Short answer: A principal challenge is a promise: if the school reaches its goal, the principal or a willing staff member does something students will love to watch, such as wearing a costume the students choose, spending a day working from the playground or losing a staff-versus-students game. Keep it safe and dignified (no throwing things at people, no eating contests, no animals), get each staff member's free consent, and let every student see it, whatever their family gave.
This guide is part of school fundraiser prizes and incentives. It covers one kind of incentive in depth: the public stunt a principal or staff member agrees to do when the school hits a goal. Done well, it costs almost nothing, motivates every grade at once and rewards the whole school instead of a few top earners. Done badly, it embarrasses an adult, injures someone or leaves the children whose families couldn't give sitting in the back. For prizes tied to a specific event, see the walk-a-thon prize ideas, the fun run prize ideas and the read-a-thon prizes and incentives.
How a principal challenge works
Every principal challenge has three parts: a trigger (the goal that unlocks it), a promise (exactly what the adult will do) and a reveal (when and where the whole school sees it). The trigger should be something the school can track publicly, such as total raised, the share of families taking part or the number of laps walked. Most schools get more out of a ladder of small challenges than out of one big one, because each milestone gives a reason for a new announcement and a fresh push.
Put the ladder on the hallway poster from day one. The fundraising thermometer maker lets you label up to four milestones on a printable thermometer, which makes the ladder visible to students who can't read a dollar figure yet.
Three rules before you choose
1. Safe and dignified
The test is simple: would you be comfortable with a photo of it on the front page of the local paper, and would the adult be comfortable too? Leave out anything that involves throwing objects at a person, eating contests, heights, heavy equipment or animals. These aren't only matters of taste. Los Angeles Unified's fundraising bulletin for parent groups and booster clubs (BUL-1633.3, dated August 16, 2021) lists activities the district won't approve at carnivals and similar events, including throwing an object at a person (it names pies, sponges and balloons), dunking pupils or adults into water tanks, food-eating contests and animal rides, and says the list isn't exhaustive. Your district may have its own list, so ask before you announce anything. If the reveal is part of a carnival, the guide to planning a school carnival covers rentals, insurance and district approval.
2. Freely chosen by the adult
A challenge is only fun if the person doing it actually wants to. That means asking privately, accepting "no" without discussion, and never letting parents or students nominate a teacher in public before the teacher has agreed. Both district policies cited on this page say staff participation in fundraising must be voluntary: Los Angeles Unified says contributions and participation by students, employees and parents must be entirely voluntary, and a Provo City School District policy (adopted in 2012 and posted by the Utah State Board of Education as a model) says faculty and student participation shall be strictly voluntary.
3. Open to every student
The reveal is a reward for the school, so the whole school sees it. No front-row seats for top earners, no "the top seller gets to do the pie," no private viewing for classes that hit a dollar target. More on this below.
Principal challenge ideas
These all cost little or nothing and pass the three rules above. Pick three or four that suit your principal's personality and build the ladder from them.
| Type | Challenge ideas | What to watch |
|---|---|---|
| Costume and look | Students vote on a costume or the school mascot suit; principal wears rival team colors for a day; staff dress as storybook characters; a wig in school colors | Let the adult veto any option before the vote. Skip anything about weight, body or culture. |
| Performance | Morning announcements in a silly voice; a staff lip-sync or dance at the assembly; principal reads a picture book to every class; staff sing the school song at lunch | Rehearse with the willing; never put an unwilling colleague on stage. |
| Location swap | Principal works a day from a tent on the playground, a desk in the cafeteria or a table by the front door; a "camp-out" in the library after school with another adult present | Stay on the ground. Keep supervision duties covered. |
| Job swap | Principal serves lunch, takes a recess duty, runs PE warm-ups or helps the custodian for an hour | Only jobs the adult can do safely without special training or certification. |
| Staff versus students | Kickball, a relay, a spelling or trivia match, a tug-of-war on grass | Low-contact games only; staff warm up too. |
| Student-set task | Students choose a goal for the principal: 100 jump-rope skips over the week, learning a dance from a video, reading a book series aloud at lunch | Keep it achievable; the fun is in trying, and the principal should be able to finish. |
For younger grades, simpler and sillier works best: a costume and a funny voice beat anything elaborate. Middle and high school students respond more to staff-versus-students games and to a vote they control. The free incentive ideas are sorted by grade band if you want class rewards to go with the challenge.
