The 13 Things I Couldn't Live Without as PTO President

I can hardly believe it’s been five years since I joined the PTO (Parent Teacher Organization) at my son’s school! Back when I was a kindergarten parent—with a 3-year-old in tow—I was eager to jump into a parent group, meet other moms, help plan fun school events and fundraisers, and get the “inside scoop” on the school both my boys would one day attend.

When I first stepped into the role of PTO President, I had no idea what I was getting into. Looking back over the countless school memories, incredible events, and lessons learned, I’m so grateful for the journey. And now, I’m excited to share the 13 things our PTO simply couldn’t live without with the PTO Today community! (Fun fact: PTO Today was the very first resource I discovered when I started this adventure—and it’s still at the top of my list!)

@tylerrakay Day in the life of a PTO Mom planning Carnival! Did you know that attending school events helps the Parent Teacher Organization even if you don't volunteer? Families that support our PTO events play a huge roll in the purchases we are able to make for students and teachers for water days, student treats, and teacher funds requests! #parentteacherorganization #dayinthelife #ptomomsoftiktok #ptomom #eventplanning #carnivalseason #schoolpto #vlog #dayinmylife #elementaryschool ♬ 4-minute training gym sound(955942) - YOUNG MO

1. Clear storage totes (and, if you're lucky, a PTO room to keep them in!)

We know schools celebrate any and all holidays (even the fun made up ones!). Clear totes are a PTO must-have to organize all the decorations your group accumulates over the years. Our PTO organizes ours by holidays, themes, and sometimes by annual events.

The PTO room is a dedicated hub for all things PTO—and if you're group is lucky enough to get your own space, woohoo! If you don't have a dedicated space for your PTO, I would recommend scanning the school for a disorganized closet that may not serve a purpose. You could also ask your school principal or administrators if they would allow you to take over a room. (Ours is the closet on the stage that no one used!) A PTO room can be as small as a broom closet or as big as a classroom. Establishing a dedicated PTO room will give legitimacy to your group and help keep things organized, all year long. We are lucky to have two dedicated PTO storage spaces, but they didn’t come without the work of many days organizing. Our PE teacher has a massive storage area that was just filled with outdated and unused items from the previous PE teacher. We took on the task of cleaning out this area, and now it stores all of our large carnival games and trunk or treat decorations. It was amazing how much space was available once we worked together to clean it up. Plus, now our PE teacher knows where his equipment is!

Our PTO's room is roughly 8x10 feet in size. It's lined from floor to ceiling with shelves that have clear tubs sitting neatly and is broken up into sections for easy access. There is a dedicated space for food/concession dry goods such as plates, napkins, popcorn, hot chocolate mix, tongs, table cloths, large coffee urn, juice, etc. Another shelf has all of our event and holiday decorations (Halloween, Christmas, etc.). Big events have separate totes. Our PTO's annual events include: Open House, Family Bingo Night, Trunk-or-Treat, Family Glow Dance, Breakfast with Santa, and School Carnival.

We also have a tote dedicated to decorations for the two planters out in front of the school. We decorate these planters for the holidays, so we keep those items stored in one tote. We also store some larger items, like Santa’s chair, sleigh, PTO coolers, and PTO cart, in our PTO room. Our school mascot and other costumes are hanging conveniently on a mobile clothing rack. We keep the storage container with the letters that are used in the marquee in front of the school. This room really holds so much for our little PTO!

We also use this room as a meeting place when our PTO is prepping for events, or when just a few of us are gathering to plan. It’s also a great spot to hangout with the little ones while we wait out those last 30 minutes with a snack until school gets out after spending the afternoon volunteering. If you’re looking to start organizing your PTO room, check your local thrift stores or Facebook marketplace for savings on clear totes or garage-like shelving. They also typically go on sale after the holidays.

2. PTO planning binder

There are so many dates and tasks for each board member to remember. We needed a PTO planner to lay it all out. We use our binders to define each member's role and tasks. The binders are color coordinated and listed out for each month of the year. This helps us plan our PTOs events, meetings, and activities for the entire year so everyone's on the same page. This binder can be kept digital or printed as a hard copy for each member, and can be edited for any schools needs.

