Your budget was cut severly, but so must have been your school population. So keep that in mind. Run your fundraisers for your playground separate from your general funds. Make sure all memos clearly state that since parents that don't participate in the usual fundraisers may for that reason, alone.
Our school was built and we RECEIVED 400 students from other schools. Only one school gave us any financial support but it was with instructions it was for lunchroom activities. So the PTO started with a budget from a school of 225 to support activities for 600+ students the first year. I came in year 2 a total newbie, but we successfully ran the annual events, plus raised 10K our first walkathon to begin our playground expansion. In one year's time, we not only ran our usual events, but we raised $39,000 and made several huge additions to two playgrounds which included a paved play area, play equipment and a picnic area.
As long as you keep your playground events separate on your books from general fundraising, you will be fine. Then your annual events won't suffer from it and you get your equipment when you've raised the needed funds. Just try and make your playground fundraisers big cash income events rather than a bunch of smaller ones. Also, check into the grants available out there.
You're just looking at everything you need to do and feeling a bit overwhelmed. But take it a little bit at a time, have your committee persons do their jobs and you'll be fine.
There are companies that will provide grants for playgrounds; if you do a search on these boards you should be able to find some of them. I think Home Depot & Lowes both do this.
You probably wouldn't be able to fully fund the 30k you need, but it would reduce the amount of money you'd be asking your parents for. Good luck!
Playgrounds are such a huge investment that I think it's almost impossible to do it in one year without nickel and diming your parents to death and without deleting programs you might have done otherwise. My suggestion (because we are in the same boat) is that you make it a 3-5 year plan. As long as parents know in advance what the goal is they most likely will support it.
Hi Nellie-first off, keep breathing . Sometimes we forget to do that and the world just looks worse off than it is. Since I'm not sure what a "normal" fundraising year is for you I will assume that raising another 30k this year would be a stretch and a stress. I'm not sure how others will chime in...but from my perspective I think this can be a healthy year of fundraising but team building would be my most important goal. Not just for the board but for the PTO as a whole. Your fundraising goal speaks for itself and while you can have things in place to achieve that goal, given your state of flux this past year it may be smart to work on recreating a strong organization. That would put the playground on the burner for 08-09. It's important to get the opinion of your team and your parents on this as ultimately they will be the ones to make this happen.
We've never had to raise that much in one year but I know a lot of the posters on this board bring in that type of money routinely....so as you get everyone's sense of this sit down with your parents, lay down your plan and then move from their to adjust. This isn't all on you...you are just a representative of the group and a leader to make their groups goals get closer to fruition. If you make this a statement on your presidency then it will take on a reality that may not leave you poised to support things again next year.
Help! This is my first year as president. I have a large percentage of board members who are new to there positions. 2 years ago a new school was built and they look a large portion of our student body which also means that the pto gave them a large amount of start up money. Our buget went from WOW to Ouch. Last year was our first year and the board really tried to make it work as best as they could. It was just kinda thrown into these lady and gentlemens laps. They tried to do all the activities and events just as they had always done - only problem they had a budget of about a 1/4 of what it use to be. The year went on and the board did there best for what they had to work with. Well this year the school is in need of a playground for our 3 and 4 graders. This school use to be a intermediate school and years ago was switched over to a elementary.
Since we are really a PTO that is started over and trying to get a budget back to were it was - is trying to put in a $40,000 playground in a 2nd year PTO to much. Are we biting off more then we can handle or chew? We only get about 25% of our students body participate in fundraisers. Now we do have $10,000 already towards our playground. I am just a little jittery with now looking at our real budget and what we need to operate and put the extra's into events we are streching ourself thin. Has anyone with a small school and real odd demographics put in a playground in a year? We have to main fundraisers but I just don't think we can do this and still carry out our other events. I wonder if this should be a rebuilding year for the PTO to get a good revenue so we can do it and do it right the next year. This has me all in knots. I really believe in myself and my board!
Any thoughts or suggestions on how you raised funds big and small i would greatly appreciate.
Thanks a bunch:confused:
. Sometimes we forget to do that and the world just looks worse off than it is. Since I'm not sure what a "normal" fundraising year is for you I will assume that raising another 30k this year would be a stretch and a stress. I'm not sure how others will chime in...but from my perspective I think this can be a healthy year of fundraising but team building would be my most important goal. Not just for the board but for the PTO as a whole. Your fundraising goal speaks for itself and while you can have things in place to achieve that goal, given your state of flux this past year it may be smart to work on recreating a strong organization. That would put the playground on the burner for 08-09. It's important to get the opinion of your team and your parents on this as ultimately they will be the ones to make this happen.
