Transforming Lives Through The Unique Power of Fundraising!

At Coram Shakespeare Schools Foundation, we believe that Shakespeare is for everyone - which is why we work hard to make the Festival accessible to all. With ever increasing pressures on schools’ finances, we understand that managing the budget for the registration fee may feel like a daunting task.

Every year, our team of expert fundraisers raise over £1 million to keep the cost as low as possible for schools, to ensure that as many young people as possible have the opportunity to access the Festival and its amazing benefits. We have created this resource in order to share with you the skills and knowledge of our brilliant in-house fundraising team, to provide you with feasible and creative options to help your school raise its share. Many of the ideas have also come from teachers with experience of fundraising for the Festival so they have been tried and tested!

Have you thought about...

Sharing the fee between departments?

This is a great way to make the Festival cross-curricular. Here are some suggestions that have worked in the past:

• Music and Dance departments, with both contributing an element to the performance
• Art departments can get involved in creating props and costumes. There are roles for students interested in photography, poster design, journalism, press and marketing
• History (and even Geography) students could research the play’s context and provide information relating to the play for display in school and in the theatre foyer
• Business Studies students can be involved as Marketing Students

Running fundraising events in school?

From bake sales, to talent shows and non-uniform days. Regular events with small donations can make a lot over the course of six months.

Using a portion of your teacher training budget to go towards the digital training workshops?

Working with your local primary or secondary school?

This may open up avenues for funding as many schools have money budgeted for transition projects between secondary schools and their feeder primary schools.

Parental Support

Some schools ask the parents of the students taking part to contribute towards the registration fee. For instance, for a full cast of 35 students, this works out to just under £18GBP per student for a non-fee-paying school, or £23GBP per student for fee-paying schools.

If this wouldn’t be feasible for your school, there are lots of other ways parents can get involved in support of your fundraising mission, including helping out with fundraising events or donating raffle prizes.

Fundraising Events in School

• Non-uniform/dress up day: Pick a theme - maybe one relating to your play! - and ask the whole school to pay £1GBP to come in dressed up
• Raffle or Tombola: Use your Christmas Fair or Summer Fete to hold a raffle full of donated prizes from the local community
• Bucket Shake at an after school concert or performance
• Shakespeare Previews: Start fundraising for the next year's registration fee by selling tickets to a previews of this year's Festival production
• Shakespeare Bingo Night! Invite parents and the local community to a bingo night. Place different Shakespeare characters, plays and quotes on a bingo sheet and the person who wins get free tickets to the Festival performance.

"It's not in the stars to hold our destiny but ourselves"

Fundraising together is a way to ensure the next generation are given the vital skills they need to succeed in life. If you need any support, or discovered something new, please let us know at outreach.ssf@coram.org.uk