To ask the PTA mums

[user1495362060]

Do you really believe that PTA organized events are an effective way to raise funds for school needs?

(I have absolutely nothing against those events - i think they are great for socializing for those who want it! Perhaps it would be better if there was less sugar and plastic and more male participation. I just can’t wrap my mind around the fact that you try to coax money out of parents by offering them cookies and lottery tickets )

I cannot imagine the uproar if the school asked for 150 pounds a year. I dont believe it would cause any genuine uproar. It is just 50 pounds per term! After school club sessions cost 10 pounds a day for comparison.

BTW - one thing I did for our school's PTA was to build them a website. It has lots of info about what they do and how much they raise and what they fund.

It has news and events listed, so you can check when the bike sale is, or what date you need to send in your supermarket gift card cheque.

It has a 'donate here' button so you can donate your money without leaving your seat.

It lists the PTA members and thanks them for their work.

It has an option to sign up for the PTA email newsletter which goes out once a week at most.

I think it's helped generally.

Another way that's proved effective for us to raise money is a program we run with the local supermarket. You write a cheque to the supermarket and get a gift card for that amount. The school gets 5% of the value. You can use the gift card to buy your shopping, or to buy other gift cards for restaurants, Amazon, shops, etc.

We do it once a month and last year it raised over $6,000.

Totally agree with you on the weekly cake sale.
I’d rather just donate cash mostly so make sure I buy lots of raffle tickets as the closest option. I also give the dc lots of money to spend at the summer fair, preferably on games.
A fun run sounds like a great idea, they did a sponsored walk once but it was just laps of the field and very boring.

Sounds great @Semester.
I'm not surprised when an event is sprung on me.
I can donate if were not taking part in the event but want to.
It is easy to see what they do which ours isn't so I have no clue where my cash goes.

Love the idea. Well done

I cannot imagine the uproar if the school asked for 150 pounds a year

seriously? Have you seen the amount of threads when posters are outraged to have to give £1 or £2 to the school, screaming school is free, it's a disgrace, how dare they asking for £1.

There are posters absolutely fuming because they have to pay a couple of £ for a minibus to take the kids swimming for example. You have no chance to ask for £150.

I think parents should be made to pay for the kids supplies, books included, and the school could use the savings for various equipment they need

Not sure whether the PTA events are the most cost effective way to raise money, but I know that last year our PTA paid for the school library to be refurbished (including new books), equipment for the nursery garden and infant playground, Christmas parties including a visit from Santa with a gift for each of the children, visit from the Easter bunny with a chocolate egg for each child, and musical instruments for the school.

The PTA also try to arrange a variety of fundraising events so there’s something for everyone to enjoy, or participate in, not just cake sales. Some of the events are very popular with the children.

Ex PTA chair here. If you ask for donations SOME parents donate. We had some massive one-off donations (Ik once, I almost fell off my chair!!) but lots of parents don't donate. And lots won't donate a large amount every month - so you might get a pile the first time you ask, but by year 3/6/11 (depending on school - I'm guessing you are thinking primary) maybe not any more. We ran a few 'just donate' campaigns, and the PTA I"m involved with has one at the mo. Events raised much more money IF run well and efficiently- but there is a big range - one event I was involved with cleared £14k, others cleared a couple of hundred.

But more importantly, imho, the PTA is about two things - raising money for the school AND building the broader school community. Collecting £10 off everyone at the gate doesn't do that, the Y2 disco on the other hand, can do.

Cake sale are one of the things I personally struggle with - they seem weirdly popular with parents (& kids!) but financially they are hugely inefficient and the idea of selling cakes for less than they cost me to make them used to wind me up every time...regardless of the health issues which I care less about tbh!

Oh - and at one of the primary schools my two attended - and most of the secondary schools locally - they ask for a donation every month AND then PTA contributions are on top of that. Schools are broke and in need of all the help they can get.

We do a mixture of events: some are fun things that are also fundraisers (annual fair), some are purely for fun and we hope to break even, but the point is to add a social angle to school; some make a small profit but serve another purpose (used uniform sales); some make decent money and are fun (bake sales, Pies for Pi Day sales)

If we ask people for cash, they are very reluctant. Ask them for a pie or a plate of brownies and we are overwhelmed with the generosity and effort that people are prepared to put in.

Remember that bake sales are pure profit for the PTA - no outlay beyond a stack of paper plates, as all the items are donated. They also don't need much organisation and don't impact the school much either.

I have been very involved in the PTA in one school and not our current one for various reasons. It was back breakingly hard work to get people involved and i began to really resent the events that we did 'for the kids', that raised little money - Mostly because I found that they really were only for a few kids- my kids always hated them- and they traditionally were discos. Unfortunately it was difficult to put my point across because the general consensus seemed to be - if it's for the kids it has to involve sugar or they won't enjoy it. I would personally now much rather contribute £50 into the kitty every year. But that's just me.

