Getting Donations for a PTA, PTO or Booster Club

As president to my school's Booster Club (aka PTA Group), I know how important it is to solicit donations for your school. Without donations, your group will end up paying a lot out of pocket and since you're trying to earn funds to help host fun events at the school for the students and the families as well as assist teachers in paying for field trips and get other items the classrooms need, you need as much help as you can get.

The first thing to do is to establish what kinds of things you are hoping to get donated as well as thinking outside the box. There are a lot of donations that you may be able to get that you never pictured getting. Be open to new ideas and you may be surprised at what you can get for your school. The second thing to keep in mind is to expect a lot of no's. But with all those no's, you'll get some yes's which makes it all worth it. This article will detail a few ways you can get donations for your school.

#1: Seek Out Local Businesses

Many local businesses love to support their local schools. Some may have never had the chance because they've never been asked so be sure to ask every local business that you think would be a good match with your school. Send out a letter via postal mail or make a letter and go in person. It may work out best if you have established some kind of relationship with that local business (for example, you go there all the time to get baked goods for events at your school, a parent works there, etc).

#2: Email Requests to Online Companies

Emailing online companies takes very little time and you can contact a lot of companies that way. Set up an email account that is just for that purpose, to ask for donations. I got several donations just by emailing companies online. Some examples of ones that I contacted online are a party supply store, authors (several authors sent autographed books), lotions and much more.

#3: Visit PTO Donation Message Board

The PTO website has a message board and one of the threads is for donations. Members of the site list who they have contacted and what donations they have received. Read through the thread and contact the companies that have donated to schools. Keep in mind that all companies won't donate to you that have donated to other schools. This may be because they have reached their quota or they only donate to certain areas. Click here to view the link.

#4: Visit Blogs

Visiting blogs is not something that most people would think of for donations. Remember that you are not asking the blogs for donations, instead look for blogs that do reviews/giveaways of products that the companies have sent to them for free to try. I contacted several companies that were listed on blogs and got a few donations because of it. Several said no but a few said yes because they wanted the word spread out more about their products. Parenting blogs that do reviews are also good ones to visit for links to companies.

#5: Don't Give Up

Don't give up... It can be discouraging when you receive no, after no, after no but as mentioned above, you will get yes's in with the no's. Some companies may want to donate but they just can't afford to because they get lots of requests. Some companies that say no one year might say yes another. So don't give up, just keep trying and you'll get stuff for your school.

#6: Send Thank You Letters

Sending thank you letters either via the postal mail or email is a very important thing to do. First, they sent your school products so you should thank them for that alone. Second, if you thank them, they may remember you and be willing to donate to you again in the future.