The pizza arrives at noon. Long before that, someone has built the order form, sent the reminders, checked the payments, counted the meals and found the volunteers. After lunch, someone still has to sort out the numbers.
For the children, it's pizza day. For a handful of parents, it's a small operation fitted around work, family and everything else.
We've spent more than six years as treasurer of our school's PAC while working full time. We know how much happens behind a simple school event, and how often the same people end up doing it.
We call this the lean PAC: a small group of parent volunteers keeping school activities going. To maintain the quality families expect, that group puts in more and more time. Eventually, keeping those events going comes at an unsustainable cost to their own families, work and personal lives.
We can't keep going in this direction. We need to rethink how school fundraisers are run, so a good event doesn't depend on volunteers giving up more of their lives.
Make it easier for parents to take part
A missed deadline doesn't necessarily mean a parent wasn't interested. The notice may have been in an email they meant to read later, a newsletter they couldn't find again, or a website they forgot to check.
School information can be scattered across inboxes, websites, social posts and group chats. Each channel might work on its own, but together they leave parents with a job: remember where everything is, what they need to do and when.
That's where we wanted to start: school events at parents' fingertips, in one app on the phone they already use dozens of times a day. Everything they need to take part is together, without another website to remember to check.
In PACmeFUNd, parents can see what's coming up, order and pay, check their orders and find volunteer opportunities. A notification brings a new event to their attention. An ordering reminder goes to parents who haven't ordered for that date yet. Parents don't have to keep every deadline in their heads or remember where a notice was posted. The event details and their orders are there whenever they need them.
Clear, direct and focused communication makes participation easier. Parents don't have to piece together instructions, find a separate form or arrange payment elsewhere. They can read the details and act right there in the app. Taking that burden off parents makes it easier to take part, while reducing the follow-up work for the PAC.
Let the system handle the repetitive work
A hot lunch program might run every few weeks, but much of the setup stays the same. The vendors, menu items and choices are familiar. So are the volunteer jobs.
Starting from scratch each time takes time and energy that could simply be saved.
With PACmeFUNd, organizers build a menu once and reuse it across events. A regular food menu can be paired with another menu for drinks or snacks. Volunteer setups can be saved for the next event too.
For a regular event, the date may be the only thing that changes. With the menu and volunteer setup already saved, creating an event with a new date takes seconds.
Once orders come in, let the system do the calculations and recordkeeping. PACmeFUNd matches payments to orders, records refunds, totals the vendor quantities and prepares classroom sorting lists. It tracks items handed out during in-person delivery and brings revenue, fees and refunds together in financial reports. Volunteers can use the results instead of counting, cross-checking and rebuilding the records by hand.
These aren't the exciting parts of school fundraising. They're the parts that take up evenings and weekends. Reducing that work gives volunteers time back for their own lives and families, while keeping school events running well.
Streamline the event from order to pickup
Think about that pizza day again.
The organizer sets the dates, menus and ordering cutoff. Parents see the event, choose what their children want and pay online. Those who can help choose an open volunteer shift.
When ordering closes, the PAC can use the vendor report to place the food order and the distribution reports to organize it by classroom. Where families collect orders in person, volunteers can scan the parent's QR code and check off the items handed out.
The information moves from ordering to payment, vendor reports and delivery within one system. Volunteers don't have to keep moving it between forms, spreadsheets and messages, or worry about a correction reaching one list but not another.
Photos matter here as well. A pizza, a spirit-wear item or a dance poster makes an event easier to understand at a glance. Parents can see what they're buying or supporting, and children can help choose. Showing what's on offer can encourage participation and sales, making the event something to look forward to rather than another form to complete.
You can see how the event flow works on our website, including the different views for PACs, parents and volunteers.
That's why we built PACmeFUNd: clearer communication from PACs to parents, easier participation for families, and less administration for organizers. A small team can keep school activities going without giving up so much of its own family time.
That's how we put the fun back in fundraising.