If you find yourself in this position then PTO fundraising is a great way to remedy the need for funding, and will help to bring everybody together in the name of a good cause. Providing you take the time to plan out your PTO fundraising event carefully, you will find that your plans go without a hitch. The best way to do this is by recruiting other people in your PTO group, from teachers and parents to other school staff.

You will find your plans run a lot smoother if you divide up the work and give every helper an individual task. That way, you will be able to take a step back from the project and take a broader look.

You may have considered many different options to make your next PTO fundraising event a success with teachers, students and parents. There is a near-endless list of fundraising options for you to choose between. You may even find it difficult to select just one. But one way that has proven to work very effectively in the past to help you reach your targets is by selling fundraising products.

These come in all shapes and sizes, from our Gourmet Cookie Dough Fundraising package, to our High School Fundraising Scratch Cards. Whatever your fundraising needs, there is likely something on our product pages that everybody in your PTO group will be excited to get involved with.

Abseiling in suit of armour
A swordmaker from England, Jez Menis, abseiled down Britain’s highest waterfall clad in a full suit of armour in March 2010 in order to raise money for Kidney Research UK. Menis made the suit in question himself, basing the design on plate armor worn during the War of the Roses era. Menis descended the 220ft Canonteign Falls after successfully raising more than $1,600 in sponsorship.

Riding a Penny Farthing across Australia
In 2004, Lloyd Scott rode a Penny Farthing across Australia, from Perth, across the Nullarbor Plain and the Great Dividing Range, and down to Sydney. ‘After the first couple of days my support team and I were all wondering how the hell I was going to do it,’ recalls Scott. ‘The temperature reached 40°C, the terrain was rough and the Victorian bike had no suspension. It was tough but I took it day by day and after 50 days completed it.’ The stunt raised more than £500,000 for the Clic charity.

Marathon in deep-sea diving suit
Deep-sea diving suits of the old-school weigh in excess of 180lb. In 2002, Lloyd Scott put one on (including helmet) to ‘run’ the London Marathon. The 26 mile slog took Scott five days. The diving suit – a 1940 Russian 3-bolt model – now resides in the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich, London.

Skateboarding across Australia
Over 105 days in 2006, Dave Cornthwaite skateboarded 5823km from Perth to Brisbane, averaging approximately 60km per day. The feat secured Cornthwaite a place in the Guinness World Record for the longest distance travelled by skateboard and earned him the nickname of the ‘Mad Pom’. Most importantly, it raised more than $32,000 for three charities including Sailability Australia. ‘It’s an unusual idea,’ Cornthwaite said at the time, ‘but the Australian people see this normal bloke like me pushing myself to the limit for good causes and they’ve run with it.’

Living with spiders
Nick Le Souef, who lives in Melbourne, Australia, spent three weeks living, eating and sleeping in a tiny shop window with just 400 deadly spiders for company. In the process, Le Souef raised more than $16,000 for children’s charity, Variety.

Climbing blind
In May 2001, American Erik Weihenmayer became the first blind man to reach the top of Mount Everest, raising thousands of pounds for blind charities by doing so.

Crossing Japan on stilts
Married couple Mick and Miki Tan, walked the entire length of Japan on stilts during 2009. The journey, which they described as ‘one year, two stilts, 3000km’ was officially known as the Pongo Hogo Hogo Challenge and carried out to raise money for the Borneo Orangutan Survival Fund. The couple carried their food, water, tents and clothes themselves and stopped at every school on the route to help raise awareness of the plight of the orangutans in the dwindling rainforests of Borneo and Sumatra.

Old-age abseiling
When the then 84-year-old Molli Turner abseiled off the 175ft ICL tower in Gorton, Manchester in fancy dress, she earned herself a place in the Guinness Book of Records. Turner, now 91, has lived though breast and throat cancer and raised $320,000 for St Ann’s Hospice. Her efforts earned her an MBE in 2001.

