PTA ideas??

[Loulou161]

i am on the PTA (this is my second year) of a good sized school (approx 300 kids).
we struggle massively with getting parents to volunteer… we’ve tried everything!! As a result we’re having to cancel events because between the 4 of us we simply can’t do it alone!
ANY ideas on how to drum up some interest from parents?
we send out news letters regularly, we ask in all the WhatsApp groups, we’ve told them we can’t do events without them, then we get moaned at for not doing much for the kids?!?
it’s really disheartening and we’re thinking of stepping down.
so any advice really? Or things we could do to raise money that don’t need to be as hands on?
thanks

You need to inform the parents exactly what the money raised is used for.
Obviously it will vary from school to school but at my daughter's primary
many parents did't realise that the supply of popular newly published books in the classrooms, equipment such as skipping ropes or footballs for playtimes, half the toys in the Reception class, the Christmas craft afternoon, end of term discos, the Year 6 special day out, the Christmas/summer fairs and so on only existed because of the PTA organising and raising money.
A lot of people don't understand what a PTA is or is for.
That needs to be your starting point.

You could do an online sign up sheet asking people for 10 or 20 minutes of their time for each event, most people can do that. Unfortunately people can’t or don’t want to give up an hour or 2 of their time for each event.

It seems to be a similar situation in many schools. One can hire bouncy castles (with people monitoring them), outdoor cinemas, or a circus and then - if one has some volunteers (and teachers)- organise a bar and some food. It means that the events won't be cheap but they do not require many vonlunteers. School disco's are another option. For younger year groups we have them straight after school and we get lots of volunteers because the parents want to keep an eye on their children and are otherwise not allowed.

Could you ask them to sign up with a friend? A lot of us don’t like going into a new situation where the regulars know each other and them being an outsider? Less intimidating with a mate

I think a lot of ptas run on incredibly high effort for relatively low profit. I think you need to find things that are giving you reasonable profit for lower effort. Eg we’ve had a lot of push back re cake sales as people are getting pissed off at donating cakes that cost them more than the price they’re being sold for. Jolly jam jars is another example of where profit can be low. I remember one year I ended up buying jam I didn’t really want for a jam jar and the spent money on sweets for something that sold for 50p. It would have been better to just donate £5.

lollies seem to work quite well (pta can buy in bulk relatively cheaply and then sell for a profit). Most profitable for us is always pimms tent and bar. BBQ is profitable but bloody hard work re volunteer time.

If you badger people too much to volunteer, they will just back off altogether. If people are able and willing, they will volunteer easily. If people are not able or willing, pestering and guil tripping will not work! Just pisses people off and then they are even less willing to engage.

Our PTA used to do the Christmas fair and summer fair on Saturdays. Lots of parent volunteered. Lots going on. Everyone went. Lots of money raised. Great. They have been doing these on a Friday after school since Covid. Pester and pester for volunteers on the class WhatsApp. Then guilt trip about how it won’t happen and being quite accusatory as if people are just not willing. Eventually I stuck my neck out and said ‘when people work, they are not able to be there to help set up at 2.00, or volunteer when it finishes at 5.30 and we haven’t even got home from work yet, then are too tired after a week at work to go straight to school for a fair!’ In short, be fair and realistic!

Obviously I don’t know what you do now, but I think being specific in your requests could maybe help. People might not want to volunteer for something broad where they don’t know what they’re doing or for how long (“can you volunteer at the summer fete?”) but might volunteer if you say “can you run either X stall or Y stall for a half an hour slot?”. So they have a bit of choice, but also they know what they’re doing. Some people might worry that a) they’ll be put somewhere they aren’t comfortable with/don’t know what to do, or b) they’ll end up there for hours not able to leave. And you might find that once someone does a few, they’re more open to vaguer requests because they’re more comfortable with doing it.

What time are you doing these events?
Are the events outside of working hours?
Is there childcare?

I think the PTA model is outdated due to the current set up of most households.

Would it be better to do things like sponsored runs?
Does your school have a registered charity and then sign up to sponsored events?

Everything takes time and effort and a lot of "just" suggestions aren't viable as they still need effort
"Just have a second hand book stall "- who collects the donated books, sorts them, checks them, orders them, stores them and then mans a stall ?
"Just do a beer tent "- you need to get an alcohol licence , go to buy it- someone often paying out up front , needs to usually be a cost co or a cash and carry place - who lifts and shifts it all , then mans a stall
Float of cash- who goes to the post office / bank in their own time to get the cash to cover a float for each stall, again shelling out from their own pocket first
Banking - who manages expenses, counting the money, banking it , reimbursing people, doing the accounts, dealing with the charity commission registration and your charity status and documents , adding members etc
It is a TONNE of work
I held some very successful events and can share which were good and not so good if anyone wants genuine advice but it got to points where I just wanted to ask people to donate the cash but that doesn't happen - the events are fantastic for the kids and give a cheap afternoon or evening for parents They just take a lot of effort. And no, creepy dad, I don't want to paint your face as well as your kid's

Ask for cash donations. tbh I would rather give £25 a year than spend my time manning a check point etc.

