I personally think it's a great way to thank parents! I do not think your costs are outrageous. We do a carnival every fall but it's our major fundraiser. We have brainstormed ways to thanks parents at the end of the year. But have not decided on how yet. I would think that we would spend maybe $250, but we wouldn't get even half of our parent volunteers there!
If you are doing this in the fall, I'd "sell" it as a thank you and recruitment event rolled into one! This would be a great way to fill up your teams and committees!!!
Best of luck to you and let us know what you decide.
P.S.: I think that the PTO funds should be spent on what the PTO wants to spend it on!!!! I would put this in your annual plan for the PTO. And when fundraising, earmark the amount of the earnings of the fundraiser that will be spent on Volunteer Appreciation!
We hosted a carnival only 9 days after school started as a way to energize our community, teachers and parents. We spent $5,000 and had activities for all ages - indoors and outdoors. This event was not only a fundraiser, although we did not promote it that way, and yielded successes greater than money! Even though we had heavy rain for the first 2 hours of this event, we still profited $3,100...but better than that, we have heard nothing but great reviews from anyone and everyone that attended. In fact, we are planning to do this event again next year.
It took a lot of planning over the summer, but it was worth it. We sold bracelets for the event to make it easier and more affordable. I might also add that we included a Dunkin' booth for our teachers and faculty to sit in and get dropped. Our group was awesome, we had a variety of items taken in the booth with them; flippers, rubber duckies, nose plugs, blow up ring rafts...they rotated every 15 minutes and at NO point during our event (3-9pm), was there a lag in the line! Kids bought tickets for 3 chances to throw.
Michelle-
Could you turn your carnival into more of a fundraiser to offset your expenses and do something else to thank parents? A carnival is really more for the kids than the parents.
We are currently planning a school wide carnival for next month. We are getting a lot of scrutiny from the principal and teachers becasue of the cost among other issues. We find that they love the idea but must be saying something else behind closed doors. We plan to spend around $1000 total. This carnival is a thank you to all the parents for participating in the PTO fundraisers. A 2 hour carnival on a Friday evening is what we are shooting for with hot dogs, bouncy house and a few carnival games. Nothing too elaborate. One other issue is that school is a teachers work environment and they have issues giving up time. Any thoughts?
