15 October Fundraiser Ideas For Your School

Q: Should my school fundraiser be a Purchase or a Donation campaign?

Use Purchase campaigns to sell event tickets or physical items (like haunted house tours or costume swaps). Use Donation campaigns to collect money from community members in support of a specific goal or cause (like pumpkin carving or trunk-or-treats).

Updated October 2025

Here's a list of 15 fundraising ideas that coincide perfectly with the month of October. From hosting a Trunk-or-Treat event or a pumpkin carving contest, these ideas are perfect for PTAs and PTOs that want to make a real difference for their school and reach their fundraising goals.Are you looking for more fundraising ideas?

Check out 20 Fall Fundraising Ideas for Your School for more autumn-inspired fun!

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Ready-to-go campaign templates so you can sell tickets or items for different events.
A built-in messaging system you can use to announce your fundraisers and provide details.
Opportunity to create volunteer sign-up lists to optimize parent and community involvement.
Powerful financial reporting tools to help you track your earnings, stay compliant, and plan future fundraisers more effectively.

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Donation Campaigns

These campaigns encourage parents and volunteers to donate directly to your school group. FutureFund makes it easy to collect money online during the campaign, but you can also include an in-person October-inspired event to make your fundraiser more meaningful.

Learn how to run a donation campaign with FutureFund here.

Tip: Use FutureFund's messaging system to announce the fundraiser and include a link to the online campaign so that people can still donate even if they can't attend the event.

PJ & Movie Night

Ease of Implementation	Easy - just need venue and screen setup
Time to Implement	2-3 weeks
Expenses Required	$$ (licensing fees, snacks)
Volunteers Needed	3-5 for setup, ticketing, and concessions

Take donations for a PJ and Halloween-themed movie event! Guests can come rocking their favorite October-inspired pajamas and find a spot for the night's entertainment. You can set up the fun in the gym, outside on the football field, or in another spot that can welcome a lot of families.

The PTO/PTA can also sell some "spooky" snacks for the event as well as spirit wear for another fundraising stream.

Trunk-or-Treat

Ease of Implementation	Easy - relies on community participation
Time to Implement	3-4 weeks
Expenses Required	$ (candy, decorations)
Volunteers Needed	10-15 decorated cars and helpers

Organizing a trunk-or-treat event is a fun and festive way to raise funds during October. Ask families, community members, and business partners/sponsors to come and join in by passing out candy to all the participants right from their own trunks.

Costumes are welcome, candy is necessary, and all those trick-or-treaters can go from trunk to trunk to snag their sweets. It's customary for each car/trunk to have a theme, and even compete for who "dresses" the best! Request donations at the event and post QR codes to take everyone directly to your online campaign page.

Shaving Day

Ease of Implementation	Easy - simple to organize once volunteer is secured
Time to Implement	3-4 weeks
Expenses Required	$ (clippers, promotion)
Volunteers Needed	2-3 plus featured participant

This one is pretty straight forward: set a collection goal and find a popular and brave participant. Maybe the principal will volunteer, a football coach, or someone else that's already beloved by the kids, making it an event that no one will want to miss!

Once you reach the collection amount, publicly shave his or her head. This becomes an event that too can create more than one fundraising stream by selling spirit wear at the same time or attaching it to another event such as a pep rally, fall festival, or even pumpkin carving!

Spooky Bingo Night

Ease of Implementation	Easy - can be run in cafeteria or gym
Time to Implement	3-4 weeks
Expenses Required	$$ (bingo cards, prizes, music)
Volunteers Needed	3-5 for calling numbers, selling snacks

Request participants to make a donation per card to take part in the spookiest bingo night of the year! Encourage everyone to dress in costume, include a Halloween playlist full of the spookiest of music, and have snacks available for sale by the PTO/PTA.

Snag a volunteer to MC the event and ask sponsors/community business partners to donate prizes to the event. It becomes fun for the community and mutually beneficial for all involved. Keep those QR codes up and around the event for those wanting to provide some extra donations as well.

Pet Costume Contest

Ease of Implementation	Easy - just need registration system and space
Time to Implement	3-4 weeks
Expenses Required	$ (prizes, promotion)
Volunteers Needed	3-5 for judging, setup, and crowd control
Ideal For	Families with pets, outdoor fall events

Hold a pet costume contest! The PTO/PTA can require a donation to watch the show and a registration fee to enter their pet purchased online in advance. Winner gets their picture taken for the school paper or the year book, plus bragging rights, of course.

