 3 tickets to play a game. Increase fundraising revenue with concession sales as well as selling booth space to local businesses to promote or sell their wares. This is a great way to create an annual event that your entire community will look forward to ever St. Patrick’s Day!

 

7. Follow the Rainbow Scavenger Hunt

Depending on your nonprofit’s working relationships, and if your booster club or PTO school students are old enough, this could be a great St. Patrick’s Day Fundraiser to do around the local community, if students are younger, this could be great (when modified)  for families to do on school campus. Collect a small participation fee and set up a “pot of gold” worthy prize at the end. You can have all sorts of different prizes donated by local businesses to help encourage people to keep going on the scavenger hunt.  It adds to the fun and keeps kids and adults engaged!

If the hunt is off-campus, team up with local businesses in advance and have a poster/flyer in their front window with clues leading to the next. Have teams/families go from one to the other until they get to the end. There can be a small party complete with food and drinks or a physical prize like a gift basket or trophy.

Extra add on – Silent Auction at the end party!

 

8. Raffle Baskets

Please be advised that some states do not allow nonprofit organizations to run or operate games of chance like a raffle, so double check that you’re allowed to do this before planning.

Hosting a raffle is always a fun fundraiser and can be done over a period of time or at a single function. Ask for companies and businesses to donate goods and items of value that people would want and then decorate the baskets to look festive. Sell tickets for a reasonable price and draw tickets to see who wins.

 

9. Host a 5k Run St. Patick’s Day Fundraiser

With St. Patrick’s day being a day of feasting, having a nice 5k Run beforehand can help to make room for all of the food later. Start the day or weekend before with a fun morning run where participants are encouraged to collect pledges. Even if you are running a booster club for a school, consider opening up the 5K to the entire community to help build awareness and grow your participation.

5k run fundraising events do well for booster clubs because there can be little to no cost depending on the location and how much “extra” you want to do. A simple 5k would be location, start and finish lines. A more involved one would include T-shirt sales, concessions, promotion bracelets or lanyards, numbers for each participant to wear, etc. a more advanced 5k could be more fun, but it would cost more to host.

 

10. St. Patrick’s Day Fundraiser: Bingo

Yet another easy St. Patrick’s Day Fundraiser is Bingo! Sell Bingo cards for $1 each and have prizes set up for the Bingo winners. This can be a much simpler fundraiser by setting up a small table in a lunchroom or hallway and having people participate during lunch, recess, or some other time during the day when students can devote about 5 minutes for a quick round.

Prizes don’t have to be extravagant, even a simple candy bar would entice people to play so if you don’t get the best donated prizes, be simple with them. People are looking for fun more than an extravagant gift that they have to carry around all day after winning.

 

With so many great St. Patrick’s Day Fundraisers out there, the hardest part will be to narrow it down to one or a select few. Most of these fundraisers need a good amount of planning in order to be effective, so keep that in mind and designate a planning committee not too long after the New Year.

Don’t be afraid to repeat fundraisers from last year. Annual holiday fundraisers increase profitability and do great for building a brand around your small nonprofit, PTO or booster club. It helps to give better promotion and gives people something to look forward to every year. Your booster club can profit well from annual and one time fundraisers, just make sure that you take the initiative to begin planning sooner rather than later and promote well to maximize revenue.

 

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