Maybe you could have sponsors for your PTO events. If you have willing donors, maybe 5 families could contribute together to sponsor an activity night. A couple could go together to sponsor AR or whatever. You would need someome very good at coordination to bring it all together.
As for our carnival, we don't do dunking booths or anything like that. We have simple games and give away donated prizes or trinkets. But it is a family night and everyone comes to have fun. By that time, the fundraising part is over and everyone just enjoys the evening.
Thank you SO much for your advice! I can easily see how the one time donation theory can get "old" and incoming funds begin to diminish. I can only hope that parents can see the outstanding, full spectrum education their children a receiving from their donations. Once the donations stop coming in, we'll have to resort back to a product sale.
Once the drive is over, we we go through to see which families did not donate. We will contact them with a polite letter aking them if they would like to be put on a payment plan with a lesser amount or give them cookie dough to sell. But what company is going to support a school with only, lets just say, 50 students that are selling? We will also look into grants for these families, or ask for sponsors within the school. No child will be left behind.
Another thing, this is only our 2nd year open. We are still in the process of obtaining our non-profit status. Any donations will be a tax deductable retro-active to the date we obtain our acceptance. (I'll be joining NPN very shortly!)
I can proudly say "we are not a private school"! I've done that route, thinking it was the best way to go, but found that our public school, driven by an incredible principal was the best thing I could have done.
I would love to have a fall carnival to generate the majority of our funds. However, our district is EXTREMELY cautious when it comes to safetly. We tried to get a water slide for the end of the year party. The district wanted a copy of their insurance policy (I agree), their car insurance policy and a copy of their workmans comp. I can imagine trying to approve a carnival. Do you have only booth games? What about slides or dunk tanks? Do you have to go through all the red tape?
Another thing to keep in mind is that 70% of our population is Asian. Their culture is very "education minded". They were very supportive in last years fundraiser, but expressed their thoughts about the cash donation. They would rather give $100 to the school instead of $50 to the school and $50 to the product company. Of course, it's not only the Asian race that feel this way. We can only try the "donation request" (notice Tim, the name change)! If it doesn't work out, we'll resort to other means.
Keep your thoughts flowing...
Thanks!
[ 07-09-2003: Message edited by: 3 of a kind ]</p>
Mark's Mom - for every 50 cent donation, a kid gets a game ticket for the carnival. In a student population of 450, we bring in about 11,000 net (after game prizes and incentives). We are a rural area with 50% free/reduced lunch population.
Suprisingly, it is not the kids you would expect bringing in the big bucks. The nice thing is that any parent, grandparent, uncle, aunt, whoever, can make a donation and feel that their child is receiving something in return.
We've been doing the Hoe-Down this way for nine years and we make more every year.
We are a very poor community. We are probably in the top 10 of unemployment in our state. 50% of our kids or more are on free or reduced lunches. We have never sold anything yet we manage to run between $40k-$60k per year through the PTO by doing events such as Boxtops, etc., Our Fall Festival is BIG, book fair and a few little things.
It is an unwritten rule that our kids will not sell anything and I totally agree with this in our area. Though I do miss those chocolate bars I sold when I was a kid.
I agree with Tim about the diminishing donations. We tried the direct donation route with another organization and the first year was OK, but the second really dropped and by the third we were back to selling.
I hate to harp on it (OK, I don't), but the model that we use for our Hoe-Down carnival really works for those that just want to donate. By contributing "votes" for their children, they make a tax deductible donation, their children get to play games, and it is almost pure profit for the PTO.
