We don't use a fundraising company, we package them ourselves. We also don't use this as a fundraiser (except for the little bit of rounding up). Ours is just for convenience (for parents AND teachers). We sell A LOT of the kindergarten packages and, as this is the very first exposure to the PTO in many cases, we don't want to make it a fundraiser. We found it was MUCH, MUCH cheaper to go to our local department stores when they are having a sale to purchase the supplies than it was to go through one of the fundraising companies. Sometimes parents will even purchase an "extra" pack of supplies for a student who can't afford to buy them.
We sold school supply kits this year for the first time. We used EPI company. Their prices were terrific. Our response was great. We have not received them yet but we did get a sample at the PTO Conference in Philadelphia and we were very pleased with that. The nice thing about that company is that they will buy back what you do not use- you have to pay to ship them back though. We took pre-paid orders and we are ordering extras for each grade level and will be selling them at our first annual First Day of School Celebration. The teachers thought the idea was terrific and they all purchased extra kits for their classrooms. They would love to see all of the children purchase them. We did not do it as a fundraiser though, only a service. Next year, we may add $1 or $2 on to the total and make a small amount of profit off of it. Hope that this helps.
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My school just did this fundraise for the first time. I have to say, it is the first time I have ever seen parents excited about a fundraiser--we sold a ton of them. If you go to the "PTO Basics" section of this website, and then the "Fundraising" section, there's an excellent article on school supply kits.
Someone in our PTO heard about a school where the PTO offered to do the shopping for supplies so parents didn't have to. We have been unable to get any more information about this. Has anyone done this before with their school? If so, can you send me some information on how exactly it works? My email is This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Thank you!