The next big thing
While people undoubtedly love originality, they also love things that amuse them or make them think. Avoid costumes or premises that are negative, and especially those designed to make people feel guilty.
Also bear in mind the setting for the charitable event as a lot of money can potentially be raised en-route. According to the 2010 World Giving Index, the countries where citizens are most likely to give to charitable causes are, in descending order of altruism, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, Canada, Switzerland, United States, Netherlands and the United Kingdom.

Diners come to Whitney High School in Cerritos for a food truck night that is helping the school raise money for a new multimedia room. Area high schools are starting to capitalize on the culinary craze by inviting trucks to campus and charging them a fee or asking for a donation. (Lawrence K. Ho, Los Angeles Times / October 17, 2011)

Photos: Food truck culture
Angel Jennings, Los Angeles Times
October 23, 2011
Echo Lau drove to Whitney High School on a recent Monday evening to pick up her kids. She left with dinner.

The student parking lot at the Cerritos campus is transformed every week into a congested food truck stop as eight mobile eateries attract the business of loyal followers, parents and students.

But this isn’t a typical stop for these catering trucks; this is a school fundraiser, in which a portion of the proceeds go directly to Whitney to help pay for a new multi-media center.

Outdoor food courts are popping up in the parking lots of at least a dozen high schools across Southern California with more on the way. Financially strapped public schools — hit hard by budget cuts, new fundraising guidelines, and fewer donors — have found a way to capitalize on the food truck craze.

Schools typically earn up to $50 per food truck nightly. It’s small change that quickly adds up, said Bryan Glonchak, assistant principal at Whitney. Since school opened, Whitney has made a total of $2,000 on the fund-raiser.

In most cases, schools host weekly food truck events, in which up to 10 vendors gather at dinnertime. Facebook and Twitter help spread the word.

The money is then used to fund scholarships, pay for equipment and school projects.

Last year, the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California sued the state for allowing school districts to charge students for books, uniforms and other basic supplies. A settlement agreement established protections against the fees but it also mandated that schools can no longer require students to fundraise.

Gov. Jerry Brown vetoed a bill two weeks ago that would have created a law based on the settlement; the ACLU has refiled the case.

Prior to the December settlement, some schools had not only required student fundraising but set quotas for those who participated in extracurricular activities.

At Fullerton Union High School, football players had to come up with $300 through fundraising and parents’ contributions. But in May, the assistant principal told faculty members they could no longer ask for students’ time or money.

Since then, Fullerton has hosted its own food truck fundraiser to make up the difference. But the Orange County school put its own spin on the event.

On a recent Saturday, 22 food trucks circled the football field under high-voltage floodlights as music blared in the speakers that normally carry the voices of sports announcers. More than 1,000 residents, students and food truck followers sat on the field on blankets, in lawn chairs and around folded dinner tables.

Fullerton hosts events like this every six weeks. Instead of charging the food trucks a set fee, the school asks the owners to donate what they want. The school receives about $100 to $150 per truck.

So far Fullerton has held four fundraisers and raised $13,000 — more than half the cost of uniforms for the varsity football team.

Cerritos High School has raised $3,000 since it held its first food truck fundraiser on a Thursday night in July. The money collected goes to the athletic program, and helps pay for field equipment and transportation to the games.

At Taft High School in Woodland Hills, the proceeds from the food trucks go toward college scholarships. Last year, a number of seniors received awards with the $5,000 raised at the events. In the past, community sponsors and alumni donated the money, but as the economy weakened, Taft noticed a decrease in charitable giving.

Other schools hope to host similar fundraisers, said Christian Murcia, the owner of the Crepes Bonaparte food truck. Murcia, the liaison between the schools and the catering trucks, said he receives calls weekly asking him to host a food truck night. He adds the schools’ names to a growing list.

He wants to make sure he doesn’t overextend his team or oversaturate the market. But he does acknowledge the benefits of being partners with high schools.

