I see alot of people posting about selling stuff. Times are tough for parents. There are children that their parents can't afford hot lunches. They are not going to buy over priced wrapping paper, cookie dough, candles, or safety cards. Having something like a hair cut night will not only benefit the school but help needy parents. Ask local salons if any hair stylists are interested in volunteering their time to cut hair at the school for a few hours and all the proceds go to the school. The parents only pay $5 a hair cut for the kids and the school keeps the proceeds. You can even do a bake sale at the same time to increase sales. Homemade goods for cheap prices is not as bad. Everytime you have a fundraiser company involved, they have to make their money too. Your going to be paying 4 times the amount the product actually costs.

Well, I am not sure if the latest post elicits a response or not, but I'd be remiss to pass up yet another opportunity to clarify my original post, which yet again seems to have been misunderstood by a PTA member all too eager to place system over people. The downfall of many PTAs is in the opposite of the following quote: We must not let a problem to be solved become more important than the people.

First and foremost, my posts in no way, shape or form have been to promote the safety cards my company sells. If I had wished to promote them, I would have posted more information, which I did not; nor did I once try to convince any one to use them. I simply offered them as an example. We are not a fundraiser company. We sell these to other businesses. We simply started offering these to schools locally because we saw a need for schools to sell educational, health-related items over pizza, cookie dough, etc. In that way, alone, we were supporting our schools.

As for the personal remarks disparaging my supposed lack of school support: This speaks to the exact point I made earlier: there is a growing gap between the PTA and the families that make up the schools. And it is a dangerous, ever-widening threat we would all be wise to consider.

Here, within this post, a future president takes time to chide my lack of support. My advice is this: know your audience. We cannot judge a persons support based on monetary output, and we certainly cannot afford to judge them based on our own criteria of what "support" is when we do not understand their circumstances compared to ours.

That said, I'd be happy to provide you with a list of the many instances my wife and I have supported our schools. In its simplest form, my wife donates her time as art docent, on field trips, and during craft time, not to mention with donations of supplies and money. Personally, having been lucky enough to have a middle reader book published a couple years ago, I've donated my time to teach kids how to write. This year I offered free assemblies to each school within our district to help kids learn how to communicate and improve life through creative writing. I've donated my own books to students-in-need and to school libraries. And, as I do every year, I donated almost 2000 other kids books to school groups in and out of our district. And yes, I even donated some of the safety cards to schools. On top of that, we are in contact with our kids' teachers; we work with our kids to make sure they are working hard and being respectful and helpful; and we attend the fundraisers as time and wisdom allow. What more support can I give?

I have been lucky enough to be able to support my school in such a manner. It has not been nor will it always be the case. Still, all that, compared to the Widow's mite offered by a family with less means, is equal in support.

Again, through all of my posts, my point is this: consider the people. I am all for the carnival. I've seen some good ones and I've seen some bad ones. I've seen events where people have money and others where families who do not have the money to spend on frivolous games spend it anyway in order to appease the powers that be, and satisfy the excitement of their children. I've seen events where families walk away praising their school and I've seen many where parents walk away feeling distanced and frustrated with the PTA, school, etc.

I am not preaching one absolute way. I am simply saying let's make sure think creatively. Let's make sure we use wisdom in our decisions. And let's make sure we consider the needs of the people while trying in earnest to satisfy the needs of our schools. Because if people start to get burned out, it will take a lightning storm to rekindle the fire of their support. In this area, we have seen that, which is why we started to promoting something useful.

Now, let's stop fighting windmills and go out and use our minds to do something proactive.


Best of luck to us all. Heaven knows schools need our help.

Best,

Arthur

does anyone know about the postage stamp fundraiser and have the online info???

Dear Arthur,

You made an additional point without even realizing! While promoting your safety cards I didn't hear you donating any of these items to support your ideals or school.
The observation you made in regard to your school's efforts to make a great day for the kids via a fall festival experience never mentioned your participation or the idea that you were enjoying the experience with your kids although reaching into your wallet for obviously nominal cash.

Please be part of the cure and positive process as in any public school parent support is not requested but required!

Respectfully,

A future president.

We have had great success with what we call our Big 3 raffle. It's a $5 ticket raffle that has three fabulous prizes. Companies donate the money or items for the raffle (which helps to keep the cost of doing the fundraiser low). This year we have a $500 grocery gift certificate, a $300 gas card and a $200 Game store gift card (all three items are donated/paid for by local businesses). Our team felt that items of use (food/gas) would be big sellers and everyone likes to buy video games and ga,e consoles so that's a "nice to have" item. We are going to sell tickets in front of the store that donated the grocery certificate and hope that customers will support our raffle with the hope of winning the $500.

This can be done with lower prize values and with other useful items like cell phone gift card, Visa gift card, daycare credit or summer camp registration, maybe even a little league baseball registration or other sport that is popular in your school or community. If you find items that your community can use or wants it will be successful.

I'll post again after our event in May and let you know if this new "value/useful" idea worked for us!

I have to agree that it is a very difficult climate to try and raise funds with the traditional fundraisers like wrapping paper and cookie dough.

I coach a little league team and we did a bowl-a-thon where supporters just gave the kids money (with nothing in return). I can tell you the drop off over the past 3 years has been exponential.

Without a doubt, if you are going to sell something, that something should be a value to the supporter. Right now, things supporters value are time and money (goes without saying).

Did you know that McDonald's stock is up almost 40% over the past 3 years - mostly due to the value menu? We've got to find those products of "value" that people will spend their money on - not out of the goodness of their heart, but because there is something in it for them.