How many fundraisers

Littlejen22

We started school the first Thursday of this month. I have already gotten info for about 5 fundraisers going on currently, maybe more. Is this normal? It is public school and I know the PTA pays for a lot but I am wondering if they do better with more for people to choose from or I'd they had fewer fundraisers.

neverblushed

I have found that this varied a lot, depending on who the PTA officers were at the time.  Some of the presidents I've known over the years have felt like fundraising was a sacred calling, and they've measured their worth as PTA presidents in dollars raised.

Others have felt like they have wanted a more multi-faceted approach, or they've perceived that too many fundraisers were a turn-off to people.  One even said, "we're not having a fall fundraiser.  Donate what you feel you would spend on the fundraiser and we won't keep hassling you."

If you have a chance to give feedback, you can let them know that 5 in the first month of school seems excessive.

littlemermaid

We just had the Entertainment coupon book.  I think the next one that we will get will be that frozen cookie dough.  

Ongoing fundraisers:   Market Day, also the Script program where you buy gift cards from and the school gets a certain percentage back.  In the Spring they have a big dinner/dance fundraiser with raffles, silent auction items.  We host 2 Mom to Mom Sales.

So our school definitely doesn't swamp us with the door to door( or more like mom/dad brings it to work) type of fundraisers.

Raspberry807

We just had a PTO meeting, and they've decided to do the one big one with the cookie dough and the rest will be restaurant/retail fundraisers where the school gets 20% or so of the sales for the day/weekend.  I think I like it better than hounding family/friends with booklets of over-priced stuff every month.

hokies94

Thankfully our school has gotten rid of fundraisers!  We used to have one (selling wrapping paper) but they've changed it to a check writing campaign.  Instead of selling anything I just wrote a check for $40.  I am SO glad the fundraiser is gone.

We still do the grocery store programs but I don't consider that fundraising.  

Five seems excessive.  Do you have to participate in all 5?  That sounds awful.  

2Gma

Wow, 5 in the 1st month seems excessive!  To me, that would be overwhelming as a parent or coordinator trying to keep track of everything and what one to devote time to.

Our school is just having 1 fundraiser this year.

Littlejen22

auntie:

Depends on the philosophy of the school. We tended to have so that parents can particpate in ways that make sense for them. Grocery store recepiets, box tops, passive online shopping, Target, and the other sales. For every gift wrap, Kidsbook and cookie dough I hate, there are moms who look forward to it.
DS's band had a massive fundraising effort to get to Argentina. We had probably 3 dozen events at which to raise funds many earmarked for individual students. My favorite 20 gift cards to the local craft brew bar.

We don't live that far from each other and these are exact examples of what we have. The funny thing is I went to a meeting yesterday about their big gift auction and were saying how a local Catholic school already was doing so many fundraisers and I pointed out that we had more than they said the other school does. I think they do not even realize that box tops and donating food to the food pantry is a fundraiser, as is the grocery Market Day, Yankee Candle, the local ice cream place this week and miniature golf this week. And then they are emailing people to help solicite for the auction. So to me that is seven fundraisers plus the auction and there are others. CRAZY. And now our preschool is hitting us up. And it is making me less inclined to ask friends to buy things because they all have kids and I do not know what else might come up.

And Auntie, I can barely lift my pocketbook from the 2012 and 2013 KidStuff books!

notkateanymore

Our biggest fundraiser is Boosterthon, then we also have two fun runs {one in the Fall and one in the Spring}. We have a Halloween carnival and I believe they sell wrapping paper online as well.

Oh and we do Boxtops, school logo wear sales and we also have a chance to just straight up donate money to the PTO and you get your name on a banner depending which level you are. Like a charity event. It's a public school, but a VERY well funded one. 

4Speedy

DD's school has 4 fund raisers a year.  They are big dollar events that do not involve selling anything.

DS's school is never not having a fundraiser of some sort.  His backpack is full of so much fundraising info that I can't keep track of what I am supposed to be doing or when.

The financial commitment to DD's school comes out to be about ten times the commitment we make to DS's school, even though we participate in DS's fundraisers at the highest level.  DD's school is a finely tuned fundraising machine and I'll tell you what, sending ten times as much cash to her school causes me a fraction of the aggravation/frustration that DS's school causes me. 

jlw2505

Our school actually does not do fundraisers in the manner of having the kids sell stuff.  They have found that it doesn't work well.  The PTO does a tone of fundraising events during the year and does great.  I was just at the PTO meeting last week and this was a big discussions. 

The PTO sends out a letter to all parents asking parents to make a donation to the PTo (all the money goes back to the school) and the letter spells out how much money is spent by the PTO per family per year which is around $100 (K-6) and they ask families to donate $100 or whatever amount they can (all tax deductable).  Some families do not donate and some donate a lot more.

On top of that, the school does a plant sale in the spring, has a few baked goods sales at all school events like the fall festival and spring carnival and on election day, they have a table with baked goods and coffee on sale at the election station at the school.  They do a few Joe to Go days at drop off (we are a school with a huge open enrollment rate and a ton of kids end up getting driven to school because of this) and they run out of coffee every time they do this.  The really, really big fundraiser is a parents only night out which includes a Silent Auction.  The event is held at a local place that donates the space to us so the PTO really only pays for food.  Drinks can be purchases and parents pay a small fee to attend.  Last year we raised $14,000 at the silent auction.

Other events that the PTO does to raise money include a book fair at a local Barnes and Noble, a classroom basket raffle (the classes all make themed baskets and they are sold to the highest bidder), and a carnival in the spring.  The fall festival is purely social.  We also say school t-shirts.

Way better than having to sell things as the kids that involved in other activites often have fundraisers for those and it just gets to be way to much.

jlw2505

I forgot to add that we also do the eat at xyz restaurant and PTO gets the money - the 1st one of the year we made around $450 and it was the restaurants largest school event to date.

bellelamb

Our school does enjoy the city books, wrapping paper, as their sell something ones. They do very well with script sales and box tops.