Fundraising events are a staple for schools to generate revenue—they’re a great way to generate excitement and complement your broader donor engagement and fundraising strategies. However, you need to recruit dedicated volunteers to keep your event running smoothly behind the scenes.

While engaging your parent volunteers starts with choosing exciting school fundraising ideas, you also need to keep them committed to their role for the entire event. This means you need to effectively manage volunteers, communicate clearly, and help them find roles that they will enjoy. In this guide, we’ll explore some of the top roles for partner volunteers and who would be the perfect fit. Let’s get started!

Event Setup

Event setup includes everything that needs to be done to prepare for the event. This is one of the most important volunteer roles, so it should be assigned to parents you know you can rely on. Some setup duties volunteers will need to complete include:

• Arranging tables and chairs
• Decorating the venue and hanging posters or banners
• Setting up games or other activities
• Preparing food and drink tables
• Testing sound equipment

Since there are so many moving parts involved in setup, provide clear instructions. Draft up a checklist and assign each item to a volunteer or staff member to ensure everything gets done on event day. Consider designating a few team leaders to manage tasks and keep other volunteers on track.

Best for: Dedicated parents willing to arrive early, such as members of the PTO or booster club. Some of these tasks may be more physically demanding (e.g., repeatedly lifting more than 30 pounds), so make sure volunteers understand and accept that. 

Check-In or Registration

This job involves manning the check-in desk at the fundraising event. Attendees’ experience at this desk will be their first impression of the event—and you want it to be positive! It’s key to choose volunteers who will be friendly, efficient, and knowledgeable to limit wait times for attendees. 

These volunteers can expect to complete tasks like:

• Greeting attendees and providing information. Start each attendee’s experience with a warm welcome. Volunteers should also point them in the right direction and tell them any relevant details about the event. For example, maybe attendees should stick around for the raffle at the end of the event.
• Registering participants. Some attendees may have already registered on your school website. In this case, volunteers just need to scan or check a ticket and collect details like the attendees’ names. Parent volunteers should also know how to complete the registration process for any who didn’t sign up ahead of time.
• Collecting payments. If your school is selling tickets, volunteers will collect payment from attendees. Teach them how to accept various payment methods, including cash, credit card, and debit card. Because this task involves handling money, volunteers should be qualified for that level of responsibility.
• Sharing materials. Load the front desk with brochures, agendas, empty name tags, and other event materials. For example, you might create packets for your auction fundraiser that include an auction catalog, event program, bidder paddle, and donation form. These materials give attendees more information about the event and how and where to donate.

Key volunteer management tactics like training and scheduling are critical for this role. Volunteers should be briefed on registering attendees and what to do if any common issues occur. Because you’ll need to have at least one volunteer at the desk at all times, drafting up a schedule and sharing it with volunteers is crucial.

‍Best for: More outgoing volunteers who are happy to greet and chat with event attendees. If you’re using an electronic registration system, make sure volunteers are tech-savvy and trained to use the software.

Food and Drink Services

As NXUnite’s guide to back-to-school events explains, offering fun games and prizes motivates more people to attend your event—food is another great option. 

If a full-service caterer isn’t feasible with your school’s budget, get parents to help out. Pick up food from a favorite local restaurant or offer light refreshments like punch and cookies. Then, have your volunteers complete tasks like: 

• Arranging food, drinks, cups, plates, and labels on the refreshment table.
• Preparing servings (e.g., slices of cake).
• Monitoring supplies and replenishing items as needed. 
• Keeping the area clean by wiping down crumbs and spills and clearing away clutter.
• Answering questions about the foods (e.g., ingredients and preparation methods).

Volunteers should have basic knowledge of food safety guidelines, such as keeping perishable foods at safe temperatures, maintaining hand hygiene, and storing food properly. To help them address dietary restrictions and allergies, share a list of the ingredients in each food item and add distinctions like “nut-free” or “gluten-free” to the labels for attendees.

Best for: Volunteers who prefer a more behind-the-scenes role or already have experience working with food. Ideally, they should be detail-oriented, resourceful, and conscious of hygiene.

Running Specialized Activities

Some of your school’s fundraising events may involve special roles outside of the expected setup, tear-down, and registration tasks. For example, if you hold a fall festival, you’ll need parents to stand by at each booth to run activities like cornhole, ring tossing, and dry apple bobbing.

Some of the ideas in 99Pledges’ guide to kids’ fundraising ideas would require these extra jobs, including:

• Scavenger hunt: Charge a small admission fee and let students follow the clues to a prize at the end. Parents can have roles as chaperones to keep groups of students safe or stand along the path of the hunt to offer clues.
• Color run: A color run is similar to a normal 5K race, except runners are doused in colorful powder as they make their way down the route. Have parent volunteers man the sidelines to toss the powder at students and cheer them on.
• Face painting: Have students pay a small fee to get their faces painted. Recruit your more artistic parent volunteers to paint the fun designs and design a “flash sheet” of options the kids can choose from. 

Some of your volunteers will prefer the more hands-on experience that these roles offer. Aligning with their expectations and preferences will help you retain more parent volunteers to keep them coming back to help out at future events.

Best for: Parents who want a more dynamic role rather than being stuck behind a desk or table for most of the event. These volunteers should enjoy working with the students, be strong communicators, and have excellent teamwork skills.

Once your event wraps up, there are two things you can’t forget: cleaning up and thanking your donors. Make sure to recruit volunteers for clean-up before the end of the event. Building out schedules and assigning these tasks within your volunteer management software will keep any important jobs from falling through the cracks.

Last, remember to send heartfelt thank-you messages to all of your volunteers. Greet them by name, acknowledge the specific work they did, and let them know that the event wouldn’t have been possible without them.

Rodrigo Ramos is the Manager of Customer Success at 99Pledges, the #1 online fundraising platform for schools, sports teams, music groups, and more. 

99Pledges provides organizations with an easy-to-use, web-based solution to manage and drive success in fundraising. The platform’s robust functionality can support simple pledge drives as well as performance-based campaigns (e.g. fun runs, walk-a-thons, read-a-thons, etc.).