PTA- How much do your dues cost and how much do they suggest you pay per child as a donation?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm very curious if these tactics work or if they alienate people. I can see suggesting more in Palo Alto than in a poor rural area, but that's a lot of money. I bet wording makes a difference. It's one thing to suggest and then say we welcome any donation no matter how small, but it's another thing to just give the suggested amount without clarifying we still love you if you give less! (You get the idea.

One idea that worked well when I was on a committee for my alma matter is there were clubs based on donation. Anyone gets recognized if they even give a dollar, but $50 moved you up a level...then $100 and so forth. Those who give over $1000 get their name in bigger print and their "club name" is fancier. There is an email and a mailer that goes out thanking people and listing their names under clubs. It meant a lot to people and if there was a mistake people let us know.

We also had check boxes for where you wanted money to go from general (anywhere) to scholarships to building renovations.

I think it works in places where there is both affluence and a strong private school system in parallel-- which is to say, I feel pretty ok about sending in $1K when I know its a hell of a lot cheaper than $40K.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm very curious if these tactics work or if they alienate people. I can see suggesting more in Palo Alto than in a poor rural area, but that's a lot of money. I bet wording makes a difference. It's one thing to suggest and then say we welcome any donation no matter how small, but it's another thing to just give the suggested amount without clarifying we still love you if you give less! (You get the idea.

One idea that worked well when I was on a committee for my alma matter is there were clubs based on donation. Anyone gets recognized if they even give a dollar, but $50 moved you up a level...then $100 and so forth. Those who give over $1000 get their name in bigger print and their "club name" is fancier. There is an email and a mailer that goes out thanking people and listing their names under clubs. It meant a lot to people and if there was a mistake people let us know.

We also had check boxes for where you wanted money to go from general (anywhere) to scholarships to building renovations.

I think it works in places where there is both affluence and a strong private school system in parallel-- which is to say, I feel pretty ok about sending in $1K when I know its a hell of a lot cheaper than $40K.

I'm all for donating a lot to good PTAs where the parents have a say and they do things that truly benefit students and teachers, but you cannot do the whole private school comparison. As I mentioned the last time someone mentioned this. You are not getting smaller class size and more personal attention for your money. You aren't getting less standardized testing for your money. I could go on and on. It would make more sense to say private school parents pay 40,000 and are still asked to donate money through the year.