Parent Teacher Associations are the backbone of school fundraising and community engagement! They serve as the main point of contact for engaging both parents and teachers on current events and general opinions. Here are 3 ways that parent-teacher associations can help teachers prepare for the school year:
- Strong Communication: PTAs serve as the point-of-contact between faculty and parents. Have strong communication on both ends! Start a weekly newsletter, transcribe meeting notes, or offer teacher Q&A’s to keep both parents and teachers informed of ongoing topics. Social media use is also a great way to keep parents connected to upcoming events and important notifications. Utilizing a Facebook page or Twitter account for your PTA can give you a larger community outreach, as well as giving parents a form of communication back to your PTA!
- Short-Term Donations: Event fundraisers are a great way to gather a high volume of donations in just a couple hours. Raffle contests, car washes, and bake sales generate donations quickly while still building a sense of community engagement. This model is best used for funding small projects with an already established projected cost, such as building repairs/renovations, science fairs, or new academic programs!
- Long-Term Donations: Building donations over time has never been easier! Crowdfunding roundups allow schools and PTAs to create causes that users can support directly through proceeds from rounded-up daily purchases. Roundup fundraising service Sixpence recently released a calculator that estimates the monthly donations that roundups can create for a school district. This method is best used for recurring costs with flexible projections, such as restocking classroom supplies, field trip funds, textbooks and reading materials, and other long-term projects!
Follow these simple concepts, and give your PTO better fundraising and community engagement today!
