When we talk about school fundraising, we tend to talk about the big ones. The trivia night that raises $15,000. The fete everyone spends six months organising. The colour run, the major raffle, the event that becomes the fundraiser for the year.

At the other end are the really little things — the donation tin on the counter, a quick little sale, the odd bit of money that comes in here and there.

But there is a whole category of fundraising sitting somewhere in the middle that we reckon deserves a bit more attention.

These are the fundraisers that might make a few hundred dollars, or perhaps a couple of thousand, without needing to become a major school event. They often use something you already have, piggyback on something already happening, involve a local business or take a familiar fundraiser and make it much simpler.

We found ourselves in exactly this space with Father’s Day this year.

Our own P&C didn’t have enough people available to run the full Father’s Day stall we might normally put together. We could have pushed ahead with it anyway, or decided that if we couldn’t do the full version, we wouldn’t do it at all. Instead, we landed somewhere in the middle.

We already have a uniform shop and had a few Father’s Day bits and pieces on hand, so we used what was there. We opened the shop a little earlier, added an extra morning and gave kids the chance to come in and choose something if they wanted to. There weren’t tables and tables of gifts, but the kids still got to come in with a few dollars and carefully pick something for Dad, Grandpa or someone special.

At the same time, we tried something a little different and teamed up with a local photographer to offer Father’s Day mini photo sessions. Families booked directly with her, she did the photography, we helped spread the word and a percentage of every booking came back to the P&C. Families got some beautiful photos, we supported a local business and the school benefited too.

Neither of these ideas was ever going to become our major fundraiser for the year, nor did we need them to be. They sit in that useful middle space — more than nothing, without needing to become a huge production.

And there are so many fundraisers that can fit here.

It could be a local restaurant giving your P&C a percentage of sales for an evening, a photographer offering family sessions, a little merch drop, a pop-up stall attached to something already happening at school, or a simple partnership with a local business where a percentage comes back to the school.

Individually, none of them necessarily needs to make a fortune. But $300 here, $700 there and $1,000 somewhere else starts to become meaningful money. A few of these scattered throughout the year can add up nicely, without every fundraising idea needing to become the next major event on the school calendar.

It also opens up a much bigger range of possibilities than simply deciding between “let’s run a major fundraiser” and “let’s not bother.”

Sometimes an idea is worth doing even if it isn’t going to raise thousands. Maybe the kids love it. Maybe it keeps a school tradition going. Maybe it gives families something they actually want. Maybe it builds a relationship with a local business. Or maybe it just adds another few hundred dollars to the pot that eventually pays for something great for the school.

There is also no rule that says every fundraiser has to be created entirely from scratch. Some of the best ideas can come from looking at what is already around you. Is there something already happening at school that you could add a simple fundraising element to? Is there a local business that would like to collaborate? Do you already have stock, equipment or a space you could use? Could you take something you have always done and make it simpler this time around?

We can be surprisingly good at making things complicated in P&C land. Someone suggests a little stall and suddenly there are 14 varieties of stock, an online roster, spreadsheets, EFTPOS machines, floats, wrapping paper and someone urgently messaging the group chat because nobody has signed up for Wednesday morning.

Sometimes that bigger version is exactly what you want, and there will always be a place for the big fundraisers. They can raise incredible amounts of money, bring everyone together and create some of the best community moments of the school year.

But they don’t need to carry the whole fundraising calendar.

There is plenty of room in between, and perhaps that middle category is also where P&Cs can afford to experiment a little more. If an idea doesn’t have to raise $10,000 to be considered successful, you can try something new, see how your school community responds and decide afterwards whether it is worth doing again.

It also means we can stop thinking of scaling something back as somehow failing. P&Cs change, families change and what is achievable one year might look completely different the next. You can run the full-blown stall one year and a little pop-up the next. You can have the huge annual event everyone looks forward to alongside a handful of smaller fundraisers that each bring something different.

It all counts.

So the next time an idea comes up and the full version feels like too much, perhaps the answer doesn’t have to be to abandon it altogether. Look for the version that sits somewhere in the middle. Keep the good bit, lose some of the fuss, use what you already have or find someone great to collaborate with.

Because a fundraiser doesn’t have to be enormous to be worthwhile.

Sometimes the middle is a pretty good place to be.