I know where you are coming from teapot100.... Fundraising has been crazy this year-- there was even a push to raise so much money at our Movie Nights-- which I originally presented as a fun night out for families-- when we made money the first time-- it became a fundraiser (this makes me crazy)--
I was VP this year and could only make so many changes to events-- there was a push to keep things the same-- tradition was used quite frequently!
After biting my tongue several times-- I did what I cold this year to help out-- probably too much if you ask my kids and husband-- on top of my paying job-- which I travel for a lot--
I'm hoping to change a few things next year to get back to the fundamentals of making the kids educational experience at our school better--
I've written several grants this year for funding and found that after asking teachers for help in writing grants-- parents can write them just as well-- sometimes better-- since they have more emotion and energy into trying to earn these grants... I've found that I can write a grant that doesn't sound that bad-- never knew I could do that until this year...
We have a lot of ego going on also, plus history with some parents-- so this next year will be a big change in rank-- but with change- I've found new problems as well-- I now have a principal that has thrown me under the bus already and I'm not in office yet -- as it pertains to her staff-- she's already told them that we are cutting their funding and events... then she came to me and told me we can only do 1 item a month-- not a way to start a new year off-- this could be 1 year and done for me-- we'll see!
My goal is to get more people involved and have more fun opportunities for the kids- education wise-- we'll see!
Ah, FoxMom - I wish you were on our PTO! While we have had a great year re: fundraising, I feel like there's been so much emphasis on how much money we can make for our playground project. I like what you've done/plan on doing and will try to bring those up at future PTO meetings. After this school year, I'll no longer be an officer (I quit my term early! Too much ego in the room for me :eek:), but maybe I can try to offer suggestions like yours, where the emphasis isn't so much on how much we can make off of Movie Night or charge at the door for our auction and how many pretzel kits or magazine subscriptions we can sell. While those types of fundraising do have their place, it really takes the fun out of it all if we overwhelm our families with requests to sell or spend, doesn't it?
How did you make your money from the read-a-thon-- donations only-- since you didn't have pledges? We are trying this with a walk-a-thon, but we are having the kids get pledges and we will off prizes that will be raffled off based on pledges turned in.... This will be instead of our catalog sale....
We are also going to have 3 mom2mom sales this next year- this has turned out be a great fundraiser and most of the tables we rent aren't to moms from our school- so we aren't taxing the parents for the money.
We're getting rid of all small fundraisers and adding several more fun nights...
Hope this works out--
the other thing I'm trying- is I'm writing more grants this year to buy the big items that are needed, instead of fundraising for the money for them-- that way all proceeds go back to the kids and events to help their educational experience
mrhgrh;142480 wrote: Goals were set low, so students could achieve them and be proud of how far they exceeded them.
Oh this is a FABULOUS idea! This year all we've done is fundraising and while our latest one went really well (last night, silent auction), asking people to spend money on things just gets really old, kwim? I'm going to suggest this at either the last meeting of this school year or the first one in the fall.
