Tim-- I do and don't agree with you. Whether or not you're making money does matter. The point of having a fundraiser is to make money. If people have a great time and feel like they're getting their money's worth that's icing on the cake.
I'm not talking about a service like a spaghetti dinner (though difficult, I suppose it could become a fundraiser), where you're charging money to cover your costs. The point isn't to make money, but rather build a sense of community and get the parents and kids to connect with the school. I feel the differences, though subtle, are invariably important.
If you're not spending that money on the kids, then you have, in essence, become a fundraising machine. A well-liked and successful one, but what's all that profit for if you're not spending it on the kids--on field trips, things the school needs, after-school or during-school educational activities or assemblies.
I'm sensitive on this topic because our group has become a fundraising-machine, and to add insult to injury, a crappy one at that. They squeeze every last dime out of every event to "make money" to cover a budget that I really don't see benefiting the kids. It's all about how much can be made, without making it clear to everyone that the goal is to make money--the parents are led to believe that they're getting a good deal, when in actuality they aren't.
This argument seems kind of silly unless we know the context of the argument.
If -- like in Texas -- you're dealing with regulations regarding how many fundraisers you can run, then obviously a strict definition of what makes up one of those fundraisers matters.
But otherwise, it's just semantics. Us PTO leaders can debate all we want, but our opinion matters little. What really matters in this debate is what your parents are feeling/experiencing. If a parent goes to your spaghetti supper and -- for $5 -- feeds her whole family and a has a great night out, dances with her 8-year-old, and connects with school, etc. -- then that parent won't be feeling like you were in her pocket asking for money again. Whether your group makes $1000 or spends/loses/invests $1,000 on that event matters not a lick.
Bertha -- the end of your last post captures the key point: if your parents feel like you're always in their pocket and always nickel-and-diming them, then they'll get jaded and turned off. Especially if they're not *seeing/hearing about* all the great work you do as much as their feeling the pinche$.
How much you make (most of the parents will never see your budget report) is nearly irrelevant. It's the context of the particular event and the environment put out by your whole group across the year that matters most.
In my school we all feel a service is an event that you lose money on or should I say invest. If we break even we are overjoyed!
WE do only three fundraisers a year. All the parents at our school are aware of that fact and because of that, our participation rate with our fundraisers are amazing. We also host at least one family event per month. Our events are usually a sell out.
At Kma's school they love to talk trash about my school. We do too much and we wear people out. When they leave my school and go over there, the parents don't participate because I personally burn them out. I don't stand outside the school with a whip in my hand demanding they come to our events. They come becuase it's FUN and it's a really, really cheap night out.As much money as we make we turn around and spend. At Kma's school they nickle and dime people to death. There's no school spirit and my people that have to go over to Kma's school are so unhappy there. The fundraise every other week and call everything a service. Best of all County PTA allows this to happen!
We take the same position as ScottsMom, but we try to avoid using the phrase, "lost money". If we purposely set up an event's budget as an expense, with no offsetting income (ex: free movie night), then we like to call it an "investment". To say we lost money suggests that the committee messed up somehow. Just semantics, but sometimes semantics makes a difference in people's perceptions.