“Brick and mortar restaurants and shopping centers don’t want us parking on the streets stealing business away from them,” Murcia said. “This keeps us out of trouble and allows us give back to the community.”

Justin Moore-Brown, who works at Chunk-n-Chip Cookies, a food truck where customers design their own ice cream sandwiches, said: “It’s a win-win situation for us both. There is a profit sharing system among the trucks, and the high schools come with an automatic base of kids and families.”

At Whitney High School, as night crept over the parking lot, customers swarmed closer under the lights of the food trucks.

Behind the Ragin Cajun truck, Paul Reyes of Anaheim, still dressed in blue hospital scrubs, turned the trunk of his Subaru sedan into a makeshift dinner table. The 26-year-old respiratory therapist had just ended a 12-hour shift at Long Beach Memorial Hospital, but still made the hour and a half drive to Whitney for a Korean barbecue roll from Let’s Roll It.

Reyes convinced his relatives to meet him at the food truck stop. After he finished his first round, he took the last $29 out of his pockets and headed back to his favorite truck. To Reyes, it’s money well spent.

For the Lau family, the trucks are a weekly tradition that they’ve only missed once.

“I don’t need to cook today” or any other Monday night, said Lau, a 47-year old Norwalk resident, in between bites of a twisted potato-on-a-stick from Tornado Potato. “And [this event] is supporting the school.”

angel.jennings@latimes.com

Ms. CheapMary Hance

I just received an email from the Los Alamitos Unified School District Foundation asking for money to help offset cuts in state funding. The letter asks that we give $351 per student to for the Class Size Reduction campaign.

Between the school carnival, auction, cookie dough sales, and Jog-a-thon, how should I feel about receiving such a letter? I know quite a few people who are put off and angry that parents are asked to support their child’s school in such a way.  It is a public school after all.

Personally, I welcome every fundraising letter I receive from the district and the school. I don’t always give. I simply can’t afford to give at near the level I would like. But I am thankful that they ask.

One of the main reasons we decided to move to this area is because of the school district.  Los Alamitos Unified District is a great school district.  According to schooldigger.com, Los Alamitos Unified is ranked 40 out of 766 California School District.  That means our school district is in the top 5% the State has to offer.  This is far better than some neighboring school districts. Cypress Unified ranked 144, Garden Grove ranked 267 and Long Beach ranked 332.  After living here for five years and being involved with the schools, I think I know a few reasons it’s so great. We have parents and a community that cares about our kids. The number of parent volunteers is staggering, and that makes the district appealing to many highly trained teachers and administrators.

Our schools do so well because the community supports them financially as well. We have auctions, booster clubs and carnivals, just to name a few.  These fundraising efforts really help our kids. They fund aides so that the school day can be longer, aides to help children that need a little extra help, art education programs, music education, technology such as smart boards, after school programs, science camp, summer enrichment programs, higher student to teacher ratios, teacher training and many other things that other school districts survive without.  Just two years ago the Los Alamitos Education Foundation began asking for money to reduce class sizes.  Last year the campaign raised more than $200,000. The money was used at each school in the district to reduce class sizes. At the elementary level, the schools hired former teachers to assist teachers with small-group learning in English and math.  The middle schools and high schools were able to add additional periods for English and math classes, resulting in higher student and teacher ratios. The nearly 10,000 kids in our District benefit greatly from the generosity of the community and the volunteers that put fourth these campaigns.

The next time you are asked to donate to the school or the district, please don’t be annoyed. Be glad they do it. And if you can, give, no gift is too small. If we all gave $25 per child, the district would have an additional $200,000 to help our schools.

