Evaluating Your Elementary School PTA / PTO Activities

Hi!  Jay here.  I want to let you quickly know that right before school is back in session is the best time to re-evaluate your PTA or PTO activities!

Principals - meet with your PTA or PTO and go over their comprehensive plan for the Fall activities and fundraisers!  If you're allowed to, see if you can help them run some numbers and determine if the fundraisers they are holding will earn money and if they are too intrusive into the demands of teaching.  Don't let the PTA or PTO host fundraisers that are risky and help them ensure against theft!

PTA and PTO members - get together with the expressed purpose of finalizing your schedule.  Make sure you have everything in place to present yourselves and the school with conviction and professionalism.  Don't hesitate.  Make sure that when the school year hits, so does  the PTA or PTO!  In your meeting discuss if you have any risky or particular needy areas that present concern.  Can you simplify things?

Remember, less is more!  So if you can strip away things you're not putting time into, before school starts would be the time to decide what it is you will do well, and what you don't need to do!

Ok, until next time!

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School fundraisers

Fall School Fundraising - 4 Simple Ways to Succeed!

I just enjoyed a week of vacation and it was quite pleasant. Taking some time off allows a rejuvination of spirit and allows one to re-focus.

It's a good thing because there are just a few weeks until school is back in session and the biggest fundraising push of the year is underway! It's an exciting time for us and yes, we do 80% of our business in two months. We get a lot of work done in these next few weeks.

We work tirelessly to satisfy the needs of PTA's, PTO's, principals and administrators, teachers, parents and students alike. Fortunately, we've been planning our fall for quite some time and we are very confident in our ability to deliver.

Has your school been planning ahead for your fall fundraising efforts?

We have certainly noticed that many schools have not decided what they are going to be doing for this fall. The late decisions certainly could be because of confusion of what to do, looking around for new and unique fundraisers, a change in the parent group or perhaps it's just always been that way.

Here is my quick list of things you can do to easily improve your fundraising efforts:

1) Decide now who you will use for your school fundraiser and start planning.

2) Sketch out your marketing plan! Many successful schools begin marketing even before school starts!

3) Start Early! Run your main school fundraiser in the second or third week of school if you can for maximum profits!

4) Make an impact! The more importance you put on your fundraiser, the more important it becomes! Involve anyone you can and remember, a principal is your best ally!

Hopefully you are in a position to help your school in one of more of the above suggestions. We want you to succeed no matter how or who you raise funds with. Please let me know if you have any comments or questions! Thanks for looking and feel free to share my blog address - www.believejay.blogspot.com

Top School Fundraisers - Fundraising Options for Elementary Schools

If you're considering a fundraiser for fall 2010, you've got one good shot at hosting a wildly successful fundraiser! You can do this despite anything stacked against you.

Here are the most successful fundraisers for elementary schools:

• Fall Gift & Wrap Catalog
• Frozen Cookie Dough
• Large Well-organized Events

This fall is very important. As a matter of simplicity let me just suggest that if you have a successful fundraiser such as an auction or fall catalog sale, stick with it. Make improvements to what you currently offer - make it more important, make it more obvious that you need the support of students and parents.

If you are being hit up by a wide variety of companies offering various fundraisers, get the facts. It only takes a few minutes to ask some of the tough questions. The factual questions that will allow you to minimize your risk. Concentrate on some of these items before moving on to the ones that feel more comfortable to you:

• What is the average sale dollar amount per student
• What is the average number of items sold per student
• What is the average overall participation rate
• What is your profit margin given these numbers at your student count

These numbers will allow you to calculate the potential sale with that vendor. If you are considering an event run through these same numbers estimating your attendance and average sales.

Do this for every vendor before you decide on some of the other factors such as:

• Volunteer time needed
• Student participation programs
• Drawing prizes & incentives
• How order processing works
• How product distribution works
• Quality of products / service
• Commitment to customer service
• How damaged / missing items are handled
• Commitment to offering value
• Number of backordered items last year

There are just some fundraisers floating around out there that will not be in the same league as the fall gift catalog, cookie dough or large event.

Affiliate programs, single product fundraisers such as trash bags or coffee, donation drives, box tops, scratch cards, discount cards, seasonal items, cell phone / toner recycling, clothing drives, hair cut nights, spirit nights or pizza fundraisers are not created equally. These programs often earn only a small percentage of the heavy-hitting traditional fundraisers.

Do your research, then put all of your marketing efforts behind your largest and most profitable fundraiser you can. You can increase your fundraising profits for the year by removing efforts that do not work and by concentrating more on the fundraiser that creates the highest sales average and participation percentage!

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Jay Moneta is the Vice President of Believe Kids Fundraising and blogs regularly about elementary school fundraising. If you would like to discuss this or any of my posts, please comment here or on twitter - twitter.com/BelieveKids

Thanks for the opportunity to share my thoughts and if I can put my company to the test with any competing fundraisers for the benefit of your school, just let me know.

If you enjoyed the content here, please consider forwarding a link to a friend or co-worker that would enjoy them as well. I am working hard to provide helpful information and would appreciate any support in terms of interested visitors you may be able to recommend. Thanks!

