PTA/School fundraising that doesn't cost anything?

LydiaSophia

Hold a jumble sale...... the schools in my area are always holding them. It's a great way to raise cash and also promotes recycling etc.

I also thinks it benefits kids to see that second hand clothing is OK!

Savvy_Sue

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oldtoolie

It may sound weird but I am a professional charity fundraiser so I want to know why don't school fundraisers just ask for money?

Why not put together a simple brochure saying what you will do for the school with the money raised. Then ask people to fill out a standing order for £2 per month. Start with yourselves, the other parents and then the rest of the school catchment area. After all, good schools increase property values, so everyone should be interested.

Personally, if some one had asked me when my son started primary school, I would have signed up and I would still be giving even though he finished primary school 3 years ago.

Savvy_Sue

oldtoolie wrote: »

It may sound weird but I am a professional charity fundraiser so I want to know why don't school fundraisers just ask for money?

I guess some of us still feel that the state should be funding education. I know the theory that parent fundraising is just the frilly bits rather than the basics, but it seems 'wrong' to just ask for money.

oldtoolie wrote: »

Why not put together a simple brochure saying what you will do for the school with the money raised. Then ask people to fill out a standing order for £2 per month. Start with yourselves, the other parents and then the rest of the school catchment area. After all, good schools increase property values, so everyone should be interested.

I have a feeling that giving such a brochure and especially the standing order form to parents before their children start school would be very dodgy these days: haven't some schools had their knuckles rapped for basically stating their expectation that parents WILL pay a 'voluntary' fee if their child is offered a place?

And I don't see this working in areas where the schools are not that popular. For example, many parents here choose not to send their children to the local school, and no doubt support their out of area school's fundraising. They're not likely to also give to the local school.

Nor will it 'work' if the majority of the catchment area is rented housing, with either no hope of buying, or no desire to buy in this area.

Not to mention the 'awkward squad': I sent ours to the less popular school because the head at the oversubscribed school got right up my nose! So if I got a leaflet asking for money from the school I'm technically in the catchment area for it would go straight into the round filing cabinet.

oldtoolie wrote: »

Personally, if some one had asked me when my son started primary school, I would have signed up and I would still be giving even though he finished primary school 3 years ago.

DS1 went to Catholic secondary school and we were sent a standing order form as soon as he started - with church schools it usually is spelled out to parents that the school does NOT receive all its costs from the local authority. However he was only there for a year before we moved, and one of the first things I did was cancel that standing order.

No, I'd find it impossible to do this on a wide scale. By all means a basic leaflet setting out what we aim to do this year, and by all means get it into the hands of every single local business, preferably by personal contact through parents. But every household? What next, the bin men saying they too could provide a better service if we gave them more money, direct, rather than through our council tax etc? :rotfl: I do hope not!

However, please don't think I'm being entirely negative about this. Whichever way PTAs etc raise money, being able to state clearly and concisely WHAT the money is being raised for is the first step, and why you as parents need to raise it.

For example, DS1's school changed from a First (Years R-3) to a Primary (up to year 6) and he was in that first year to go all through. That year we raised money for new books for the library, for those older readers. We pointed out that the school did have some funding for this, but they'd (probably) only be able to provide for 'average' readers. We wanted to do the extras - the longer novels you might only expect secondary children to want to read, the quirky non-standard books which only a few children might want. That worked well.

Another thing which can work is getting a local group committed. That wasn't a church school but the local vicar was a governor and VERY committed: his parishioners baked cakes for our events, and even supplied funds for school uniforms for pupils in need. But it was the personal contact which got that going.

nickj_2

how about setting up a 100 club
get people to sign up £1 per month or preferably
do a direct debit for a yearly payment
then have a monthly draw with prizes 50% of takings

amyb12

Our school has just run a great fundraising project called "My Art Project" where the kids create a piece of art in school and then the clever people at "My Art Project" turn them into great quality cards, canvases, posters, writing paper, etc that are available for parents to order....with 10% of the total order value going to school as a donation.

Costs nothing to run!

Our project was a great hit with the school (ticks lots of boxes on the National Curriculum & raised money), the parents (great products to buy all personalised with their childs picture on the reverse), the kids (loved seeing their art transformed into great products) and of course the PTA who just had to provide the supplied templates to the teachers, send out the art proofs to parents and then bank the cheques!! Didn't cost the school a penny to run and everyone has been delighted.

For more details visit www.myartproject.co.uk

Shelbs_2

Hello
Does anyone know where I can recyle batteries and raise funds for the school?
help help help, I'm fed up with search engines
Thanks

Savvy_Sue

Shelbs wrote: »

Hello
Does anyone know where I can recyle batteries and raise funds for the school?
help help help, I'm fed up with search engines
Thanks

Short answer, no.

Long answer: my understanding is that battery recycling is a relatively new 'option', and the facilities are not that widely available. Things may have moved on since I gathered that impression: here in Bristol we can put batteries out with our recycling because we have a local facility.

Even longer answer: batteries are full of noxious chemicals, and I would imagine that storage while you wait to have enough to be worth sending off would be a problem. It's fine if they're all in good condition, but when they start leaking you get problems. And leaving them hanging around is going to lead to them leaking, isn't it? And then there's how you send them off: I'm not sure RM would want leaky batteries sent through the post, and they would be expensive. IF you have somewhere local you could take them, you've still got the 'issue' of a load of batteries in the boot of your car.

Final answer: have you heard of this being offered anywhere? If so, ask them ...

Shelbs_2

Oh well I thought I'd ask. Thanks for your help. :T

betws

New cashback site where all cashback goes to your favourite good cause:

http://www.netfundraising.org.uk/

Rates look on a par with the likes of Quidco & TCB