Parent-group fundraising

Fundraising starts before the kickoff day.

Families participate long before a fundraiser begins. Big Nest keeps those relationships useful when it is time to ask for support.

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Before launch day

Your fundraising audience grows all year.

Families do not first meet your PTO or PTG on donation day. They register for Chess Club. They buy spirit wear. They volunteer at the fall harvest party.

Each interaction helps a family see what your group makes possible. Big Nest keeps that participation from disappearing into separate signup forms and payment tools.

By launch day, your board is inviting families who already have a reason to care.

Big Nest public fundraiser page with campaign details and donation progress — A fundraiser is stronger when it grows from participation the group has already earned.

The right reason to give

Talk to families about what matters to them.

A generic appeal asks every family to care about everything. Big Nest helps the board choose an audience from the contacts families have shared, then write from the participation the group already knows.

Families in an after-school program

Show Chess Club families how donor support helps keep enrichment within reach for more students.

Families who attend community events

Explain how the fundraiser fuels the school experiences they already value.

Previous donors

Share what their support made possible, report progress, and invite them to renew their gift.

Spirit wear buyers

Connect school pride to the student experiences the fundraiser will support.

Families join through your group’s site or directory and choose the updates they want. Big Nest includes an unsubscribe link in every email, so the board can communicate respectfully.

Campaigns anyone can run

Give the fundraiser a working plan.

Build a public page that explains the goal and shows progress. Then use the campaign timeline to plan the launch, counting days, and family updates.

Tasks stay with the fundraiser, so the chair can see what needs to happen without rebuilding the plan in a separate spreadsheet.

The fundraising message and the work behind it remain part of one campaign.

If you are still shaping the campaign, plan a school fundraiser step by step before setting it up in Big Nest.

Big Nest fundraiser dashboard showing a campaign plan and progress — The fundraiser dashboard gives the board a practical place to run the campaign.

Big Nest fundraiser checkout for an online donation

Giving without extra friction

Make the yes easy to complete.

Parents and grandparents can donate without creating an account. They can use a card, Apple Pay, or Google Pay from the device in front of them.

The board gets a complete donation record while the giving flow stays focused for the donor.

Record every gift

Add cash and check donations beside online gifts so you never have to say no to donors.

Track milestones

Set counting dates, compare progress, and give families a timely update while the campaign is active.

Need shirts?

If your fundraiser includes stuff like fun-run shirts, you can collect shirt sizes through a family order page, then export the file and email it to your shirt printer.

Include business support

Track sponsor contacts and contributions as part of the broader fundraising effort.

Explore sponsor tools

School-specific tracking

Run a class challenge without publishing student names.

Big Nest matches a donor’s student entry to the right student and class behind the scenes. The board can review class totals while the student list remains private.

Parent-group reporting works without turning the donation page into a public directory.

Diagram showing a private match between a fundraiser donation, student, and classroom — The connection between a gift, student, and class stays behind the scenes.

Big Nest fundraiser fee options — Your group decides how to address processing costs at checkout.

Clear financial vitals

Know what came in and what stays with the group.

Your group connects its own Stripe account and receives funds directly. Big Nest does not take a percentage of donations, and we help qualifying groups apply for Stripe’s nonprofit pricing.

The board can review campaign totals, processing costs, and net income from the fundraiser dashboard. Donation data can be exported when the treasurer needs a deeper report.

Set a service fee or invite donors to add a contribution at checkout to help cover processing.

Donor records without another task

Give supporters a record they can find later.

Big Nest automatically emails an acknowledgment for an electronic donation. The board can also create a PDF acknowledgment for a physical gift.

Families can download their records from the parent dashboard when they need them.

Big Nest family account dashboard with donation records — Donation records remain available to the families who need them.

Fundraising in practice

An established PTG found room to grow.

Sacajawea PTG had served its middle school community for decades. Its annual fall fundraiser was dependable and familiar.

In its first fall fundraiser using Big Nest, earnings rose from $8,119 to $11,452.

That 41% increase gave the PTG more room to support its school.

Read Sacajawea’s story

The compounding advantage

The next fundraiser inherits the playbook.

The board can keep notes as the fundraiser runs, see which messages helped, and record what should change before the work returns.

Next year’s chair can reopen the fundraiser record and bring back the working plan with dates adjusted for the new school year.

Big Nest helps the group improve during this fundraiser and begin the next one with what the board already learned.