Originally posted by Brooke Pickard:
I'd love to see your documentation for the Booster Club, prez.
I'm starting up a program this year that will absorb Adopt-A-Class and just make all the monies coming and going from personal and private donatiions a lot "cleaner" and with ample recognition everyone.
Being able to see someone else's structure would be a HUGE help!
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Thanks!
I thought I'd put additional information on here, in case others are interested too.
The '06-'07 school year will be our third as a Booster Club. I remember when it was first proposed to the school families, in the form of a survey, I looked through my checkbook to see how much I'd spent on fundraisers throughout the year. It was over $250! So a onetime payment of $125 seemed like a real steal, and I knew that all of the money would be going right to the schools.
Our first year, we raised about $35,000, and we had about 30% school participation. Last year, our second year, I mentioned our results in the previous post. I think the improvement in numbers came from better educating our families on the new concept.
We started our membership drive on the first day of the school year, by sending out "pitch packets" to all families. This consisted of a membership form, the various levels available, and all that we'd accomplished for the schools in the previous year. We set a deadline for completion, as one of the benefits of membership is a comprehensive school directory and we needed to get it to print so that it had some usefulness for the members that year. The first year the PTO board gave out "goodies" if you joined...a tote bag, a magnet, a pen, I think...as incentives to join. Last year we decided that the incentives were too costly, so we got rid of them. As you can tell by our numbers, it didn't affect our fundraising one bit. But the incentives were a good idea for our initial year, just to get things rolling.
Our corporate sponsors and/or families who donate at the $400 or $1500 levels get added recognition. Their names appear on the back of every backpack flyer that goes out. We have a huge banner made every year, with all sponsors names and/or logos on it, which hangs in the school halls. Our newsletters always mention them too. At the $1500 level, the sponsors name is attached to an assembly or program of their choice. When the flyer goes out for the program, the bottom reads "Brought to our students through the generous support of ABC Company". Their name is prominent at the assembly too. We also post the program on our district cable channel, along with the sponsors name. When the local newspaper comes to take pictures of the program, their name is included there too.
At the end of the year, we take out a full-page ad in the paper, thanking every member for their contributions. We also send them a personal thank you, as record of receipt for tax purposes, as we are a 501(c) 3 organization.
Anything else I can answer?