We do it all. Our school of 700 population has a direct donation drive ($32,000), Innisbrooke ($18,000), Book fair ($8,000), school wear ($8.000), Jog-a-thon ($15,000), Cookie Dough ($5,000), Scrip ($10,000), auction/dinner ($70,000) and miscellaneous totalling $170,000 annually. It is a lot of work.

A little background. We live in a state that cut programs like music, p.e., art and computer. Our parents decided this were necessary for our children. We pay the salaries for the p.e, computer and music teachers. Our classes (30) each have one or two parents volunteer to be the art docent. The art committee prepares the lessons and the docents teach them.

Successes: Our donation drive became more of a success when we tiered the donations with awards. For example: If you donate $75 you receive a directory (sold separately for $15), if you donate $100 you receive a mascot beanie baby (this is where the kids put pressure on the parents to donate because they want the beanie baby and this is not sold separately), if you donate $150 you received all of the above plus a t-shirt. Your tiers could be smaller depending on how much you wanted to raise.

For the auction we make around $20,000 on art projects the kids make. Each art docent has the class make a single project which is auctioned off. Parents love buying stuff their kids helped make. Our PTO gives each docent a $100 budget. These projects are usually big. For example, the kids tiled the top of a wrought iron sofa table, they painted two seater benches, made a floor size chess board and the kids made the pieces, the kids painted a smaller scale picnic table with game boards painted on it for outdoor play, etc.

We also auction off things like reserved parking space for a year, principal for a day, front row reserved seats at school programs, single teachers donate babysitting, we get a sports pass from the high school for free admission to sporting events for a year, the drama department at the high school donates passes to their plays, and this year for the first time we are auctioning off the priviledge to choose your childs teacher for the next year. All of these things cost nothing but bring in big bucks.

We also give each class a theme eg. gardening, handyman, music, date night, sports, barbie, dress-up and automotive. The class collects donated items and these baskets are put in the silent auction. Makes about $5,000.

The auction is a lot of work and we are researching ways to do this every other year. Scrip has become real popular. We are looking more into that.

Good luck.

Speaking as a parent and pto member I would much rather write a check to the pto instead of dealing with fundraising. I don't like the idea of letting my kids go door to door and the company I work for doesn't allow circulation of fundraising brochures. I know of other companies who have this same policy in place.
I've heard of several schools that send out a letter requesting funds with alot of success and not as much time spent on the other types of fundraisers. With the letter they included what the big items were that they hoped to raise funds for and it worked.

Our PTO has a policy against having the kids sell anything. We have a fall festival (just a good old-fashioned carnival) each year that brings in close to $10,000. We do Market Day for another $3000-$4000. We also hold 2 Scholastic Book Fairs a year. These raise over $4000 for our Library and Media Center. The rest is done through collecting receipts, K-Mart Key Card program, Box Tops for Education, Target Stores Take Charge of Education, our local Wendy's donates a % of profits once a month for "Wendy's Night", a cartridge recyling program, Schoolcash.com, and a program at our local Mall. All of these programs use normal shopping habits and do not require the parents to put out additional money or to sell to family or friends. We have several to choose from...some do 1 or 2, others do them all! We bring in $5000-$6000 on these!!!

This year we sent a letter along with the Fall wrapping paper fundraiser offering the choice to donate to the PTO in lieu of the fundraiser. It wasn't an either or, just an alternative if the parent wanted to donate without selling. We made over $500 in cash donations from 24 families. We kept track of who made the donations and we plan to send a little prize to the child just as the company gives prizes to those who buy product. We will do it again next year.

I am the PTO president in a small school system. The are three schools under one umbrella. One schools are broke down as K - 3, 4 - 6 and Jr. High 7 & 8. The school board will not allow kids in the system to sell products outside the school. This presents a real challenge to those of us who are trying to help our schools. With 3 different schools, the activities need to be different to accommadate the different ages. One activity is Domino's Pizza Night. The manage of our local Domino's approached me with this. Each school has one night a month that is their night. One that particular night Domino's will donate $1.00 per each pizza purchased. They provide slips that are sent home with the kids. When orders are called in the name of a teacher is given. The teacher at each school, who has had the most pizza's purchased by members of his/her class, will win a pizza party.

We have Penny wars at the Jr. High. Each teacher has a pickle jar in his/her classroom. Pennies are worth 1 point. Silver coins are points subtracted. There is much competition amoung the kids who change classes. They put pennies in their homeroom classes, and silver coins in the other teachers classes. PTO provides a pizza party for the class with the most $ collected in their jars.

Feb., in the middle school, we have a cookie sale. Flyers are sent out advertising the sale of cookies to be sent to someone you "like, love or admire." We bake cookies and package them in decorative cellophane bags with a few conversation hearts. Tags are attached to the bags that tell who the cookie is to and who it is from or the from can be left blank (we had a lot of those.)

Also, last year Wal-Mart matched fundraising monies to each of our schools. Check with them.

Hope these ideas help.

Last year our PTO board decided to ask for money instead of fundraising. We have about a $25,000 budget and the donation generated $15,000. We did come in under budget but the board had promised parents that they would not ask for anything else for the rest of the school year and they had to go on their word. So this put the board in a $ crunch this year. Of course now I am the PTO President this year so I have to play catch up. After speaking to many parents, it appears that the men (dads) were the one that had a problem donating money. The moms were thrilled that door to door fundraising was not going to happen. In our school, apparently the dads won that battle. This year fundraising is back with 2 major fundraisers (Innisbrook and an auction) with many minor fundraisers. So far, we have done Innisbrook and have raised over $20,000 with 58% participation! We do still accepted money from those who wish to write a check. We call it a "Good Will Donation". (which by the way, can be a tax write off) Very important point - Participation is confidential. We thank everyone generally not personally. I do have the letter that we sent our last year asking for money if you would like it. My e-mail is This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Good Luck!h