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

That's true, this was in an era before the dreaded WhatsApp groups 😂But face-to-face meetings/social events (even just once a term) can help get more volunteers

You have to be very clear what the money is being raised for.

Also be super clear what you're looking for help with. Just saying "we need volunteers for the summer Fayre" means folks aren't going to sign up because they'll have visions of being there an hour before, all the way through and an hour after.

DDs school has got much better turnout when they've been really specific -

Looking for people to volunteer for one hour - 11am-noon, noon-1pm or 1pm-2pm to collect tickets on the door.
Looking for 6 volunteers to man stalls - 3x 11am-12.30pm and 3x 12.30pm-2pm

So people know exactly what they are looking for.

Also offer people the chance to donate regularly or once a year. A lot of parents at DDs school stick a tenner in the account every time a newsletter goes out and it's mentioned. Usually every other month-ish. That mounts up!

The best thing is mix and match.
School time meetings, after-school, zoom, WhatsApp.
Just make it clear you don't have to attend all of them.

I am a kindly pta volunteer. I don’t want to organise things but will give an hour to man cake stand or help tidy up after if I can. I’ve often wondered how just asking for cash would go down.

I have a more flexible role now but if you’d of told me in years gone by that for a low low price of £50 I’d not hear about a PTA thing for the rest of the year I’d of done it. Donate that anyway in cakes, bottles, bits for raffles, sweetie jars, Christmas crafts etc.

Our school did Christmas cards, kids did a design in class and then they get made up onto cards and Xmas gifts - v good money maker! And just needed one or 2 people to coordinate as the orders go straight to the company. Like this https://mychildsart.co.uk/fundraise/christmas-fundraiser
The cards aren’t cheap though

Yeah my daughters school did that a few times but wasn't popular due to the cost.
Tea towels and tote bags were a disaster too.
They ended up giving them away for free. No one wanted to pay £10 for a tote bag. Far too expensive.

Could you try engaging the parents and carers at the start of the year by e.g. allowing them to vote on which fundraising events to hold that year, with a sign up sheet to volunteer? You could use Microsoft Forms, or similar.

Our PTA have opted to run events that I'm either not interested in (gin night - I don't drink) or I can't attend (bake sale immediately after school - I work full time). So I don't, or can't, get involved. There have been requests for working parents to take annual leave to volunteer, which is obviously ridiculous. If they would instead take more input on which events to run and when to run them, they might have more luck with attracting volunteers. Unfortunately our PTA are very insular and defensive and don't take suggestions well which, again, reduces engagement.

Although, if there was an annual donation option, I would go for that.

Our PTA has a PTA rep or an “inside man” in each class WhatsApp group, so when there is an event that PTA rep posts all the reminders, links to the online Volunteer sign Up sheets etc. Usually there’s a threat like “sadly we will be forced to cancel the event if we can’t get more volunteers” and then the slots fill up last minute.

The main problem is so many people are very very selfish and often very lazy too. You can’t build a community from people like that.

I found it tough to run a stall when dc were small - having a wriggly toddler and a young child sitting at your stall for an hour whilst trying to serve a flurry of often impatient and ungrateful customers could be quite stressful. It didn’t help when used to hear people complaining about how “not much happening here this year, bit of a poor effort by the PTA why can’t they do better events?” From people who clearly had NEVER troubled themselves to help out.

Your School Lottery can work to raise funds - parents / families buy a ticket for £1 a week and there is a guaranteed winner from your school each week, the more tickets sold the bigger “jackpot”

At our old school we had a class rep for each class - changed person each year. Could also be 2 people. We then asked the class rep to get a couplebof helpers to commit to 30mins for events. It seemed to help that someone on the class what's app was asking and not a random pta person they didn't know. Also guilted people into volunteering!
The current school I'm at have done a couple of doughnut sales that have been popular. Krispy Kreme are selling doughnuts to us at a reduced price and we are selling on - think selling at £1.50 for a glazed one. Not cheap for a doughnut, but cheaper than in the shop. It's not too labour intensive - just need someone to place an order in advance (guessing numbers is tricky) and collect the doughnuts in the morning, then about 4 of us were manning the stall at hometime on a friday. Set up from about 2.30, and sometimes is 3.30. If buying doughnuts, the families would tend to buy for each family member (to not leave anyone out). Think it's a promotion Krispy Kreme for PTA and Scout groups etc.

At our school they designate a specific role to each class, and keep sending a link to sign up to the class WhatsApp group so that you can see who's donated.

So for example, parents from my son's class had to run the lucky dip stall at the Christmas fair. They sent out a Doodle poll type thing to the WhatsApp group with half hour slots and two people had to volunteer for each slot. I think about 16 volunteers needed overall, for a class of 28 kids. When you see that one person has signed up, you kind of think "oh, I'd better do it then" and all the slots get filled.

Similar approach for school discos, summer fair etc.

Our PTA also does cake sales and sells ice lollies after school on Fridays. Again, each year group has to do a week and the sign up sheet is public and on the class WhatsApp groups.

They also run evening events for just the parents, like quiz nights and a Christmas wreath making workshop with wine. Must admit I've not been to one of these (combination of not my thing/I'm busy), but they seem to make money otherwise I guess they wouldn't do them.

. It didn’t help when used to hear people complaining about how “not much happening here this year, bit of a poor effort by the PTA why can’t they do better events?” From people who clearly had NEVER troubled themselves to help out.

And the opposite, always the same people who do volunteer to help. Usually those who are most busy.

I moved house to a new area. Volunteering was a great way to meet new friends, especially as it was the same people. PTA, Beavers coffee morning, cub camp, junior football…same people, bargain and again. Good job there are people who can!

We have the same problem on our school's PTA - only a handful of volunteers and most of us work too. We tried a few things but the best one for us is our Christmas card project every year and we do it with only 4 of us! Plus the parents get something for their money without having to dedicate time to it. We've used these guys at our school for a while now xmas4schools.co.uk/

It can be so upsetting when you put so much effort in for little reward but don't give up! 🙂