Here is our letter that is used for auction.
You can tweek the wording to suit your purpose.
Should be printed on school letterhead.
January 24, 2005



Dear Business Owner;

We are writing to you today in the hope of soliciting your support for the [name of function] . Your generous support will help us bring a wide variety of educational materials into the classrooms at [name] School.

Our continuing mission is to raise funds for educational materials that provide our teachers the resources to support the curriculum in our classrooms. The money we raise goes to toward our many school programs including [name of programs you sponsor]. Last year we were able to generate [value] though the generosity and support of businesses like yours.

Our [Name and date of function go here]. We will be creating and auctioning off a variety of baskets that will include household products, toys, small appliances and gift certificates. Your business can make a monetary donation, a product or a service and it will be greatly appreciated. We always make sure to recognize our contributions in our program, on the baskets themselves and will announce your participation during the auction.

We hope you will consider contributing to this worthwhile cause. Your donation can be sent to the school in care of:
[soliciation chairperson name and phone goes here]



Thank you for helping us to provide our students with resources for a better education.

Tax ID #: [put tax id number here]

I'd share mine, but I haven't written one yet. There are some samples letters posted in the forum. The easiest way to find them would be to do a search of the forum for 'sample letter'.

Good luck!

I am looking for a sample letter requesting donations for our school's PTA carnival from local businesses. We are a 501(c)3.

In my experience of PTO level fund-raising, the 501(c)(3) status does add credibility and enhances your ability get cash donations or larger value donations from individuals.

And some of the bigger organizations (Walmart, Toys R Us) asked if we were 501(c)(3). I honestly don not know if it made much of difference, but they asked.

But - my opinion - all the little/medium size stuff for silent auction and door prizes like meal gift certificates, training classes, hair cuts, lawncare services, etc. - doesn't really much matter. They are doing for the school. I doubt they really know the difference that technically it is going to the PTO.

Another example -- My current PTO is not a 501c3. I personally donated $60 worth of pastries for a Teacher Appreciation Breakfast sponsored by the PTO. If I think of that donation as being to the PTO, it's not deductible, but if I donated those pastries to the school - then it is. Which way do you think I recorded it in my checkbook?

Originally posted by JHB:
I belong to two PTO's - one is 501(c)(3), one is not. For the one that is not, the donation might technically go to the school rather than us when we are talking about things like gift certificates or prizes or items for teacher's appreciation (if it matters to them).

I'm sure you've been asked this before, but I was curious... have you found that being able to stress that all donations are tax deductible, make a difference for the PTO that is 501(c)3? Are businesses or individuals more apt to give (or give more)? In the PTO that is not, does having the donations go directly to the school complicate the fundraising process at all? I'm getting the impression that the PTO's in my district are all loosely organized, but I'm one of those peeps who likes to have all my ducks in a row.