Problem with this model is how the money is perceived to be spent.

...I believe that 95 percent of the parents would donate say 10 pounds a year for whatever kind of supplies their child’s class needs, 50 pounds a year for a school trip and 20 pounds for a forest School or sports days.

The sort of thing we do is pay for ipads or books or musical instruments that most the kids will get eventually benefit from but maybe not this year.. maybe in 3-5 yrs time. What we pay for is not directly tied to a specific class or single event/trip, and if it did pay for trips then we would have to try to justify that every child had approx. same value trips out -- way too awkward.

Secondary: purchase would be a specific scientific instrument, or drama supplies (not everyone does drama), or new French language things (not everyone does French).

I cannot imagine the uproar if the school asked for 150 pounds a year. I dont believe it would cause any genuine uproar. It is just 50 pounds per term! After school club sessions cost 10 pounds a day for comparison

I'm guessing that is because you could afford £50 a term and care about things like trips and forest school. I have families in my class who genuinely struggle to afford basics, who rely on free school meals and food banks to get by some months. I have other parents who send their children to school because they have to but openly admit they couldn't care less about education, who see paying for things like water bottles and PE kits as a waste of money. Sadly way more than 5% of parents fall into one of those two categories.

I partly agree OP and now just donate direct to the PTA bank account rather than faffing with cakes that cost me a fortune and get sold for pennies. Fine if you have the time and inclination to bake them and want to socialise. If you don’t, just hand over your cold hard cash!

head teachers are a in a difficult position in publicizing the state of school IT, books, music equipment etc, because they are employed by the council. You can ask what the school's budget is for non-staff costs though, if you're interested and figure out what that is per pupil and draw conclusions about the need to raise extra funds.

I do think there should be clearer upfront goals about what the money is needed for that year, it might help a bit on the 'where is my money going' aspect.

My point is just that straight out asking the parents for donations would achieve the same objective

I've only ever heard this suggested on MN. I've seen lots of people saying they would give money gladly, but have never come across a poster saying they have actually made a donation, or set up a standing order to pay to the PTA

Agree with PP that PTA events are sometimes about community / children having fun, not just about fundraising

Okay, Oly5 proves me wrong. I have now come across ONE poster who says they have donated money directly to the PTA

I have donated directly to my daughter's school's PTA.

Maybe I am naive

No 'maybe' about it. Not only regarding what parents are likely to agree to in terms of direct contributions - but, more importantly, what the money raised is needed for.

i'm still not getting why people think you have to choose between the two - ptas are going to run events for the people that like events, and for those that don't, xfer money to the school/pta if you prefer.

I've not found a poster saying they tried to direct donate and were knocked back, now that really would make me take notice!

I just looked at our Education Foundation's annual report and they list 150 parents who donated. There are about 1000 families in the school system so that's 15%.

On, and on the '95% of people would just donate' suggestion. My two are now at a large secondary - VERY affluent area in the SE. We have a 'just donate' scheme which asks for £10/month from people. We have about 150 parents signed up. There are (approx) 1650 kids at the school - so about 11% donate to that. I know secondaries struggle more to get donations in, but still, your 95% is a million miles off the mark, I suspect.

I have families in my class who genuinely struggle to afford basics, who rely on free school meals and food banks to get by some months.
And you then say it’s fair to get money out of these people pockets by selling their kids overpriced pieces of cake?
These people should donate nothing. and if they make more than 5 (ok - 10? What is the national average of free school meals recipients) percent of the school population the school must be sponsored-how is a different question. I guess academisation is one of the ways it is being done.
I am sorry for sounding provocative-I know you mean well. But if I genuinely believe the above.

if it did pay for trips then we would have to try to justify that every child had approx. same value trips out

We do pay towards school trips - about £5 per child IIRC - and it's up to the teacher to either spend it and not need any more input from parents or to ask parents to make up the difference. Occasionally we might also fund a specific trip in addition, eg high school music students to see a concert, but it has to be justified in advance. We do sometimes gets teachers who take us for granted and assume we will agree...

And by the way - of course I donate. otherwise I wouldn’t have asked this question. I also never attend any of the events (and my kids never have pocket money for the cakes) so it’s only fair I do.
It is a well to do area, but we do have a sizable population of disadvantaged pupils.

I think it’s fair that those parents who have the most should subsidise the parents who are struggling but as a PTA chair I can tell you at my school it’s some of the richest parents who moan about having to pay for stuff. Not all but I’ve been called a money grabbing nazi for asking for £3 for a film night by a women who I know is very very well off indeed.