We've run into the same delima as everyone above and are doing as lucella and c&wsmom - more free family nights. We are gearing up for a dance, our annual Heritage Festival and a family bingo night - all this by Jan! We also have started adding what we do on our "join the ..." flyers and it seems to be making a diff. The parents don't feel that their money is going into the "black hole", they know that we are brining cultural arts in, providing money for field trips, etc. I hope the free nights will ease some of the concerns that have been expressed to us and improve parent participation!

One thing that I have run across this year is that some parents have no idea where the profit from these events are going. If you ssay that this benefits the school, they still don't quite get it. Sometimes it helps to be more informative. For example, if your goal for the year is a new copier, let parents know that. maybe even keep a sign up about how much raised towards the copier, etc....
If people can see exactly where the money is going, sometimes that helps.

We are a new PTO at a long existing Middle School (gr 6-8.) Last year we didn't feel like we got much parent participation or that the parents even knew we were there.

This year our plan of attack is to have parent involvement activities. These include an Ice Cream Social/ Membership kick off, an art fair, a car show/ silent auction, a craft fair, a lock in for the kids at a local pizza restaraunt and several movie nights.

We will communicate with parents via email and our website. Our website is updated FREQUENTLY so the parents don't get the feeling it is abandoned.

Our PTO has chosen not to do any fundraisers that use the children. All of our fundraisers use parent power to generate the $$$$$. I know that this is VERY unusual but it is a bonus for the parents of the student body who don't get hit with fundraisers from the school, ASB, PE program and *then* the PTO.

The fundraisers that we push are "Free and Easy" fundraisers. So far we have Albertson's Community Card, Target Red Card, WaMoola for schools and Box Tops for Education. We will be adding Ralph's Community Program, Verizon's Long Distance Program (we live in a Verizon area of CA) and possibly a cell phone/ ink cartridge recycling program.

The parents staff the parent involvement events and the kids get to be kids. The bonus is that everytime the PTO communicates with the parents they don't think of us as a person with our hand out asking for cash. Or at least I *hope* that is the atmosphere we are creating.

We were able to speak at the school's open house and we will be submitting articles for the school newsletter. We are attempting to use every chance we get to communicate to the parents that we are there and we are there to help the kids!

We are doing the same as Lucella. We felt like parents were feeling like PTO was just around to ask for your money - so we decided last year (when we started on the board) to do some "free" things as well. This past month was our 2nd Annual "Dive In To School" Pool Party - free to all our students & immediate families. We also do a "Family Night" around February.

We are having the same problem. This year, we are going to try doing a lot of no/low cost events. (Check out the School Family Nights section on this site) I think sometimes PTOs can get a bad reputation w/parents because everytime they hear from us we want their money. We are hoping to build a little good faith w/our parents and community this year & hopefully, after they see all of the great things we are doing for our kids, they will be a little more generous w/their time & money.

Good Luck!

Hi,

We fund raise a lot at our school and the parents, teachers and students don't seem engaged even though we are buying great things for the school with the profit.

Can anyone give me some ideas on increasing our fundraising participation from parents, students and teachers?