PTO Today

We are trying to replace 35 year old equipment and looking towards grant money..any ideas on where to start..we are VERY new at this!

www.toolboxforeducation.com

Our PTO branched off to a Playground committee. We have been fundraising since Jan. Raised 45,000 so far on a 90,000 project. Our playground serves a large community of kids. If you need ideas on how we organized ourselves let me know.

[ 08-29-2006, 08:52 PM: Message edited by: Rockne ]

Saving shipping costs for our purchases. See
my post in PTO Management. We saved 33% for our
two sandboxes and two lunch benches.

Check out kaboom.org

We're in the beginning stages of planning a major playground remodeling. What advice do you have regarding planning such a large and potentially long-term fundraising project (grant and community monies both okay)? Thanks!

We too are raising money this year for new playground equipment. So far we have raised $12,000 and are looking to raise another $10,000 this spring with any luck. But NOT SURE how to come up with it. I would like to just ask parents for donations, but I don't think that will be a good idea.

Any suggestions would be wonderful.

Thanks,
Charlene

We used GameTime. Their website is www.gametime.com. They offer grants, have grant inforamtion, and information about planning playgrounds from start to finish. They were very helpful.

We have raised in various means, but our committee consisted of 3 fundraising sub- committees: community, school and corporate.
I was on community and we had several fundraisers. We did a square foot fundraiser: figure the math of how many square feet your playground is- students sell the playground per square foot- If an individual bought 10 sq feet their name goes on a plaque. (In general- any one who donates 100.00 or more will be on the plaque.)Every person who buys a square gets put in a raffle for big prizes we arranged with our local businesses.
$300.00 oil, 6 month family pool pass, 100.00 of free gas etc.
We raised thosands this way. And to boot the students with the top sales got to go on a limo ride(donated) to pizza and bowling.
Our other one was for a build a mascot fundraiser- ours is the husky dog- we are still getting requests for them and we have raised $5,200.00 on that . We had a workshop like "Build a Bear" http://www.makeamascot.us
We did more- I'll come back with them if you all want to hear about them. We are raising $90,000 for a playground for 500 kids.

I am chair of a playground improvement committee at our school. We also had equipment that was over 30 years old that had to be replaced due to age and safety violations. We have raised over $90,000 for this project in two years, and I am happy to say that the final installation of equipment is occurring right now over Winter Break. My suggestion to you would be to form a committee and formulate a playground plan/budget. We surveyed our students and teachers to determine their wants and needs. Then we worked extensively with Gametime on the plan and budget - they are great. Contact them through their website and they will put you in touch with their local rep. The most important thing to remember is that the equipment you select must conform to all national and industry safety standards. Go to the US Consumer Product Safety Commission's website and download the Handbook for Public Playground Safety - it's free. Then try to find a certified playground inspector to inspect what you have now (we found ours through a local university)for two reasons: to see if anything is salvagable, and if it is, what needs to be done to make it as safe as possible until a new piece of equipment can be purchased to replace it. An inspection report is very valuable when you apply for grants or ask for equipment sponsors - people see your request as a "need", not a "luxury" due to the safety issue. Look for local sources for grants - you have a better chance of receiving those. We have received over half our funds through grants. And don't forget to work closely with the appropriate people in your school system (for us it was the facilities dept.)on this project too. We received over $40,000 in grant monies from our school system's grant program. We have held many fundraisers as well - a penny drive, putt-putt tournament, swing-a-thon (like a walk-a-thon), and BBQs. Whatever would work for your area. Feel free to check out our website, www.playforeducation.com for any information on our project to see if it gives you any ideas. Good luck! It will be a very worthy project!