Welcome back to school! That means it’s time to organize, plan, and rally your community. Whether you’re running a PTA or managing a classroom, Cheddar Up has everything you need to kick off the year with less stress and way more style.
Here’s a quick rundown of everything you’ll find in your go-to guide for a smooth start:
Your “Welcome Back to School” Go-To Guide
Back-to-School Night Events
Start the year right with a back-to-school night that gets everyone excited and informed. Check out these Top 10 Back-to-School Night Ideas for inspiration. It’s packed with creative ways to bring your school community together.
Already planning the night? The Back-to-School Night Volunteers Template is your best friend. Customize it, and organize everything from set-up crews to concession shifts.
Streamline Registration and Reveal Days
Say goodbye to piles of paperwork. Our Back-to-School Registration Template makes it easy to collect fees and forms online, no printing or stapling required.
Hosting a teacher reveal event? The Teacher Reveal Event Template adds fun and function. It is perfect for class placement announcements and spirit gear sales.
Boost Engagement with Fundraisers
If you’re planning a fundraiser, we’ve rounded up our favorite back-to-school fundraiser ideas — from merchandise sales to “sponsor a classroom” campaigns.
One easy way to get started? Try a Readathon Fundraiser. It’s fun for students, simple to run, and works great as a first campaign of the year.
The School Fundraising Calendar is a great next step for planning your efforts throughout the year. It helps you keep things fresh and fun without the last-minute scramble.
Power Your PTA Membership Drive
Kicking off a membership drive? The Join the PTA Template and PTA Membership Form Guide make it simple to collect dues, gather member info, and get more families involved.
Make Giving Easy with Supply Drives and Wish Lists
Support your school community from day one with donation drives that are super simple to run. The School Supply Drive Volunteer Sign-Up Template and Teacher Wish List Drive Template let families contribute exactly what’s needed.
Need ideas or strategy? Our School Supply Donation Drive Guide shows you how to run a drive that actually delivers, whether it’s backpacks for students or dry-erase markers for teachers.
Get Loud with School Spirit
Support your school community from day one with donation drives that are super simple to run. The School Supply Drive Volunteer Sign-Up Template and Teacher Wish List Drive Template let families contribute exactly what’s needed.
Need ideas or strategy? Our School Supply Donation Drive Guide shows you how to run a drive that actually delivers, whether it’s backpacks for students or dry-erase markers for teachers.
Welcome Back to School, the Cheddar Up Way
Make your back-to-school collections feel tailor-made — because with Cheddar Up, they are! Every collection page is fully customizable. Drop in your school colors, add banners, upload item images, and tailor forms to gather anything from shirt sizes to emergency contacts.
When you’re ready to share, use a link, QR code, or email invite. Once it’s live, Cheddar Up handles the tracking by automatically logging payments and form responses in real time, so you always know where things stand.
Need more firepower? Unlock features like eCheck payments and discount codes (Pro and Team plans), plus ticketing and Group Pages (Team plan only). They’re simple to activate and built to make your collections more flexible and efficient.
All of this and more allows you to focus on welcoming families and building community.
Before you go
As you say, “Welcome back to school,” lean on tools that save time and spark connection. Whether you’re organizing one event or the whole school year, Cheddar Up helps you pull it all off with confidence.
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End-of-year banquet planning templates
An end-of-season banquet is the chance to bring everyone together one more time, without the pressure of a practice, game, competition, or performance on the schedule. It’s where teams and groups recognize seniors, hand out awards, thank coaches and volunteers, share favorite moments, and celebrate everything they accomplished together. Sports teams, cheer squads, marching bands, and clubs hold them in the fall, winter, and spring, usually within a few weeks of the season’s end.
This guide covers how to plan an end-of-year or end-of-season banquet step by step, how to sell banquet tickets and collect RSVPs online, and banquet templates that you can customize for your sport or club.
Easy Elementary School Fundraising Ideas Kids Love and Parents Support
Elementary school kids are energetic, playful, and not into anything too complicated, so why should their fundraisers be? The best elementary school fundraising ideas feel like fun for the kids while staying simple for the volunteers who make them happen.
Below are 20 ideas built for elementary schools, grouped by how you want to run them, plus an easy, online way to collect payments.
Elementary school fundraising is different because younger children can be active participants, but they still need adults to take the lead on money, sales, and logistics. The best fundraisers play to both strengths: kids bring the creativity, excitement, and school spirit, while adults keep everything running smoothly.
Take payments, for example. A first grader isn’t going to manage a cash box, make change, or operate a point-of-sale system. Keeping payments with adults (and collecting online when possible) makes it easier to track every dollar, so cash doesn’t get lost in backpacks.
Door-to-door selling can be tricky as well. Young kids need adult supervision, and caregivers may not be comfortable sending them out to sell to strangers. Fundraisers that families can support from home or through a school event tend to make more sense.
So, what can elementary students do? All the fun stuff. They can color posters, run laps, cheer on classmates, perform, create something to sell, or proudly share the fundraiser with family and friends.
Fun Run Fundraiser: How to Plan One, Plus Ideas and Costs
Few fundraisers pull a community together like a fun run. If you are weighing a fun run fundraiser for your school or nonprofit, here is the full run-down (yes, pun intended): how to plan it, what it can raise, theme ideas, and how to collect every dollar you earn. A fun run is a walk or run, often themed, where participants raise money for a school or nonprofit by paying an entry fee or collecting pledges for each lap or mile they complete. The goal is participation over speed, so anyone can join regardless of age or ability.
In schools, a fun run is one of the most common PTA fundraising events because it needs little equipment and gets students, teachers, and families moving together. Nonprofits use the same format to raise funds and awareness for a cause.
You can organize a fun run in six steps. Give yourself at least six to eight weeks so you have time to line up volunteers, promote the event, and accept pledges.
Potluck sign up sheet template + planning tips
You offered to help pull together the potluck. Now you are the one texting a dozen people to find out who is bringing a main dish, and so far the table is shaping up to be all chips and desserts.
A potluck sign up sheet is the fix. Guests open one link and claim a slot, and the sheet sends the reminders so you are not following up all week. Below is a free online version you can grab in a minute, along with a quick setup walkthrough and category ideas for any kind of gathering. Start here. Our free potluck sign up template works for any gathering, from a backyard BBQ to an office lunch to a holiday feast, and you can have it live in about a minute.
It runs as an online potluck sign up sheet, so the whole list lives on one link. You share it once, guests open it on their phones, and everyone sees which dishes are already claimed and which slots are still open. There is no paper sheet to pass around and no file to email back and forth.
