Beyond the Bake Sale: The Ultimate School Fund-Raising Book

I am looking at starting a charter school, and so I'm checking out and taking notes on a variety of topics that will affect my future school (I currently work at the public library, so I am checking these books out from there). I was amazed at how much detail and information this book provided! I took page after page of notes so I wouldn't forget any of it later. I will probably end up buying this book because there was a lot packed into it. Another reviewer said that this book is only applicable to the P.S. 87 School. I disagree. With any book, you are going to have to pick and choose what is actually applicable and useful in your situation. After all, Joachim is not coming to your school and doing an analysis of your school, to see what you should do (although I'm sure if you paid her enough, she would!) So with that in mind, read the ideas and then see how you can edit and change them to fit your situation. As for my charter school, my focus will be on low-income immigrant children whose parents speak very little English and thus, I don't imagine I'll probably even have a PTA. That is a completely different background than what Joachim works in, but even so, I think I can modify the ideas enough to make it work for my school. I thoroughly enjoyed "Beyond the Bake Sale" and believe that anyone who is interested in fundraising for their school will find it to be an excellent guide on how to hold successful fundraisers.

Beyond the Bake Sale provides a blueprint for turning your fundraisers into FUNdraisers, an important distinction when dealing with children. From detailed instructions to holding a successful fundraising carnival to the specifics on putting together an auction gala that will raise money and provide an adults only activity for your school's parents, Beyond the Bake Sale excels at details. Pulling off big events can be an overwhelming and daunting task the first time you try it, so having details like what sub-committees to break things down into, and how to pull it off without spending money up front is extremely beneficial. The reviewer who stated that the book is more about setting up a fundraising structure is correct, which is kinda the point. Anyone who's ever run a parent group can tell you that some sort of structure is a necessity to maximizing the limited number of parent volunteers, enticing more members to your group, and more efficiently improving your child's school. It's also true that the author's experiences as related are specific to PS 87. However, they are easily adaptable to the school of the reader. The plans included provide the needed detail to get started while leaving enough of the specifics to the reader that an event can become his/her own instead of being an exact replica of the PS 87 event. All in all this is an outstanding book for any parent group who is interested in taking their fundraisers to the next level while still having a good time doing it. I highly recommend it.

Very helpful. I found many ideas that I could use in my small, rural school.

I heard the author interviewed on the radio which prompted me to buy this book. The part that got my attention was the fact that she was part of a fund-raising team that raised over $200,000 for her local public school each year for the past 10 years!! How could this be possible? Well, she clearly explains how they built up to this astonishing figure. The part about how to run a successful auction was very insightful. We ran a silent auction at our church this year for the first time and did quite well, but the ideas in this book will really help for next year. This is a meaty, step-by-step guide by someone who has been there and thus has a lot of credibility.