Our district gives the schools a certain number of days per school year to be open after hours. These are included because of Title I funds. That being said, in our district, the principal can request extra hours from the district. It's sort of a secret, as he didn't know until a parent inquired at the district level.
Some venues we have used and/or considered are: community centers, local churches and local restaurants that have a large enough separate dining room. Additionally, we have a small local museum with a common area that has offered its building to local community activities.
Good luck!
At our school the school distict charge our ptco, unless a teacher or staff are invoved and will put as their event.
We live in a mountain community where several places have donated to us the use of their bulding. places that have donated their buildings to us were a resort, a recreation facility, a church and our lions club. Most members of our community know times are hard and are willing to help.
After the event we put a "Thank You" in our local paper to help them advertise their business.
Hope this helps
You can also charge a small admission fee depending on the event and the cost of the facility.
Check with other PTO officers at a near by school too. You can usually find them on their school website
Craft/Vendor shows make for great fundraisers if you've put the time into them to get enough vendors signed up. I'm surprised that the school is going to charge you for the use of the school for their own PTO's event. I'd re-address that issue with them and see if there is any wiggle room on the fees. Have you explained to other facilities that you are a non-profit for the local school? Have you asked if they would be willing to donate the facility or at least part of the fees as a sponsor of the event? If nothing else, find local businesses if they would be willing to help sponsor the event by donating $200 for the costs and supply them a free booth in the show as a thank you! If the business commits, ask them if they have a banner that you can hang in the show and include all sponsors on any advertising that you do. If they don't have a banner for you to use, you can get them printed up online fairly cheap! It's a tax deduction for them, offers them advertising and gives them the opportunity to further share their own business! Then charge your vendors $100 for each 10X10 booth. As the local high school teams if they would like to sell food at the event. It gives them an opportunity to raise some money too & allows you to reduce that up front money and need for even more volunteers! If you have a local high school with a junior ROTC program, as that they help with set up, clean up, parking, etc. It gives them some of the community volunteering they need and again rids some of the volunteers that you need to recruit! Remember, to make things as easy for your vendors as possible. The easier it is, and the better the sales, the more likely they will come back year after year to your event!
Have you checked with the correct authorities as far as being charged for a school function? That doesn't seem right that a school would charge a fundraising group for a function that benefits the school. I would keep asking, go as far as asking the superintendant, just to be sure that you have the correct answer. good luck
Hi All,
I am looking for suggestions on how to arrange an event site without spending the majority of the funds raised. This is my first year in fundraising and what I am finding in my area is that even the school charges for use of faucilities (even for an event that benefits the school). Is this the same in all locations? Any suggestions on faucilities that have little or no fees? My idea is a craft fair.
