It's often love at first sight when teachers and librarians encounter Story Box Library; a love that starts with a catchy jingle and quickly becomes something more substantial.

We want to scream from the rooftops that Story Box Library is an incredibly affordable resource, with most school subscriptions costing approximately one to two dollars per student, per year But we know that school budgets can be difficult to wrangle.

We regularly talk with educators, who seek our advice on how to justify the expenditure to their school or community. If our key features aren't a strong enough incentive to delve into the limited budget, our top piece of advice is to consider some of these literacy-themed fundraising efforts.

Enjoy the fundraiser and get everyone in your school excited about stories.

1. Free dress day

A popular, easy fundraiser to organise. Consider asking each child in the school to bring a gold coin donation to dress as their favourite book character.

free dress day

2. Book swap or pre-loved book sale

Invite the children in your school to contribute a gold coin to take part in a student Book Swap.

Alternatively, ask each child in the school to donate a pre-loved book from their own collection. Set prices for each donated book and use them to host a pre-loved book sale for the school and/or wider community. 

book swap

3. Story marathon

Sign up for a Story Box Library trial subscription and use it to host a marathon of our segments in the library or general purpose room. Organise it to run during a lunch session or over a series of lunch times, and invite children to attend for a fee of one or two dollars.

story marathon


If your trial subscription has already expired, hold a book marathon instead! Set a period of time, whether it be one hour or two weeks, in which you encourage your students to read as many books as possible in that time frame. Invite your students to ask relatives and friends to sponsor their efforts.

4. Book scavenger hunt or book-themed quiz

Organise a book scavenger hunt or book-themed quiz for your students. Remember to organise a desirable prize or prizes and set a participation fee of one or two dollars.

book scavenger hunt

5. Lob-a-book

Based on the popular game Lob-a-Choc (pictured below), lob-a-book replaces blocks of chocolate with books for a literary-themed fundraising idea!

Source a range of books, pre-loved or donated, of various formats and sizes. Arrange the books randomly on a wire grid placed over a trailer or portable sandpit. Students attempt to win books by throwing coins from behind a line. Books are won if the coins land on them and the school keeps any coins that fall through the wire. 

lob a book


With Book Week around the corner, we'd love to make sure your classroom or library is ready to encourage story and work in line with this year's theme to expose reading as a secret power.

 

If you only have a small amount left in your budget (or fundraising efforts), sign up for a half-year instead of 12 month subscription, to run from June 2019 through to December 2019.

 

For every new 12 month school subscription, we'll give you three bonus free months.

 

Ready to subscribe to Story Box Library? Get in touch and we'll send you an updated quote for your preferred 6 month, or 12 month (with bonus 3 free months) subscription option.