How to fund a school camp (without chasing parents)

Camp is the thing kids remember from primary school. It is also the thing that makes the PTA treasurer go quiet in October, when someone does the maths on buses, beds and kayaks for 30 children.

The good news: there's a mix that turns up again and again in NZ school notices. A grant does the heavy lifting, a few food fundraisers fill the middle, and a bigger night out tops it up. Nobody needs to send a third reminder about an unpaid camp bill, because there shouldn't be a bill in the first place.

Here are the rules, the costs, and a sample plan you can steal.

What a school can and can't charge for camp

• Curriculum camps are donations only. The Ministry of Education treats any curriculum-related activity with an overnight stay as a camp. A state or state-integrated school can ask families for a donation towards it, but can't make them pay, and no student can be left out of a curriculum camp because they can't or won't pay.
• An activity genuinely outside the curriculum may carry an agreed charge. Calling a trip "optional", or running it in the weekend or overseas, doesn't settle that on its own. The Ministry's page on what a school or kura can charge sets out the categories.
• Schools in the donations scheme can still ask for overnight camps. Schools that opt into the school donations scheme get a per-student payment and agree not to ask for donations, except for overnight camps. Day trips aren't covered by that exception.
• Fundraising is fine. Opting in doesn't stop a school selling goods and services (fairs, raffles), though families can't be made to take part. A PTA is a separate body, so the Ministry says it isn't bound by the board's scheme agreement and can still ask families for donations. Those donations are still voluntary, and a PTA shouldn't be used to pass on a charge the school itself couldn't make.

The core rule is simple: contributions are voluntary, and no child is left out for not paying. Two habits help. Call it a "camp donation", never a "camp fee". And consider crediting fundraising to the whole camp rather than to each child's account. It isn't a legal rule, but it's the fair approach: if fundraising only cuts the bill for families who sold the most pies, the families who couldn't help end up feeling the pinch.

Camp donations may also qualify for a donation tax credit if families get a receipt. Our donations and tax page has the detail.

What camps typically cost

Figures from NZ school notices. These are the amounts schools asked families for, sometimes after grants, not the full cost of running the camp:

So primary camps in these examples asked around $300 a child or less, and older year groups more. Get quotes for your own camp's full cost (transport, beds, food, activities, relievers) before you set a target.

The usual mix

Look at how NZ schools actually fund camp and the same pattern keeps turning up: a gaming-trust grant, plus parent-run food fundraisers, plus a quiz night.

• Amesbury School ran pre-ordered lunchtime sausage sizzles at $2.50 and got a Pub Charity grant, working towards $10,000 over two years.
• Beckenham School paired a quiz night with a Southern Trust grant.

In practice:

1. A grant for the big fixed costs. Class 4 gaming trusts (NZCT, Lion Foundation, Pub Charity, Aotearoa Gaming Trust and others) typically give community grants of a few thousand dollars, and a bus or activity bill is an easy thing to ask for. Decisions usually take 6 to 12 weeks. Regional community trusts work in funding rounds of 2 to 4 months, so apply early.
2. Two or three food or product fundraisers. A pie drive, Cookie Time Christmas buckets or a meat pack pre-order. Each takes a coordinator or two and under 12 hours.
3. A bigger event or two. A quiz night commonly raises $2,000 to $5,000 at a school, with tables at $120 to $200. A school disco or a spellathon can do the same job.

A sample plan: $8,000 over two terms

Here's a worked example for a fictional small rural primary: about 110 families, 12 keen parents, a Year 5/6 camp in mid-March, and no hardware store within easy reach for a sausage sizzle. The PTA wants to raise $8,000 so the camp donation can stay small and nobody has to chase anyone.

It runs from late Term 3 to the start of Term 1. Targets are net proceeds (what's left after costs), taken from the typical figures on our idea pages and scaled down for a small school, so treat them as estimates.

That's 113% of the goal, which leaves room for one thing to underperform. The 92 organiser hours are the planning, ordering and banking, shared among a few leads. On top of that come the event-day shifts: the disco and quiz each need most of the 12 keen parents for an evening, and the tree and pie deliveries need a few more hands. Ask the wider parent group for those.

Things this plan gets right:

• The grant goes in first. It's the biggest single chunk, and with decisions typically taking 6 to 12 weeks, applying in late Term 3 means you should hear by late Term 4.
• Christmas does the selling. Families buy trees and treats in December anyway.
• The biggest event comes last. The quiz lands just before the money is due, and the total so far tells you how hard to push table sales.

If the grant says no (or says less):

• Apply to a second funder at the same time, such as a regional community trust, or send a small, specific ask to local Lions or Rotary.
• Add a donated-prize raffle drawn at end-of-year prizegiving. It takes 6 to 10 weeks and typically nets about $3,000 (estimate), so you need a decision by late October to fit it in. It also needs a society to run it, so check whether that's the board or the PTA.

Watch-outs:

• December gets crowded. Tree delivery, the Cookie Time handover and the disco all land within a fortnight or so. Give each one a different lead.
• The quiz needs 6 to 8 weeks' lead time. For a late-February quiz, the venue booking and table sales start in early January, in the middle of the holidays. Lock in the venue before school breaks up.

Timing around NZ school terms

The summer holidays run from about mid-December to early February. That's six or seven weeks when nothing school-based happens, so a Term 1 camp effectively has to be funded by the end of Term 4, plus a short sprint in February.

• Term 3 is when to book the camp, apply for grants for a Term 1 camp, and run a kids' art calendars and cards fundraiser if you want it delivered before Christmas.
• Term 4 is the Christmas window. Tree orders open by late October, and Cookie Time Christmas buckets sell in November and December.
• Term 1 is short on runway. A pie drive needs only a 2 to 3 week order window, which makes it a good February fit.

For a camp later in the year, start two terms out and give grant applications a full term on their own. The school camp fund page has a step-by-step.

What to do when you fall short

It happens. A grant comes in lower, or the quiz clashes with a rugby final. Some options:

• Close the gap quietly. Keep a confidential hardship pool run by the principal or office, and point families to Variety's Kiwi Kid Sponsorship, which can help with school camp costs.
• Offer payment plans through the school portal, so the donation can be spread out.
• Ask a second funder. Local Lions, Rotary and community trusts sometimes fund camps. A specific, small ask ("$600 towards the bus") is easier to say yes to.
• Trim the cost, not the camp. Ask the provider about free places for parent helpers. Some campgrounds don't charge teachers or helpers. Keeping it local helps too: Southbridge School asked $115 for a Year 5 camp in 2026 by staying close to home.
• Don't switch to a fee. However tight it gets, a curriculum camp stays a donation, and no child misses out for not paying.

If you end up over target, tell families what came in and what was spent, and roll the surplus to next year's camp.

Where to next

• School camp fund
• Class 4 gaming grants
• Community trust grants
• Quiz night
• Pie fundraiser
• Christmas tree sale
• Spellathon or mathathon