Read more about the Los Alamitos Educational Foundation at http://www.losaledfoundation.com/

1. Reach Out to Family and Friends
Unlike what many will tell you, I must say that for me family (and friends) are more about getting emotional support than money. It is very dicey to ask people you know and love to give you their hard earned funds. I had some friends tell me that they felt offended that I was emailing them about our campaign. Discussing this with them led to some very interesting insights about why I feel this is a democratic and legitimate way to support the arts. But I am not here to proselytize. I immediately backed off. In a way what they are saying is true: they don’t ask me to fund their passion, why should I ask them to fund mine? However, that’s not exactly how I see it: I believe that the film project, My Reincarnation, has a greater good for humanity and is a contribution to people’s lives. Hence, it must be seen and is worth funding.

2. Build a Team
Filmmaking is a collaborative experience, but so is fundraising. It takes a lot of brainstorming and thinking out of the box. It takes multiple skills that one person rarely has all of. Without a team you just can’t get the traction and the reach into the world. But also it helps with the fear factor. I don’t know about you, but this kind of public fundraising scares the sh*t out of me. My team kept me from losing it. Having a team is also essential for Tip #3.

3. Brainstorm the Campaign as a Rollout with Different Phases
Our team, Katherine Nolfi, Lisa Duva, Stefanie Diaz and myself, discussed how the campaign would start and how we would keep rolling out new facets over time. This included building email lists, adding new incentives, and creating regular new videos for our website, Facebook and Twitter that could be linked with our consistent updates on Kickstarter.

We saw our campaign as having three initiatives: the web campaign; seeking out and approaching larger private donors to become Producers; and setting up “Sneak Preview Benefit Screenings” in key locations. The screenings were part of our plan because we had a unique problem: we were fundraising for a film that was technically finished, but that no one had seen. We hypothesized that people might need to see the finished film to give it money. In the end, festivals also helped on this account. But I also learned that the film’s trailer was often enough for people…

4. Make a Good Trailer
Of course “make a great trailer” is common wisdom for any kind of film fundraising. However, My Reincarnation was such a difficult film that I didn’t edit a trailer during the fundraising process. When I looked for funds, I always showed edited scenes assembled in a half-hour or hour format (which is probably why we failed miserably much of the time). Once we finally cut the trailer, right before launching at festivals, it was rather easy to do because the story arc was so clear. Now I’ve been told by some people that they cry when they watch our trailer. It has helped many people to make a donation when they haven’t seen the film yet.

5. Incentives
Since you can’t really put many images on your own Kickstarter page, Stefanie created a full brochure of pictures of the Kickstarter incentives on our My Reincarnation website so people could see what they were getting. She used the PBS pledge images as her model. We gathered a mixture of incentives, some Buddhist oriented and some film community oriented. One thing that we did very early on, even before the Kickstarter campaign began, was to offer a Limited Special Edition Pre-Release DVD for sale on our website at a very high price: $108. We started to sell this a good six months before our Kickstarter campaign to help keep our office running during the festival release. When we put up the campaign, we decided to offer the DVD in two ways: the Commercial DVD in 2012 at $25 and the Limited Special Edition Pre-Release DVD in September 2011 at $108. This was our most successful incentive.

For higher priced items, I raided anything I could find in my home: there are two of my own museum quality paintings by a very well known Buddhist Painter and a beautiful antique Tibetan chest that my parents gave me. I even put up a limited edition watch I received from being on the Zurich Film Festival jury last year. Basically nothing I own was off limits. It’s been a great Buddhist teaching to struggle with–and let go of–my attachment to my objects (that chest is one of my favorite possessions)!

6. Write, Write, And Write
Early on in the process, I would send my eblasts to my team to edit. We thought one page, max–so they cut and cut (my writing style can be a bit longwinded). Then we noticed that we were receiving the most donations following longer, more personal messages. They received overwhelmingly positive feedback. What at first seemed like a weakness, turned out to be one of our strongest tools. Writing became fun. As some of you may know, being on the road with a film can be the one of the most uncreative jobs one does over the course of film. But suddenly, writing these weekly Kickstarter updates and email blasts became a creative outlet for me.

