I've posted on this topic previously. Our PTO started a direct donation program as an alternative to parents who did not want to participate in the two major fundraisers we run (gift wrap and pie/cookie dough). We have a culturally diverse population and many families (including mine) simply don't need the products BUT do want to support the PTO financially.

We calculate what we will be spending per student based on our budget to get our figures. Right now, we spend about $50 per student. Most parents who choose to make a donation give us $50 but many give more or less based on their financial situation. We make it clear that the $50 is only a suggested amount and that any donation will be greatly appreciated.

We track donations in an Excel spreadsheet and provide a list of childrens' names (sorted by teacher) to the fundraising chairs. For our gift wrap fundraiser, we have a party for the class with the highest participation regardless of the dollar amount. The chair counts total number of children who sold gift wrap and adds in the children whose parents made a donation. For our pie & cookie dough fundraiser, the class that sold the most items wins a party. The donation amount is divided by the average price in the catalog (about $13) and the chair gets the list along with the above calculation. This helps to take off some of the pressure to "sell" from the catalog fundraisers for the families that choose to make a direct donation.

We call our program 'Opt-out' (of fundraising). We're going into our fifth year of this program and have expanded it into two other schools as well. Keep in mind that parents who work for companies with matching programs can get you the paperwork to match their contributions. You might want to add this into your flyer and remind parents on back to school night as well.

This really does work! Our school does it every year. We call it a Rally. We reward the class that brings in the most from each grade with a pizza party. We run it 2 weeks and you would be surprized how much is sent, just a dollar a day or two it adds up.

CrewChief.. thanks for the explanation.. We did a FR this year for a special field trip and gave the parents the option of selling $50 worth of raffle tickets ( $5.00 each), or just writing the $50 check.. we also explained that they may as well turn in the tickets if they weren't going to sell them, as they are " paying" the $50 anyway.. so why not take a chance at the raffle?

This was a great option for all because for those who couldn't afford to pay for the trip, they were easy tickets to sell to anyone in town.. for those who couldn't be bothered, they just wrote the check.. it was a win-win.

The raffle was awesome.. Calendar raffle- 30 prizes, one a day, valued at between $25-50 each.. all from local stores, restaurants, and a couple of cash days...... and we had 90 kids who were to each sell 10 of them.. so the odds were decent.. 900 tickets printed ..... 30 winners....

If anyone wants further details, I am happy to share, just ask.....

RobinD ~

My last school has done direct solicitation fundraising for three years now. The first year we exceeded our goal. Parents said, "Yippee, no selling. Here's my donation!" The second year, we just barely made our goal thanks to a big, last minute donation (yours truly) that brought us right to the goal. The third year I was not part of the PTO but heard through the grapevine that they struggled and still didn't make goal.

I don't have a copy of the letters, notices and such to share. I can tell you that what we did was communicate our goal amount and then the average donation amount per student it would take to reach that goal. Some parents sent in the exact amount, some less, some more.

The first year every student who returned a signed form (with our without a donation) received a reward. The second year we said if our goal was met then every student would get a reward. The third year there was no reward as it was clear that it was little incentive and it was all on the parents to do the work anyway.

I believe this type of fundraiser can work but it certainly isn't the easy way out. It takes a dedicated committee, lots of communication and something (theme, new prizes, etc) to keep it fresh every year.

I had heard that this can work for a first time fundraiser but that it gets hard to do this every year.

We place a footnote on our fundraiser memo that if parents don't see any items to their liking, but would like to support the WFS PTO, they can send in a donation that will be used for school programs.
We wouldn't make it just donations considering not all families participate due to their home finances. But providing the option would have money coming in from the families that don't like what you are selling.