Have you heard of SCRIP. Go under NationalScripCenter.com. Its a no fundraiser program were parents purchased gift certificates from your school from places they regularly buy from. In return the merchant gives the school a percentage of every $1. (Example: grocery stores & fast food). Its a great way to raise money off of families normal purchases. Hope this helps.
We just had a sponsorship Drive & raised about $3000 in 2 weeks. A flyer was sent out asking for donations, each child that brought 1 in got a ice cream scoop (fake scoop of course)with their name one it, then at the end of the drive we had a ice cream party where the kids could trade their fake scoop for a real scoop at lunch time. We only asked for $2.00 or up some parent sent in $2.00 in change others checks for $100 It was easy money!! Good Luck [img]tongue.gif[/img] [img]smile.gif[/img] :cool:
We do NO FUND RAISERS at our Middle School... and haven't as far back as I can remember. We leave all the fund raising activity to the Elementary Schools. Parents end up too torn between schools (when they have kids in each)... trying not to double commit, etc...
We charge $30 PER FAMILY (just up from $25) for PTO Membership, that's it. No worrying about who's gonna run which fund raiser and worry about who has to distribute whatever's sold, etc., etc., etc.... Our average participation is usually close to 90% (maybe more). There's a certain attraction for not being constantly called upon to "do" fund raisers... or buy something. I know families typically spend a lot more than $30 on fund raising "things."
This would not fly at my school, either - but if you are expecting 100% participation, I would ask for $15-20 per CHILD - not per family AT OUR SCHOOL. I arrived at this by going through our project3ed budget and accounting for every expense we are anticipating and dividing by the number of students at the school.
Just as you don't get 100% participation with fundraisers, you won't get it this way, either. If someone told me that I could give $20 and do NO FUNDRAISING I would be all over it - but I know that there are many families who don't - or in some cases CAN'T afford the $20 per child. Doesn't seem like much to many of us, but to some of us it's a ton of money.
We "sponsor" other events that are not fundraisers, school supplies, spirit wear. Parents may perceive these as fundraisers whether or not in fact they are. We also charge admission to other events that are not fundraisers - socials, etc. I think the parents might question why we are charging if we are truly having a non-fundraising year? Those who participate in such activities but never attend a meeting don't realize that it costs money to run the events.
If you truly go this route - I think that the "NON$ELLING FUNDRAI$ER$" (we substitute dollar signs for "s" in our flyers for these things) become a must - cartridge recycling, box tops (NO LABELS!) and schoolcash.com.
Before my time at this school, the PTO did this sort of fundraiser. The folklore says it was a bust. But proper marketing can lead to success. Are you starting the year with a lot of money? If so, this no-fuss fundraiser can be a nice way to thank the parents for their generous support in the past, rather than expecting them to buy yet another box of candy. On the other hand, if you need to earn as much as a traditional fundraiser: remember that when a parent participates in a catalog fundraiser, they are often getting support from grandma, co-workers, and neighbors. It's unlikely Junior will ask grandma to contribute to the donation check.
Do you know how much your PTO spends on each student on average? Easy to figure: take last year's total actual expense budget and divide it by the number of students in your school. That's one way to justify your suggested donation amount. List all the cool things PTO can do with the money.
Do you know the average amount of profit per student your traditional fundraiser brings in? At our school, it appears to be about $24 ($15,000 / 620). We also know that only 50% of the students participate in our tradtional catalog fundraiser. So, in order to make as much, we would need to suggest $48 donation per student since we know that half of our students won't participate. And that's per student, not per family. Plus, we have $10 dues. That makes our suggested donation well over $50 - for basically no tangible return.
Keep us posted. We would all like to see your program be a huge success. Parents have always said they like the idea of a no-fuss fundraiser. Now, can we get them to ante up?
