Anyone Raising Funds for your Schools?

[casuncatcher]

Is anyone raising funds for your school or doing something else to replace school funding lost from recent state budget cuts? If so, can you tell me what are you doing and how much have you raised? We are gearing up in California as our state funding seems to be falling even further behind!

[specialeducator]

The #1 thing to go is funding for special needs. But the school's still need new football uniforms! Argghhhhh! Anyway, I saw creative ways for schools to increase the budget at www.only4moms.com. I believe it was in the education forum. Just register to gain entry.

[lastkidK]

We are working with our local NFL team to raise money. We provide at least 15 adults per game (preseason included) to work selling food etc and they pay the school. All adult volunteers have to be trained by their staff and the school is helping come up with transportation as we live about 1 1/2 hours from the stadium. We could make as much as $40,000 in a season. Dads are loving this way to contribute. Beats selling door to door and we aren't the only group raising funds this way.

[cmay2ck]

Does your school have a Foundation? I am on our Foundation Board. We sponsor events like a Read-A-Thon, Jog-A-Thon, Sock Hop, etc. and we hold an auction every year. We raise anywhere from $35,000 to $50,000 per year. Because the Foundation is not as limited as the PTA as to how it can use the funds, we pay for half of our school's P.E. teacher's salary, our Reading Plus program, new technology for the classrooms, and workbooks. Those are the large commitments we have made to our school. We do several smaller things over the year as well. For example, this year attendance is a high priority, so we are going to purchase something (to be decided by the kids) to be used as an incentive for perfect attendence.
We are also lucky enough to have four of our community groups (Elks Lodge, Kiwanis, etc) running a Supply Our Schools (SOS) drive. They are taking donations of supplies and gift cards to be distributed where they are most needed throughout the district.

[BRoxMum]

I ask teacher's what specific needs they have. I find it easier to get a tangible product from businesses rather than money. I get the best results by going in to businesses and speaking with a manager. Most large businesses have to go through corporate, but I find when approaching them on a local level they are able to qualify our needed items as damages or include it on a charitable contributtion list.

I'm intrigued about the "working for the NFL" post. I'll be looking into that.

[ptapeep]

Many PTAs (or PTOs) have one major take home catalog fundraiser at the beginning of the school year. In advance the board would, per conversations with school staff, admin, parents, decide where those funds would best be utilized. It might be something like updating playground equipment or helping to offset the costs of SMART boards. That way the general body (the school parents, etc) will know specifically what their dollars are going to support. I'd make sure to find out your school's Title I percentage status. I've written so many grants for my son's schools, and that is always the key. The higher the "at risk" population the better chance to recieve the funds. Also, when asking for donations from local businesses, ck with the main office. Here in KY we have a do not contact vendor list because several co's work directly with the school board on a large corporate sponsor level. IE you can't contact Papa John's corporate offices for a donation, but you could contact Bill Smith who is the manager at the local franchise near the school to help with a pizza party donation. For "capital campaigns" the corporation will want to know specifically what your group is doing to help offset costs. If they donate $5k they want to know that you can raise the same amount so that they are not footing the whole bill. When we built a playground, we recvd a grant from KaBOOM! we had to show that we were able to raise the other $20k needed thru boxtops, catalog sales, brick paver sales, community support, etc. You are off to a great start by asking the teachers what they need. Many PTAs (budgets permitting of course) have a teacher stipend, each teacher gets a certain amount of money (say $50) they have to use on classroom items by a certain date. They must have receipts and use the funds for classroom support, not pizza or donuts! Some will have a bookfair and instead of taking the 20% in cash, they will take the funds raised in books to help the classroom libraries or general library. Make sure your group is in good standing. If it is a PTA have they paid their dues on time to (in our case) the district and State. As a nonprofit you will need a tax exempt form or letter. Have that prepared in advanced. One of our moms carries around a "form" letter so when she goes in to the local coffee shop and the manager is on hand she can ask for the donation and produce the letter on the spot, that way she "seals the deal" National PTA had great resources. They have teamed up with the NFL and Tony Dugray for iPro Dads and iMom. Free resources there. Furthermore, Florida PTA should have a conference and usually huge vendor turn out, great way to walk down the aisles, pick up materials and contacts then take back to your school. Whew...Linda, don't you need some more coffee now?

[crystele]

We have a spring "gala" to help raise funds. Our "Friends of" group does grant writing. We do a yearly "ask" from parents for school fees.
We will have another round of cuts soon it has been announced so every bit helps.

[mickeymiller]

First of all, congrats on getting your fundraising started! Raising support for a worthy cause can be super rewarding. But obviously, if you're not an official non-profit, it can be really tricky finding a good way to build support for your cause.

One route you might want to consider: setting up a homepage for your group on a fundraising website. Having a group homepage online makes organizing and fundraising infinitely easier ... And though the majority of fundraising sites require you have official non-profit status, many good ones only require that you are a group - and will give you plenty of the tools you need.

For example, one good site is Meet Up (www.meetup.com), who allow you to fundraise directly to your account, and register a group without having an official non-profit status - and they cover groups around the world, while giving you some tools to do event management. But the tools they offer are a little limited outside of fundraising.

Another good option would be Empowered.org (www.empowered.org), a platform that also helps small groups fundraise and organize (regardless of non-profit status). They also work for international groups - and offer a fair amount of useful tools, like the ability to organize your group or to create volunteer activities and fundraising campaigns for more targeted ways to raise support.

Or you could always try to send up your own PayPal account to link to you directly to help you fundraise, but this is a little trickier and a bit inflexible.

Good luck getting started moving forward! Hope that helped.