Involving teachers and parents in Parent-Teacher Association (PTA) fundraising is a key way to improve the success of your efforts. Yes, it can dramatically boost the amount of money donated, but an active PTA can also help to foster a sense of ownership amongst both teachers and parents. It can build stronger relationships and strengthen your school’s broader community.
Here we’ll look at how you can engage both parents and teachers in your PTA fundraising efforts.
Engaging Parents in PTA Fundraising
Parents are essential to PTA fundraising. Engaged parents can offer financial support, volunteer their time and skills, and help spread awareness of the fundraiser through their networks of contacts and influence.
Put simply, you want engaged parents on board at the start and throughout your fundraising. The following should help you do just that.
Communication is Key
The first step in reaching out to parents is communication. To get parents involved in PTA fundraising, you need to clearly explain the purpose and the benefits of your fundraising efforts. You want them to buy into your cause and the fundraising itself.
Make sure you outline how the funds will be used to improve education, facilities and other student programs. Ultimately, you’ll want to clearly spell out how it will directly affect the school experience of their children. Emphasise that parents’ participation will be crucial for the success of fundraising initiatives. Throughout your fundraising efforts, you’ll also want to make sure you’re communicating regular progress updates to ensure parents stay informed, inspired and involved.
A wide range of communication methods are available to use, including newsletters, emails, social media posts, and parent-teacher meetings.
Make it Easy to Participate
If anyone is busy, it’s parents. So the easier you can make it for them to get involved in fundraising efforts, the more likely it is they will.
You can make volunteering their time easy by offering a variety of clearly defined volunteering opportunities with specific responsibilities and a time commitment. For instance, if you need parents to volunteer at an event, break down all the tasks that must be performed into specified roles on a clear time roster.
Donating money can be made simpler by offering a range of donation methods, including in-person donations and online donations, so parents can pick the ones that suit them best. Wondering how you can collect online donations? Platforms like easyfundraising can give parents a unique, easy, and cost effective way to donate to your school.
Recognise and Appreciate Parents’ Contributions
Showing gratitude and appreciation for the contributions made by parents is a simple and effective way to encourage and maintain involvement. Everyone likes a pat on the back after all.
You can recognise contributions publicly via newsletters, announcements, or social media posts. And you can also consider offering tokens of appreciation, like thank-you notes, flowers, gift vouchers, or special mentions at events.
Engaging Teachers in PTA Fundraising
Teachers are typically seen as the frontline representatives of your school by most parents, and their involvement will be a welcome sight and will be encouraging for both parents and students. Importantly, teachers also bring expertise and a knowledge of the needs of their students and the school. They can also help ensure any funds that are raised are put to effective use.
Fundraising will however be done outside of their teaching time, so you will need to be fairly strategic to ensure you can get them involved.
Involve Teachers in Designing Fundraising Efforts
The more teachers are involved in planning PTA fundraising, the better your chances of success. And the more influence teachers have, the more engaged they’ll be.
Rather than simply asking teachers to volunteer time at fundraising events, you should try and involve them in every step of the fundraising process, and most importantly, at the planning stages. By allowing teachers to design fundraising initiatives, not only will you improve engagement, but you’ll also benefit from their knowledge of the school, the students, and the parents.
Just remember, teachers’ time is precious. So if they’re designing fundraising initiatives themselves, always ensure the PTA is on hand to help and support where possible.
Integrate Fundraising Into the Curriculum
Incorporating fundraising into teaching can make fundraising efforts more meaningful for students and teachers alike.
You can encourage teachers to organise assignments and projects related to fundraising efforts. This could include developing fundraising plans, conducting research on fundraising strategies, developing communication skills, and creating marketing materials.
Building a Strong PTA Fundraising Community
The success of PTA fundraising initiatives centre on the community you build around them. If you have a dedicated, engaged and supportive network of parents, teachers, and other community members, you’ll be setting yourself up for success.
Consider the following to do so.
Foster a Culture of Collaboration and Teamwork
You should try and encourage cooperation and the sharing of skills and experience amongst the parents and teachers involved in PTA fundraising. Collaboration strengthens the sense of community amongst PTA members and volunteers, and promotes the exchange of best practices.
You can promote sharing and teamwork by creating networking opportunities and platforms for collaboration, by creating a fundraising committee for example, holding regular meetings, and establishing online groups and forums.
Offer Training and Resources
Make sure that teachers and parents have the necessary resources and support they need to carry out their fundraising roles effectively and with confidence. Provide training sessions, workshops, and online resources that deliver the knowledge and skills needed for successful fundraising.
By supporting volunteers’ efforts with the necessary training, you can help to foster a positive and empowering environment for your PTA community.
The Power of Parent and Teacher Involvement in PTA Fundraising
Parents and teachers are central to the success of PTA fundraising. They can help ensure that fundraising activities are planned and executed effectively, and that fundraising targets are met. Involving teachers and parents in PTA fundraising can also help to benefit your school by strengthening relationships and commitment to the school itself and its wider community.
You can encourage parents to become involved in PTA fundraising through effective communication, by making it easy for parents to get involved, and by recognising and celebrating their contributions. You can engage teachers on the other hand by involving them in all stages of the fundraising process, especially planning, and by encouraging them to integrate fundraising activities into their curriculums.
Make sure you make training and support available to both parents and teachers who become involved in PTA fundraising, and take efforts to establish a culture of collaboration and open teamwork.
easyfundraising Can Facilitate Involvement in PTA Fundraising
At easyfundraising, we offer you a unique, easy, and cost-effective way for supporters to donate to your PTA fundraising drives.
Supporters can register with easyfundraising to create a personal account, and then when they shop online with our more than 7,500 partner retailers, those retailers will donate some of what they spend to a chosen charitable cause, such as your school. The donation will be taken out of what is already being spent and won’t cost a penny more.
To make this opportunity available, all you need to do is register your PTA fundraising project with us as a charitable cause. You and your teachers can then encourage parents and other supporters to join easyfundraising to donate to your school with their day-to-day online shopping.