3. Coolers

We think of coolers as an investment—it's one of the simplest ways to bring an income into the PTO. We fill them with ice and drinks for every event to sell $1 sodas, waters, and juices. It's easy, takes no time, and always sells! Outside of fundraising, we use our coolers for staff luncheons, class parties, field trips and ice for Sno-cone days. We have also used them at our Carnival to hold water for water gun races, and to refill the dunk bucket. This prevented us from having hoses out as a tripping hazard 😬 (pro tip: make sure your PTO has insurance coverage). We really have found so many uses for these coolers all throughout the school year. There are many great brands of coolers on the market, so when shopping look for ones that are lightweight, durable and (this is important) have wheels!

4. Wagon

This one purchase has been used countless times every year by EVERYONE in the school. Our wagon is a sturdy metal with all terrain wheels. It helps PTO move around the school so much faster. Unloading our vehicles with our trucks and trunks full as any PTO mom can relate too, picking up at the end of an event, or simply moving supplies from one place to another. It's so easy to load it up and get a move on!

@tylerrakay Serving hot chocolate with Santa to 700 elementary students for Christmas! #volunteerlife #ptomom #schoolvolunteer #hotchocolate #santaatschool ♬ Holiday Bae Instrumental - SAMUEL GRACE

5. Clothing racks with shelf organizer and small buckets

Organize the "lost" to make sure it gets found. We can't keep track of all the lost items, but it helps to keep them organized! These clothing racks wheel out our lost and found for events, parent nights, and award ceremonies. This helps parents remember to browse through and get their items back! We use stickers labeled with different colors by month to help organize our lost and found items too. Once a month our Lost and Found coordinator collects the lost items from around the school and stickers them with the month they were lost in. She then hangs them on the rack or sorts in the appropriate bucket. Stickering the month they were lost in helps us know which unclaimed items to take off the rack for donation. Having a Lost and Found Coordinator takes the burden of lost items off our administrators. It’s a great way for volunteers to help out and can be done on anyone’s time schedule.

We also have a clothing rack in our PTO closet for our themed costumes like Santa and our Alligator Mascot. A clothing rack is also a great way to display your Spirit wear. Here is the clothing rack our PTO uses (Amazon)! 

@tylerrakay PTO moms when the lost and found never gets found! #elementaryschool #ptomoms #schoollife #momsoftiktok #lostandfound #kidsloseeverything ♬ FOLLOW ME MIKUULSTANCE - Mikuulstance

6. An easy-to-use tool to manage your PTO's finances 

I’m really not sure how I survived my first two years as PTO president without PTO Today's Finance Manager because honestly there was no record of anything. Our group just spent the money we had on each event and saw where we landed after. Not the best bookkeeping for sure, and definitely not sustainable. PTOs need accurate records of income, expenses, budgets, and reports... just like a business, but without the business degree - and that’s what PTO Today Finance manager does! It allows our PTO to have accurate records of each transaction our PTO approves and receives in income and then creates the reports for us. We create subgroups for one time events like Bingo/Carnival and separate subgroups of expenses that we use all year, like Teachers' Funds requests. As long as all the transactions are added into the Finance Manager registry my group can see everything from PTO account Balance to Profit/Loss of each subcategory. It's amazing. Anyone in our group can do this, it's as simple as adding a date/description/and amount for each income and expense in your group. We approve purchases and tell our treasurer. She then adds the item to our Finance Manager register. So simple! When we get to the end of an event, there's no guessing. We know immediately if we made profit, where the money went, and how we made it back. We know how to plan for future events and fundraisers gauging where we can spend more/less/add or subtract elements and we can reference this for years to come when planning events and fundraisers or changing groups.

Being transparent about PTO funds is the quickest way to gain or lose support from your families, and not in the way you might think. The success of your PTO is measured by the good you do for the school, students, and staff...NOT in the money you make. It’s about TRUST. Our school will celebrate the same over a $200 spirit night as a $2,000 Carnival event because we don't share totals to be excited about the money. We share our totals so that our families trust us! Constantly sharing how much our families helped and supported the PTO encourages them to continue to do so because they hear and see that they are helping the cause (like hearing about making $200 at spirit night, knowing they went out to eat, too!) And if you feel like your group doesn't have anything to share because it’s not impressive, it’s actually the opposite. Sharing the start of our PTOs journey will only encourage families to want to help their students school and be a part of the success your group shares.

