Yes, this is the gift bag fundraiser company that I was looking for as they have the $10 bags and the return to the school is $5 a bag with no upfront.
But aren't they called Giftbags USA and do you know their contacts?
cupcake, theres no rule against going directly to the principal or teacher with your ideas, and launching it from there if theres interest. many of our parents do things this way, some even have to go to the superintendent for approval, and then they have the OK to run their idea at the school. it has worked every year, usualy its the same parents that bypass the parent group infrastucture/administrative steps and getting not just your idea, but YOU, accepted. much quciker and benefits the kids, if you go directly through the school admin for approval for idea. try it, the worst that can happen is they say no. but how can they say NO to a reading night idea? they cant, and maybe they then will pass the idea to the parent group, who may be more receptive if heard from that source.
Your first mistake was surveying your parent for what they want. Okay, you send out a survey to 100% of your parents and what was your response rate? 15%? 20%? Then of those 15 or 20% you maybe had half or a quarter telling you that they wanted a change? That is not your entire population telling you that you need to change. You said "the parents chose" in your message. What parents? The 20-30 who actually responded? If it is working for you then there should be no need to change it. Especially if the prior company's service was there for you and your parents.
Actually our parents were more burnt out when we only had few fundraisers. They felt like they needed to support all of them. With having a variety they can now pick and chose when ones they would like to participate in.
The Kroger, Harris Teeter, Food Lion,Target CArd box tops, soup labels, nestle water bottle, tyson A+ labels ways to support the school does not cost the parents anything additional out of pocket. It only takes the time to have a sheet of paper swiped at Kroger, regrister your frequent shopper cards at HT, FL and your target card, and the additional time to cut the labels.
We found we have one group of parents to pariticpate in the silent auction and other group that paritcipates in the golf tournament. One parent and three friends who normally golf weekly anyway can now golf and help the school raise money. If you would like to know more about our fundraisers and we keep the burden off the teachers please email me This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. and put PTO in the subject
i would like to see our school do some new things also. They want to extend our extra circul. activities why not have a family night or a reading night. The teacher in my sons class is struggling to get her students to read more. But our PTO does not listen unless you are there and part of their "click"