Many schools rely on parents and other community volunteers to help raise money – whether for the school’s general budget or for specific projects and initiatives. From selling raffle tickets to hosting a silent auction or bake sale, if you’ve been a parent or student, you’ve likely participated in some type of fundraising program. But if you’re looking for fun, easy, and effective school fundraising ideas that excite your campus community to make a donation to your school, a fundraiser with 360PhotoContest.com may be just the ticket.
Top 10 Photo Contest School Fundraising Ideas
- School Spirit
- Campus Happenings & Events
- Sports and Clubs
- Community Service
- Athletic Action
- Student Life
- Campus Shots
- School Traditions
- Academics
- Fine Arts Performances
A photo contest fundraiser in partnership with 360PhotoContest.com is a fast, easy, and effective idea to raise money for your school, whether a public or private school. With our simple platform and votes tied to a small fee, 360PhotoContest.com is an ideal partner to make sure your next school fundraiser meets—and even surpasses—its goals.
Fundraisers make it possible for schools to purchase ancillary technological equipment for classrooms, sponsor fun and educational field trips for students, augment fine arts programs, and more. Our team at 360PhotoContest.com is ready to work with you to ensure that your fundraiser does as much good for your elementary school, middle school or high school as it possibly can.
How Do Fundraisers Help Schools?
School fundraisers are essential to making sure that schools can provide the best possible educational experience for its students. A fundraiser for your school can go toward any cause or idea the school or Parent Teacher Associations deems appropriate—from essential classroom equipment and technology to special field trips, parties, and educational experiences for students. And when you partner with 360PhotoContest.com on your school fundraiser, you can expect the following benefits:
- Easy to Set Up
- Saves Time
- No Extra Employees or Costs
- Very Efficient
- Gather Contact Info
- Power of Crowdfunding and Social Sharing
- Virtual and Covid Friendly
- Fun!
The best part about working with 360PhotoContest.com is that our fundraising platform gives you the ability to fully administer your school fundraiser and monitor its results with minimal setup. Not feeling especially tech savvy? That’s OK. You don’t even need a website to use the online fundraising platform. Instead, the 360PhotoContest.com team will set up your fundraising activity on through its online platform—all you need to do is decide what type of photo contest to host. Once you’ve designed your fundraising photo contest, you can promote it through all available channels for your school or organization, including email lists, social media, and school flyers.
If you’re wondering how a photo contest works, participants simply submit their contest photos through the online fundraising platform and share personalized links with their friends, family members, and other supporters, asking them to vote for their photo(s). Those who use the links to vote will make a corresponding monetary gift to your school. Anyone can vote, and supporters can vote multiple times, which increases your odds of raising the funds your school needs. Once you reach the fundraising event end date, our team will tabulate the results and send you the money generated by your fundraising program.
Best of all, using 360PhotoContest.com for your school’s photo contest fundraiser will also generate a list of contacts you can use to keep donors and other supporters in your community up-to-date on other needs and developments related to your school. A photo contest fundraiser is a safe, fun, easy, and effective way to harness the power of social media and crowdfunding to benefit your school and its students. Still not sure? Check out these photo contest success stories.
Top 10 Photo Contest School Fundraising Ideas
Let’s take a closer look at some of the many ways you can use a photo contest fundraiser to generate money for your school.
1. School Spirit
A school spirit photo contest is a great way to get students, faculty, staff, parents, and alumni to show off their school pride. Participants take photos of themselves displaying their school spirit, which can be interpreted in a wide variety of ways.
Maybe it’s wearing all their school spirit gear at the same time or sporting their school colors while traveling. It could also include cheerleaders in action at a football game with an ecstatic crowd in the background. Or your school’s fans can dress up like the school mascot and snap shots around campus.
There are many possible variations on this school fundraiser theme. School spirit contenders just need to upload their photos and then campaign for the most votes and you’ll meet your fundraising campaign goal in no time.
2. Campus Happenings & Events
A photo contest fundraiser is a great idea for showcasing what’s happening on campus, especially the special moments—homecomings, major athletic showdowns, proms, field day, graduations and other special occasions create lasting bonds among students and bring back fond memories for parents and alumni.
