Partnering with Your High School

One of the best places to start your fundraising campaign is at your own high school. If you’ve recently been accepted to NTSA and know that you’re going to need financial aid, you should schedule a meeting with your principal as soon as possible. Tell her all about the incredible opportunity you have to perform off-Broadway this summer — but how you need a little bit of help getting there. With your high school’s administration on your list of supporters, you might be able to make one of the fundraising ideas below work for you in a major way!

1. Dress-Down Day
This is one of the easiest ways to raise a ton of money with no effort. If you attend a school with a uniform or dress code, try to convince your principal to host a Dress-Down Day to help with your fundraising efforts. Charge students $1 to not wear their uniform or break the dress code (jeans, sneakers, etc.). The key to making this fundraiser successful is to advertise continually during the week leading up to Dress-Down Day. If you’re planning a Dress-Down Thursday, then you want to make announcements over the PA system on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. Consider sending home a printed flyer at the beginning of the week. (Your teachers will probably be willing to make the copies in the front office for you!) Start a chain-text that morning reminding everyone that today’s the Dress-Down Day — and have the recipients forward the message to all of their friends! If you send out enough reminders, we can guarantee that you’ll have close to 100% participation from students and teachers alike.

2. Bake Sale
Bake sales are time-honored traditions for a reason: they work. Ask your principal if you can hold a bake sale in the cafeteria during lunch periods. Then recruit your friends (or your drama club) to bake all of the classics — cookies, brownies, cupcakes, etc. Set a few price points ($0.50, $1, $2) and then sell sell sell! The closer you can get your bake sale to looking like Pinterest perfection, the more likely the goods are to fly off the shelf. Just like with Dress-Down Day, you want to make sure to advertise your bake sale far in advance. Make sure that students have cash on them the day-of, so that they can enjoy all of the baked goods!



3. Parents’ Night Out
Convince your principal to let you use one of your high school’s classrooms for a Friday Parents’ Night Out. Parents drop off their children at the high school around 5 PM. Recruit your friends to babysit for the next three hours, so that the parents can enjoy a child-free date night. You can grab some cheap snacks from Costco (like popcorn and cookies) and show a double-feature movie. Disney sing-along, anyone? Charge $15 per family for the night. Distribute printed fliers advertising Parents’ Night Out to local elementary schools. (Once again, your teachers will probably be more-than-willing to let you use the school copy machines.) Consider having parents pre-register by texting you their last name and the number of children they’ll be dropping off. That way, you can make sure that you have enough staff members (i.e. friends), classrooms, and snack food.

4. Grab Bags
This is another one where you’re going to have to partner with local elementary schools. Send around flyers advertising super-secret grab bags. Make sure the advertisements are as enticing as possible! (What’ll be in yours?!) Have students give their teachers $3-5 in order to secure their super-secret grab bag in two weeks. Order pencils, erasers, slap bracelets, temporary tattoos, stickers, and little toys from Oriental Trading Company and put them in brightly-colored goody bags. Personalize each bag with the student’s name (and maybe some SHHH! SECRET! logos) and then deliver them to the elementary schools. Be careful with this one! Make sure that you’re not spending more than $1.50 on each bag in order to make a significant profit.

Sample Bag
$0.12: Pencil
$0.06: 3 Erasers
$0.16: 4 Temporary Tattoos
$0.35: Slap Bracelet
$0.63: Superhero rubber duck
$0.10: Neon goody bag
Total: $1.42/bag

5. Split Club Talent Show
Ask your principal if you can host a Split Club Talent Show. Charge students $20 per act to participate. (If you can charge a $5 admission fee for audience members as well, all the better!) Students have three minutes per act to showcase their talent and then the audience votes on who was the most entertaining. The winners take 40% of the total participation fees. So if you have twenty acts performing, the winner will take home $160, while you get $240. Add in those admission fees ($5 per ticket with 100 audience members), and you’ll have raised a sizable chunk of your course fee. All you have to do is get your principal’s permission to use the auditorium, get some tech friends to help out with lighting and sound, and then (once again) advertise the event as much as possible. Many of your theatre department friends would probably be willing to pitch in for a good cause — and the chance to earn some extra cash!

IMPORTANT: Don't forget to ask your principal if your high school can provide direct financial support. Sometimes, schools have funding set aside for students' extracurricular opportunities. Your high school might be willing to write you a check to help pay your course fee (especially if they see that you're willing to work your hardest to attend!).