I would agree with above. We received 30 out of 500 surveys back that we sent home. Most of the 30 just said things like "keep up the good work", no great info or suggestion or even volunteers came of it. However, it does give you an out to any complainers throughout the year, we can now say, "we asked for opinions" Not to change the subject, but you mentioned you want the parents to vote on fundraisers and I have a suggestion. All the elementary schools in our district are participating in "Race for Education" this year (students send out mailers to get pledges for completing laps around school) after one of our schools tried it last year and raised $33,000. It is now the only fundraiser we do and that allows us to focus on family fun nights and the parents appreciate not being asked every month to support the PTO. It is a lot of work leading up to the race day, but it is one day and it is fun for the kids and the folks from RFE are a great help. Just my 2 cents. Good luck in what ever you decide!!

Well, I am going to go out on a limb and simply say, don't bother with a survey, unless the goal is to get about 20 new prospective volunteers, of whom maybe 5 will become involved. If that's the goal, and the expectation, then that's great.

But, as I have said in other threads regarding " asking parents what they want " by doing surveys.......... that's like asking the passengers how they want the pilot to fly the plane.

Have these survey takers researched dozens of companies?
Do they know what's "in" in fundraising trends?
Do they know what types of fundraisers are successful for the demographic makeup of your school?
Do they know what the average % of return is, do they know what your budget is?
Do they know what companies are reliable and which ones aren't?
Do they know whether your school has freezer space for cookie dough, or what the terms of delivery are?
Do they know how prize programs affect your profit?
Do they know you usually get a better deal if you sign a contract for next year when you are wrapping up this year's fundraiser?


I could go on and on........... in short.. you are better off " surveying " the folks on these boards. We all have experience with the answers you want to know. You can search your exact question, and get lots of hits, or you can ask an exact question, and get lots of good feedback.

We all can answer all the aforementioned questions, and can certainly recommend certain companies, or programs. People here are current on good/bad companies.


I don't mean to " dis" the non-involved parents ( aka the majority of those survey takers) .. but truth is, sadly, they either don't care, or don't have enough info to make a good decision.

If you ASK for opinions, you may end up getting stuck with doing something you discover isn't the best match for your school, or you run the risk of people bad-mouthing you , by saying " they asked our opinion but didn't do what we wanted.. that PTO is cliquey and does what they want"......... do yourself a favor.. and don't go there!

We have done this at our PTO meetings, I was thinking of sending out one to all 550 parents. But I was thinking the same thing that most parents wouldn't return it anyway. I still may do it though because you never know.

I agree with all yes/no questions

we had the same as above. Did you attend this event they circled yes/no.
asked if they attended PTO meetings why or why not. Also listed days of the week that they would prefer for a meeting they circled which ones would work best.

As for fundraisers we listed ones that we would be willing to do cookie dough, wrapping paper etc. (circle them) and also asked for suggestions. If you ask them point blank to list ideas they have no clue off hand so they will probably just not put anything which doesnt help.

Any events they would like too see?

I can't think of anything else right now.
s

We do a midyear review in February. Very simple. We list past events and fundraisers with "Did you participate?" yes/no and a like/dislike for them to circle and a spot for comments underneath.

Then we have a section for next year asking for suggestions on fundraisers/events, etc.

A "Do you feel PTO keeps you up to date?" yes/no "Would you like a monthly email?" yes/no "How could the PTO better serve the school next year?" with a place for comments "Rank your PTO" 1-5 and then a general comments spot.

At the end we ask if we may contact them to discuss opinions and leave a spot for their name number and email. Out of 500 families and 70 teachers/staff - we got 74 back. Out of that, only 20 were interested in being contacted but it was 20 more names and numbers that we had than before and the responses are great tools for planning next year.

It's best if there are simple questions with circle answers that a parent can zip through without putting much effort into it. It's hard to keep it short because we want so much input.

I hear you my school has the same problem and I would also love some imput as well.We are a school of about 480 K-6. One thing I had thought about doing was holding a Welcome coffee hour for the kindergarten parents. Ithought they would be able to meet each other and just introduce some of the things we do at our school to make them feel welcome. We got very little support from our K parents this year and they will be the school's future so we need to get them involved in the beginning. Thanks for any help.

We are thinking about sending a survey home to parents at the end of the school year asking what fund raisers parents would like to do next year, and if they have any new ideas for PTO and the such. Have any of you done this, and did you get good feedback? What kinds of questions did you ask? I was thinking about selecting 8 fund raisers for next year, and taking a vote from the parents which 4 they would like us to do. We are an elementary school of just over 300 students. We have about 10 people on our PTO team. Our parents always come through with orders for us with our fund raisers, but getting more parents involved with PTO meetings and new ideas has been difficult for us. We do the same things each year, and although we meet budget, it seems the parents are getting tired of the same old stuff, so we thought we would try to mix it up a little for next year. If anyone has any ideas of what types of questions to ask the parents on the survey, I would appreciate it. This was my first year as fundraising chair person, so I still have a lot to learn, and would like it to be better for our PTO members and parents next year. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated. I love this board, and I have learned so much from everyone!
Raelene