Well would you like to have a fundraiser and say "Well our principal told us will be buying concrete parking stops and the cost is $10,000. She can be really sweet when she needs the money but lord help us all if it's not something she wants. I just hope that the PTO convention puts some spart back into us! 4 of us are going because we need all the help we can get. We are going to try in August to give her a listing of everything that we plan to do thoughout the year. Yes we do do assembly thoughout the year.

Wow! I thought I had problems! I guess I have a very free hand with fund-raising. When I took over as PTVO President last year (for this year), the first thing I did was schedule our fund-raisers. I put them on the school calendar right along with the other school activities. I deferred to our Principal on some of the dates so as not to have a scheduling problem. I am not limited to how many I can run a year, so that helps. I have found that running a fund-raiser for a specific something (new computers for example) gets it done for me. Any money raised goes to that particular "cause". I also have the clubs at school (i.e. Computer, Chess, Bells, etc.) run smaller ones where we purchase items for those clubs with the money. Hope this helps. :confused: [img]tongue.gif[/img]

PTO PResident-I'm with ya babe! We are limited to three fundraisers and with only a standing Prez and VP I'm really tired of these parents assuming that the Board can handle everything!
Our skate parties have been our saving grace as all I need to do is set the dates early and show-up! We do have two more ready to go, one is a letter asking for a donation, the other a spell-a-thon. I even got flack from a parent for not knowing how to do a spell-a-thon! If I have never done it..... so she is willing to chair that one THANK GOODNESS!

We recently had a board meeting with the principal and do you think she could think of one darn thing for the teachers that would be UNDER $1000!! We have maybe $2000 and everything she could think of was much bigger than our budget! She is great about realizing her taste/needs and our budget are miles apart and good natured about it but still!
As far as morale, my VP is a parent's complaint away from walking away. I really need her right now though so I handle the issues (or send them to the correct person!) and keep her on light detail. PLease hang in there in the meantime...you knw what I do? Hug one of those reasons you care about the school so much! It can't make it go away but sure helps YOU!!!


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We are very fortunate in our town to have several civic organizations that host programs and events for our school and the rest of the community. As a PTO, we try very hard to not do fundraisers and events that would conflict with these other groups. We have a very active women's group in our town that has a huge auction every spring. We've thought of doing an auction, but didn't want to interfere with what they do. They also do Donuts with Santa every year, so we don't have to. There is a social club in town that runs the Holiday Shop, and another group that throws Father/Daughter and Mother/Son dances. We're also mindful of the different fundraisers that the middle school, scouts, baseball and soccer teams and groups like that do. We have to remain aware of what's going on, and it limits us in some respects, but it's wonderful to have so many groups doing so much good.

My advice to you would be to find out what other groups in your area are doing, and work with them so events don't overlap or conflict. We all have the same goals in mind- to enrich the schools and community.

PTOpresident, What are you trying to achieve? Could an underlying problem be that you [Parents + Teachers + Admin.] have not agreed on some basic goals and how you'll deliver them? Rather than "have a successful fundraiser," could you state a goal, 3-5 examples of how you'll make it happen, then an action plan for each example? How about something like this?

Goal: Develop united efforts between parents, staff and school authorities to secure the highest advantages in mental, spiritual, physical, and social education for our children.

Activity 1: PTO host and fund one student assembly per quarter (year, half, etc.) to enhance the academic curriculum. [Our series is called "PTO Presents." We got many performer / author ideas from teachers and made sure we had a broad range of guests - i.e. one author who was an illustrator and naturalist (reading/science/art/music), one music group who did a show of patriotic music through our country's history (S.S./music), a traveling exhibit (science) and a dance/drama group. Prices range from $300-$1500.]

Activity 2: Host a Holiday Shoppe that enables children to purchase low cost items they can use to convey their holiday wishes to family and friends.

You get the idea ... Good Luck!

THis year has been a nightmare to say the least. First our only fundraiser was undermined by one organization then one of the grade levels decided that they wouldnt sale so over all we had 5 grade levels that did not sale. Guess what that did to our over all sales.
Holiday shoppe time came up and the school let a town organization have the Santa and milk so that undermined us again so the Holiday Shoppe was cancelled. Now it's carnival time and to tell you the truth my heart is not in it. But the admin. did come and ask us to donate 10,000 for a item that they wanted to purchase. Of course I laughed and said where would this money come from? Since we did not raise it this year because of the above. THey said well I'm sure next year will be better we will schedule you at a different time.
I don't mean to unload on anyone or sound like sour grapes but gosh don't know where to turn next. We were thinking about attending the PTO convention to try and put the "ump" back into our PTO with new idea's. Anyone have any suggestions for us. We are open to it all.
Thanks for letting me unload