I agree with julier, being a non-profit ourselves, we need to focus on our own fundraising purposes. We also sponsored a penny drive for the red cross for sept 11, but i do believe there were some special circomstances. Maybe the other organizations got the wrong idea about pto when they saw you doing the disater relief fund drives, and they figured that pto was more of a philanthropic organization. I would just draft a letter to anyone who is asking that you sponsor a fundraiser that you are indeed a non-profit org, and that the red cross fund drives were extremely special circumstances(obviously).
I still can't believe that make a wish and heart assoc are asking a pto for help, they have nationally sponsored fundraising campaigns run by a very large paidagency.
Hmmmm...I don't know if we have a policy on this. My opinion is that we are a non profit organization ourselves, raising money for our own cause, we shouldn't have to raise money for other organizations.
We do community service programs- a food drive, used book collection, hat and mitten drive in the winter, but I don't think we would raise money for the Cub Scouts, for instance.
A group of 5th graders in the school decided they wanted to raise money for the Sept.11th fund, and they sold carnations in the school. The school supported it, and parents helped, but it was not sponsored by the PTO.
Every since Sept. 11th our school and PTA has been swamped with everyone wanting us to do a fund raiser for their cause. We have done a penny drive for the American Cross so far and a dollar drive for Children of Afghanistan as requested by the President. So far Make A Wish, Cub Scouts, the Heart Association, the Historical Society and countless others have contacted us to do similar drives for them. What policy do all of you have for sponsoring fund raisers for non profit organizations? We have not had such a influx of rquests in the past to know how to handle this. Any ideas?
