PTAs spend a good deal of time strategizing, planning, and implementing fundraising events. Do your events and fundraisers support the overall mission of the PTA’s strategy for your school community? How do you formulate a strategy and ensure your events are supporting it?
In a recent episode of the Multipurpose Room podcast, “Fundraising to Support Your PTA Mission,” Alecia Whitaker, PTA fundraising expert and young adult author, joins hosts from K-12 Clothing, Debora Jones and Wes Jones, to discuss how to create a PTA or PTO community at your school that supports the PTA mission and how to create events to further that mission.
Author of the award winning Wildflower trilogy (Wildflower, The Road to You, and The Way Back Home) as well as the bestselling novel, The Queen of Kentucky, which was optioned for film, Alecia knows her way around the PTA. She uses all of her background including a BFA in acting and appearances on talk shows such as The Ellen DeGeneres Show, Martha, and The Big Idea with Donny Deutsch, as well as Deal or No Deal. She also hosted a parenting advice YouTube show called The Baby Book and has been in numerous commercials.
Tips to Support the Mission of the PTA
The PTA's mission is to make every child's potential a reality by engaging and empowering families and communities to advocate for all children. How do you accomplish this? Here’s insight from Alecia:
1. Ensure a Diverse Board
Ensure various personalities, backgrounds, talents, and age groups are represented on your PTA board. Make sure board members represent all grades. And, to ensure new ideas, voices, and diversity, stick to two year terms.
2. Appoint Diverse Committee Chairs
Have different chairs for different events. If you chair a particular event this year, have someone else chairs next year. This is the way to building a community of attendees and a community of volunteers.
3. Get members involved
It’s easier than you think. Most people think they don’t have time to help with PTA activities. Chairs can ask a lot of people to do little jobs. Everyone doesn’t have to chair an event. When parents get involved on a small scale, not feeling overburden, it allows them to feel good about helping their child, helping the PTA, and getting involved. And, small contributions add up to a huge help.
4. Think of the PTA as a Business
What business lessons and experience can you apply to the PTA? There have been many different ways to “show up” in 2020. How do you get your customers to show up? Meet people where they are at, including at their laptops and cell phones. As we show up in various ways, we continue building the community.
5. Create Notes and Procedures
Be sure to document your successes and failures for the next chairs and future PTA members so when current chairs – and their children – have moved on, their valuable experience doesn’t leave with them.
The PTA is not always about dollars, but about the mission – engaging with community and advocating for children. Don’t forget to make your PTA approachable and welcoming by asking for feedback. It makes the organization and community stronger by giving all members a voice.
To learn more on fundraising to support your PTA’s mission, listen to the episode here.
About Multipurpose Room Podcast
Multipurpose Room podcast, supported by SquadLocker, is hosted by strategic partner K-12 Clothing, a PTA-Dad created business that provides high-quality school apparel while increasing access to educational resources through fundraising in schools. The Multipurpose Room provides real-life issues that PTAs, PTOs, and school staff are dealing with and offers practical tips.
SquadLocker supports schools by managing the entire process of acquiring custom school uniforms, sports gear, and spirit wear – from instant online store creation to free graphic artwork assistance as well as decoration, production, and fulfilment. Learn more at https://www.squadlocker.com/solutions/schools.
