We are not in a small town but we are a small private school. We do a mix of things to raise money and some things that don't raise money, just break even, but are fun and bring families together. We are strongly considering going to one major fund raising event per year and keeping our other events and "fun" raisers so to speak. Our largest money maker is a Silent Auction which raised $17,000 last year. Not bad for a school with 180 students. Our other fundraisers are Grand Tour which is done with the other Lutheran schools in Austin which raised around $8,000 and Entertainment Passbook which only raised $4,000 last year. Grand Tour by the way is a bike-a-thon. What we are considering is putting all of our resources into Silent Auction, taking the pressure off of the kids to get pledges for Grand Tour and just go ride for fun and dropping Passbook which again takes pressure of of kids and family to sell something (I don't really like selling things in the first place). That will likely mean less overall money but more fun for the students. We also do a fall festival but that is one of our break even events not designed to raise money. My advise would be to limit fundraising to one major event a year and hold a number of smaller events just to bring the school family together. That could be a festival, family game night, where everyone brings board games and you guys get pizza and drinks (we do three of those per year), family movie night and so on. I think in some respects parent organizations focus too much on raising money and not enough on having fun.
We are a small town & at one time had trouble getting volunteers to help with our PTO. We have plenty now. One thing we've started this year which has really helped with our meetings. No everyone can make it to our meetings for various reasons, so starting this past school year we now have a PTO newsletter. I'm in charge of it. I have a section letting everyone know what happened at our meeting for that month. I try to get it out the week of our meeting or the week after. Any announcements we want to put in the newsletter such as reminders, activities, etc. is added. I've heard from everyone that they enjoy getting their newsletter and I think it has helped with communication problems for the people wanting to help, but aren't able to make it to meetings. Some months I've needed things to fill in space so I used puzzles, quotes, poems, etc. If anyone is interested and wants some pointers, let me know. I've enjoyed working on the newsletter.
Hang in there....We are the best kept secret at our school, not by choice but because some of our parents feel they are too busy and others feel we are one big click.
We do have a table at registration talking to parents about their intrests and how they can help us best (which has been very useful!) but many walk away looking at us Moms like we really need more to our life if we think PTO is fun.
We don't stress coming to meetings so much as we do the volunteering in anyway that will help. One Mom donated all our paper for the newsletter this past year. Never came to a meeting but wanted to help and this was the best way she knew. We also were able to ask Kindergarden parents to help the teachers with their own supply of balls, jump ropes etc for outside play. The PTO purchased $100 worth only to have the "big kids" ruin them for the "little kids" SO this idea cme up for the kindergarden. They LOVED it! Once again though the idea was shared with parents that wanted to help but couldn't make the meetings and had e-mailed one of the officers (a great invention!).
The most important message is your group just wants to help...not change the world. You want to supplement the school...not take it over.
Can anyone please write to me about there accomplishments if they are from a small school? I would love to hear them so I can share them with my school. I know we can do this but I think they need some encouragement. Please anyone. Thanks in advance!
