I am our fundraising chair, and last year I sent out a survey to our parents asking them what they wanted to sell. Based on the results, I narrowed down to the 2 best companies that fit our needs and asked those present at the meeting which company they thought would be best.

I did a lot of research on fundraisers and brought what I thought was the best prospect to the group and the had a vote to appove it. We are selling cookie dough this fall and will do an art based fundraiser in the spring. These are both new ones for us. Everyone was tired of the catalog sale the previous officers had done for the last 5 years.

We have a fundraising chair that does the research to find companies that fit into our criteria and they bring the options available to a meeting where the group reviews the materials and either votes or sends the chair for more research. Usually we do 2 catalogs, sometimes the second one is Home Interior, we also look for new things, like Chuck E Cheese type nights. I was chair last year and you would not believe all the information I got on fundraisers!

we have done the basically the past three years, this year we are scratching two and trying two new ones. The decision comes from sales declining some and wanting to give families something new. We are actually in the middle of our fisrt ever flower bulb sale and the response has been very very positive. Yes it was a gamble but it was also nice to get away from the catalog sale, we know we may have to get creative to meet our budget but are willing to do so. For the record we kept our home interior candles sale that is popular every year because people use them as gifts. usually when a parent mentions comes forward with a "grand" plan it appears that there is not truly alot of chacne to make the kind of money we need, that is what is looked at :profit potential, work involved, what company is it, is the product something the families can use or something that they can eat besides candy, etc. We dont have a board so we actually just sit and discuss it between all of us!

For the most part we do the same fundraisers each year. Anything that is added or changed is decided by the board. Parents are always welcome to bring forth new fundraising ideas for us to discuss and consider. We have honestly never had to have a genral group vote on a fundraiser as no fundraiser we have done has ever been hotly debated or has people opposing it.

Does your PTO group vote on the fundraisers that will be done the next year? When and how do you choose or narrow it down for the parents?


Cindy