Help with Engaging Parents In Your Walkathon

No One Wants to Fundraise

It’s a pain. And we are prone to feeling tapped out on giving on any given day because EVERYONE is asking us to part with our dollars via tips and donations, from politicians to the people who hand you a soda at the ballpark. Think about when it really bugs you though – probably a combination of when you don’t know:

• How it’s going to be used
• Why it’s considered deserved
• When you anticipate being asked again too soon
• No One Wants to Fundraise

Let Them Know!

So since we know that many parents are tapped out, we’ve got to appreciate how much closer we are to this ask than those who are not as involved with PTO. We need to bring them into the fold gently so they remember what’s at stake.

The key to engaging parents in your walkathon is going to be:

• Taking advantage of all of your communication tools
• Distributing concise but informative messaging
• Putting everything they need in one place, but multiple times

Taking Advantage of Your Communication Tools

This sounds obvious on the surface, but what how do we take advantage of all of the tools we have for communicating in an effective way so our parents are engaged and informed?

Taking into consideration the timing of your walkathon and what else is happening in your community, start looking at the different touchpoints you have with parents starting at least a month ahead of your kick-off.

For instance, if you’re running your fundraiser in late September:

• Does your school do a back-to-school assembly with parents? Is there an opportunity for PTO to speak for 5 minutes? Can you pass out a brightly colored flier?
• Do you have an email newsletter or listserv available to you? Something like Smore (my thoughts here).
• Can you send home fliers with students via their homerooms?
• Do you have access to social media accounts?
• Do you have a website you can link to from your socials?

Maximizing the Impact of Your Communication

It sounds silly to say “put everything they need in one place, multiple times” but I really mean it. You never know which flier or email will make it out of the backpack or avoid the delete button.

Here’s what we heard was most useful on our walkathon fliers, handouts and emails:

• QR Code/website for the donation portal
• Each student’s goal amount
• What to expect by way of other fundraisers for the year (none from PTO in our case)
• What PTO does with the funds every year (aka our budgeted obligations)
• Brief overview of why we were switching to the walk
• Plans for funds that exceeded our goal
• What we have done with surplus funds in the past
• When the walk was scheduled

Again — this sounds SO simple, right? But if you manage to get someone to read the flier or open the email, you want to maximize the impact of your message.

So when you get their eyes or ears you want them depart knowing: why the fundraiser is necessary/how funds are going to be used, what is expected of them, when it is expected by and what they can expect from you in return.

Create the Team Goal

As the messaging around your walkathon is being crafted, think of how to help parents feel ownership around it as well. Because the truth is – not everyone has time to give PTO every year, so we want to make sure they understand that by giving/helping their students fundraise that they are contributing to PTO’s success — which is ultimately a success for the school.

So while this is all titled “engaging parents in YOUR walkathon” – it helps to think of it more as a calling to engage parents to the point where they feel it is THEIR walkathon. Because it is — it’s their community! Some of us need a little reminder or invitation to feel passionate about our school’s success. Don’t feel shy about inviting everyone to the table in whatever capacity they have available, and making them feel seen and appreciated when they join you.