PTO Today

The magazine company we used last year had the money machine for kids who reached a certain sales level and they received tickets for every so many dollars raised that they could use to purchase items from a "store" the rep set up. Anyone who participated could easily get some kind of reward.

This Fall we've asked our Fund-raising Company not to use their prize packages, and offer a spirit wear (through a local company) incentive instead. They have been willing to work with us on this. Also, we are purchasing a Nintendo Wii for the top seller and offering an extra Recess time for the class with the highest participation.

ImnotcrazyImamother- Can you tell me more about the details on how to not use the catalog prizes? They are so cheesy, and I love anything to promote school spirit! I would love to do the same, but not sure where to start with all of this. Thanks.

Idhunter, we just told our rep (we're using Kathryn Beich) that we would prefer not to use their prize package this year. I'm sure he wasn't 100% thrilled, but he'll still get a percentage of our sales, which beats getting nothing if we decided to go elsewhere. Actually, I've found this guy to be pretty easy to deal with. All reps are like used-car salesmen, though. I bet you'll find that if you ask your rep what else they can offer you in the way of prizes they'll have some ideas. They push the "crappy" stuff because they get the biggest mark up from that. If you make sure they know that you understand they need to make money too, they'll be willing to work with you. Give it a try, all they can do is tell you "no, we can't do that" and then you say, "Ok, thanks, I'll try someone who can"

You can ask the school where the local sports teams (soccer, t-ball, even the school) orders their "uniforms" and check out where they tell you for spirit wear for your school. Usually the stores will put together a flyer for you to insert with your fundraiser. We've found that these types of prizes generate more excitement from the parents (who ultimately spend the money) and we do quite well with the fundraisers when we offer them. Good Luck!

We always come up with some sort of tiered incentive plan -- top class in each grade gets extra recess; class sells a certain amount then they get no homework, top class in entire school gets a pizza party, etc.

In addition, last year, we got the vendor to give us a $500 cash bonus which we used towards rental of some inflatables for a "mega" party held in conjunction with a school dance. It was a blast! We had to sell a certain amount to get the mega party, of course. We had the lower grades on the inflatables while the older grades danced, and then flip flopped. That way the inflatables were controllable, and little kids didn't get squashed!

We've also done teachers on the roof to sing and dance -- certain ones for certain levels - last one being the principal. Last year we had 10 people on the roof "doing a jig". Kids love that sort of thing.

Oh, and we shaved the Coach's head once for a certain goal. Talk about going kids going crazy for an idea!

I do firmly believe that these incentives helped us reach our goals.

Oh, and we did offer a buy-out option to those parents that hate catalog sales. Figuring that we wanted each kid to sell an average of 10 items, and the average cost of an item is $10 -- estimated profit per kid -- $50. So we told parents to donate $50 if they didn't want to buy anything and it would still count towards these incentives. I was impressed with the number of people who took that option.