Top tips to help your PTA raise thousands:

• Act now: get started today…… don't waste time as every purchase could count and with Valentine's and Mother's Days just around the corner there's plenty of money to be raised.  Make sure your PTA is registered and start your campaign to get your supporters using easyfundraising.org.uk every time they shop online.  It will take you just a matter of minutes to register your association.
• Promote like mad: announce that your PTA is now using easyfundraising.org.uk as loudly as possible and continue to reinforce this message through school newsletters, emails and all other means available to you.   Get your school to help with your promotion by featuring easyfundraising.org.uk during assemblies or other school events where parents will be present.  Getting the school to talk about the importance of the funds raised by the PTA can help motivate parents to take action.  Decide on an easyfundraising.org.uk champion who can take the lead in getting the message out there and driving more people to use it.
• Social media: if you are using social media promote the easyfundraising.org.uk page for your association to make it easier for your supporters to get involved.  easyfundraising.org.uk is busy promoting what it does using Facebook  and Twitter.  If your association has its own social media presence, make a link and repost promotions and special offers to engage your supporters.
• Get your supporters signed-up: this will be critical to your success so focus minds by setting a date by which you want supporters to sign-up.  Give them an incentive by offering a free draw prize into which everyone that signs-up by this date is entered.  Take some direct action by getting hold of a tablet and walking around the playground or at your next PTA event and getting parents to sign-up there and then.  All a parent needs is their personal details and email address so there's no reason that they couldn't do this there and then.  Once a parent has signed-up encourage them to promote this to their friends and family.  This can be done really easily using social media - the cause page on easyfundrasing.org.uk for your association will feature a range of social media buttons.
• Get kids involved: ask pupils to design flyers to promote easyfundraising.org.uk to parents and encourage them to go home and talk to their parents about signing-up.
• Find & Remind toolbar: once you've got your supporters signed-up, you need to make using easyfundraising.org.uk as automatic as brushing their teeth!  To do this, get them all to download the easyfundraising.org.uk Find & Remind toolbar.  This is a little bit of technical magic which works in your internet browser and means every time you search for an online retailer that is part of easyfundraising.org.uk, you are automatically reminded and provided with a link which helps you to continue to raise funds.  Here at PTA-UK, we've been really impressed by this tool and easyfundraising.org.uk has found that where supporters are using this they raise five times more than those that are not.  You need no technical skill to download the toolbar and start using it. 
• Target your committee: it is probably easier to get supporters signed-up when you can already demonstrate the benefit easyfundraising.org.uk is providing to your association.  So start by signing-up your PTA committee members and get them to quickly raise funds.  With easyfundraising.org.uk it won't take much time before just a few of you have managed to raise an impressive sum!  Promote this to your supporters as another way to encourage them to take action.
• Maximise the benefit of your PTA purchases: it's not just your supporters that can raise funds using easyfundraising.org.uk by shopping online - so can your association.  Any goods that you need to buy to support your PTA activities and events can be purchased online through easyfundraising.org.uk to add to your fundraising total!
• And get the school shopping online: the really clever PTAs aren't just getting their supporters and their association to shop online using easyfundraising, they are also getting their school to shop this way and raise significant funds for their PTA.  For example, if the school is doing its stationary order online or purchasing books for the school library, encourage them to do this through easyfundraising.org.uk to again maxmise the funds raised.
• Spread the word: easyfundraising.org.uk has produced promotional materials for PTAs to use with their supporters.  They can be downloaded from the Raise More section of the easyfundraising.org.uk website once your association is registered.  Look out for emails from PTA-UK to get you going and then you'll be able to access promotional support from easyfundraising.org.uk.  With the help of Viking there is currently a competition running to win £500 for your association to help you get started on easyfundraising.org.uk. This will reward the PTA which has raised the largest amount between 6 November 2012 and 31 January 2012.  Make sure your supporters know about this competition and use it to motivate them to take action.
• The perfect time to start: think about the times parents, friends and teachers might be buying online and remind them to sign-up to easyfundraising.org.uk and raise funds to support the school. But also encourage those that shop online regularly to get involved.  Just think about the funds your PTA could raise if everyone that does their grocery shopping weekly online were to do so using easyfunraising.org.uk!
• There's nothing like a bit of healthy competition…. encourage parents by searching on other local schools and see what they are raising - all available to view on easyfundraising.org.uk - and strive to be the best.  Your cause page will feature a list of the top ten PTA fundraisers.  Currently the leader is a PTA that has raised over £3,000 using easyfundraising.org.uk!

Find out how to get started, see how Burbage Primary School Parents' Association are already raising £800 a quarter using easyfundraising.org.uk and take part in our easyfundaising.org.uk competition to win a cash prize for your PTA - with thanks to Viking there's £1,000 up for grabs in three competitions.

Start today by visiting easyfundraising.org.uk/pta-get-started