This page covers what a private school actually needs to fund, the constraints that shape how you can raise it, and which event formats fit. If you want the general guide first, start with fundraising by group.
What a private school is usually funding
- financial aid and tuition assistance
- capital projects and facilities
- faculty compensation and development
- programs outside the tuition-funded budget
- endowment growth
What makes this group different
These are the constraints that decide whether a fundraiser works here, and they are the reason generic advice underperforms.
- An annual fund already exists and asks the same families, so a new campaign has to be additive rather than competing
- Advancement staff have established donor relationships that a broad campaign can disrupt if uncoordinated
- Families paying tuition have a different relationship to an ask than public school families do
- Major-gift cultivation runs on a different clock than an event campaign
Why an event-based fundraiser fits
The value of an event campaign at a private school is usually participation breadth rather than dollars — it activates the families who never give to the annual fund and reaches grandparents who are not on the advancement list. Position it that way internally or it will read as competing with the annual fund.
What is realistic to raise
Measure this on participation rate rather than dollars. The event's value is reaching families who never give to the annual fund and grandparents who are not on the advancement list; positioned as a revenue rival to the annual fund it will lose that argument internally and deserve to.
A working timeline
The dates that matter here are set by this group’s own calendar, not by a generic fundraising season.
- Coordinate with advancement before a date exists
- Position internally as participation and pipeline, not revenue
- Launch in a window clear of the annual fund push
- Report participation rate and new households reached, alongside the total
What goes wrong
- Launching without advancement, and disrupting a cultivation cycle nobody told you about
- Competing with the annual fund for the same households in the same month
- Reporting only dollars, which invites exactly the comparison you do not want
Formats that suit a private school
You are not doing this alone
Every Get Movin' group is paired with a Personal Event Coach — a former PTO/PTA volunteer who has run this before. Get Movin's company president and all of its fundraising coaches are former PTO/PTA members, teachers and volunteers. For a private school, that means someone who has already helped other groups like yours through exactly this.
Your coach:
- strategizes your budget goal with you
- brainstorms incentives that actually motivate your participants
- advises on promotion and timing
- steers you away from the pitfalls they have already watched other groups hit
You also get the FundHub Event Toolbox — 100+ guides, templates, playlists and printables. Meet the coaches.
The platform behind a private school fundraiser
FundHub is Get Movin's online donation platform, built specifically for schools, teams and community groups by former PTO/PTA leaders. It carries 35+ tools. These are the ones that matter most here:
- Personalized student webpages. A parent sets one up in about five minutes, and each page raises an average of $140.
- Teacher access and classroom webpages. Every class gets its own page that the teacher controls, with their own log-in and class-specific incentives.
- Classroom Leaderboard, showing real-time progress by class.
- Family Sharing. Siblings share one Family Webpage, and FundHub splits incoming donations evenly between the participating children — so families with three kids are not asking the same relatives three times.
- Incentive Tracker. Enter your incentives and FundHub produces the distribution list by class or student automatically.
See the full platform on the FundHub page, or book a walkthrough with a coach.
How Get Movin’ runs your private school fundraiser
- Book a call or a FundHub demo and get matched with your Personal Event Coach.
- Your coach helps you set the goal, pick the date and choose incentives.
- Your group page and student pages go live; parents set theirs up in about five minutes.
- Families share by text, email and social; the coach checks in through the campaign.
- Event day, with volunteers organized through FundHub.
- Funds arrive by automatic ACH transfer after the event.
What it costs and what you keep
Get Movin’ groups keep 95-97% of every dollar raised. Donors pay however they want — cash, check, credit or debit, PayPal, Venmo, or Apple and Google Wallet. Automatic ACH payout after the event, straight to the group's account.
Full detail on the pricing page.
Next steps
See what a private school fundraiser costs on our pricing page, or browse free templates including printable pledge sheets.
Common questions
Does an event fundraiser compete with the annual fund?
It does if you let it. Coordinate with advancement, aim the event at participation rate and at families outside the existing donor base, and it becomes a pipeline into the annual fund rather than a rival to it.
Start your private school fundraiser
Get Movin’ has powered 10,000+ events and raised more than $200 million for groups like yours since 2007, with 1,300+ five-star Google reviews.
Take a FundHub tour with a coach, or book your event. Questions first? Contact us or call 248-895-0206. Also useful: the free school grant guide, the parent and donor FAQ, and our fundraising webinars.