Pies, slime, duct tape, dunk tanks and pigs
These are the challenges most people search for. Each has a version that keeps the spectacle and loses the risk.
Pie in the face
It involves throwing an object at a person, which is exactly the kind of activity Los Angeles Unified names in its list of activities it won't approve. It also brings eye injuries, slips and allergens into an assembly. Keep the reveal and drop the throw: the principal puts on a silly hat piled with foam "whipped cream" made from craft materials, or the students vote on a messy-looking costume.
Slime the principal
Nothing is thrown, but a person still has a bucket of material poured over them in front of children. If your district allows it and the adult genuinely wants to, an adult does the pouring, outdoors, over clothing, with eye protection and a recipe the school nurse has reviewed for allergens. Many schools simply swap it for a costume reveal, which gets the same cheer.
Duct tape the principal
In the usual version, students add strips of tape until the principal is "stuck" to a wall. The safer version keeps the adult's feet firmly on the floor or a stable platform so the tape never holds their weight, keeps tape on clothing only (never on skin, hair, face or neck), has an adult standing by with scissors and stops the moment the principal wants out. Hand strips to classes for reaching participation milestones rather than selling them to children for cash during the school day.
Dunk tank
Los Angeles Unified won't approve dunking pupils or adults into water tanks, and other districts and insurers may have similar limits. If yours allows one, it belongs at an evening or weekend event with a rented tank, its operator, an adult volunteer in the seat and the district's insurance questions answered first. For a school-day reveal, choose something else.
Kiss a pig
The traditional version is really a vote: each staff member gets a jar, people vote with coins, and the "winner" kisses a pig. Keep the vote and leave out the animal. Animals in school bring disease, allergy and handling questions that need their own plan; Washington's Department of Health, for example, in its February 2026 template for schools, says to wash hands with soap and warm water immediately after handling an animal and to keep animals away from anywhere food is prepared, stored or served. Let the winning staff member kiss a stuffed pig, wear a pig costume for a day or do a challenge from the table above. If votes cost money, give every student a free ballot as well, so the result isn't decided only by the families with spare change. The penny wars guide covers counting and jar security for coin votes.
Principal sleeps on the roof
A roof is a fall hazard, and no fundraiser is worth that. Do the same idea on the ground: a tent on the playground for the school day, or an after-school camp-out in the library with another adult present.
Staff consent
Consent here means more than a principal saying "sure" in a hallway. Write down exactly what will happen, give the person a real chance to say no, and let them back out right up to the reveal. Some adults have medical, religious or personal reasons to avoid certain challenges and shouldn't have to explain them. A short note like this one works:
Keep the written yes with the fundraiser's records. If a staff member says no, don't announce a replacement who "volunteered" in a group meeting; ask privately again.
Every student gets to watch
A principal challenge is one of the fairest incentives a school has, because it rewards the group and every student shares it. Keep it that way:
- Unlock challenges with the school's total or its participation rate, not with any one child's or class's dollar amount.
- Hold the reveal at an all-school assembly or during a time when every class can attend.
- Don't give top fundraisers a role in the stunt (holding the tape, choosing the costume, a front seat). Draw helpers at random from every class, or have class representatives chosen by the class.
- Announce the school's total and participation, not individual students' amounts.
- Count families who take part at any level, including those who return a "no gift this time" note, if you track participation. The guide to getting more parents involved has other ways to reward participation rather than dollars.
The same Provo policy says principals must approve rewards or prizes for groups, classes or students in a fundraising activity, discourages competitive enticements for participation, and says fundraising participation may not affect a student's grade. Those are good defaults even where your district says nothing. Schools serving many families with little to spare should also read the guide to fair fundraising in Title I and low-income schools.
