To have successful PTO fundraisers you have to have a motivated group of parents and students and teachers. But many PTOs have a hard enough time getting parents involved during the course of the year, how are they supposed to motivate members for a PTO fundraising event?
Successful PTO Fundraisers – Motivating the Parents
By nature parents care more about things that directly affect their own children than they do about things the indirectly affect them. That sounds obvious but it’s such an overlooked part of motivating people during school fundraisers.
When you go to pick your fundraiser and get it started, it is imperative that you let the PTO members know why you are raising money. While “we are raising money for the general fund” is a valid and legitimate reason for a PTO fundraiser, it doesn’t get anyone excited to help out. They can’t personally see the results of their efforts.
On the other hand, if your PTO fund raiser is bringing in money to build a new playground, or buy new desks, or new books, or new computers, anything that all of the kids can use and benefit from, then that will motivate the PTO parents.
It is ok, and probably wise, to raise money for a specific cause and to add to the general fund. But, having a goal just gets people off of the bench and into the fundraising game and you are almost guaranteed to sell more.
As was stated earlier, you need to let the parents know what your reason for fundraising and your goals. You can have the most whiz-bang and fun reason for fundraising ever and if the parents don’t know about it, you’re right back where you started.
Successful PTO Fundraiser – Motivating the Students
The parents will do most of the selling during a PTO fundraiser but the students need to be motivated as well because they will also be doing the selling and can help push their parents to sell more. For a long time PTO’s have chosen the fundraising ideas that offer the best prizes because the consensus has been that the prizes motivate the students. But if your fundraiser is for new playground equipment or new computers what do you think will motivate the students more; actually getting the playground or the computers, or winning a $0.50 blow up cell phone? The answer is clear.
Another big part of motivating your sellers is making sure they know what kind of progress is being made against the goals you have set. We offer our free fundraising thermometer that you can update as many times as you want as an easy and graphical way to show how the fundraiser is going.
Successful PTO Fundraisers – Motivating the Teachers
The teachers will play a huge role in the success of the PTO fundraising program. They are key to keeping students on task and will play a big role in collecting the orders and making sure everything is turned in on time. Motivating them is one of the easiest steps though as teachers are usually intimately aware of the reasons for the sale and what the results mean for the school. Be sure and show the teachers how much you appreciate their help though. It is amazing how far a simple ‘thank you’ can go towards motivating a teacher.
Go Green Fundraising offers all kinds of PTO fundraising ideas that are earth friendly and a lot of fun. To get started today, call one of our fundraising consultants at 877-448-9746.
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