Fundraising Incentive - New Charm Necklaces for Fall 2010 School Fundraisers

I took a look at our new daily incentive offer for fall 2010 school fundraising today and it's amazing!

Schools use complimentary 'Charm' necklaces to promote their fundraiser while the fundraiser is underway. It's a great way to add excitement surrounding the fundraiser and reward students for promoting the sale.

This program is free and is very easy to use! These things are amazing so I can't wait for you to see them in person!

Fundraising Prize Program for Fall 2010 School Fundraising Announced...

I won't go into detail on here just yet but believe me when I say you have to make a call on this one. We've just announced the very best student prize program out there for fall 2010 school fundraising!

We will be offering 11 prize levels and although I really want to announce what they are here, I will wait just a few days. If you get a chance to and are interested in knowing more, call toll-free 1-877-723-5438 and get the low-down!

Elementary and middle school fundraising is going to look a lot better this fall!

Believe Kids Elementary School Fundraising offers Follow-Through!

If you don't like posts that include shameless self-promotion, skip this one.

We're one of the last companies offering up to 50% profit with a traditional fundraiser that REALLY works! At a time when school fundraising companies are offering less and changing their strategies, we're offering more of the right things - things that make fundraisers work!

We are concerned with your profit. We are concerned that you have a good reputation when all is said and done. This means that we won't push lame prizes or cheap products your way in the name of school fundraising. We will make you look good by promptly taking care of any request for replacement or missing items.

You have to make money. If we consult you, you will make money. We have systems for getting results. It sounds kinda cheesy saying this so directly but we can explain ourselves rather quickly and you will get it - our fundraisers get people involved.

As for the catalogs, we'll send you a sample copy and you will see first-hand what type of organization we are. Items are quality and you will notice our commitment to offering value.

If we are a good fit, let's work together! We've hosted over 10,000 successful fundraisers in every state and would love to provide you as many references as you need. On our website we have posted un-moderated comments.

We wouldn't do that if we weren't confident in our follow-through :)

Now is the time to request our new elementary school fundraising catalog for Fall 2010 school fundraising. Please visit http://believekids.com/Samples/ to request your sample packet.

Sally Foster School Fundraiser - Fundraising Program Test Subjects...

Speculation abounds. I am so curious I can hardly stand it. I already know that this post is making me nervous and uncomfortable because it shakes things up a bit. Fortunately for me, fundraising blogs are not in the same boat as say writing for the New York Times so here ya go.

Sally Foster is changing the way they do business and they will most likely ask every school to be a test subject. I posted recently about how the change from a famous catalog to a gift card would be a test of technology and... it certainly will.

In my previous post, I mention that taking a risk on switching from a traditional fundraiser to an online gift card sale has some issues. What's strange is it seems like schools who like their Sally Foster fundraising rep will be on board to test this new fundraiser out.

It's not a rational decision to work with Sally Foster this fall. It's actually pretty risky. The safety of being able to estimate your profits will be compromised. The predictability that the parents and community will be happy is gone. If a group relies on a certain amount of money this fall, it's an even bigger risk because the profits may not be there in the end.

A recent PTOToday.com message board post outlined some concerns. They expressed concern that there are still limitations to computer access in their rural area, but more importantly, the older folks won't know how to navigate the fundraiser. Basically, this means that the community needs to be educated on how to take part in a new fundraiser.

The post goes on to say that they will likely still do the fundraiser with Sally Foster but will lower their profit estimate in case it is a bust.

I just think that is strange and it points to the fact that Sally Foster must have some great fundraising reps in the field. They obviously have some big fans out there.

So, what can be done?

Ultimately, groups will arrive at their own decisions. I believe most will sign up to try the new fundaiser out. Today, schools are in the process of discovering the specifics of the program and deciding for themselves if it works for them.

I think my only real hope in writing this post is that ONE group that can't take a risk on even losing a few thousand dollars, finds a better fundraiser that can earn them an extra few thousand on top of what they earned last year.

Let the PTA's and PTO's that are willing to absorb the risk on their own accord, test out the new Sally Foster program this fall. On the other hand... If a school is counting on every single penny from their fall fundraiser and can't take a risk - they should look to a company with a consistent and more predictable earning history.

I'm still very excited to see how this all turns out for Sally Foster and the schools that work with them this fall. This is one of the most interesting developments in school fundraising in quite some time.
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Author Note - Jay Moneta is the Vice President of Believe Kids Fundraising. I do have a personal interest in earning schools fundraising business, but in this case, I feel an obligation to point out that any new fundraising program is a risky one.

I have confidence that Sally Foster will be testing technological fundraising out full-force this fall. I do think that there are some schools that may just find, it's a bit more than they should take on. For the sake of groups that are really hurting, I hope my feedback helps.

This is probably about as controversial as my blog has ever been but in many ways I am still a fledgeling blogger. If you enjoyed or didn't enjoy what I've said, please let me know by commenting on this blog. I can be reached at twitter.com/BelieveKids as well.

Thanks for looking!

Sneak Peek - Fall 2010 Fundraising Catalog Preview

We just posted a preview version of our 2010 Fall Fundraising Catalog! This is the one that everyone is after: Preview the 2010 Fall Fundraising Catalog

Keep it as our little secret though :)