I am on the Board of a large elememtary school PTO. We have 924 students, but only have about 15 people actively on our PTO. Sometimes it is harder than pulled teeth to get a commitment. We have tried a "Come have pizza with the PTO night" and have alot of people show up and say they are interested in getting involved, but when we follow up, they dont want to commit to anything. Or they dont want to be in charge or anything. It seems that the President and the Fundraising Chair are running all of the fundraising events, because no one else steps up. We are working hard to raise money this year to put Smart Boards and DocuCams in the classrooms. The parents love this technology and want it in the classrooms, but are not willing to do more than volunteer and an hour or 2 once a year at Bingo Night or School Carnival.

Has anyone found a way to get more parents involved? We are going to have to cut WAY BACK on our fundraisers and events for next year as several current Board Members are leaving at the end of this school year due their children moving on the Jr High. We are workiing on a flyer to let parents know specifically which events and fundraisers will not happen if people dont step up.

We are looking for suggestions on what else we can try. Any one been successful with turning a situation likes our around? I would appreciate your ideas and thoughts!

Have you considered ditching the fundraisers in favor of simply asking for a one-time donation from each family? You could position it like, "If we reach $xxxxx, there will be no fundraisers necessary this year."

Participation is a big problem for a lot of parent groups. Here are a few suggestions:

Instead of asking for volunteers in general, come up with a list of specific tasks. Make sure they are doable for one person with a busy schedule. Then, next time you get people together, get them to commit to the tasks. Sometimes, just asking for general volunteers, people won't step up because they are afraid you will ask too much.

Work on your communication. Stay in touch with parents. If you are doing a newsletter once a month, switch to twice a month. Use email, and keep the emails short and to the point. The more people are in step with what you are doing, the easier it will be to get participation.

Don't threaten people by saying you are pulling fundraisers. I worked in a fundraising company for over 10 years, and I don't think I ever met anyone who would shed a tear over losing a fundraiser. Instead, have a dialog about what goals your group has, and how you really need some specific help to reach those goals.

Don't undervalue the participation you do have. You may not have a ton of people at the meetings, but it sounds like parents are participating in the fundraisers, since you are raising money. This counts as participation too!

Pick lower hassle tasks. If running the fundraiser is overwhelming, it is going to be hard to find people who want to do it. Find companies that make it easy. The same goes for other activities. Not everyone can organize a school party by themselves. Figure out how to make the more difficult tasks easier and split them into smaller parts.

And finally, have fun! If its fun, people will come.

Hi Jane-
You're going to love this article about building involvement at your school.

Have you tried our Two-Hour Power program yet? We hear from schools that they have great success bringing in more parent volunteers this way. It sounds like in your post that parents might be hesitating to jump in because they are afraid of falling into the "volunteer black hole" -- they think that once they say yes, you'll be asking them to chair a committee. Start people off slow, let them see how their involvement matters, then hopefully they will be more willing to step up for future volunteer slots.

Lastly, here are 2 articles you may want to pass along to your parents:

www.ptotoday.com/pto-today-articles/arti...what-to-tell-parents

www.ptotoday.com/pto-today-articles/article/479-one-last-dance

Hope this helps. Like I always say, please keep us posted on how things are going!

~Lisa

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I agree with not threatening to pull fundraisers. I also agree that promoting your goals (smart boards) and the benefits to all the kids is v important. We are also fundraising for smartboards and I was surprised to discover how many parents don't even know what they are!Maybe you could get a rep to do a demo at some upcoming family event.

We have found that by having fewer fundraisers and by asking parents to team up with friends we are getting more involvement. I am not saying they have come out of the wood work - we still have to "recruit" but when we suggest that they ask a buddy to co -chair we have gotten better results.

I am the PTO president and our school had the monthly PTO meeting last night. I had 2 people in attendance, the school principal and myself. I am extremely discouraged. My board members didn't even think it was important enough to show up. My treasurer had a family emergancy and was out of town, he's excused. How do I get more parent and teacher involvement? Teachers don't even think that it's important to show up to make their funds request to the general membership but then complain when their request gets denied. I am so frustrated. Any advice would be appreciated. I should mention that I live in Japan on a military installation. You would think that there would be more involvement due to just our military way of life.