For an overview of this large Spring fundraiser, please click here. To learn how this fundraiser makes the big bucks, please click here.
Tomorrow I take the long march around campus posting volunteer sign-up sheets outside each classroom door. This should work out fine for Kindergarten - 2nd grade because parents with kids in those grades still hang abooot. The 3rd-5th grade parents will never see the sheets, of course, so in a few days I will have to devise another way to reel them in (when the bright idea hits, I'll make sure to let you know).
I'm going to make a prediction: each sheet has space for 22 people to sign up. By the end of next week, the average number of volunteers signed up per sheet will be...3.
I'm not sure exactly how many volunteers we need, but 3 per class ain't it. So in a few weeks I will need to send out a gentle reminder to everyone about the volunteer commitment pledge they signed at the beginning of the year. And I'll ask for support from our trusty brigade of Room Parents. If that's not enough, I'll hit the phones (probably my least favorite thing EVER).
The sheets include these volunteer spots:
1) Event Set-Up
2) Course Safety Monitors
3) Carnival Games
4) Face Painting & Tattoos
5) Food Server
6) Jumpy Monitor
7) Take Down
This doesn't take into account the volunteers needed for the silent auction and raffle or the cakewalk, as the folks in charge of those will do their own recruiting.
If it sounds like I don't quite know what I'm doing: you're right! I've never coordinated the volunteer effort for this event, and I'm going to make plenty of mistakes. Feel free to laugh and point...
Monday, March 31, 2008
Thursday, March 20, 2008
Walk-A-Jog: How We Make Money
For an overview of this large Spring fundraiser, please see my previous post.***
How do we make money at Walk-A-Jog? Let me count the ways:
1. Sponsors I. We solicit family sponsorships, which are basically straight donations with two small perks: the family name or child's name also appears on the official Walk-A-Jog t-shirt and the event banner. Plus you get to show off your school spirit. Business sponsors receive excellent advertising at a great price, plus they receive community props for supporting public education. Last year, Smalltown was one of our featured business sponsors.
2.Sponsors II. The kids are responsible for asking their friends, family, and neighbors to support their morning of walking/jogging around the course. Participation isn't required, by the way, since strong-arm techniques would kinda defeat the purpose of, you know, an actually FUN day.
3. Silent Auction. Room parents and teachers work together with the kids to create gift baskets or special items to be auctioned off at the event. Baskets filled with students' favorite books, along with bookmarks that explain their choice; arts and crafts baskets; the ever-popular "thumbprint" flower pot filled with gardening tools; and many other types are bid on aggressively by parents.
4. Raffle. Every teacher comes up with an idea for spending some fun off-campus time with the raffle winners. An afternoon of arts and crafts, for example, lunch at the teacher's favorite restaurant, bowling, even manicures!
5. Admission. Families must purchase "bracelets" for entry into the carnival. We offer a sibling discount and, in the past, have created a fund to help pay for anyone who requests it. For the price of admission, kids can enjoy the carnival games, jumpy obstacles, cakewalk (limit 2 cakes per kid!), tattoos, facepainting, and more.
6. Food. Um, I believe this one is self-explanatory.
I think that covers it. As you can tell from this list, Walk-A-Jog requires a boatload of volunteers. I'll talk about how we round 'em up in my next post. Meanwhile, here's one to put in your "fundraiser DON'T" file (please note that this is in no way a judgement on Senator McCain; it's just the best link I could find to the story):
Do not, under any circumstances, hold a slave auction to raise money.
So sick.
***Speaking of my previous post, I noticed I referred to Walk-A-Jog as "ancient," but that I claim this blog is for the modern parent. What can I say? As Whitman put it, "I contain multitudes." *rolls eyes*
How do we make money at Walk-A-Jog? Let me count the ways:
1. Sponsors I. We solicit family sponsorships, which are basically straight donations with two small perks: the family name or child's name also appears on the official Walk-A-Jog t-shirt and the event banner. Plus you get to show off your school spirit. Business sponsors receive excellent advertising at a great price, plus they receive community props for supporting public education. Last year, Smalltown was one of our featured business sponsors.
2.Sponsors II. The kids are responsible for asking their friends, family, and neighbors to support their morning of walking/jogging around the course. Participation isn't required, by the way, since strong-arm techniques would kinda defeat the purpose of, you know, an actually FUN day.
3. Silent Auction. Room parents and teachers work together with the kids to create gift baskets or special items to be auctioned off at the event. Baskets filled with students' favorite books, along with bookmarks that explain their choice; arts and crafts baskets; the ever-popular "thumbprint" flower pot filled with gardening tools; and many other types are bid on aggressively by parents.
4. Raffle. Every teacher comes up with an idea for spending some fun off-campus time with the raffle winners. An afternoon of arts and crafts, for example, lunch at the teacher's favorite restaurant, bowling, even manicures!
5. Admission. Families must purchase "bracelets" for entry into the carnival. We offer a sibling discount and, in the past, have created a fund to help pay for anyone who requests it. For the price of admission, kids can enjoy the carnival games, jumpy obstacles, cakewalk (limit 2 cakes per kid!), tattoos, facepainting, and more.
6. Food. Um, I believe this one is self-explanatory.
I think that covers it. As you can tell from this list, Walk-A-Jog requires a boatload of volunteers. I'll talk about how we round 'em up in my next post. Meanwhile, here's one to put in your "fundraiser DON'T" file (please note that this is in no way a judgement on Senator McCain; it's just the best link I could find to the story):
Do not, under any circumstances, hold a slave auction to raise money.
