PTA
Fundraising Update, October 2008

Hello to all those who weren’t present at the October 23
fundraising meeting, and thank you to those who were.

My name is Alex Pakter, and I’ll be working as the fundraising chair for 2008-2009. I’ve lived in Berkeley for 35 years, have one child who is in Kindergarten, and actually attended this school myself when it was the old Columbus School.
I had fun making presentation at the PTA meeting last week, and have put together a brief summary for those of you who couldn’t make the meeting. But let me first say, we had an AMAZING response to our appeal. Seventeen parents signed up to take part in our fundraising plan. And I think it’s because they can see that it’s going to be fun.

In the presentation I introduced three ideas.  Here they are:

1. Fundraising = Community Building.

Sound Crazy? But it’s all tied together, and to my mind, the first step in raising money is bringing together a community that:

1. Wants to be together, and is sustained by the community
2. Wants to support the community

With that in mind, I suggested a new group of parents: the Fundraising / Community Building Room Liason. I know, it’s a long title. The vision is to have one parent in every room who will pass on information, coordinate community-building events, and do a general “round-up” of the families – keep us tight.

So far, we have a 4 room-liaison parents. That means we need 18 more to cover all the rooms. It can be the Room Parent – but it doesn’t have to be.

->>>> FIRST CALL TO ACTION:

Want to get to know your community better? Make social events happen?
Come to parties at my house? Make Rosa Parks a better place and have fun? Then call/email me.

2. Let’s get FREE Money!!

Last year, my 2-room preschool got a $50,000 grant for facilities improvements. $50,000 for one grant! That’s almost twice what ur PTA hopes to raise in an entire year, with have a dozen events.

If one person can get one grant for $50,000, imagine what we can do at RP with over 500 parents. Let’s kick it up,
people! So…

->>>>SECOND CALL TO ACTION:
I made this offer: to anyone who gets a reasonable grant for the school, I will give you a free vacation!! I’ll set you up with a weekend in the Russian River.

Here are the roles available:

1. Grant chair. Someone to coordinate the parents so that we don’t duplicate efforts. It won’t be a lot of work –
   you just have to collect reports from the researchers, make a list of all possible grants, and help parcel it out to the writers. I think 3-4 hours a month would do it.
2. Grant researcher. Find grants we can use, report back to the chair.
3. Writer: You will receive a grant package, and using the information provided, you complete the package.

3. Announcing the new Rosa Parks Marketplace

This is probably a little premature, but I’m excited so I’m going to say it anyway. Rosa Parks Marketplace will be a forum where the families at Rosa Parks can advertise and look for services. It’ll be like our own yellow pages. If you need any sort of service: a Plumber, a Contractor, an Accountant, a Gardener, a Cook, a Real Estate Agent – whatever – look for it in the school. Look to your fellow Rosa Parks Parents. When you buy from them, they’ll make a donation to the school.

Rosa Parks Marketplace is a forum forum for us to:

1. Find services
2. Build your own business, and find customers
3. Strengthen the community by keeping it local
4. Raise money for the school

More info on this as we develop it more. If you have a business or services that you’d like to share with the community, send an email to
with your information, and I’ll have it when we get started.

4. In addition to the new events, we have these annual community / fundraising events

1. The Father’s Pancake Breakfast: I believe it’s November 15^th, Saturday.
2. Wine & Chocolate Auction at Scharfen-Berger
3. The Rosa Parks Carnival Our read-a-thon
4. Stay tuned for donation letters – we’ll need your help. But not necessarily your money!

More information to come in future updates.

We’re putting the FUN back in…
One of my strongest goals is to keep it fun. Sure, there’s work to be done – but by pulling together, we can make it fun
too; after all, people won’t do it if it’s not fun (well,not for long). So I’ll be encouraging us all to take social
time. Hang out with the other parents before and after drop-off. Get to know the other kids in the class.

You’ll quickly find that when you give to the community, it feeds you too.

Contact Me

You’re in, right? C’mon, it’s your community.
If you have 2-4 hours a month to help build community events, if you can write, have a service to advertise, or you just want to volunteer,

CONTACT ME.
Alex Pakter, Rosa Parks PTA fundraising chair
Email:
Phone: 415-518-4473