Raising money for the School
Fundraising 2009/10
THANK YOU very much indeed to all the children, parents and staff who supported our Summer Fair. We are especially grateful to all the volunteers who offered to do various jobs in advance of the fair and those who set up, cleared away and worked on the stalls during the event. Thank you as well to all the children from the Skipping Club, the Recorder Club, the Street Dance and Haka performers and the Choir for their brilliant entertainment. We hope everyone who attended had a great evening. We are still in the process of calculating how much money the fair raised but we believe that the final figure will be over £2,500. THANK YOU so much for your generosity.
In September we will be holding our Annual General Meeting when we will be able to announce exactly how much money we have raised in total this year and how it has been spent. In the current economic climate the monies donated to our school from the PTA’s fundraising events will be more important than ever. We will be extremely glad to welcome new parents and will also be very pleased to see those familiar faces who are willing to continue helping us. Coming to the AGM doesn't mean you have to join us; you can just attend if you are interested in learning more about your PTA so please come along and meet us!
In 2009/10 your financial support enabled us to purchase musical instruments costing £3,500 for the school. 7 new violins, 6 new flutes, 5 new clarinets and 2 new saxophones are now owned by the school. This is a fantastic achievement allowing many children over future years to have the opportunity to learn to play these quality instruments. It has however been even more successful because in the few months since these instruments were purchased they have generated £500 of income!
The Christmas Fair 2009 made a fantastic profit of £4,523. Thank you to every member of staff, every parent and every child who supported this event. An especial thank you to Paul Nicholas, Karen Townley and Louise Lewis who individually raised £682, £600 and £215 respectively. This money was generously donated by the companies who employ them as part of “pound for pound” matching schemes. Many companies run schemes whereby they will equal monies raised by registered charities; usually this involves very little effort on behalf of the employee. We would be very grateful if you could check to see if your employer runs a similar scheme and please contact us if they do, so we can try to access these funds.
We have recently agreed to requests from the school for £800 towards new reading books; £150 – £200 for Big Write resources and £400 to hire a climbing wall for the older children. A sum of £3,000 already given to the school to assist in the rebuilding of the Adventure Playground has been reallocated to provide various equipment for the Key Stage 1 and 2 playgrounds.
Helping at PTA Events
We have found that even half an hour of someone's time really helps to spread the load and makes it more enjoyable for all our helpers. If we know we have extra volunteers it also makes it possible to run more PTA stalls. Perhaps your children would enjoy helping you to run a game or man the sweet stall? Or maybe your children's grandparents would like to feel involved by helping out? Any assistance you can offer would be very gratefully received, so please do contact us or respond to the notices we put up in the week or so coming up to the event.
Alternatively, you could support us by making donations of food, drink, raffle prizes etc. when requests go out connected with our events - we are always amazed and gratified by people's generosity when we do!
Or simply attend our events and enjoy yourselves (and spend lots of money!).
Supporting PTA activities
Sometimes we are asked for ideas to help the school save money on practical help such as providing plants for the troughs outside the school or helping to maintain the children's pond area. In the past, Mike Randall has even got parents painting and decorating or even plumbing! If you or a member of your family have any time or particular skills that might help the school, please let us or the school know.
Company Matched Giving
Matched Giving is a corporate arrangement where companies pledge to donate to an organisation a sum relating to the amount their employee donates to or raises for the organisation. For example, a parent, who works for a company that supports Matched Giving, volunteers to work on the refreshment stall at the Summer Fair. The profit made by the stall is £100. The parent’s employer will then match this amount with a further £100 (assuming they offer a 100% match). The amount offered and conditions will vary from company to company. The PTA are a registered charity, which is often a precondition.
Alternatively, a parent may opt to make a donation to the PTA, which again could be matched by their organisation. Don't forget, direct donations can be made using Gift Aid, allowing us to claim extra money from the Inland Revenue!
easyfundraising
Do you ever shop via the internet? If so, you could raise money for the school! We've started using a great website where you can raise funds when you shop online. Over 400 top retailers are participating in the scheme including: Amazon, NEXT, Currys, Dixons, John Lewis, Vodafone, ToysRUs, Marks & Spencers, Tesco, HMV, E-Bay, the AA and Debenhams. Other PTAs around the country have been using this and recommend it as a way to get money for nothing!
All you have to do is log in to www.easyfundraising.org.uk, register as a supporter of Lytchett Matravers Primary School PTA, and instead of going directly to the retailers' websites you use the retailer links provided on the easyfundraising website whenever you shop online. When you order your goods the retailer will make a payment to the PTA at no extra cost to you. Many retailers now give discounts and special offers when you shop online - some of which are exclusive to easyfundraising members. No personal information comes to us, just a cheque every quarter.
Please pass this message on to your friends and family. The more people we can involve, the more money we can raise.
Thank you!
easysearch
You can also help us to raise money by using easysearchas your search engine.
Use easysearch every time you search the web and they will us give 50% of the fees paid by advertising sponsors. Simply go to http://lychettmatraverspspta.easysearch.org.uk, select "easysearch from my browser" and start searching.
easysearch is completely FREE to use and you'll raise about 1p for every search you make. It doesn't sound like much, but the pennies soon mount up and an average surfer making just 10 searches a day could raise £25 a year or more.
GIFT AID
Using Gift Aid means that for every pound you give the PTA in direct donations or for a sponsored event, we get an extra 28 pence from the Inland Revenue, helping your donation go further. This means that £10 can be turned into £12.82, just so long as donations are made through Gift Aid. Imagine what a difference that could make and it doesn’t cost you a thing!
If you are a taxpayer, please fill in a Gift Aid declaration form (.doc .pdf) and give it to the school. Then when you next give a donation or sponsor an event, indicate on the form we supply that it is a Gift Aid donation. You don’t have to do anything else - we can now claim 22% of your donation/sponsorship money back from the Inland Revenue.
Parents that pay income tax at the higher tax rate of 40% can also claim some further tax relief for themselves. Using the above example of £12.80, they can claim back 18% (40% minus 22%); giving them £2.30. They claim this by entering the actual donation in the Gift Aid section of their annual tax return.
Further information is available at: http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/charities/gift-aid.htm