So sick.
***Speaking of my previous post, I noticed I referred to Walk-A-Jog as "ancient," but that I claim this blog is for the modern parent. What can I say? As Whitman put it, "I contain multitudes." *rolls eyes*
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Spring Fundraiser: Walk-A-Jog
"Walk-A-Jog" is our ancient (I'm serious—it's 25 years old or something), tried-n-true Spring fundraiser. It has two components:
1) Fitness. The kids walk and/or jog around the streets surrounding the school, breaking a sweat and racking up tally marks at stations manned by teachers. We work with the city to close the streets for 90 minutes, and the course is monitored by parents. Also, to avoid dramatic fainting moments, we keep plenty of water on hand.
2) Madness. To reward them for their physical exertion, the kids are treated to a pared down version of a carnival. It features simple carnival games and "jumpy"-type obstacle courses (for the past few years we've rented these from Astro Events, which has offices around the country); a cakewalk; tattoos and face painting; healthy food and not-so-healthy food (translation: snow cones and cotton candy); and music.
In addition, we have a silent auction featuring gift baskets created by each class, as well as a raffle that nets each winner an off-campus treat with his/her teacher (usually lunch, a trip to the library, etc.).
As you might have guessed by now, this is a large undertaking that requires enough planning and volunteer power to send you straight to the Tylenol bottle. But the payoff is worth it: this is our second most lucrative fundraiser of the year. In my next post, I'll fill you in on the multiple income streams this event offers.
P.S. Okay, I know I said we serve some "not-so-healthy food," but I want it known throughout the land that we NEVER push it this far:
Not that we haven't secretly wanted to...
1) Fitness. The kids walk and/or jog around the streets surrounding the school, breaking a sweat and racking up tally marks at stations manned by teachers. We work with the city to close the streets for 90 minutes, and the course is monitored by parents. Also, to avoid dramatic fainting moments, we keep plenty of water on hand.
2) Madness. To reward them for their physical exertion, the kids are treated to a pared down version of a carnival. It features simple carnival games and "jumpy"-type obstacle courses (for the past few years we've rented these from Astro Events, which has offices around the country); a cakewalk; tattoos and face painting; healthy food and not-so-healthy food (translation: snow cones and cotton candy); and music.
In addition, we have a silent auction featuring gift baskets created by each class, as well as a raffle that nets each winner an off-campus treat with his/her teacher (usually lunch, a trip to the library, etc.).
As you might have guessed by now, this is a large undertaking that requires enough planning and volunteer power to send you straight to the Tylenol bottle. But the payoff is worth it: this is our second most lucrative fundraiser of the year. In my next post, I'll fill you in on the multiple income streams this event offers.
P.S. Okay, I know I said we serve some "not-so-healthy food," but I want it known throughout the land that we NEVER push it this far:
Not that we haven't secretly wanted to...
Monday, March 17, 2008
About This Here Blog
As I type, the threat of Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's misguided budget cuts (some 4.8 BILLION dollars for K-14 education) looms. If approved, California earns the dubious distinction of placing second to last in its funding, just above Mississippi.
Mind? Boggled.
Now, more than ever, it will fall on California's public school parents to close the gap between what our schools receive from the state and what they need to provide a quality education for our children. In other words: we gotta fundraise. Though this fact may be especially true for California at the moment, parents everywhere—in both public and private institutions—dedicate time, money, and skills to support their schools.
My goal for this blog is to provide you with ideas and inspiration for your money-raising efforts. I'll be chronicling our school fundraisers—large and mini—so that you can avoid our mistakes and benefit from our successes. Keep in mind, though, that I'm no expert. I'm just a mom who has been involved, either directly or tangentially, with nearly every fundraiser at our K-5 school for the past three years. I have twin daughters currently in 2nd grade and another daughter currently in Kindergarten, so I'll be doing this for more years than I'm willing to think about at the moment.
With any luck, I'll be able to cajole guest posts from some of the other parents who work so hard to fund important programs (hello computer lab!) at our school. At the very least, I'll guilt them into leaving comments.
Speaking of comments I, like any narcissistic blogger, love them. So go ahead and leave one because the more we talk, the more we'll learn.
Thanks for stopping by.
Oh.
To learn more about the proposed budget cuts, please click here
To rap the Governor's knuckles, please click here.
Mind? Boggled.
Now, more than ever, it will fall on California's public school parents to close the gap between what our schools receive from the state and what they need to provide a quality education for our children. In other words: we gotta fundraise. Though this fact may be especially true for California at the moment, parents everywhere—in both public and private institutions—dedicate time, money, and skills to support their schools.
My goal for this blog is to provide you with ideas and inspiration for your money-raising efforts. I'll be chronicling our school fundraisers—large and mini—so that you can avoid our mistakes and benefit from our successes. Keep in mind, though, that I'm no expert. I'm just a mom who has been involved, either directly or tangentially, with nearly every fundraiser at our K-5 school for the past three years. I have twin daughters currently in 2nd grade and another daughter currently in Kindergarten, so I'll be doing this for more years than I'm willing to think about at the moment.
With any luck, I'll be able to cajole guest posts from some of the other parents who work so hard to fund important programs (hello computer lab!) at our school. At the very least, I'll guilt them into leaving comments.
Speaking of comments I, like any narcissistic blogger, love them. So go ahead and leave one because the more we talk, the more we'll learn.
Thanks for stopping by.
Oh.
To learn more about the proposed budget cuts, please click here
To rap the Governor's knuckles, please click here.
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