A school's humble fundraiser to educate girls in Africa has raised more than 200 times its original goal of $900 after a tweet by Senator Cory Bernardi that condemned the event prompted a flood of support.

The principal of South Australia's Craigburn Primary School said the students organised the Do It In A Dress fundraising drive after learning about girls in Africa who did not have access to education.

Senator Bernardi tweeted his frustration about the idea on Wednesday by writing, "This gender morphing is really getting absurd".

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That tweet prompted a backlash and a flood of donations and in less than 48 hours, the school had hit $200,000.

The Do It In A Dress campaign has been run by Australian charity OneGirl for six years.

Senator Bernadi said he stood by the original tweet and did not consider his outrage to be a "mistake".

"I think, and many parents think, that it's completely inappropriate for a school to encourage their male teachers and male students to wear drag at a casual clothes day," he said.

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Craigburn Primary has entitled its campaign as a Casual Day Fundraiser and allows students to wear casual clothes for a day at the end of term three provided they offer a gold coin donation.

The Australian Conservatives Leader said some donors were using the fundraising drive to target him rather than support the charity.

"You've got people who have a diametrically different world view and they feel that by making this donation its somehow slapping me in the face," he said.

"I think it's wonderful that people want to support this cause, no matter their motivations, and there are some who are motivated by an ideological struggle and others who just want to support a good cause.

"So good on them."

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OneGirl chief executive officer Morgan Koegal said she was initially confused by the senator's original tweet when she saw it online

"I didn't quite understand how it related to the campaign we were running," Ms Koegel said.

"We've been running this campaign for six years — so it's not intended as any comment on what's going on in Australia right now."

Ms Koegal said that while many were using the situation as a sounding board for other issues, at the end of the day, hundreds of girls without an education in Uganda and Sierra Leone would now have access to an education.

"The response we've seen over the past 48 hours has made me feel really positive that, while this started as a negative, we have some very happy students in South Australia," she said

"We're able to see that they have inspired people right around the country to get on board, be charitable, be generous.

"In the countries we work in, Sierra Leone and Uganda, a girl is more likely to be a child bride, than go to high school."

Ms Koegel said the charity had reached out to the school to ensure they had all the resources and support they needed and wanted to get involved when the fundraising day is held.

"We would absolutely love to visit the school and see how they go with their big Do It In A Dress fundraiser," she said.

"The students must be over the moon with the effort that they've generated, given that they started thinking they were going to fundraise $900."

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