Well, call me crazy, but with lines like:

"What do you people expect of a fundraising organization?"

"I’ll sit back and listen, while you debate it among yourselves"

And

"where do you get off saying..."

I'm guessing that your delivery plays a significant part in why you have no takers on your offer.

It doesn't make sense that people would not want to use the site that you are offering, but unfortunately, it is true for most people.

Our school has a link to One Cause. This is a great site that is basically a shop-through program. All you have to do, is register at the site (you can either opt in for email newsletters or opt out) and then everytime you shop online, just go to their website first and click to the retail store. (and many big stores are included...Disney, Sears, etc) It requires no more effort than clicking on an extra website first. A % of your purchase is then credited to your school.

Hardly anyone does it. I can't explain it or figure it out. I certainly use it! I have passed the site on to family and friends, asking them to do it for me, and hardly anyone does. My mother does. I have at least 20 other siblings, in-laws, cousins who shop on line, and they don't do it.

We also offer the voucher program at school, where if you purchase gift certificates to national and local retailers, our school receives a %. Hardly anyone does that either.

And the school that I am talking about is a parochial school. So not only is the school getting credit, but the school allows us to directly subtract the % that we earn on these 2 programs FROM OUR INDIVIDUAL TUITIONS. It absolutely boggles my mind that people do not participate in it. It is throwing money away, as these people are most certainly shopping somewhere!

Your idea for the website sounds like a great one to me. Perhaps you need to just find a more progressive thinker on the PTO board.

I think this was one of the better topics I have read about on this site. I like the honest back and forth comments that show all angles. It helps me make a better decision on this and also how to look at other fundraising offers and "too good to be true" sales pitches.

I would like to say that there are alot of PTO's that are not 501(c) and probably just as many that are still trying to get a website up.

Our school has a limited website that the teachers use and our PTO has not even approached the idea of getting a page.

This tread was one of the better ones I have read on this site. Both posters are well spoken, knowledgeable and actually use their spell checker. Patricia, If this dialog is offensive to you, you can always stop reading. Wrist slapping is not necessary.

So, to sum up: paradigm shift in on line shopping not likely to happen within school communities, finite amounts of PTO energy aren't going to be spent on questionable revenue generating activity and 'too good to be true' thinking can't be assuaged until there is cold hard data to back it up.

Our biggest fundraiser is a basket auction. We raise approx. $24,000 but the cost in hours and manpower is ENORMOUS. Finding a quicker, faster, less labor intensive mouse trap would be ideal.

As a regular on this forum for almost three years Patricia I have to say that there really is not alot of Battles on here except the pta versus pto thing. When someone puts something on here as a sales pitch and wants input they need to be prepared to hear what people feel, as experience parent group leaders I would like to think we may know what works best for our groups and schools, often sales people make pitches on here and can't handle when we give critism or input. It's a big world with everyone wanting a piece of the pie that parent groups make, we want a quality fundraiser not a "too good to be true" deal. welcome to the boards, sit back and enjoy because I am confident you will learn lots as i have!

[ 01-05-2006, 10:38 PM: Message edited by: pals ]

When I signed on to use this site as an informative way to improve my school's PTO, I did not realize it was going to be used as a battle ground. Please remember the PTO is supposed to be used to improve things for the kids. Lets forget our selfish grown up stuff and use this site for what is supposed to be used for. If people need to battle please do so on your private email.