Final report and summary for the Make a Mighty Difference 2011 fundraising campaign for Lucas Elementary PTO

1. 2011 FALL FUNDRAISER REPORT
The fall 2011 Lucas PTO Fundraising campaign, “Make a Mighty Difference”, was a direct
donation drive to designed replace the sales-based fundraising efforts of previous years with a
more efficient and sustainable fundraising model. The official dates of the campaign were
August 1st- October 10th. “Make a Mighty Difference” raised a total of $12, 245- an increase
of over 20% from the 2010 sales-based fundraiser. This report describes the strategy and
outcomes of the campaign and recommendations for the future.
INTRODUCTION
Lucas Elementary Parent Teacher Organization (Lucas PTO) has an operating budget to
support various educational activities at Lucas School. Lucas PTO has traditionally raised a
significant portion of their annual budget by way of a ‘fall fundraiser’ which in recent years was
a merchandise sale, facilitated by a 3rd party fundraising company, which would pay Lucas
PTO approximately 50% of total sales revenue. The net income of the 2010 fundraiser was
$10,065. The Lucas community had to sell (buy) approximately double this amount in overall
sales to achieve this net.
General consensus in PTO discussion after the 2010 fall fundraiser was a preference for a more
efficient fundraising model so Lucas family and friends could see more of their money go
directly to Lucas activities, rather than a for-profit fundraising organization.
Lucas PTO convened a fundraising sub-committee in winter 2010 to explore the viability of a
direct donation drive to replace the sales-based fundraiser. The idea was endorsed by the PTO
and the committee began work on the design and implementation of a direct donation drive for
fall 2011.
CAMPAIGN
The committee consisted of outgoing PTO co-Presidents Steve and Melinda Pradarelli;
Treasurer Ruthina West; PTO President-elect Dave Snyder; Lucas parents Ben Hill, Renee Speh
and Joey Young; and Lucas principal Julia Burton. The group met occasionally in person and
communicated regularly via email. Initial decisions included fundraising priorities (classroom
technology and outdoor learning space), campaign goal ($25,000) and campaign dates (August
1- October 10).
CAMPAIGN IDENTITY
To ‘brand’ the campaign and make it memorable, “Make a Mighty Difference” was adopted as
the campaign slogan and a campaign logo was created incorporating the familiar Lucas
mascot. Two posters with the logo were purchased for use at school events.
BROCHURES
A trifold brochure, or ‘ask letter’ was designed as our central information piece to describe the
goals of the campaign, a call-to-action, and instructions on how to donate. We decided to
print 1,000 to ensure thorough dissemination. Printing was purchased at The Printing House.

2. WEB PRESENCE
The committee agreed an online presence was important, so a “Make a Mighty Difference”
page was added to the existing Lucas “Mighty Hawk Messenger” blog maintained by PTO at
http://themightyhawkmessenger.blogspot.com. In addition, the domain names
makeamightydifference.org and makeamightydifference.com were acquired to link directly to
the campaign’s home page. A Facebook fan page was created for the campaign as well.
VIDEO
A short promotional was created, using photos & video of Lucas activities to help drive interest
in the campaign. The video was published on YouTube on Aug.1 and added to the web page.
LAUNCH
The campaign was officially “launched” on August 1st, 2011. A campaign brochure was sent
to all Lucas families in early August, and two local news sources- Press Citizen and
Patch.com- wrote articles about the Lucas PTO campaign.
BUSINESS SUPPORT
The PTO President personally solicited donations from neighborhood businesses and Principal
Burton sent a follow-up letter to them. Some parents also worked with their employers for
matching donations or for corporate grants.
SCHOOL EVENTS
The campaign sought to maximize support by having a presence at the mid-August “Meet and
Greet’, where in addition to paying school fees and meeting faculty, Lucas families could learn
about the campaign, take a brochure and/or leave a donation.
BLOG UPDATES
The Lucas PTO blog was updated weekly during the campaign with a current fundraising total
and message, including a brief call-to-action and instructions for donation.
TAKE HOME FLYERS
A campaign update flyer was prepared and distributed to
classrooms to be sent home each Friday during the campaign, to
reach people not subscribed to the Lucas PTO blog.
GIVE-O-METER
A “Give-o-meter’ (in the form of a Mighty Hawk outline being
filled in with color) was designed to chart the progress of the
campaign towards our expressed goal of $25,000. This was
printed at poster size and placed in the school, and a digital
version on the PTO blog was updated.
YARD SIGNS
Taking a cue from the ‘Stand Up for City High’ fundraising campaign, it was suggested that we
produce yard signs to increase visibility of the campaign and energize support. Given that this
was our pilot donation drive, the decision was made to forego the considerable investment of
vinyl weather-proof yard signs, and we instead used color card stock signs donated by
Goodfellow Printing. These were distributed out of the Lucas office to students and families.

3. SCHOOL SIGN
The address www.makeamightydifference.org was added to the school sign during the
campaign.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
It was agreed that a personal thank-you should be written for each donation received. In
addition, we utilized the PTO blog to create a “Wall of Fame”, updated weekly, listing names of
all businesses and individuals who contributed. Donors were given the option in our ask letter/
brochure to specify if they wished their donation to remain anonymous.
RESULTS
The “Make A Mighty Difference” campaign raised $12, 245, an increase of 20% from the net
income of Lucas PTO’s 2010 sales-based fundraiser.
2010 2011
13000
9750
6500
3250
0
FUNDRAISER TOTALS

4. This total included four (4) donations from businesses and and ninety four (94) individual or
family contributions. The largest amount of donations came early on the in the campaign- in
the third week of August, coinciding with Meet and Greet- and at the very end of the campaign.
OBSERVATIONS
The fact that Lucas was able to top the 2010 fundraising total is strong evidence for the
support and viability of the direct donation drive to support Lucas PTO.
What worked:
- Lucas Meet and Greet on August 16th- raised $1,350
- Back to school night- raised $300
- PayPal- online donations totaled $1,750 (%14.3 of total)
Opportunities to improve:
- Support from locally-owned businesses
- Durability of yard signs- deteriorated in weather
- More realistic & attainable campaign goal to better engage community
RECOMMENDATIONS
- direct donation model for 2012- reuse ‘Make a Mighty Difference’ slogan and logos
- set more realistic monetary goal
- describe PTO-supported activities in greater detail; document with photos/video
- make engagement (percentage of Lucas families donating) a key metric
- cultivate non-financial (i.e. volunteer) activities
- campaigns <$5,000 should go through ICCSD foundation- next campaign should be
coordinated with them as early as possible in the planning process
- more durable yard signs- purchase with only logo (not year) for families to reuse annually
FEEDBACK
- student engagement?
DATA
Total net income in 2011 Fall Fundraiser was $10, 065.20
Final tally for 2011 Fall Fundraiser $12,245
Expenses for the MMD campaign were $846.20:
• $458.00 – MMD brochures from Printing House
• $152.60 – Thank you Cards from Printing House
• $40.00 – MMD Banner from Printing House
• $105.00 – color printing job from Zephyr
• $90.60 – envelopes and stamps for mailing