Our school has one main fundraiser which is a fall festival. Last year we made $16,000. Our kids do not sell anything. I think parents and the community appreciates that and they are more willing to give more to this one big event than lots of others. We do other smaller events like Christmas shop, t-shirt sales, yearbook sales, school play, talent show, but nothing like candy or catalog sales. I certainly appreciate it.
We just had a PTO meeting last night and determined we have nearly a full years worth of budget in a second account (it's been accumlated over the years). Our annual budget is about 30,000.
We are considering not doing any fundraising (the kind you send home with the kids to sell). In the past this type of fundraising was about 30 percent of our budget (10,000). The rest of our budget is made up from our afterschool club, pictures, family events (fall festival, dances, etc), marketday, and more.
I've read a lot of comments on different ways to do things and here is what we are considering.
- Not doing any sales that require the kids to sell
- Still do Market Day, Meijer Rewards and other programs that are only parent initiated.
- Still have items like coupon books, value cards available for parents if they would like to come in and purchase them, but not push them as fundraisers like in the past
- Not have a fall gift wrap sale. This has been our biggest in the past but feel that we can make up most of the income from events. We only raised about 7,000 this year from it.
- Using family events to generate additional income by offering more services (pictures, food, drink, etc). We have events monthly so the little bits would add up over the school year. We average 1/3-2/3 of the school families at the events now and they are very popular so we want to build on them.
Worst Case Scenario is that we don't make up the 30% that we normally do throughout the year and need to take it from the overage of years past. But if it does work...
Possibly eliminate PTO fund raising ? I am envious, not an option in our needy system !! We used to have one major fall festival which supported our program for a year. It was very successful for several years until the volunteer base felt overwhelmed. So then we tried several smaller fund raisers and received critism for " nickle & diming" everyone. What we have recently become successful at is tapping into matching fund grants. This way we can have one major fall fundraiser with the matching funds and one smaller spring fundraiser, if necessary. There are a lot of foundations out there you just have to find someone willing to put in the time researching it, and with the ability to write for the grant. Look into any parents who wook in financial institutions they are a great resource. Good Luck !
We currently have about one family event a month (sometimes two). Many are break-even type events (movie nights, dances, etc). I like the idea of having things available (like coupons books) but not sending them home - tracking and follow up is a major pain and a lot of work.
Other than the Holiday Shopper (which brings in about 3k), we only have one fundraiser in the Spring, which is where we make the majority of our profit. Our kids are not allowed to do any selling of any kind, so no wrapping paper, cookie dough, etc.
Besides that, our only other funds come in the form of Script - grocery certificates, some coupon books that the parents can purchase (they aren't pushed), class pics, and a few other nights at local businesses.
I'm beginning to think that we need to add another carnival-fundraiser in the fall, because it is very overwelming to try to accomplish everything (dinner, auction, games), at our Spring fundraiser. I also think we would probably be better off if we did do some family events also. The winds seems to be shifting in our PTO because everyone is getting burnt out doing the same old things.
Our Fall Festival is not a fundraiser, but one of the class parties and it only lasts a couple of hours and we do not make any money off it.
Maybe you could go from four fundraisers down to two and implement some family events as well?
We would like to replace our fundraisers (4) that currently raise about $14,000 total with one fundraiser or with several family events (dances, breakfast, fall festival, donuts with dad, etc).
Two questions:
1. Is anyone doing a single fundraiser at their school and doing family events to raise the remainder of the funds?
2. Has anyone found success in removing all fundraising (coupon books, gift wrap, etc) and replacing them with all family oriented events?
Ideally, I'd like to have one fundraiser this year (or eliminate them altogether if possible), but am very nervous on trying it.
