AIBU to expect other parents to support a preschool fundraising events?

[Pregnantabroad]

I'm organising a fundraiser for our small preschool. They're struggling to meet the funding needs so I've organised a ticketed evening event and I'm really surprised at how little support there is from other parents (availability and suitability aside - it's on a Friday night and aimed at women). I know I can sell the tickets to other friends and contacts in the village but I'm disappointed by the reaction of fellow parents.
I'm curious to know why people would and wouldn't support events and if there's anything I could do next time to influence parents better? Should I take the guilt-trip route (preschool struggling financially)? Or does that put people off? Any advice appreciated!

Jesus, don’t do a pamper evening! That’s nearly as bad as the scarves!

Our PTA (primary school) does an ice cream sale every Friday afternoon for the summer term. Just lollies and Cornettos so they can buy in bulk.

They also use Easyfundraising - it's one of those sites that you 'shop through'. So if you're doing a grocery shop at ASDA you go to the ASDA site via Easyfundraising and the school get a payment in return. Our school's raised over £400 so far and it's easy - you just have to click into that site when you shop.

Our embroidered items of uniform are from the Tesco shop - the school gets a pay back for that too. That's obviously not the PTA but is another income source. And they are cheaper than school uniform shops.

They also apply for the supermarket 'drop a disc' type things where you get disc when you're shopping and drop it into a worthy cause/charity box - usually three causes on show for a month. Most supermarkets have the rule of the highest number of disc tokens get a certain amount and the other two get a split of the charity budget for the store.

I think, for example, with Waitrose, their stores have between £500 and £1000 depending on size to divide between three causes each month. You have to apply to be considered. Our PTA has applied twice to Waitrose and twice to Tesco and have been featured in both stores. That's a lot of cash when your parents just have to drop a token when they shop. And the kids love it - they can see if they are winning!

Our PTA also does a 100 club. I don't know the ins and outs but basically it's a lottery. You pay an amount each year and choose a number for that year. If you're number wins (monthly draws) you get a cash amount. I think ours is a £1 a week (so £52 for the year) with a £40 top prize, then £20, then £10. We have a mega prize at Christmas and the annual fair of £100. I think we've got 60 of the 100 tickets sold this year.

So that's £1040 pay out (12 x the monthly £40, £20 and £10 plus the two £100 mega prizes). It brings in £3120. Our PTA keeps the difference - £2080pa.

You just have to be careful that you've got enough interest to cover your payout and that you get the cheques or direct debits promptly.

All of these plus discos at the end of term and raffles are popular - parents don't have to do anything except drop a token or buy a treat for their kids. They don't have to give up time or arrange baby sitters. It's an easy win for the parents.

Maybe something like a nearly new sale at the weekend, quiz night, pamper evening

People don't want to give up their evenings and have childcare issues though as has just been pointed out.

The event is part of the problem though. I am 53, most of my friends are in their 50s, I even have a vast collection of scarves, but I really dont want to pay any money at all to be shown how to tie one.

And despite the huge marketing around it, not everyone likes prosecco.

If you had the event and timing right, people would be interested.

I can't stand these fundraising nights, pressure to spend money I don't have with people I don't know and giving up free time I frankly don't have.

If the school sends me a letter asking for £5-10 as we need help funding activities etc. fine I will happily send in a cash donation of whatever I can afford.

I know you have asked people not to be mean about the event itself but its a problem. No one is going to want to go on a night out to tie a scarf. I'm sorry but its just the worst idea ever. Quiz night, disco, coffee mornings... so many other things to try before scarfs.

To be blunt, parents are less invested in pre-schools as their dcs are there for such a short length of time. As it's a state one, I assume children just go for their funded hours, so the term after they turn 3 until school. In practice, this means 1.5 school years for most parents. The ones starting school in September won't really care about it's funding at this point. The newer parents might feel uncomfortable at an evening event with parents they haven't had time to get to know.

Most pre-schools round here have bridged the gap via extending beyond the 3 hours funded (so a morning session is 9-12:30 rather than 9-12, but with an option to collect at 12) and parents pay for the difference, also opening places up to children under the age of 3, but then the parents have to fully fund those places (at a slightly higher rate to subsidise the others).

Preschools are different to school, it's such a short time they are there and many parents do see preschool education as "nice to have" but not something they need.

I can't organise a coffee morning because the space is used the by preschool itself in operation and I work during the day (or look after my 3 preschoolers) so have to do evening events. I know Friday nights are not ideal but I was limited by the space available and the available of the person leading the workshop. I chose this event because I had the contacts to run it.

I like the idea of asking the parents. Outdoor picnic/movie screening after preschool also good! Thank you :)

"it's on a Friday night and aimed at women"

In my experience events that are "aimed at women" are often not particularly interesting. In fact (again in my experience) they tend to be horribly predictable ... events involving such things as make-up, jewellery, candles, and cookery.

