What is Play Fund Win?

Play Fund Win manages 5 data types including leads. Helps you organize, track, and share your work in 1 place for teams and solo users.

SECTOR — SCHOOLS & PTAs

School & PTA Fundraising Ideas — primary, secondary, sixth form

PTA committees, year-group reps, school business managers. The fundraising formats that don’t burn out volunteer time and actually generate income beyond the summer fair.

Primary schoolsSecondary schoolsSixth formPTAsSchool business managers

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15% only when you raise10 minutes setupUK fundraising ready

Robin

Your fundraising co-pilot · 30 seconds to a plan

Hi — I'm Robin. Tell me a bit about your cause and I'll suggest the right draw, ticket price and a realistic raise. Live in about 10 minutes.

Monthly cadence

Lowest-effort highest-yield PTA fundraiser.

Christmas raffle peak

Biggest single PTA fundraiser of the year.

£4,000–£30,000 / year

For 300–800 family schools.

Safeguarding-first

18+ verified, no cash handling.

Top 5 formats

The formats that actually work

Curated from PFW's 27 fundraising formats. Each link goes through to a deep-dive on that format — what it is, how it works, what it raises.

DRAW FORMAT — 50/50

The 50/50 fundraiser — split the pot, fund your cause

A monthly cadence is the lowest-effort, highest-yield PTA fundraiser. Predictable income, low volunteer load, runs on autopilot once set up.

Read the full format guide

DRAW FORMAT — CHRISTMAS RAFFLE

Christmas raffles — the seasonal fundraiser that fills your stocking

The single biggest PTA fundraiser of the year. Sponsor-donated prize ladder + cash headline. Parent WhatsApp groups do the marketing for you.

Read the full format guide

DRAW FORMAT — 100 CLUB

The 100 Club — numbered monthly draws, rebuilt

A recurring base income that doesn’t need a new campaign every term. Set it up once, runs all year, the maths is predictable.

Read the full format guide

DRAW FORMAT — CASH PRIZE

Cash prize raffles — the prize everyone wants

Universal appeal — no story needed. A £500 cash prize sells faster to a parent network than an experience prize. Great quick-win format.

Read the full format guide

DRAW FORMAT — CAUSE-SPECIFIC DRIVE

Cause-specific draws — time-limited drive for a concrete goal

Playground equipment, library refurb, outdoor classroom. Specific photographable goals raise 2–3x more than vague "fundraising".

Read the full format guide

Featured host

School & PTA Fundraising

Monthly 50/50 + Christmas Raffle

PTAs running PFW programmes typically pair a monthly £2 50/50 with an annual Christmas raffle — the rhythm that beats summer fair income within months.

Multiple verified PFW PTAs

More case studies

On the platform

Running this on PFW

Verified Play Fund Win hosts running fundraising in this sector.

Verified

parkrun community schools

Schools linked through the parkrun community — our biggest 7-year anchor partner

Verified

Primary school PTAs

Monthly 50/50 and Christmas raffle programmes

Verified

Secondary school business managers

Larger-scale cash prize and cause-specific campaigns

Tactical tips

What works for this sector

The specific levers PFW hosts in this sector pull to outperform — drawn from real campaign data.

Parent WhatsApp groups are your highest-converting channel

Higher than school newsletters, higher than social, higher than gate sales. Build a templated message PTA chairs can drop straight in.

Don’t replace the summer fair — supplement it

Monthly draws raise more annually than fairs do, but the fair is a community moment. Run both — the fair builds the database, the monthly draw monetises it.

Tie campaigns to specific goals parents can see

"New playground equipment" outperforms "general PTA funds" by 2–3x. Photo the existing equipment, photo the proposed equipment, share the gap.

Christmas is the peak — open in mid-November

Most ticket sales come in the final 10 days before the draw. Open mid-November, run weekly social posts through Advent, draw at end-of-term assembly.

Get the head teacher’s blessing early

Schools without head teacher buy-in see ~40% of the participation rate of schools with it. A 10-minute conversation with SLT unlocks the whole-school newsletter, the parent app, and the assembly mention.

FAQ

What this sector asks us most

How does this compare to MyPTA, ClassFund or other PTA tools?

Those tools focus on membership management and event ticketing. PFW focuses specifically on fundraising mechanics — monthly draws, raffles, cash-prize campaigns. Many PTAs run both: a membership platform for events, PFW for the actual fundraising. PFW keeps 15%, only when you raise — no setup or subscriptions.

Do we need a licence to run a PTA fundraiser?

Many small PTA raffles run as free prize draws (with a free-entry route) or as incidental non-commercial lotteries at school events. Larger ones run as Small Society Lotteries under a £40 council registration. Robin will check.

How does safeguarding work?

PFW has 18+ age verification built into every entry. Parents pay through Stripe — no cash handling, no data leaving the platform, full GDPR compliance. Audit trails available for governors.

Can we use Gift Aid?

Yes, where the school has charitable status. Gift Aid claims work the same way as any other charitable donation. Robin will configure the entry flow to capture Gift Aid declarations correctly.

What’s a realistic raise for a primary school PTA?

Illustrative ranges only — a 300-family primary running a monthly £2 50/50 plus a Christmas raffle typically raises £4,000–£10,000 a year. Secondary schools at 800+ families raise £10,000–£30,000.

How do we handle the prize ladder for a Christmas raffle?

A cash headline (£250–£1,000), 5–10 sponsor-donated mid-tier prizes, and a hamper or experience prize as the top draw. Local businesses donate readily for the parent-network visibility. We supply a sponsor pack template.

Couldn't find your answer? Chat with Robin — she'll help in under 2 minutes.

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