Fundraising Workshop Helps Teachers & Parents

Last week, CPSF offered two Fundraising 101 workshops for teachers and parents raising money for Corvallis schools. Each workshop began with the question, "What do you want to get out of this?" Not surprisingly, the most consistent answer was, "How do we raise more money?"

Our goals are the same: raise more dollars for our schools and District-wide programs. Locate resources. Fill in the gaps. This is challenging in times at the best of times, and in times of economic decline, it can seem overwhelming if not impossible. The good news is that we live in a generous community that truly values education.

As the workshops continued through some of the standard methods of fundraising--direct donation drives, auctions, tournaments, raffles, and sales--teachers and parents were able to share techniques with one another and CPSF staff were able to see where more support from our office is needed. We also saw that many of our dedicated fundraisers aren't aware of the services that we can provide for their efforts.

Both workshops were a terrific success. If you missed it--don't fret: we'll be offering it again soon!

Over the next few months, I'll be looking more closely at these issues and soliciting input from other school district employees and parents who weren't able to attend our Fundraising 101 session. As we at CPSF develop a plan for meeting fundraising education needs throughout the District, we'll also be developing materials to add to the web site that might help in the short term. I'll be adding fundraising news and discussions here on the blog on a more regular basis.

We also encourage you to call our office if you have questions about a fundraising activity for your school. We're happy to help you help our students!