The night was a success! With only 56 people there and 41 gifts we made $847! Everyone had such a great time and want to do this again soon. I think the next time will be even better after everyone hears what a great time it was.
Shelly,
The HSA consists of 8 parents , the principle and a teacher representative. I am the tresurer and I keep track of what everyones fundraising profit is. We as a board make the budget and our parents do get to vote on it. We used to have dues and if you paid them you were part of the Home School Association but we decided to do away with that and if you are a part of the school you are a part of the association. Our board is required to turn over $40,000 to the school for operating costs and it helps to keep tuition down. Then we decide what our other costs for the year will be, we fund different activities for the kids as well as give each class money for field trips and for our 8th grades class trip. We also have a teacher appreciation night where we honor our teachers and give them a bonus, working for a catholic school they can use all the bonuses they can get. we also give bonuses to the people who help at school, cafeteria staff, janitors, librarian just to name a few. We only have 100 families. This year our budget is just under $60,000, to help make this budget each family signs a contract when they register their children stating that they will fundraise so much in profit for the HSA and volunteer so many hours during the school year. This year each family is required to fundraise $300 in profit, we also have a buy-out option of $500 if they don't want to do any fundraising. For the most part this works very well, we always have those families that don't do very much but if they don't pay by the end of the year they will not get their childrens report cards. With a budget so big we started offering a lot of fundraisers so families could pick and choose which ones they want to do, we give them lots of opportunities to reach their fundraising goals. I say goals because we have in place an incentive program if any family raises $500 in profit and is registered for the next school year we will give them a $50 voucher, $750 in profit gets you a $200 voucher and $1000 in profit gets you a $500 voucher. We gave out $6050 in vouchers last year with almost all the board members receiving a $500 voucher, with all the opportunities we give them its really not that hard if you want to go for it. I hope this answers some of your questions, and we're always looking for new ideas for fundraisers and for ways to get parents to volunteer or just to show up for meetings or the fun things we do. If anyone has any ideas please let me know. Thanks.
Becky
This year each family needs to fundraise at least $300 in profit for the HSA,
It's so interesting the way you put that--that is a very unusual "concept" requiring each family to be responsible for a certain amount.
May I ask you a question? We are a private school also so we may have a similar situation:
The money that you raise, who controls how that is spent? Does it go straight to your general school budget or does it go to your PTO who votes on it? Just curious. One local Catholic school had fundraisers where the money was REQUIRED for the school budget just to keep the doors open.
Good luck! We have a big auction/gala every year and generally raise anywhere from $45-$60K.
Shelly
Our school is holding a fun night out for parents and combining it with fundraising at the same time. We're a catholic school with 100 families and our HSA needs to raise $60,000 this year. This year each family needs to fundraise at least $300 in profit for the HSA, we have incentives in place for families who go above and beyond what is expected of them. We have a couple of school fathers who are in a band together and their band has agreed to play for us for free for our auction night. We're asking each person or couple who comes to bring a wrapped gift, something they'd like to receive and it doesn't have to be expensive either. The nicer the wrapping the more it may bring in, we do this at our family reunions and its always a lot of fun. The HSA is providing the music and finger foods and pop and the parents may bring whatever other beverage they'd like to drink. We've encouraged them to bring family members and friends too and whatever amount of money thier gifts bring in will be applied to their fundraising total. We've made some fun auction paddles for them to use and we're hoping to have a good turnout. The HSA is also going to give away $50, each time you buy a gift your name will go into a drawing for it and we are going to give the grade that has the biggest percentage of parents attend a pizza party. It's pretty hard to get parents to participate in anything these days but hopefully this will be a success, the board plans on having fun anyway! I'll keep you posted.
Becky