Tell me your event is different.

Also, as women are your stated target group, do you not think you have immediately excluded 50% of the school's parents from your fund-raiser?

i'd pay NOT to go to that!

if DH were ever going to go for a drink after work with colleagues, it would be a Friday night - and he would only tell me at lunchtime that day.

Therefore, there was never any point me arranging to go out on a Friday night!

That's a lot of money to spend on something you can learn on youtube, should you so wish.

Something like an outdoor movie screening would be nice - early summer evening, family-friendly movie, a safe location so the children can play without needing to be helicoptered, maybe set up a small bar? Or our local lands trust runs a celiedh every year - that's always popular. Or have a barbeque one evening? Or start some kind of sponsered challenge if you have plenty of sporty parents - perhaps set an overall goal of a distance to be walked or run over the school year and get parents to each do a proportion of that, if that makes sense.

I think one of the other issues is you say that you only have 25 kids in the school. There's a limit on how much you can expect those 50-max parents to subsidise the running costs.

Have you sat down and worked out how much you need in donations, and what that works out to per child? If so, is there any mileage in simply asking for that? If its say, twenty-five quid each, I'd rather just give that as a one Off. And if that's laughably low, and it's more like five hundred quid each, then I'm not sure that's reasonable to expect regardless of how many fundraising initiatives you do.

I wouldn't worry about not being able to do a coffee morning. They're just as bad.

teddybear sleepover?

The other thing, is, on the events stuff, say WHAT the money is for (have a specific equipment goal) and also, give people that DON'T like events another way to direct donate.

I would hate a scarf tying evening, but if you wanted £500 to buy equipment and put a fundraising link on the email that went out about it, that'd help.

Some people like adult events, some people like children centred events, some people like to direct donate. And of course some people won't do voluntary donations for something they think they should get for free.

teddybear sleepover?

The other thing, is, on the events stuff, say WHAT the money is for (have a specific equipment goal) and also, give people that DON'T like events another way to direct donate.

I would hate a scarf tying evening, but if you wanted £500 to buy equipment and put a fundraising link on the email that went out about it, that'd help.

Some people like adult events, some people like children centred events, some people like to direct donate. And of course some people won't do voluntary donations for something they think they should get for free.

That reminds me. Rounders match and BBQ? Our local Cubs does this.

PS when our local grammar school organised a women's 'fashion show and prosecco' fundraiser one woman went rogue and set up a gin and poker night on the same day at a local pub. Guess who raised more?

That's quite funny actually.

OP why would you choose an event aimed at women only? Women already statistically do more of the work with children, already do more of the volunteering. I'd be royally fucked off expected to go to some woman only event because it's my job somehow to raise money for a nursery due to my vagina.

I'm actually surprised you didn't get any complaints as the event is both stupid and sexist, and also it's summer, who is wearing scarves?

Ffs what is it with people, maybe they are dropping their kids then going off to WORK? Just a thought...

Well duh. Unclench and understand that some people may be free, hence why I said it's a good, cheap way to see the amount of people free. I use my preschool for work which is why I also suggested a Sunday afternoon as I'd be unable to attend day time events

I can't get over the bizarre nature of the event choice. I thought it was a joke at first!

Best thing you can do if you want to run an evening event is a quiz night, they are always popular and the local community will always show up for it.

Definitely no pamper evenings which are basically just a cover for MLM vultures to rinse people of money for their snake oil shit.

Sorry for the massively repeated post earlier - not sure what happened there!

I always feel a mixture of guilt and annoyance about these events, btw.

Guilt at not supporting and annoyance of feeling I have to when I'm busy/skint/cba

I work a mixture of days and evenings as well, which makes planning tricky but I don't think you can cater for everyone. Not many work regular 9-5 now.

Also in the future don't organizse anything that you can simply learn from youtube

my DD's school recently did a family evening. Families had to pay for a ticket (£5 I think) and they brought their own picnics drinks etc and did it on the school field so the children could safely run around and play while the adults sat and had a drink. I didn't go but from what I've heard it was a success. The school provided games, music etc

Fundraising would be ideal if they just stopped with the several events a year to buy raffles for a hamper I don't want.

And replaced it with a reminder to donate each month straight into nursery bank account in the newsletter with and update on how much has been raised so far. And then whatever money I had to spare each month I would gladly donate.

The masses of money asked of us all at once is annoying, inconvenient and tends to be bad timing around Christmas and summer.

I wouldn't want to give up my own time for an event when I could be doing housework. This year I get the idea that they want me to help at the sports day because I'm kid free during school hours. I don't want to because I barely sleep at night, my OH is ill and I have housework. I'm exhausted.

I would rather hand them some cash if they left me alone.

Our PTA (primary school) does an ice cream sale every Friday afternoon for the summer term. Just lollies and Cornettos so they can buy in bulk

I like this idea. Very simple. Likely to be popular with children, siblings & parents. Minimal effort