Have participants submit selfies or other group shots from key, well-known campus events and upload them to our fundraising platform. Then, they can share their link with supporters to rack up the votes (and the funds)!
3. Sports and Clubs
Who doesn’t love seeing student participation in action? A photo contest fundraiser showcasing various sports and clubs on campus is a great way to highlight the important activities students participate in every day.
From yearbook staff, Key Club, and student government to the football or golf team, encourage students to document their favorite ways of getting involved on campus. This is an especially effective option if you’re trying to raise money for a particular student organization or program—show people the amazing students involved in that group, along with the important work they’re doing. Participants simply upload their photos to the contest platform, and then you watch as the votes—and money—roll in from supporters.
4. Community Service
Chances are, your students are involved in numerous community service projects, either formally through clubs and organizations or on their own time. Encourage students to submit photos of their work serving the school and its broader community.
This kind of school fundraiser allows you to see the culture of your school outside of its campus borders and deepens the relationships between your school and surrounding organizations. Another plus: including outside supporters can also help broaden the reach of promotional efforts, translating to more votes and more money for your school.
5. Athletic Action
The wide range of school sports provides amazing opportunities for budding and amateur photographers to grab exciting action shots of school athletes giving it all on the field. You can run a school fundraiser to find the most action-packed snaps from a particular sport or highlight a specific season. Have participants upload their athletic action shots to your contest platform and then start promoting entries to supporters.
6. Student Life
A day in the life of a student makes a great photo contest theme. Parents and alumni love seeing what life looks like for students on a day-to-day basis. Encourage students to chronicle their day with photos as part of a school fundraiser—everything from getting to their seat before the first bell to lunch in the cafeteria and crowded hallways during passing periods can make for great slice-of-life photography. Once your participants have uploaded their fun lifestyle photos from your school, count on them to share the links with supporters and keep the support coming in.
7. Campus Shots
Chances are, your school has special locations that will spur memories for students, parents, alumni, and the local community at large. That favorite spot in the commons where everyone hangs out at lunch, the special bench students use for studying, the statue that brings good luck if you touch it before taking an exam. Whatever physical spots on your campus have created lasting bonds and memories for students can be featured in a campus photo contest.
Among artistic participants, you can be sure to welcome architectural photography of well-known spots on campus taken from unexpected and/or dramatic angles. In fact, you might be surprised which photo gets the most votes!
8. School Traditions
Whether it’s the Homecoming parade, the first football game of the year, the annual talent show, or the opening of the school theater production, school traditions make for visually interesting and exciting photography that highlights campus culture.
With this school fundraising idea, participants have the chance to identify and share their favorite school traditions, which weaves together the story of your school’s unique culture. This type of contest can bond current students, parents, and alumni together as they reminisce and share their favorite traditions and practices that make your school campus one of a kind.
9. Academics
The most important activity that happens on any school campus is, of course, learning. An academic photo contest can have broad appeal, showcasing learning in all its forms as it raises money for the school.
Experiments in a biology lab, an intense discussion in a history class, a dramatic reading of a play in English—or for a completely different direction, snaps of graduates with their honor cords and regalia. The possibilities are nearly endless. Giving people wide-open parameters to showcase the stellar academics at your school can open the floodgates among participants and bring in tons of votes.
10. Fine Arts Performances
If your school has a strong fine arts program, this fundraising idea is a great opportunity to give visibility to student performances, in addition to the hard work that goes in behind the scenes.
Theater productions, musicals, orchestra concerts, and more all take the spotlight in this photo contest. Simply have participants upload their favorite performance photo and then start campaigning for votes. For a fun twist, you can even broaden the guidelines to accept backstage and rehearsal photos that give everyone a peek behind the curtain. Once everyone’s photos are uploaded to your contest platform, so the votes and funds can start rolling in!
Photo Contests: An Easy Fundraising Idea for Schools
Your school is a key anchor of a local community, and provides essential and life-shaping experiences and programs for your students. Well-planned, effective fundraisers are essential to augmenting the good and important work of your community’s schools.
If you’re looking for a fun, safe, and effective way to boost your school’s budget, a photo contest fundraiser can be a real winner. Our team is at the ready to help you set up a school fundraiser—just reach out to us to learn more and schedule a demo today! We’ll be happy to work with you to design the best school fundraiser possible for your school community.