I live in California. I am interested in the company you use Signature Fundraisers. I could not find it on the internet. If possible please email me the phone number or web address.
<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by more_than_a_mom: The fundraiser company we use (and i'm not sure if we're suppose to post this on here) is called Signature Fundraiser. They are located in California and we are in Texas.
As for the number of nontaxable fundraisers we have someone else explained that already a lot better then i could have! *laugh*
I empathize with your situation. Our PTA has had a horrendous year. But perhaps *I can offer some assistance with your family night...
We offer two movie nights per year. We rent movies from a company out of New York called SWANK motion pictures. We pay approx $300 to rent a movie not yet out on video. We have shown Bugs Life, Parent Trap, Tarzan etc - all before they were available on video. We use the school gym which has a capacity of 225. The families are invited to bring their blankets and sleeping bags to camp on the floor. We charge $2/ticket with children 2 and under admitted free. We rent a popcorn popper from a local tool rental company and sell, popcorn, sodas, hotdogs and candy. On average we net $350 on the event.
Our other very popular family night is skate night. We sign an annual contract with the local rink to host a monthly skate night. We charge $4 admission (discounted if you wear the school logoed t-shirt). The rink is exclusively ours for that evening. They provide the staff and they sell refreshments. Our rink offers a deal of committ to 3 nights and the fourth is free. The rent is $175 for the evening unless we have less than 100 people attend (then rent increases to $300). We offer free face painting for the kids and door prizes. We average $250 profit per skate night. Some nights we double that and others we make a minimal amount. Encourage the teachers to attend by offering them free admission.
Good luck!
<blockquote>quote:</font><hr>Originally posted by Ange: Hi everyone!,
I have a LONG story to tell and hopefully some of you out there will have some helpful advice to a new PTO President!!
Okay! I'll start from the beginning! I have volunteered for the PTO for the past 2 years and have only done things I was asked to do and tried to make it to meetings and so on! Last year I was asked by the ex-president (from the year before) if I would be interested in running for a board member position! I wasn't sure if I was ready for such a task--after she told me that if they didn't find at least 2 of the 4 positions to be filled--the PTO would go under--for GOOD! After some serious thought and a commitment from the previous president to help me through this I agreed! Well--I was voted in as president! YIKES! The first couple weeks went alright--the ex-president was helpful in my 14 million questions but I was still struggling as there was NO written notes as to what needed to be done or when! I was going through files from years ago to get info! Well, the ex-president started becoming distant to me as I was changing some things as I went along (for example--at our annual celebration (carnival) I gave free ticket coupons to all the parent/teacher volunteers! Something I thought was neccessary!! AND for our fall book fair I moved the spot they have used for about 5 years to a much more visable spot--which seemed to help since we did make MORE money!!). So....now I was stuck in a position that I had no idea what to do and absolutely NO help at all! To make things worse this ex-president was the treasurer on the last years board--so she still had the checkbook and account info--here I was president and had NO idea what our monetary status was and she would NOT communicate with me! So, I finally got tired of waiting and went to our principal after getting a bank statement which included large checks written to a fundraising company that I knew nothing about! I thought there was something out there I didn't know about! Well, the principal was a tad upset and called her--I don't know what was said between the two of them but after that I received a letter that she had written to him (the principal) where she stated she would no longer have anything to do with the PTO while the current board members were in office! UGH!
There is my first question to you all--what do I do? Should I talk to her or leave it alone and move on?
So, since then I have battled with our principal over fundraising issues! He allows us to do certain things and other are a HUGE no-no! His basic rule for fundraising is that we need to be able to make a large amount of money at once and it cannot intterupt the children's learning! Here is a list of the events we do NOW:
****Jog-a-thon (which is coming up this month
and he wants up to promote it--our P.E.
teacher runs most of this event and this is
his last year with us--he wants up to use
that to boost it! Any ideas would be
great!!!!!)
****Book fairs (twice a year)--all of the
proceeds of the book fair go to the school
librarys and we get NO help from the school
librarian--we asked if we could set up the
book fair in a semi-permanent spot that she
could keep her eye on and run during times
we wouldn't normally have it open--she said
NO!
I told my volunteers that at our spring
book fair we would not give ALL
proceeds to the library if they were not
willing to help--is that too harsh???
(We got this idea from visiting another
school in our town--their librarian runs
the whole book fair--their PTO isn't
involved hardly at all!)
*****Lunchtime candy,pop,popcorn,pickle or chip
sales (we are allowed to sell these items
during the lunch time recesses!)
