Booster clubs are known for being pretty serious about the school and students, but take a break from all of the seriousness and enjoy some wacky fundraiser events that can liven up the month and bring some fun education and money to the club with these Pi Day fundraising ideas.
What is Pi Day?
Pi Day is a holiday that has been celebrated since it’s founding in 1988. Every Year on March 14th is Pi Day because it’s 3/14, which are the first 3 digits of Pi (3.14). More specifically Pi Day is celebrated at 1:59 pm so that 3/14 1:59 lines up with 3.14159. That being said, most people simply enjoy the entire day and so should your booster club.
With such a random day being celebrated just for the fun of it, it opens so many doors to your booster club for unique fundraisers. If done properly, you can boost your school’s morale while raising funds too. Getting the entire student body excited over a single day (or week) is a huge accomplishment.
You’ll want to start getting your Pi Day fundraising ideas together soon because it’s coming up quickly. But remember a few quick helpful tips before coming up with your creative fundraisers.
Things to remember about Pi Day:
- St. Patricks Day is 3 days after Pi Day, so as soon as one fundraiser is over you’ll need to jump over to the next (if you’re planning a St. Patrick’s Day fundraiser). You may even need to promote both fundraisers at the same time.
- After Valentine’s Day, there isn’t too much to do so you can start setting up your Pi Day Fundraisers if any need extensive planning or promotion to be successful.
- Pi Day is a fun day, and while booster fundraisers may be important, it’s equally important to have fun and grow participation and a sense of community with your student body. So even if you don’t make a ton of money, what matters most is having fun.
Fun Pi Day Fundraising Ideas
Online Pi Day Fundraising Ideas
A super simple Pi Day fundraising idea is to set up a donation page online that you can promote on your booster club social media accounts and website. Ask for $3.14 from everybody in an attempt to help your booster club reach a goal of $314. Don’t set a cap on how much everyone can donate though, because some people may want to give more (and you should let them!)
Because this is such a small amount of money to ask for, people will be more willing to give it. It’s also a very specific and random amount, which simply adds to the fun.
Pie a Teacher In The Face
When you look for Pi Day fundraising ideas, you often see this one as a suggestion and that is because it’s truly a lot of fun. You bring together the students and the staff for a common goal (raising money) and it creates lasting memories that will probably end up photographed and placed into the school’s yearbook.
Have students pay a flat fee of $3 to pie a teacher in the face at a pieing booth, table, or school assembly. To reduce the expenses the pie plates can simply be a pie tin (or paper plate) filled with whipped cream.
Pre-Sell Actual Pies
There are websites where you can sign up to fundraise with companies and sell pies from a form and get them delivered. But, you can also set up your own selling forms, and presell homemade pies made by the booster club members. This is a great Pi Day fundraising idea because you may even be able to cater to special requests.
You can set it up so that the pies are ready to be picked up or delivered on Pi Day, which means that the preselling should begin a few weeks prior to make sure that everything is ready to go.
Movie and Concessions
A great thing about schools is that they almost always have a projector available and a large auditorium of some sort. This makes it ideal for an after school free movie watching event. Depending on the age group of the students and families in attendance, you could choose to watch The Life of Pi.
For the booster club fundraising portion, you can sell concessions. Watching a movie on a large screen with popcorn, snacks, and drinks is a great experience that promotes bonding and just feels fun!
Sell Pie Slices
A simple Pi Day fundraising idea is to sell sliced pie. In the cafeteria, set up a table and sell pie slices for $1 each. It’s a small amount but when you consider that a pie can easily get 8-12 slices and costs much less than that to make, you are making a decent profit. Plus with such a low price point you’ll get repeat customers, and get more students who want to buy.
A great way to promote it is by posting a little note in the school’s monthly newsletter or mentioning it online or in the announcements the day before so that students know to bring money. During the day of the event, offer a free slice to students that can recite Pi to the 10th integer.
This encourages students to learn, helps them to work on their memory skills, and gives them a fun challenge with a tasty reward. The word of mouth advertisement from the students about this awesome Pi Day Fundraiser will be talked about for years.
Host a Pie Eating Contest
You can host a pie eating contest for students and teachers where contestants pay a fee to enter and are then given 3 minutes and 14 seconds to eat as much pie as they can. The one who eats the most can win a prize.
This could be a great stand alone event, but it can also be a great event to witness at a pep rally or school assembly. Watching your friends and teachers get messy eating pies in front of everyone is a memory that people will carry with them for a very long time and may even be one of the fondest memories they have from school.
Pi Day Fundraising Idea: Pizza Take Over
This Pi Day fundraising idea happens after school hours and is a great way to make money with little work. Hosting a restaurant take over at your local pizza place is a great way to make money. Send home flyers and announce online that your booster club is trying to sell Pizza Pi and to stop in for a slice or to take a pizza home.
While Pi Day may only come once a year and may not be as big of a holiday as Christmas or Valentine’s Day, it can still offer a lot to your booster club. With these creative booster club fundraisers, you can bring some fun and excitement to your school while promoting your booster club and building student morale. Pi Day is much more than just a fundraising opportunity so don’t let it slip by.