This!! I’ve often asked why they don’t do this. They seemed to feel it was inappropriate but I’d donate far more this way.
I do help where I can but often events are in work time.

I started out enthusiastic about PTA but if you work full time and obviously you have kids unless you like the other PTAers giving up time on weekends can be hard. At one stage I was paying someone to look after my kids whilst I was fundraising for the school.. just doesn't make sense. Depends on the parents you have - can be like pulling teeth.

We ended up just running a tuck Shop at any events that the school was running e.g. parents night, school shows, careers fayre. Even ended up buying a sum up machine so we could take card payments as well as cash.

Still needed someone to buy stock for the stall and to bank any cash taken. My kids have left school now and I'm quite glad I dont have to worry about it all any more. I used to bake cupcakes to sell on the stall too

The same is happening at our school. The problem I think is though that the PTA want to do more and more events/fundraising activities and that just doesn’t work for parents. I was very involved with the PTA but pulled back as I couldn’t do endless random events anymore with work and family commitments.

In my view it would be easier if the PTA focused on core events like Christmas/summer fair and drop the rest. Like someone else said, small stuff costs more (in time/donations) than it raises.

I am interested in events that worked well as is the op. I agree that there is a lot of work even for "small" events. Book fairs etc. are more for the children then for the profit. The sad truth is that many parents do not even pay for excursions and swimming lessons. To ask for £25 donation is completely unrealistic. Raffles etc. make money but have not much value to the community.

@PTAevents ones that worked well at my daughter's primary were -
After school cake sales. We had one at the end of each half term (so six a year). Each year group from Year 1 - 6 took a turn so you needed parents from those year groups to volunteer. By Year 5 and 6 you sometimes got the children to help.
99% of the cakes were shop bought and donated. For example you'd get something like a platter of 12 donuts that cost £2 or so but sell each donut for £1. Instant profit.
Each cake sale would bring in around £300 so that's £1800 just from an hour after school once a year.
Summer/Christmas fairs would bring in a lot (but you did have to pay out for items like Santa's Grotto gifts -Baker Ross is good for the gifts - but we always made a profit).
We did different stalls/games that each class or year group took control of.
The bottle tombola was always popular. We asked for donations of products in bottles - so drinks, bubble bath, shower gel etc.
Not everyone would donate but if in a primary of 300 kids if just half the children bought in 1 bottle that's 150 prizes right there.
Simple stall games like throw a soft ball through a cardboard snowmans belly or something.
Prizes would be individual sweets from a tub of Heroes or Quality Street (tubs were donated).
So for those that say "I'd rather bung £25 at the school" - use that £25 to buy a couple of tubs of chocolate and some bubble baths. Done. That's your contribution.
Secondhand book stalls were popular. Obviously someone has to sort the books but it's just a couple of hours maybe twice a year.
Sell all books at 50p or similar so you don't have to spend hours pricing things.
Just sort into pictures books/early readers/novels.
(secondhand toy stalls were always a disaster - not much sold)
And of course there was the raffle. Always bought in lots of money. That did take a lot of organising but in my opinion that was because a lot of the prizes were things like vouchers for local restaurants etc so someone had to contact them to ask for a donation.
There was probably more we did.... It's a few years ago now. I am one of those rare folks that actually misses being part of a PTA 😂

@PTAevents also remember that not all events have to be about raising the money.
If you want "value to the community" then that's where the summer/Christmas fairs do their job. They were always open to the whole community - not just parents/children of the school.

my kids school designates an event per year group. So then the responsibility is on the class group to organise and run rather than just the reps. Might be easier as then prowl will be chatting anyway at pick up etc and on any WhatsApp groups.
its a pita though as some year groups are awesome and always step up and others are the opposite. TheRe is no discernible difference in terms of family etc it’s just some want to put in more for their kids to have the best possible school experience.
its interesting that the ones who never help
oyt are the first to complain when an event doesn’t run or isn’t as good as it could be

Following for later.

