PTA Volunteering and Fundraising – Helpful Tips from a Teacher

A parent-teacher association/organization (PTA or PTO) is a group of school staff and parents who aim to support the students, community, and faculty in various ways. The PTA’s function is to show unity and support between the school’s faculty and parents.

I have been fortunate to work at two different elementary schools teaching grades first, third, and fifth, and both schools had a great PTA. Here are some activities and fundraising events from PTAs I have participated in as a teacher.

Volunteering at School or Classroom

Volunteering is a major part of a successful PTA—and it is free!

Parents can volunteer to cover lunch duty, recess duty, and other required times to give teachers time for extra planning, to enjoy a quiet lunch, or to use the bathroom and breathe (I know how it is).

Parents can also volunteer during back-to-school testing times, making copies, laminating items, cutting things out, and preparing bulletin boards—the list is endless!

Many schools have rules regarding parents in the building and classrooms during school hours. Be sure to check your school’s guidelines.

Fundraising

Survey the parents and teachers in your school to see what projects or items, both big and small, they would like to work towards.

Research the associated costs and share visual updates with the school community for them to see the fundraising progress as the funds roll in. Make sure you let parents know where their hard-earned money is going. Parents are more willing to donate when they see how their donations directly benefit their school and their children.

Fundraising Ideas

Set up a PTA fund that grows throughout the year in addition to the money set aside for specific projects. There are so many ways that your school can raise money—get creative and silly! Here are some ideas:

Get Silly
My current principal is amazing and will do anything to help out his students or teachers. He sold strips of duct tape for $1 each and stood on a stool in the lunchroom all day for students to tape him to the wall!

Host a Monthly Snack Sale
My school loves to do Nacho and Pickle Sales; they often sell out! Consider choosing snacks that students don’t usually get to have at school.

Make a competition between grade levels to see who can raise the most money! Include updates throughout the week in the morning announcements.

To encourage more participation, include events and activities with various costs. For example, things that cost only $1 each might not seem very beneficial, but they open the door for more families to participate, and everything adds up!

Treats for the Teachers
Create a sign-up for local businesses to stock a cart, workroom, office, etc., with snacks and drinks for the teachers each month. 

Outreach to Local Businesses
You can also ask businesses (and use your general PTA fund) to provide doughnuts, bagels, coffee, or even a food truck for the staff. Community outreach is a wonderful function of the PTA. It is advertising for the businesses, support for the school, and goodies for the hardworking teachers—a win-win-win!

Teacher Appreciation Week
Similarly, the PTA can work on spoiling teachers for the entire week with these ideas!

Organize a Spirit Sales
Do you know someone crafty? Is there a local business that creates shirts, hats, or other gear? Partner up with them and have the PTA sponsor Spirit Sales! My school is in the South, and football is truly a way of life here. Before every home high school football game, the PTA does a Spirit Sale, and it is always a hit! You can have various items- cheaper things like tattoos and glow sticks, plus bracelets, small megaphones, hair bows, and bigger items like shirts and hoodies. Anything in your school colors can work. The kids in my school look forward to this every week!

How Can Technology Help Your PTA?

Now that you’ve learned how a PTA can benefit your school let’s discuss how technology can help. Even with a small school, the PTA handles lots of information, money, dates, scheduling, and more.

School Signals offers a wealth of tools and solutions to organize your PTA and help you keep track of everything! You can use the communication feed to make and engage with posts, put events directly into a calendar, have parents RSVP, and manage volunteer sign-ups!

The website and mobile app also offer online form creation to collect contact information, photo galleries, automatic reminders, document publishing, and more!

Learn more about how School Signals can help your PTA.