@ptotoday 📣 "The best PTO/A treasurer hack!" -PTO President @Tyler Rakay If your background is more “book fair vibes” than bookkeeping, try PTO Today's Finance Manager (designed for PTO/A groups) FREE for 30 days. Love it? Save $20 with promo code TYLER20. PTO Today Finance Manager is way more robust than Excel and less intimidating than QuickBooks, offering all the functionality a PTO/A needs (budgeting, reporting, reconciliation) without the steep learning curve. The clean, intuitive layout makes it simple for any volunteer to use—no accounting experience needed! #ptopresident #ptotreasurer #ptapresident #ptatreasurer #PTA #PTOmom #backtoschool #PTOLife #PTObudgets #PTABudgets #fundraisingbudgets #nonprofitbudgets #treasurertips #accounting #hack #paidpromotion ♬ original sound - PTO Today ✨School Family Media

7. A social media page for your PTO (and graphics) 

Every PTO needs a way to make flyers and inform their school about events and happenings during the year. 

Yes, we still send flyers home in student backpacks as a way to reach every family, but that's a one way conversation. A social media page can make all the difference in making your families feel welcomed by the PTO, and well-designed graphics will spark conversation and keep engagement. Think cute shoutouts, bright colors, and PTO details are a must for enticing families to join the PTO group. We make flyers and graphics for events, newsletters, fundraising visuals, cute tags, thank you's, "Community Shoutouts", info boards and so much more and share on social media. With so many announcements, your PTO needs a way to make your information stand out! 

By using a design platform, you can create eye-catching announcements to entice families to engage with your group and keep them informed. Canva is our go to for flyer and poster creations and our social media posts, like our "Meet the Board" and weekly feature posts. We use our PTO Facebook group to connect with families (the majority of our school's parents are Facebook users). We post all information there and it's a great way for families to ask questions. Our group is private and we have it set up so all posts must be approved by an admin.

✨ Pssst! Check out PTO Today's free printables and Canva templates

TikTok has been another avenue to connect with PTOs across the country and show the awesome work our group is doing. It’s a good idea to survey your community to find which social media the majority uses so you can capitalize on that as a way to promote your events and volunteer opportunities.

8. Electronic Payment Method

It's been 2 years since our PTO started accepting credit/debit cards at our events and it has made a HUGE difference in event attendance and sales! We promote on all our flyers that credit/debit cards are accepted and families LOVE THIS CONVENIENCE.

Being able to offer electronic payments opens the PTO to more revenue at any every event. We also use the electronic payment system to provide a presale option to our events for families, and although I personally haven't tried, it could be used to request donations from business and families as a convenience at home/online option! At events like Bingo and Carnival, we offer a presale option for families to purchase ahead of time and skip the line on event day. This small change has led our PTO to huge presale income and allows us to somewhat gauge attendance at events. We share the link on our event flyers and watch the PTO make sales before the event even starts! This can include admission sales, concessions and dinner options.

Selling school spirit wear online is another option with electronic payments. Add your school's items and fill the orders as they come in. Having an electronic payment option has greatly increased our income and is a convenience for parents. The cost is often minimal and well worth it.

Download our free electronic payment guide for PTO and PTA groups 👉

9. Matching shirts and PTO swag

Our PTO does a tiered system for volunteers. After your first year of volunteering, you receive a PTO shirt. We do not track the number of hours volunteered; instead we use SignUpGenius all year and create the report with a list of names. After year two, we give out hats that we add "PTO Mom" to. Year three is a PTO tumbler, and so on. The year's gift is left to the discretion of the PTO President and VP as a way to say thank you to all our volunteers. The items are funded by the PTO as a gift for our volunteer’s time and commitment. We encourage our members to wear their PTO swag anytime they are on campus for PTO. This allows volunteers to be easily recognized by all staff as a safe adult. Not only it is nice to give volunteers a gift they can remember, but it also creates buzz and promotion for the PTO! You have to be out and about in order to encourage new parents to join the fun, and these PTO shirts do the talking for us, without having to pester every parent on campus!

The PTO shirts show unity, organization, and get families curious on how to get one :) Last year as president, we got all our members PTO Mama hoodies from PTO Today and we still wear them ALL THE TIME! These gifts are given at our volunteer appreciation meeting in May, where we hand over the reins and welcome the new PTO Board. These gifts serve as the building blocks of connection for the group each year.

10. School Event Maps

Event planning is my favorite part of being on the PTO. But, event planning takes on a whole new meaning when you go from a birthday party for 30 to a school event for 400 families! I have to credit my PTO Mentor Tracy Ott for the idea of "Event Maps". When we planned our first school carnival, we worked on a word doc with colored, blocked out areas that kind of looked like a bird's eye view of our school. Then we added where to put the bounce houses, cake walk, games, etc. This created a visual overview of the event that we could send to our volunteers, and come event day, the event map was gold! For the PTO event planner, you can easily predict and even control the crowd via foot traffic flow, line formations and directions, entrances and exits, and the overall event experience with these maps!