7. Reach out to Appropriate Partners to Help Blast for your Campaign / Befriend the Tastemakers
The first tier we reached out to were listserves connected to the students of the film’s protagonist, Chögyal Namkhai Norbu. Rinpoche has centers around the world, so we regularly wrote new, special updates to be blasted to their membership. These letters were less chatty than the ones I send to the general mailing list or post for our Kickstarter patrons.

We started a web series called Outtakes From the Film (O.F.F.) that we edit and post online and in our Buddhist eblasts to give those communities new video to enjoy, and entice them to become more involved with the project. These videos have helped assuage Buddhist students around the world, who are anxiously waiting to see My Reincarnation and are not so happy that they have to wait for the distribution rollout. The other thing we did–but could only do with the Sneak Preview NYC Fundraising screening–was offer incentives to appropriate organizations to blast their membership on behalf of our campaign. We gave the heads of each organization a free ticket to the screening in exchange for sending out an announcement. And of course, this laid the groundwork for establishing partners and building an audience for the film down the line.

8. Use Web 2.0: Facebook, Twitter, Bloggers…
This is absolutely obvious in today’s world. We posted updates on social networking sites many times a week. We worked hard to build up our Facebook and Twitter pages daily. We also posted on other organizations’ and individuals’ pages and walls – searching for related topics like “Buddhism,” “Tibet,” “Spirituality,” “Religion,” and “Yoga” – with information about the Kickstarter campaign, new videos, incentives and screenings.

9. Blast Often, Regularly, and Best at the Beginning of the Week
Get those eblasts out on Monday or Tuesday. Later in the week they get lost in people’s over-loaded inboxes. It’s important to keep up the pressure. It’s hard to know what the “tipping point” is for someone to make a donation. It can be the first letter or the twentieth letter that brings them over to the Kickstarter site.

10. Go Beyond Your Limits
Every step of the way on this journey, I had to go beyond my comfort zone to publicly ask for money: on the web, in emails, in person, on stage – over and over again. At every point, I had to push through my reticence, fear and a general “I just don’t want to do it again!” attitude. Facing these inner demons is necessary if you are going do this type of campaign. Believe me, crowd-funding certainly pushes those buttons, but it also requires you to let go and not listen to your ego so much.

My motto is, “Never say die!” Despite years of experience facing rejection, it can still be hard to pick yourself up each time. Somehow we have to find a way not to take rejection personally and move on. Of course, with some potential funders, you just have to give up, back off, and try somewhere else. A person who says no today may still say yes tomorrow. And if you give them new evidence to change their mind, they often do.

All of Jennifer Fox’s helpful tips were posted originally on Hope for Film.

Stay tuned for her insights on how to round off a successful campaign.

Jennifer Fox is an award-winning filmmaker and educator known for her ground-breaking features and series, including Beirut: The Last Home Movie, An American Love Story, Flying: Confessions of a Free Woman and My Reincarnation. She recently co-wrote the half hour television pilot The Good Egg, and is developing the feature script The Horse’s Tale. She has executive produced many films, including Love & Diane and On the Ropes.

The Tribeca Future of Film blog is a place where leading filmmakers and experts within the film industry share their thoughts on film, technology and the future of media.

Follow Tribeca Film on Twitter: www.twitter.com/TribecaFilm

It doesn’t require a lot of effort but offers a lot of reward. Fundraising dollars add up fast, allowing the group to reach goals quicker. The more vacation packages your organization books, the more money is raised toward the goal.

For every six-night vacation package booked from now until December, 2011 for travel through December 31, 2012, at any Sandals Resort,
Beaches Resort or Grand Pineapple Beach Resort, your group will receive a $100 donation towards their cause. When you invite the folks at Traventours Events and Excursions, Inc. to your next event, Sandals will donate an additional $150 to your cause for every vacation package booked within 14 days of the event for a possible total of $250 donation for every vacation booked and completed.

“The nice thing is any group anywhere needing to raise funds can do this,” said Anne Alford, owner of Traverntours Events and Excursions,
Inc. “All fundraising depends on the efforts of the group. This can be very successful if we are able to get the information into the right hands of potential travelers.”

