A recent survey of 764 PTO and PTA leaders found that 97% plan to maintain or increase their fundraising efforts this year, and 43% expect heightened demand for support specifically because school budgets are being cut. School fundraising isn’t just covering the extras anymore, field trips, yearbooks, spirit wear. A third of parent organizations surveyed now expect pressure to fund things traditionally outside their scope entirely: technology, classroom supplies, even auditorium repairs that used to come out of the district budget. At the same time, 62% of those same leaders expect volunteer participation to decline, and 64% already name a volunteer shortage as their biggest challenge. That combination, more expected of school fundraising, fewer people to run it, is exactly why how a school fundraises matters more than it used to. Why School Budgets Are Pushing More Onto Fundraising The pattern showing up across PTOs and PTAs is consistent: districts asking parent organizations to help cover Chromebooks, classroom subscriptions, and equipment that budgets used to handle directly. That’s a real shift in scope, not just a bigger ask on the same handful of familiar categories. It means school fundraising increasingly has to fund essentials alongside the extras, which changes both how much needs to be raised and how it gets communicated to parents who may not realize the budget gap exists. What Actually Works With Fewer Volunteers With most PTOs expecting volunteer numbers to shrink, the fundraising approach that made sense five years ago, a full slate of bake sales, carnivals, and multi-week product sales, often isn’t realistic anymore. A few shifts help: Fewer, better-run campaigns beat many small ones. One well-organized online campaign that parents can share in a group chat takes far less staffing than a week of in-person sales tables. Community-building events still have real value. Over half of PTO leaders surveyed believe events focused on bringing the community together will have the most positive impact this year, even amid the volunteer crunch, suggesting the right event still pays off even when it’s harder to staff. Online giving reduces the logistics load. Fundraising for schools that runs primarily through a shareable online page needs far fewer hands than managing cash, order forms, and product delivery for a traditional sale. Choosing the Right Approach for Your School Not every school community responds the same way, and picking the right format matters more when volunteer time is limited: Direct online giving campaigns work well when the ask is specific and time-bound, covering a particular need like new library books or a classroom technology upgrade. Recurring or annual fund drives suit schools trying to close an ongoing budget gap rather than fund a single item, since a steady base of support is more sustainable than repeated one-off pushes. Sponsored events still bring in strong numbers when they double as a community gathering, since parents show up for the social side even when they might skip a pure fundraising ask. For concrete formats and activity ideas within any of these categories, school fundraisers that have worked well for other PTOs are worth reviewing before committing to one approach, since what works varies a lot by school size and community. Making the Ask Land With Fewer People to Spread It When there are fewer volunteers to personally reach out to every family, the fundraiser itself has to do more of that work. A clear, specific goal, “help fund new classroom Chromebooks, $3,200 needed by October”, explained briefly on a shareable page tends to travel through parent group chats and school social pages without needing a volunteer standing at every event to explain it in person. Choosing the right setup for that kind of campaign matters. Comparing fundraising platforms for schools before committing to one, checking fees, how easy the page is to share, and whether it supports both a single push and ongoing recurring giving, saves a lot of frustration partway through the school year. A handful of well-reviewed online fundraising platforms for schools now support both models from the same account, which matters for PTOs juggling several fundraising needs across a single year without the bandwidth to manage separate tools for each. Getting Started With more being asked of school fundraising and fewer people available to run it, the schools doing well this year tend to share a pattern: fewer, clearer campaigns rather than a packed calendar of small ones, a platform that makes sharing easy without heavy manual coordination, and community events kept for what they’re genuinely good at, bringing people together, rather than trying to make every event carry the full fundraising load. Getting that balance right matters more in 2026 than it has in years past.