You can place vendors in areas you know families will go, group items together if you want everyone together or to separate vendors in order to spread out the crowd. Keep food elements together, like food trucks in the bus loop, or food court style concessions. Think of putting food by onsite seating. Consider different options for vendors, like booth style or truck style, and communicate that to them. A great event is spread out enough for people to enjoy, but not too much that things are missed or not seen. Making sure your vendors and community partners enjoy your event just as much as the event attendees is important!

Since our first carnival, my event maps have gotten a lot more detailed and become just one page of the full event planning templates we create. For the maps I create a basic layout of the event area ( outside / cafeteria ) its usually one of the two. Then I add in the PTO elements that we control and know will be there like photo opportunity, PTO spirit wear table, concessions, anything the PTO controls. As community partners start to confirm attendance, I add them to the map in the spot for the event (e.g., fire department, scouts, wildlife sanctuary, etc.). Once everything is on the event map, I share it everywhere! I share it to our socials to get families excited to attend, I share it on the volunteer sign ups, and email it to all community partners with instructions (e.g., food trucks), our school principal, staff....anyone that will in any way be affiliated or could be encouraged for this event.

@tylerrakay PTO moms everywhere planning a school Carnival. This may be too niche but this starts my PTO Carnival Series and all the behind the scenes of a PTO Mom! #ptomom #parentteacherorganization #ptomomsoftiktok #ptomommies #eventplanning #carnivalgames #carnivalprizes #carnivalplanning #momsoftiktok #ptoparents #wholesometiktok ♬ 10 minutes BGM for light training such as yoga(845880) - kakumaru

11. School event plans

The event maps may have started this whole thing, but they worked so efficiently that we started making full event plans for all our events! 

The easiest way for us to plan any event is to break it up into elements. These elements then get assigned to volunteers (event leaders) to carry out the “to do's” to bring that element to life.

The event coordinator oversees the entire event, the volunteers, and helps where necessary. The event coordinator also manages the budget (with help from treasurer) and event map. Your event coordinator toolkit includes budgeting templates, to do lists, event leader template and day of event itinerary, volunteer sign in/out sheet, and more depending on the event.The event elements include an overview and to do lists for each event leader. It includes FAQ they might encounter from families, and a closeout report for their feedback at the end of the event. This gives them every step to make that element happen. Finally, we give you easy to customize flyers for your event. It includes an event flier, event map and thank you page.

So far, our PTO has created event plans for Open House, Bingo Night, Trunk or Treat, School Carnival, Family Glow Night, and Yearbook Signing celebration with more coming out with every new event.  Each of our event plans are different based on the event and completely filled in. Carnival includes prize and game math for tokens, and Trunk or Treat has details about costume contests. All events where we have music or a DJ come with a script for them to welcome, shout out, plug school events, and all the announcements you'd want them to say during the event to families.

@tylerrakay Planning a trunk or treat event was never easier! All the trunk or treat ideas and event plan in one place ready for your group to print! easily edit and print to fit your PTO/PTA trunk or treat needs and save it for next year too! get yours now in my link! #trunkortreat #trunkortreatideas #ptomomsoftiktok #ptamomsoftiktok #lifeontiktok #ptotemplates #ptatemplates ♬ Halloween-like mysterious BGM - harryfaoki

11. Parent/family support

All families are PTO Families! I have this philosophy that I use to disarm parents at my school. If your children are part of our school, then you're already a PTO parent! They always look at me with wide eyes, but then I explain - we're at the school carnival or bingo night, and by being here and buying a bingo packet or carnival tickets, they are doing amazing at supporting the PTO! We, as PTO board members, have to change the thinking that when you join the PTO, you already have an idea of the “type” of people who will be there. In reality, every family contributes one way or another without even realizing it and we all have different circumstances. I found that a bulk of the apprehension is that if parents couldn't or didn't want to volunteer, they immediately write off the PTO. But, convincing families that volunteering isn't all PTO is has changed the game. These are the types of parents the PTO needs:

Volunteers: these are the parents that are able and want to help at the event entrance, book fair, trunk or treat, and bingo. They might volunteer at every event or you may get a rotating pool of people that on average try to volunteer more then most. We appreciate these parents so much and usually end up becoming a board member or chair on the PTO.

