   The WSJ Online has a great column by Terri  Cullen on fundraising at public schools.  Our first grader brings home fundraising forms, requests, and other ideas for contributing to the PTO almost every week. Personally I just can’t stand dealing with fundraisers. In the first place we don’t know enough people locally to have them sign up, (unless we went and stood in front of a grocery store-not). We also don’t live in a subdivision where you can easily walk around the neighborhood and go door-to-door.  But if you read the article When Schools Ask For Cash you find one solution is to simply give cash to the PTO. Terri talks about how their PTO dispensed with the fundraiser requests and went to cash requests instead with greater success. Time is valuable, and although we are not wealthy by any means, giving cash and saving time for the family is a better tradeoff from my perspective. The other consideration highlighted is how fundraiser’s have an administrative overhead. In other words- not all the fundraiser money goes directly to the school or PTO. Some of it pays for the fundraising company and product support be that cookie dough, pizza or gift wrap. So why not give cash and bypass the middleman?  I like the idea, but as article indicated, that can get out of hand as well.  Is one idea better than the other? Do some schools and PTO’s do both? I don’t know… but I think the overall effort is worth it for the kids as long as as it is done tastefully and without pressuring families.
    Some people question why we should be giving cash or support of any kind to schools and PTO organizations in the first place. Personally I think the schools, especially the teachers, need our help above and beyond what our taxes do for them. I just don’t like the fundraising aspect however, and especially the hard-sell tactics that crop up over time.  The WSJ online forum Cookies or Cash for School Fundraisers? has a great discussion on the topic. I really enjoyed reading other perspectives on this issue, and felt relieved when I saw many people felt as I did. Not everyone was quite as supportive of their local PTO however. For example, this post by “rkon02″ makes you wonder how a PTO organization could lose their focus:
“The women who run the PTO in our town are right out of the Stepford wives. They have tried similar tactics and the backlash from the parents was overwhelming. When people started questioning what they needed the money for and looking into their expenses it became apparent that these women were having “education” socials and funding Political action committees for referendums. They were even paying for catered lunches from Panera for BOE meetings.”
    Amazing. Now I don’t see our PTO (or most PTO’s) working in this way, because it seems to help the teachers immensely. Just last year for example, the PTO fundraisers helped pay more than half the cost for a new playground set for the kids at the elementary school. Many parents like to stay involved and appreciate that their kids are learning things when they get involved as well. In our family however, we’re going to look for ways to help that gives the teachers the most bang for the buck- in my eyes that means buying things when we can, and giving cash or a gift card that the teacher can use to purcase supplies for the classroom. How does your community tackle this issue? Do you like fundraisers?
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