A popcorn fundraiser for PTAs and PTOs

A fundraiser that respects your volunteers' time

PTAs and PTOs carry a long list every year: teacher appreciation week, classroom grants, assemblies, family nights, playground projects and the end-of-year celebration. Every one of them depends on a small board and a handful of committee chairs who already give hours they do not have. A fundraiser that adds a sorting night, a cash box and a spreadsheet of who owes what is the last thing that board needs, and it is often the reason volunteers say no the following year.

With Stevie G's, your treasurer or fundraising chair starts a free fundraiser in the app, sets the goal and the last day, and shares the invite code with board members and volunteers. Each person who joins gets a personal selling link to post in the newsletter, the members' group chat or on social media. Supporters pay online, the popcorn ships to their door, and your PTA or PTO receives its share through Stripe after the fundraiser ends. Your volunteers spend their time sharing a link, not counting envelopes or matching order forms to boxes.

How to run a successful PTA or PTO popcorn fundraiser

1. Vote on one goal. Agree at a board meeting on exactly what the money is for, such as classroom grants or a new reading corner. A named goal gives every message a reason, and it belongs in the fundraiser name.

2. Name a chair, not a committee. One person who starts the fundraiser and posts the updates keeps things moving. Everyone else only needs to share their own link.

3. Use the channels your community already reads. Put the link in the newsletter, on the school social pages and in your members email list, and repeat it in the reminders you already send.

4. Ask your board to go first. When board members share their links on the first day, other volunteers follow, and the first sales show up on everyone's dashboard.

5. Set a short window. Two or three weeks is long enough to reach people and short enough to stay on their minds. You can extend it while it is running if you need a few more days.

6. Thank supporters when it ends. Close the loop with a post that says what you raised and what it will pay for. Supporters remember being thanked the next time you ask.

7. Book next year before you close the books. The day this fundraiser ends, put next year's dates on the PTA or PTO calendar and in the notes you hand to next year's board.

Make it a yearly tradition for your PTA or PTO

The strongest PTA and PTO fundraisers are the ones members can predict. Choose a season, usually the fall, early in the school year, and put the popcorn fundraiser in the same spot on next year's calendar. Once a year is the right rhythm: supporters treat it as an event they look forward to, while a fundraiser that returns every few months starts to feel like a bill. Each year gets lighter, too. Supporters already know how to order, and next year's chair inherits a plan that already worked.