FUNDRAISING ADVICE for PTA needed. Please.

[drosophila]

I am trying to raise approx £55,000 for our school. My big question is when you write your letter to say a big company how much should I ask for e.g. should I ask for £55,000 or should I ask for a % of it or should I generally ask for a contribution and not be specific?

Thanks

[Mae1]

I'd be interested to hear what fundraising projects you have in mind. Our PTA manages to raise a few thousand each year through the usual Christmas Fairs etc - so I'd love to find out what you can do to raise a larger amount of money.
Let us all know! Incidentally - what is the £55k for????

[drosophila]

Th 55,000 is for the playground. It has virtually nothing in it and we want to build a sportscage (to stop people getting hit by balls) and this is the most expensive bit. There is a lot of other work to do and it all adds up.

The other PTA members are adamant that we should ask for the whole amount when approaching large companies and my sister who used to do fundraising thinks this is the wrong approach. She thinks we should ask for small amounts and build up good relationships with the givers. Thing is it is a one off project so establishing long term relationships is not as important.

I was wondering what other PTA's have done.

[beckybrastraps]

Can you not do some events, and ask for sponsorship of them rather than just asking for the money for nothing as it were? I think the chances of raising £55,000 in one go are pretty small.

[drosophila]

We are doing loads of events as well and have been for a few years now but there are charities that will give to school especially in deprived areas (which it is).

Sobernow. Thanks for the advice. The thing that really worries me is that I have written to some of our best leads and have asked for the whole amount. I feel so stupid. Instinct told me not to ask for the shole amount but I had nothing to argue with the other PTA members. We asctually got 1500 from one charitiy that we had asked the whole amount from.

[fsmail]

We are having a charity auction and have approached local businesses and got quite a lot of support. It will take a while to get £55,000 though. You cannot ask for sponsorship also for specific parts of the playground such as benches, plants etc from local business or go to your Chamber of Commerce, ours has a monthly sponsorship request letter that goes out to businesses on behalf of the schools.

[fsmail]

We also got a grant from the Lottery commission or whatever it is called for our playground.