Participating families: these are the families that actually come to our PTO's events! We need these families to join and bring the kids, buy tickets, eat dinner, play the raffle, bid on the auction items, all of it! Without these families' support, there is no PTO, right? We need their opinions and feedback to make sure they enjoy each event and ultimately share their excitement with the next two groups of families.

The "reluctant joiners” and the "never will they ever's”: these are the reluctant families who have reservations. Maybe Dads who think PTOs are "for the moms", or grandparents who think they can't help.

The “never ever families”: these are the families who won't even make eye contact with our PTO.

Here's the thing, though - the families that don't want to help PTO still love their kids. So my theory is that if we can get the kids excited enough about an event - spirit night, a free prize, anything! - eventually their parent will cave, and at the very least become a participating family for one event. And if we can get them to one event (and it's affordable, fun, and family friendly), the chances of them joining again become greater.

We share our sign ups both on social media and via email, and we offer incentives for volunteers, like a free meal during event or a presale package for their student. With volunteers, we make sure to respect their time and efforts by making it easy and organized for them. Make sure your volunteers feel accomplished and have fun. And remember to ask for feedback and give recognition after the event as well! 

@tylerrakay Replying to @lifeofchefmom I don't bring signups to meetings because it increases meeting attendance! BUT we do share signups every other way we can. hope this mind map helps! #ptopresident #schoolvolunteerlife #parentteacherorganization #parentteacherassociation ♬ original sound - Tyler Rakay

12. Teacher involvement

So, how do we put the "T" in "PTO"? How do we get the teachers involved with the PTO, and encourage participation? We started with very low teacher participation, so in an effort to gain momentum, we tried a few things that actually worked.

First, we made a PTO info flyer specifically for teachers and staff. We wanted to share (in a no pressure way) how we plan to help the school. We explained who the PTO is, and that it consists of parents and families who want to help staff, students, and school by fundraising in order to put on events and parties for everyone. We plugged upcoming PTO events to show what we had in store for fun (including our next PTO meeting!). Then we added the “How the PTO can help me” section explaining that PTO funds teacher requests and offers volunteer help, and that they can share their classroom wish lists. Add anything your PTO plans to do that can directly help staff or teachers, if they ask. Most of our staff didn't know they could request classroom supplies or field trip funds through our PTO.

The next section included “Ways you can help PTO”. Ask teachers to promote PTO events and flyers to their class and families, attend spirit nights (not as a volunteer - just show up to see the students!). We also asked them to fill out a "Teacher Favorites" survey and turn it in for a prize incentive. The goal was to promote the PTO to teachers in a way that wasn't abrasive and offered lots of room for participation.

Over the years, we learned to take feedback and use it to create learning spaces like the outdoor classroom, help with science fair boards, send fifth graders on field trips, and so much more. And, because of our efforts, our staff helps run the school carnival games every year, including the dunk tank and Pie the Principal. They show up to school spirit nights to hang out with students, and really have a positive outlook on what our PTO does for our school.

13. A sense of humor (seriously) 

I literally couldn't live without a sense of humor! I had a volunteer tell me once, “I don't want to volunteer for anything that causes me stress when I get there”. And that's so true! Remember to bring humor and humility to your PTO. We didn't know how to make a balloon arch until YouTube. We didn't know the ducks would flip over and drown at the carnival game until it happened. We didn’t know the DJ would play inappropriate songs at the dance until he did. Be flexible and remember to laugh! Find the funny because we're all just volunteers doing our best. When things go wrong, handling it with a sense of lightheartedness and flexibility makes everyone remember it's all for a good cause, and volunteers want to be a part of something that's fun and enjoyable.

Share the funny stories, or better yet, make them with your group! Put on Taylor Swift during a closet clean out, offer drinks and snacks anytime you can. I had no idea what I was doing when I started our PTO, but I do know I couldn't have done it without being able to laugh at myself or with my PTO board members. Things won't always go according to plan, and that's okay. The point is to remember why everyone is there...to see their students, help the school, and have fun. Those things alone will have families gravitating to help your group.

@tylerrakay It's like I can do it, I just can't explain how I do it... does that make sense?? #graduation #ptomomsoftiktok #ptomom #balloonarch #ballooncolumns ♬ Bright and fun video BGM 25 minutes long song(1240085) - Kei