My Tip of the Week: Host Family Nights to Build Community at Your School
When
n it
n it comes to building involvement and engagement at your school, there's no better starting point than hosting several fun, free events for families.
This is what our School Family Nights series is all about.
These kind of nights are the entry points for families, especially the families who are least likely to come to a meeting or step up out of the blue to volunteer. In other words: the parents and families you have the most trouble reaching.
Whether you use one of our free kits to host a Family Reading Night or a Family Movie Night or a Go Green Night or you come up with a creative family event of your own, these are the events that bring in families. There are so many benefits. Families having a positive time connected to school is great, even if nothing else happens. Those parents getting a new appreciation for your PTO (it's about more than fundraising) is another. And I can tell you from experience that your volunteer recruitment gets easier after parents have connected with your school in these light ways.
Last point: Please don't charge admission. These are exactly the kinds of events you raise money to support. And you'll make more money from your actual major fundraisers if you resist the urge to charge for everything else. Serving parents and providing a free movie and some popcorn is a perfectly great function of your group.
This is what our School Family Nights series is all about.
These kind of nights are the entry points for families, especially the families who are least likely to come to a meeting or step up out of the blue to volunteer. In other words: the parents and families you have the most trouble reaching.
Whether you use one of our free kits to host a Family Reading Night or a Family Movie Night or a Go Green Night or you come up with a creative family event of your own, these are the events that bring in families. There are so many benefits. Families having a positive time connected to school is great, even if nothing else happens. Those parents getting a new appreciation for your PTO (it's about more than fundraising) is another. And I can tell you from experience that your volunteer recruitment gets easier after parents have connected with your school in these light ways.
Last point: Please don't charge admission. These are exactly the kinds of events you raise money to support. And you'll make more money from your actual major fundraisers if you resist the urge to charge for everything else. Serving parents and providing a free movie and some popcorn is a perfectly great function of your group.