@Ohshitiveturnedintomymother yes giving responsibility to individual classes or year groups can work really well.
For something like a fair Years 5 and 6 (parents and children) should be responsible for the most popular/profitable stalls because hopefully by then they would know how the PTA and running a stall should work.
If no one from the Reception class parents volunteers (because they haven't yet learned how it all works) but they were just responsible for the 20p a go hook a duck stall then it's no biggie if that game isn't there.

At the summer and Christmas fairs, games with a low cost to play were incredibly popular and we asked for items for donations for a chocolate tombola and a bottle stall. We'd buy a bottle of champagne out of funds and put bottles in sealed bottle bags on squares on a board in the table and rolled dice to win the corresponding number. Some were empty or with a chocolate in and some had bottles and we advertised one was champagne. Always made loads of cash on that.
Teddy tombola with donated teddies and one fancy one.
Name the teddy with a giant teddy , 50p a guess.
Cake stalls are good but people didn't want to pay to buy a mr Kipling apple pie whereas often they'd buy a whole home made cake.
Teas and coffees are cheap but very profitable as is hot chocolate with marshmallows for a Christmas fair. We also did mulled wine one year in slow cookers.
Hot dogs always sold out - we had veggie option plus a pack of gluten free rolls which was commented on as being really good and made their child feel like they could join in
And sweet stalls were always instantly busy. We did bagged up sweets sometimes 20p mix kind of deal so something at various price points but also had savoury options of crisps and mini Pringles tubs too. Parents often bought those.
Echo what's been said about a bar and sum up machines increased takings more than I thought they would especially now people have less cash
Facebook glitter for £1 was cheap to organise and didn't require much talent whereas face painting while popular was much harder work. Especially when a child wants something unusual and you can see a tantrum about to happen if they can't have what they want. Though i did get paid extra by a dad who was grateful I "had a go" at Elsa while the real face painting volunteer was in the loo! Don't hire a face painter. Too expensive and they charge more for the painting and you get very little. Ask for arty folks and / or stick to a few easy designs. Might be putting myself out there as a cheat but I had a rainbow face paint thing with a sponge which applied a perfect rainbow. Add some white clouds and stick on pearls and that was v popular !
It's so so hard asking for volunteers though if you say we need someone one tombola for half an hour slots you might be luckier than we were.
And tell people what you buy for school out of it. I was always shocked what was needed and that I thought would just be able to be bought from regular budgets

Be genuinely welcoming. Accept all offers of help, even if you don’t think you like the parent (more on that later…). Don’t badger or pester or guilt trip and understand that some people cannot help when you want them. Millions of reasons. Work. Caring responsibilities. Younger children to deal with. Simply not wanting to but happy to come to the event to support in that way acceptable.

I tried volunteering for the PTA. I work part-time and had some spare time, so why not? I said I’d help at the summer fair because it was on my non-working day. Requested to not be on the BBQ because I felt very uneasy cooking meat, manning it alone and also I’d have 3yo dd2 with me. Any other stall was fine. Guess where they put me? BBQ, in the pissing rain, alone for the entire 3 hours. I refused, politely, because it wasn’t safe to have a toddler by a BBQ. They did agree, grudgingly, and I swapped with the person on the drinks stand. Toddler very happy to have a little job, all good, no one got food poisoning. Win. Other PTA folk refused to talk to me and the hour slot became three. Fine. Whatevs.

Volunteered at the next one no issues.

Then the weirdness started. Dd did a hobby and there was a performance. You could buy two tickets in advance and unlimited tickets on the door. As advertised by the poster and confirmed by my follow up phone call. This woman from school and very active in the PTA was raging. Event wasn’t even at school. She’d “missed out” on tickets and it “wasn’t fair” that I’d “had priority”. No love, the problem here is you can’t read. Didn’t actually say that but did remind her - and show her the poster - to say unlimited tickets on the door. Still she ranted.

From then on, I was no longer welcome to involve myself in the PTA. My offers of help were ignored. Every time. Even better, she stood right next to me mouthing off that “no one ever volunteered”. Best of all, she also refused to serve me at a PTA drinks stall, as in, looked me in the eye and said “I’m not serving you.” Someone else had to buy me a brew .

Same woman accepted help from another couple of parents who wrapped some presents. She didn’t like how they did them. She re-wrapped them and said “We won’t be needing you anymore”.

Rebecca, if you’re reading, just why???

Anyway, that felt good.

TL:DR Don’t be a dick. People won’t help if you are.

@madnessitellyou I'd have bitten your hand off for help. I'm sorry you had that experience. Stuff rebecca!!

I'd happily set up a monthly Direct Debit to the kids' school. I've often wondered why the PTA don't have the option there to do so.

Most PTA's probably do.
If run properly they will have a dedicated bank account. Just ask for the bank details and send the money.