Annual Appeal - 2019/2020
Dear Conant Community,
The Luther Conant Parent Teacher Organization kindly asks you to consider making a donation to the PTO during the 2019-2020 school year.
The PTO raises funds from a variety of activities including this annual appeal to fund activities and experiences the school district doesn’t cover. For this school year, the PTO has budgeted expenditures of $32,776. The vast majority of these funds are earmarked for academic support staff, including a library assistant, as well as enrichment activities (school assemblies/performances, author visits). There are even funds dedicated to each of the teachers to use specifically in their classrooms at their discretion! The remainder of the budget is used to cover some of the costs of sponsoring community building events.
The Conant PTO’s fund-raising efforts involve 3 key pillars:
Artisan & Craft Fair
Ice Cream Social
Annual Appeal
Each of these events raises, historically, about 1/3 of budgetary requirements. We are lucky in that the funds raised during the Artisan & Craft Fair are largely driven by vendor fees and entrance fees. This means that there is a lower overall burden on the Conant community. Consequently, we are aspiring to an annual appeal fund-raising goal of $14,000, consistent with what the PTO raised in 2018-2019.
There are several ways to make an impact on the Conant community.
Cash donations
As a 501(c)(3) organization, all contributions are tax deductible
o Checks made payable to Conant PTO and addressed to PTO Treasurer, 80 Taylor Street, Acton, MA 01720
o Online donations via www.conantpto.org “Donate” button
· Full disclosure: donations made online are subject to fees of 2.2% + $0.30
($100 donation nets the PTO $97.50)
Employer matching gifts
o Please ask your employer if they match funds. That’s a great and easy way to magnify your impact at no additional cost to you!
Employer volunteer hours
o Some employers, State Street Corporation being one of them, offer to donate funds in exchange for volunteer hours. In State Street’s case, for every 16 hours volunteered, State Street will donate $500 to the PTO. That’s just under 2 hours per month during the school year. What a great way to get involved and to raise funds! And we have plenty of events and activities to satisfy that goal! As State Street is my employer, I am taking full advantage of this program. At the time of this writing, I’ve put in about (more like at least) 40 hours of effort toward the PTO. That puts the expected donation to $1,000 and halfway to the next $500. And we’re 2 months into the school year! Please look into whether your employers offer a similar benefit.
Other financial gestures include:
o Amazon Smile (www.smile.amazon.com) where 0.50% of eligible purchases are donated by Amazon to the PTO
o Box Tops for Education (www.boxtops4education.com) download the app today! No more clipping, collecting and sorting actual box tops!
We respect and appreciate what is being asked of you to support Conant. We kindly ask that you consider giving to Conant in any of the above capacities comfortable to you.
Our experiences at Conant will be created over 7 years and will last a lifetime. Great things can happen when each of us put in as much as we can to make the best of it. And remember, the beneficiaries of our efforts are the students. Let’s do what we can to make their shared experiences better.
The PTO thanks you for your contributions and your efforts.
Jimmy Reichert
PTO President