Kim Morrow - Founder and President

Do you find yourself choosing your child’s reading material?  Are you concerned that your child is not reading quality books?  Do you judge a book by it’s cover?  Are you frustrated that your child does not want to read?  Do you fight to get your child to read just one story?

If you answered yes to these questions, consider allowing your child to choose whatever they want to read.  Whether your child picks a magazine, listens to stories on tape, or decides to read the worst chapter book you can think of; it is a good start to get them reading.

Reading should be a fun experience, especially when kids are reading independently.  Choosing the stories and setting parameters on their reading materials can immediately squash their love of reading.  The next time you take your child to the book store or library, allow them to choose.  Try not to hold judgment on what they deem as a “good” book.  Shouldn’t the goal be to just get them reading?

Recently, our school had their annual book fair.  A friend was distraught because her son choose the Guiness Book of World Records.  Feeling that the book was not “quality” reading material and seeing how expensive it was; she was not pleased that her son had coerced her husband into purchasing it.  Her son has not put the book down.  Instead he reads it over and over spewing facts about different records.  Not only is he reading, but he is also engaging in family conversation.  

We can all agree that reading is important.  Being a good reader will help your child be more confident, increase their attention span, broaden their vocabulary, and more.  It doesn’t matter how they get to be good readers.  It is important that we get them to read and enjoy reading.  The choosing of quality literature will come, even if it’s by their teachers.  

Next time your child brings home something to read that interests them, don’t be a book snob.  See where it leads them.  Are you up for the challenge?

We last spoke about volunteer hours and corporate matching.  We want to touch upon this subject a bit longer.  Volunteers, especially in schools, are hard to find.  In a recent article we were interested to see the estimated value of volunteer time.  

Independent Sector.org has broken down the hourly wage by state.  It is an interesting look at what we would need to pay our volunteers.  Knowing the volunteer to wage ratio can help PTA’s and PTO’s see the financial impact volunteers have on their organization.  

Did you know that in 2011 the estimated hourly wage for a volunteer was approximately $21 dollars an hour?  Now let’s imagine that we were actually paying our PTA and PTO volunteers this wage.  Would you be able to afford them? It is important for non-for-profits to understand the value of their volunteers.  Obviously, we are all grateful to have them, but putting a monetary value on their work helps us to understand just how invaluable they are.  

The next time you recognize your volunteers consider comparing their volunteer time to their monetary value so that your school population has a more tangible idea of what your volunteers are worth.   We are sure that your community will be interested and hopefully it will give them a better insight into the true value of your volunteers.

Are you getting the most out of your school funding?  Now that the hard part of asking for donations is over; make sure that you are doubling those contributions through corporate matching programs.  

Is your school using corporate matching programs to leverage the most out of their fundraising?  At no additional cost to your donor they are capable of doubling their donation, just by asking if their corporation matches contributions.  Most companies are required and set aside a specific amount of funds to support non-for-profit organizations and are happy to participate.  It is an easy program that allows little work for the company, while helping them reach their minimum charitable contributions.  

In addition to capitalizing on your monetary corporate matching, there are companies that will actually match volunteer hours.  That’s right, for all those hours your volunters have worked on an auction, book fair, or even read-a-thon, those hours might qualify for volunteer matching.  

Corporations like Boeing, Xcel, Bank of America are companies that will match.

PTA, PTO, and school organizations often struggle with raising funds and corporate matching, monetary or volunteer, are easy ways to double their dollars with very little effort.  Will you make a commitment to drive your corporate matching program in your school today?

I was recently having a discussion with our fundrasing organization about expenses.  As a non-for-profit we are always trying to keep our spending low so our students will receive the most from our dollars raised.   But as the saying goes “you have to spend money to make money.”

Does your PTA or PTO struggle with the amounts you spend on different programming?  Do you argue about how much to spend on an auction, prizes, refreshments, etc?  

Listening to Dan Pallota at TED.com, I was intriqued by his perspective on spending as a non-for-profit.  Speaking about the skewed views our society has regarding spending as a non-for-profit was all too familiar.  Many parents would argue that their PTA or PTO should not be spending large amounts of money to raise funds for our school.  While I agree that there should be a limited spending budget, it is unrealistic to believe that being frugal while running a huge gala or school carnival will generate the type of return your PTA or PTO is looking for.  It is important to compare what your fundraiser is raising versus what they spending.  We often have parents that will pay for items to auction off or sell for a much larger expense and then see it purchased for much less.  Why not just make a straight donation?  Our spending needs to make fiscal sense for everyone involved.

In addition to analyzing our spending, it is also important to consider the volunteer hours we are requesting from our families.   Are volunteers spending countless hours with little in return.  Is this how we want to run our fundraisers or even worse, is this how we want our fundraisers to be perceived?   High volume of work for small returns?  

Fundraising is a tricky balance.  Remember to consider what you are gaining from your fundraising versus what your PTA or PTO is putting into it.  Are you fundraising to maintain or do you really want to make those high volumes of return?

See more the entire video of Dan Pallota here.

Are the same families contributing to each of your school fundraisers?  Does your donor population even represent half of the school?  Is there something wrong with the way we, as PTA, PTO, and school fundraising organizations are encouraging 100% participation in our families?  Are we approaching fundraising from the right direction? 

Donors want to know where their money is being spent and how they will make a direct impact.  In order to get a buy in from your donor, we need to market effectively to our families.  Most families feel drained from the enormous amount of fundraisers and do not understand how their funds get distributed.  They do not understand why or if they should donate.  They do not know how much is an appropriate or acceptable donation amount.  We need to educate our donors.

Start by explaining the donation process. Many families do not understand that EVERY dollar counts when we are supporting a cause.  There is a myth that if donators are not donating in the hundreds, their contribution is not making an impact.  When we’re looking for 100% participation it’s important that we breakdown the values for our families, so that each family feels that they can make a difference regardless of donation amount.  What if our families knew that $10 dollars would buy 2 reams of copy paper; making roughly 500 copies for 33 classrooms or that 5 families contributing $10 dollars each could aid in the purchase of brand new art supplies?  Would they feel more compelled to donate?  Do families understand that many smaller donations make a huge impact and allow families to feel more engaged in their school?

Keep your families informed.  Let your families know how much extra your school needs per student to effectively support their educational needs.  Tell families how much items or events cost.  Communicate where the deficits are.  Ask frequently, how they see the fundraising process and what they would change or keep.  Be honest and upfront.  Set up a mailchimp or constant contact that allows you to give real-time updates to every family at your school, regardless of contribution.  Have an open communication between the families and your PTA or PTO.  

Keeping your families educated on how fundraising impacts the school and recognizing them for their contributions will get you closer to 100% family participation.