Planning the challenge, step by step
- Ask the principal first, privately
Bring a short list of options from the table above and let the principal choose. Ask which other staff might enjoy taking part, then approach them individually with the consent note.
- Get district approval for anything physical
Send the plan with the fundraiser approval request, including what happens, where and who supervises. The district rules and approval guide covers lead times and what approvers ask. The school fundraiser planning checklist shows where approval falls in the weeks before the event.
- Set the milestones
Tie each challenge to a share of the goal or a participation level. Make the first one reachable in the first few days so students see a reveal early.
- Announce the ladder at kickoff
Show the whole ladder at the kickoff, with the principal there in person. The kickoff assembly run of show shows where the challenge reveal fits.
- Update progress often
Move the thermometer and mention the next milestone in morning announcements. The fundraiser promotion guide covers reminders to families.
- Do the reveal promptly
Deliver each challenge within a few school days of the milestone. A promise kept late feels like a promise broken to a seven-year-old.
- Photograph with care, then thank everyone
Follow your school's photo permission list before posting pictures of students. Share the photo of the principal in the costume with the results and thank-you messages.
District rules on stunts, assemblies, water, animals and activities during the school day vary. Before announcing any challenge, ask the principal for the district's fundraising and event policies and check with the district's risk management office about anything physical. This page gives examples, not legal or safety advice.
More on prizes and incentives
- Prizes and incentivesHow to motivate students fairly, with class competitions and prize plans.
- Free incentivesClass rewards, privileges and recognition that cost nothing.
- Teachers and principalsWhat staff can do in school fundraising, and what they shouldn't.
- Fundraising thermometerPrint a thermometer with your challenge milestones on it.
Sources
- BUL-1633.3: Policies Governing School Fund-Raising Activities of PTAs, PTOs, and Booster Clubs, Los Angeles Unified School District (accessed 2026-10-30)
- Donation and Fundraising Policy (Provo City School District), Utah State Board of Education, best practices and model policies (accessed 2026-10-30)
- Animals in K-12 Schools: Template to Create a Health and Safety Plan (DOH 333-413), Washington State Department of Health (accessed 2026-10-30)
Frequently asked questions
What are good principal challenge ideas for a school fundraiser?
Choose challenges that are safe, cheap and funny: a costume picked by student vote, morning announcements in a silly voice, a staff-versus-students game, the principal working a day from a tent on the playground, or a student-set task such as learning a dance. Tie each to a milestone and hold the reveal where the whole school can see it.
Is a pie in the face fundraiser allowed at school?
It depends on your district, and some say no. Los Angeles Unified, for example, lists throwing an object at a person, naming pies, sponges and balloons, among the activities it won't approve at fundraising events. Ask your principal for the district's rules first. A costume reveal or a foam "whipped cream" hat keeps the laugh without the throw.
Can a principal or teacher say no to a fundraiser challenge?
Yes, and they should be able to without explaining why. District policies such as Los Angeles Unified's and Provo's say participation in fundraising by employees or faculty is voluntary. Ask privately, put the challenge in writing and let the person back out any time before the reveal.
Should the top fundraiser get to slime or tape the principal?
No. Giving top earners a role in the stunt rewards family income and leaves other children watching from the side. Unlock challenges with the school's total or participation rate, and if students help, draw them at random from every class or let each class choose a representative.
How do you run a kiss-a-pig fundraiser without a pig?
Keep the vote and replace the animal. Each willing staff member gets a jar, families vote, and the winner kisses a stuffed pig, wears a pig costume for a day or takes on another challenge. Give every student a free ballot too, so the result isn't decided only by the families who can drop in the most coins.
When should the principal do the challenge?
Within a few school days of reaching the milestone, at an assembly or another time every class can attend. Students lose interest quickly, and younger children may not connect a late reveal to the goal they helped reach. Put the date on the school calendar as soon as the milestone is in sight.