In an effort to help your organization do just that, all promotional materials, including flyers, posters, emails and online tools, are offered free of charge as part of your group’s participation in the program.

“This is a unique fundraiser that most other groups will not have tried. We are more than willing to go to the group to provide information or conduct a presentation also free of charge,” Alford said.

Interested in getting started? Call Travertours Events and Excursions at 813-651-3474. You can also email them at info@traventours.com or attend an informative luncheon being offered on Aug. 25 at the Osprey Observer Small Business Center, 916 Lithia Pinecrest Rd. in Brandon from noon until 1:30 p.m. Call 813-651-3474 to reserve your spot.

Sandals Resorts, the luxury included vacation for couples, offers everything and anything you want on a Caribbean vacation. Renowned for romance, Sandals offers 14 resorts on the beautiful beaches of Jamaica, Antigua, St. Lucia and the Bahamas.

As the world’s best luxury included vacations for everyone, Beaches Resorts understands that time spent with family and friends is the greatest luxury. Exciting activities with Sesame Street and camps for little ones allow for a great vacation for all.

The Grand Pineapple Beach Resorts offer lush landscapes of the tropics. Located in Negril and Antigua, a “slice of paradise” awaits any visitor.

The Altoona Elementary PTA saw a unique fundraising opportunity and seized it.

With RAGBRAI coming to Altoona, and the PTA always looking for ways to raise funds for the school, it seemed like a perfect fit to combine the two.

“We heard about this and thought it was one of those things that you can’t pass up,” said Amber Myers, the PTA organizer for the event. “It’s a huge opportunity for us. It’s obviously different than normal going door to door.”

After deciding to host the fundraiser, Myers and other organizers focused on what to sell.

“We have frozen bananas hand dipped in gourmet chocolate, nuts, rainbow sprinkles and dark chocolate, too,” she said. “We have a large variety of baked goods.”

The Altoona PTA vendor booth also sold popcorn and water for $1. Glow necklaces for $1 added a little fun to the evening as
well.

The entire community came out to support the fundraiser, even those without students at the school, Myers said.

“We sent out communications asking people for help, it’s mainly parents that have students, but we’ve had people that just want to help,” she said.

The PTA hosted a drop-off on Tuesday for baked goods from parents who volunteered at the booth.

“However we can get it, we’re going to take it,” Myers said on Tuesday. “We’re trying to make it as easy as we can for our volunteers.”

Volunteers, including a few students, manned the booth at the Aquatics Center for a few hours at a time on Thursday.

Gina Christensen was one of the first volunteers, setting up shop around 9 a.m.

“Things are going great,” Christensen said. “Hopefully it doesn’t rain, but we’re excited Advertisement to be a part of the event.”

Myers expected the booth to be open from 3 p.m. to midnight.

“It’s fun but overwhelming all the same,” she said.

Myers said she hoped the students learned it takes a little hard work in anything you do and it can be a great opportunity.

“We want to instill the concept of working hard to earn things,” she said. “The concept of teamwork, too. We’ve had an enormous amount of support. The help is amazing. We want the volunteers to enjoy it.”

Shannon McWilliams, Atoona Elementary parent and volunteer, said she enjoyed manning the booth.

“It’s been great so far,” she said. “We have a great crowd and have sold a lot of treats.”

McWilliams said the evening crowd had really picked up, with rice krispie bars, chocolate-covered bananas and water being the top sellers.”

“It’s a fun time,” she said of the RAGBRAI crowds. “It’s fun seeing the parents and students volunteer and meeting people. I talked to someone from Texas, and earlier someone from Australia.”

The funds raised will help with everything from new technology to supporting teachers or scholarships.

“There are several things we are always needing money for,” she said. “Ultimately we want to continue funding technology upgrades and advancement in our classrooms. We want to add a smart board for every classroom. We like to support teachers and students through funding and
enrichment.”