Purchase Campaigns

Any kind of fundraiser where you sell physical items or event tickets is a purchase campaign. Add each event ticket or item for sale to your school's online store in FutureFund by creating a specific purchase campaign for it.

Learn how to run a purchase campaign here.

Tip: Always run purchase campaigns alongside physical events like craft sales, since this allows you to make sales 24/7 and lets people make purchases even if they can't attend the event.

Pumpkin Carving

Ease of Implementation	Easy - just need pumpkins, tools, and tables
Time to Implement	2-3 weeks
Expenses Required	$$ (pumpkins, carving kits)
Volunteers Needed	3-5 for setup, judging, and cleanup

Grab some pumpkins and a few bales of hay to create the right fall feeling. Invite your students and their families to carve pumpkins for an evening. The price of the pumpkin gets you access to the carving tools, markers to map out your design, and a spot to work, but the artists can bring whatever stencils they need to make their projects beautiful and unique!

The Booster Club can also set up a booth where they can sell the hot and fresh pumpkin seeds at the event and vote for who carves the best pumpkin.

Costume Swap

Ease of Implementation	Easy - collect and sort costumes in advance
Time to Implement	3-4 weeks
Expenses Required	$ (promotion materials)
Volunteers Needed	3-5 for setup and running swap
Ideal For	Affordable costume option for families

To make this work smoothly and to benefit all parties, first, collect costume donations from the community in advance. Then, for a small entrance fee, you'll have guests come in to purchase a new costume for whatever their Halloween needs may be.

This event is such a fun way for people to recycle costumes while finding a new one for a fraction of the cost, and in turn, the school benefits from the funds! Just ensure that you run a purchase campaign online through FutureFund for any witch or warlock that may need to show their support from home.

Tumblers & Mugs Sale

Ease of Implementation	Easy - student-designed merchandise
Time to Implement	4-6 weeks
Expenses Required	$$ (production costs)
Volunteers Needed	2-3 for order coordination
Ideal For	Fall/winter merch campaign or art class tie-in

Everyone loves a good tumbler and mug, especially throughout the fall and winter months. Have the students create designs in their art classes and hold a contest. Pick a few of the best to transfer onto the items.

The PTO/PTA can send out some flyers with the designs and a link to your FutureFund storefront to purchase directly.

A-Thons (Pledge Campaigns)

An "A-Thon" fundraiser is a special kind of pledge campaign you can run in FutureFund. Once you create the campaign for the event, students who sign up to participate each get a link they can use to collect donations from family and friends.

Find step-by-step instructions for successful pledge campaigns here.

Tip: The link you'll share when you create the campaign is what you'll use to sign up student participants. When students register for the event, they'll each get their own unique link that they can use to raise money from members of the school community.

Pringles Ping Pong Bounce

Ease of Implementation	Easy - low-cost and portable
Time to Implement	A-Thons require 8-12 weeks planning
Expenses Required	$ (cans, balls, decorations)
Volunteers Needed	2-3 for scorekeeping and setup
Ideal For	Side activity at carnivals, fun skill-based challenge

This is a game that can be added on to a bigger event and turned into a bounce-a-thon with participants registering online before the big day! Get a few empty pringles cans and some ping pong balls. Wrap the cans in construction paper and decorate them according to the event theme and put a point value on them.

Then set the cans up on a ping pong style table at varying distances from the player. Add a little sand to the can just to keep it from blowing away/the ball from bouncing out of it and allow patrons to bounce a ping pong ball into the can for points or a prize. See who can go the longest without missing a can!

All Hallows 5k (10k, or Half/Full Marathon)

Ease of Implementation	Moderate - permits and route setup needed
Time to Implement	A-Thons require 8-12 weeks planning
Expenses Required	$$ (permits, timing, water stations)
Volunteers Needed	8-12 for route monitoring and registration
Ideal For	Active communities, holiday-themed races

Set up a Halloween themed race for your community, either a 5k, 10k, half marathon, or full marathon. Keep in mind: the shorter the distance, the more participants will be willing to get involved. Registration should take place online before the big event.

Costumes are encouraged but not required. Don't forget to include a goodie bag for everyone that signs up to compete!

Ticketing Campaigns

Any kind of fundraiser where you sell tickets is a Ticketing campaign. Set up online ticket sales with FutureFund, then use our free Turnstile app to scan and redeem them seamlessly on the day of your event.

Learn how to run a ticketing campaign here.

Tip: Set up tiered tickets with special benefits to encourage more sales (FutureFund makes this easy). And make sure your volunteers have the Turnstile app on their phones. They don't need to make accounts; they can just download and start scanning in minutes!

