Would love to get some feedback about this fundraiser. My name is Joyce Blake, PTO Rep at Bennett's Mill School Fayetteville, Ga.

770/778/4972

I agree with Tim regarding having a bunch of smaller fundraisers.... In my experience, parents seem to lose interest after a while and complain of being bombarded by constant fundraisers.

Great conversation. Thanks all.

Not surprised to hear the success stories from groups that communicate well and focus on the benefits/cause. That's the key to all fundraising success whether you are selling or asking for donations. It's all about the cause.

Sounds like some good support for the hybrid method of allowing or even asking for donations while also keeping some key traditional fundraisers. In terms of appealing to the greatest % of parents -- that seems like a good move. There are definitely parents who appreciate the "just write a check" method just as there are definitely some who are more motivated by the "getting something for their money".

My biggest caution remains against going wholly this direction in one fell swoop. If you do go that way, you should be really, really confident in your support, ready to deal with the potential of lower revenues and prepared for how this will go over in years 2 and 3 and 4, not just year 1.

Finally, the posters who talk about adding multiple restaurant nights and multiple smaller fundraisers -- I'd strongly suggest being careful there. Parents don't distinguish well between big and small fundraisers. they just unconsciously feel how many times you are asking for their support or money. One really successful big fundraiser pulled off in two weeks is in my mind way better than 9 little efforts where it seems you're promoting another thing every three weeks.

Tim

We started a FUN RUN about 8 years ago at the elementary school and it was great at first. Parents loved the one time donation and no products to sell. But over time parents started asking to sell products and get something for their money and/or to do both fundraisers to allow all parents to participate. So the donations are way down now today since the start up of this type of fundraiser. I think the economy may be part of the low funding issue but also the school allows other groups and teachers to fundraiser through out the school year. So every week fundraisers are still coming home for other groups which are not funding the PTO. And again since the PTO has not been getting the funding they need they have had to put out selling products because of the lack of donations and events are charged fees too.
So is it really a great fundraiser?? Its not for every family if you want full participation and the school really needs to work together at this.

First I must tell you we are a Middle School PTO & it is extremely hard to raise monies at this level. Traditional Funraising Packets end up either in the trash can or at the bottom of the locker. We do not send anything home in the backpacks.
We did our first "No Sale" Fundraiser this school year. We have 1,300 students -
asked for a donation of $25.00 or more with the promise that we would not do any traditional fundraisers. Our goal was $10,000.00 - We ended up raising $6,000.00. I didn't think that was too bad for the cost of a few reams of paper.
BUT only 250 families participated. I am disappointed at this. We also sold school approved / dress code T-shirts, hosted a Holiday Bazaar and a family Bowling Night & Silent Auction. Raised a total of $20,000.00 which is plenty for what the PTO does for the school. We definitley plan on doing the "No Sale" fundraiser again. We will skip the Bowling NIght / Silent Auction and will continue the promise of no traditional fundraisers. This was a huge hit.
Would love other ideas for fundraising at the middle school level. I am going into my fourth year of this!! Thanks!

We do direct donations and a couple of fundraisers, we have been successful. This upcoming fall we are only going to do the direct campaign and box tops, to limit our request for funds. In the past we have also charged for family fun events, we are going to subsidize them this year. We also charge dues to join the PTO we will also continue that practice.