*****T-shirt sales
(we changed our school mascot this year and
we are currently working on getting t-
shirts made with the new mascot)
*****our annual celebration (the PTO sponsers and
volunteers to put on this annual event
which usually brings us about $1500-$2000--
this is by far our biggest fund raiser)
*****candy gram sales (each holiday we sell
simple cards with a candy suprise inside
for 50 cents each or three of $1) (our
student council helps with this so we split
proceeds with them!)
*****we participate in the box tops for education
and campbells' labels programs but recently
our principal began questioning these as
well--he says that we spend too much time
on things that bring in such a little
amount of money! I don't agree considering
we have one mom who takes care of both of
these programs 100% so the way I look at it
is as long as we have her we might as well
participate--even if the reward is small!
*****He has allowed us to participate in some of
the stores card percentage programs. He
has allowed the Albertson's card and the
Bashas receipt program and the Target card
program but NOT the K-Mart card program!
His answer to the K-Mart card program was
that we didn't want to start a war of the
stores!! Don't ask!!!! LOL
*****We have participated in the cartridge
recycling program although I have no idea
HOW to go about this and without the help
of the ex-president any information on this
program would be greatly appreciated!
That's about it I think!
He will NOT allow us to do the following:
*****Secret Santa workshops--he says this will
take away from the children's learning!!
*****Candy or magazine product sales--NO door to
door sales which I understand--that is a
safety issue but he does allow children to
get jog-a-thon commitments--he does say they
are NOT to go door to door which I feel he
could do for a fundraiser--parents,
grandparents, friends and family would be
willing to purchase some things I think--
What do you all think? Is there really any
money to be made in these?
There were some other small things taken to
him that he did not improve of but those are
the two that are sticking in my head right
now!
He has also agreed to allow us to have a monthly famiy night--where we could do crafts or show movies and sell items to make money! Now we just need to figure out which movies to show at this--any ideas or please tell HOW you go about this at your school if you do it now! We discussed this at our last PTO meeting and we came up with the idea of sending home a form asking parents what movies they would suggest and using the movie with the most votes and starting this program in March!
I would like to expand our sales to include items such as school supplies (pencils, erasers, folders, water bottles, pins, pencil grips, zipper pulls and stickers--all with our new school mascot on them--which is a bobcat by the way!) and would like to sell the by paper (sending home an invoice that the parents can fill out-attach money and return to the teacher or school office--then the items will be sent to the student at school) --Does that sound like a good idea or not? I crunched numbers today to see where to get the best price and what kind of profit could be made and it does look promising while keeping the prices low!
Our school has about 520 children and we are grades K-5! We are an active student council who is eager to help us anytime but then that means splitting proceeds as well!
If you have any ideas on how to deal with our principal or any fundraising ideas (and how to take the ideas to him! LOL) I would be forever grateful!
Well, I have been told that our principal DOES NOT like change at all and I have learned that! How do I deal with him? I have also had teachers and staff come up to me and compliment me on the changes I have accomplished and the parent involvement I have been able to bring in! So...I must be doing something right! Any and all advice would be greatly greatly appreciated!
The fundraiser company we use (and i'm not sure if we're suppose to post this on here) is called Signature Fundraiser. They are located in California and we are in Texas.
As for the number of nontaxable fundraisers we have someone else explained that already a lot better then i could have! *laugh*
Regarding number of fundraisers per year...we've seen that issue raised from a few angles.
1) Often a district or a school will have a policy about how many fundraisers can be conducted. Sometimes the policy only affects catalog type sales. So you might be limited to two catalog sales, but could still hold a Spring Fling or a carnival in addition. The purpose is usually to limit the number of times the whole studen population is involved in selling things for a fundraiser.
2) As to what more_than_a_mom was referencing, PTO's are subject to state law as to what's applicable regarding sales tax. Some states allow tax exempt organizations to have a set number of "tax free" fundraising events each year. (In Texas, it's two). The organization can hold more, but sales tax is fully due on the others as it applies to the situation. (i.e., in Texas concession sales are not taxable, but admission tickets to a carnival are). For us, it's not that we can't hold more than two events, but we only get those two tax free.
And a note on this - just because sales tax is due - don't let that be a barrier. It's not that complicated. You need to keep good financial records for lots of reasons, so you should already be tracking that stuff. Paying sales tax is no big deal. It's just a form filled out quarterly or annually and submitted with the proper payment. For us it's about 8-1/4% and doesn't apply to everything. T-Shirt sales are one of the main things for us to pay tax on.
On the fundraiser issue, we are allowed three per our by-laws only because our school does SO many.
The school district had a meeting with ALL the PTO/PTA Presidents in the districe to ask why we need so much money. I was told they (the school board!) got an ear full!
I went back a re-read what I wrote, have a meeting tonight and think I need my own advise!!
Glad I can help...