Tricks-or-Tickets

Ease of Implementation	Moderate - plan meal, raffles, and prizes
Time to Implement	6-8 weeks
Expenses Required	$$$ (dinner, raffle prizes)
Volunteers Needed	6-10 for setup, serving, and raffles
Ideal For	Adult-oriented gala-style fundraising night

This one is for adults only. The Booster Club can set a price for the tickets purchased in advance and sell them online through FutureFund's storefront. For the event itself, the donors get a three course meal, plus dessert, a whole sheet of tickets, and access to all of the prizes that will be raffled off over the course of the evening, including prizes from your sponsors and business partners.

Some tickets may have prizes attached and other...tricks! You can get creative with this as you create the sheet of tickets and theme it around Halloween, from movies to classic spooky characters.

Person in clown costume in abandoned room

Haunted House

Ease of Implementation	Moderate to High - needs space and actors
Time to Implement	6-8 weeks
Expenses Required	$$$ (props, décor, lighting)
Volunteers Needed	10-20 for acting, setup, ticketing
Ideal For	Larger schools with drama programs or strong volunteer base

Sell tickets beforehand and generate a lot of interest through social media. The Booster Club can decide how interactive they want this event to be.

Request some of your more theatrical juniors and seniors to lead the show and sign up volunteers on our platform to really make the experience run smoothly. This event is kind of a blank slate. Organizers can decide the best approach for their community and put on a truly awesome yet age appropriate haunted house!

Parents' Night Out

Ease of Implementation	Moderate - needs supervision and activities
Time to Implement	4-6 weeks
Expenses Required	$$ (snacks, games, movie rights)
Volunteers Needed	6-10 for babysitting and activity stations
Ideal For	Giving parents a break and raising funds simultaneously

Give your students some extra fun and their parents a break for an evening! Grab some local babysitters and/or volunteers who are willing to donate their time to babysit on location at the school. Plan some games and activities, some snacks, and a movie to keep the kids busy until it's time to head home!

Sell tickets to the event beforehand so preparation is easy and donations can be taken for the correct number of food, drinks, and activity supplies.

Costume Contest

Ease of Implementation	Easy - plan judging and prizes
Time to Implement	2-3 weeks
Expenses Required	$ (prizes)
Volunteers Needed	3-4 for registration, judging
Ideal For	Pairing with trunk-or-treat or school dance

Costume contests are a classic October event and it can be planned after the costume swap takes place. Sell tickets to enter the contest and have students register online before the big day arrives. Each class can vote on a winner that proceeds to a school-wide contest.

Whoever wins the overall vote wins a pizza party or another group prize for their entire class! You can also charge $1 to cast votes (a dollar per voter) to heighten the fundraising aspect of the event.

Recipes & Relays

Ease of Implementation	Moderate - involves recipe collection & event planning
Time to Implement	4-6 weeks
Expenses Required	$$ (printing recipe books, prizes)
Volunteers Needed	5-8 for relay supervision and book prep
Ideal For	Combining physical activity with take-home fundraiser

The competition is on! In order for students to compete, they have to register online, purchase their entry fee, and submit two of their favorite holiday (think Thanksgiving and Christmas) recipes. Once the PTA has all registrants submission, they can sift through them to find 15-20 of the best and have them typed, copies, and bound for sale at a later winter fundraising.

In the meantime, students get to participate in an afternoon of silly relay races. They can be anything: a newspaper race, where the students race around a turning point while only stepping on one of two pieces of newspaper that they carry with them, a wheelbarrow race, where partners take turns holding one players ankles as they race around the turning point and back, or any other fun relay/race activity you can think of. Be sure to have prizes ready for the winners such as full-size candy bars or "Lunch with a Friend or Teacher" tickets.

Frequently Asked Questions

How can I use FutureFund's messaging system to promote my October fundraiser?

FutureFund's messaging system lets you:

Send messages to every parent in your school community or filter your audience to reach specific groups.
Create unique sender profiles to make sure the message is always coming from the appropriate party.
Use customizable message templates to save time when broadcasting updates or announcements.

Should my school fundraiser be a Purchase or a Donation campaign?

Use Purchase campaigns to sell event tickets or physical items (like baked goods, merchandise, or arts and crafts).

Use Donation campaigns to collect money from community members in support of a specific goal or cause (like a pumpkin carving).

How can I use FutureFund to track my fundraiser's success?

FutureFund gives you the ability to generate financial reports for fundraising campaigns in just a few clicks. To do this, navigate to Store and click the Reports tab near the top of your screen. Then choose Campaign Summary from the drop-down menu and click Generate Report.