The untimely death last fall of a young New Jersey student as he went door-to-door selling items from a fundraising catalog suddenly focused the nation’s attention on the fundraising activities of schools, PTAs, and youth organizations alike. It also caused PTAs to re-evaluate their fundraising activities and discuss the reasons for raising money.

Some of the questions that came up included:

Does our PTA practice "first things first" by assessing needs and establishing goals BEFORE planning how to raise the money?

Why do we raise funds the way we do?

Are there alternatives that might be safer, more effective, and possibly family friendly?

Some of these discussions also revolved around the practice of non-commercial fundraising. This method of raising money has both advantages and disadvantages.

Advantages:

Our PTA keeps all the profit. We don’t have to share our income with a fundraising company. In other words, we control our own destiny.

Children are not pressured by corporate sales personnel or enticed with sales incentives.

We can avoid door-to-door sales by the children or sales at work locations by parents.

We could combine fundraising with family-oriented activities.

Disadvantages:

We might make less money per event.

We may have to use more initiative/imagination in raising our funds.

There probably will be no "kit" to follow.

We might need more volunteers to coordinate any family events.

Dances
Fair or carnival food booths
Highway rest stops
Sporting events
Arts & crafts fair
Any other large gathering

When the Lewis & Clark Middle School PTSA (Yakima) was re-chartered in 1990, both parents and staff members agreed that they did not want to use catalog or other types sales to raise their operating capital. Staff members didn’t want to conflict with the ASB’s candy bar sale and parents didn’t want their students spending time selling things. The question then became, "How will we raise the money necessary to meet our goals, maintain our legal status, and support the students of Lewis & Clark Middle School?"

The answer came in the form of the regional AAU (Amateur Athletic Union) program. AAU basketball runs for most of the year and serves grades 2-12 throughout the Central Washington and Mid-Columbia regions. The AAU basketball games are played in school gyms and the AAU organization looks for non-profit groups who are willing to host the gyms in exchange for a percentage of the gate receipts.

"This is our primary means of raising revenue," said Lewis & Clark PSTA President Andrea Altmayer. "We can host a basketball series on Saturdays (6-7 weeks) and a tournament (Friday evening to Sunday evening) and make enough money to meet our goals and legal obligations, support the Lewis & Clark students, and still have money to carry forward for the next year."

According to Volunteer Coordinator Linda Galloway, scheduling volunteers is usually not a problem. "Many of our parents work outside the home and aren’t able to volunteer during the week but are more than willing to give us a couple of hours on a Saturday. Our students sign up as volunteers for various PTA activities and they do a wonderful job running the score clock and helping the adult volunteers. We even had a number of staff members help out at a tournament we hosted in March."

Westwood Elementary PTA, with a school population of 480 in rural King County, has adopted a non-commercial fundraising format with great success!

1. They set specific goals and decided how to fund it.

2. They had a pledge drive!

3. They simply asked parents to support the PTA!

Sounds simple, doesn’t it?

Their 501c3 status allowed them to promote these pledges as tax deductible. It also made them eligible for grant opportunities and matching funds for employers that have matching programs, e.g., Boeing, Weyerhaeuser, etc.

The PTA provided incentives for any contributions of more than $40.   These incentives included:

$40 contributions
PTA membership for both parents paid for by the pledge.

$75 contributions
Free $5 carnival punchcard, and PTA membership for both parents paid for by the pledge.

$100 contributions
Free $5 carnival punchcard, PTA membership for both parents paid for by the pledge, and a Westwood Cougar baseball cap

Careful records have been kept and so far this year, they have received nearly $6,000 in pledges with an additional $900 coming in matching funds.

Westwood PTA’s President, Jeanne Oden, said, "We were clear with our parents from the beginning, if we did not make enough in the pledge drive to meet our goals, we would do no other fundraisers for the year other than the annual carnival. We had to establish some trust that we would not turn around and have kids sell stuff again if the Pledge Drive was not successful."

The only other fundraising event for Westwood PTA is their annual Spring Carnival. The Silent Auction and Raffle at this event generate the greatest income but food and classroom carnival games bring in some income as well. All items for the auction and raffle are donated by area businesses and records are kept re: value of each item donated and a list of businesses, contact persons, and phone numbers maintained to assist next year’s coordinator. Parents donate items for each classroom’s theme basket, which are then auctioned off in the Silent Auction.

Why did Westwood adopt this noncommercial approach to raising their funds? According to PTA President Oden, "Three years ago a student from our school was riding her bike and selling gift-wrap door-to-door for a PTA fundraising event (though we expressly told children not to do so). Unfortunately, she was not wearing a helmet when hit by the car. She was airlifted to Harborview where she remained hospitalized for several months. Now, after three years of physical and occupational therapy, she has nearly recovered completely."

"We knew we had to do something different to raise PTA funds," said Oden. "We believe that children should not be salesmen for their school’s PTA. Parents should not have to coerce family members and coworkers to purchase overpriced items to support the PTA in another school. We have been delighted with our results and plan to do the Pledge Drive again next year. It worked for us and leaves us and our membership feeling really good about accomplishing a goal."

Several years ago, Yakima PTA Council developed a sustaining membership program with several goals in mind. They wanted to promote the benefits of PTA to the local business community as well as raise some necessary operating capital.

The sustaining membership program targeted local businesses and organizations with a one-on- one contact by the coordinator who provided the business with a tri-fold pamphlet explaining the objectives of PTA and specific goals and activities of the Yakima PTA Council in support of its local units and the children of Yakima. The accompanying letter of introduction also pointed out the benefits to the business of becoming a sustaining member in the Yakima PTA Council and reassured the business leaders that their participation did not require them to attend meetings or vote on council business.

The campaign had various levels of participation and each provided incentives that built on the previous level.

Primary Level - $50

Preferred Level - $100

• 10%of donation (minimum) contributed to the Yakima PTA Council scholarship fund

• A wooden plaque proclaiming sustaining membership in the Yakima PTA Council (Plus) Incentives from lower level(s).
  

Executive Level - $150

• Subscription to the Washington State PTA magazine, the Child Advocate.

• (Plus) Incentives from lower levels.
  

Presidential Level - $200

• Subscription to the National PTA magazine, Our Children.

• (Plus) Incentives from lower levels.