Are you looking for ways to get more parents involved in your school parent group, whether it’s a PTO, PTA or another name?
That’s a rhetorical question of course because every group benefits from having more volunteers at the ready, willing to pitch in as necessary.
The truth is that your PTO will be able to get a lot more done, avoid leader burnout and set itself up for easier officer recruitment with a wider pool of involved parents.
Otherwise, it’ll be you, Crystal and Stefanie balancing all the work and your PTO won’t be as much fun or impactful.
So how exactly do you get more parents involved in the first place?
Assuming you’ve sent home a few flyers and have gotten pretty much crickets, you’re on the hunt for a volunteer recruitment strategy that actually works.
I’m so happy you’ve found this post because that’s exactly what we’re going to dive into today: a strategy to get more parents involved that has a super high success rate!
And what’s more, literally anyone can do this and come out with more PTO helpers.
The Simple PTO Volunteer Recruitment Method Anyone Can Do
You probably already know parents who would like to get involved in the PTO.
The thing is, they just don’t know it yet.
And that’s because of a few reasons.
Like PTOs have gotten a bad rap.
No this isn’t anything new.
I can’t even count on two hands how many times PTOs have been negatively portrayed, belittled and dismissed in the media, movies and tv shows.
Add to that prevalent stereotype, post-pandemic, parents haven’t had the chance to see the PTOs in action, nor any of the wonderful things PTOs do for their schools, and they don’t quite get why they should get involved.
Parent engagement and involvement has quite literally fallen off the cliff, and it’s not all that surprising either given what we all went through and the changes we all had to adjust to.
So what to do?
Well, one of the easiest ways to get more parents involved in your PTO as volunteers is to go to your circle of friends and approach them about getting involved.
Yes, that’s right.
And when I say to approach your friends that aren’t already involved, know that you’re going to have to sell them on it.
Know that at this point in my PTO volunteer career, which spans 14 years now, the majority of my friends are actively involved in the PTO with me.
Part of this happened because we were already hanging out together and naturally friendships developed.
But it’s also because we share a common sense of values and enjoy giving back to our school community to do fun things for the kids.
Even though my friends primarily include fellow PTO volunteers, it totally didn’t start out that way.
In fact, when I first got involved in my PTA, I was one of the first ones in my friends’ circle because I was the most outgoing of everybody and really just wanted to get involved.
And when our group needed help, I asked my friend Lesa to start coming to PTO meetings and relayed that we really did need the help and she would be doing me a favor.
Three years later, she was PTO President!
Heck yes, I totally leveraged our friendship and it worked out better than I could’ve expected, for both the PTO and Lesa as well.
What If ALL Your Friends are Already Involved?
So if all of your friends are already involved, then are you out of luck?
No, absolutely not.
If your group is really having a hard time getting parents involved, then you might want to roll back and look at other relationships you have.
Who do you have just like a friendly acquaintances-type relationship with and possibly somebody that you’re interested in getting to know more and spend time with?
Perhaps that’s like the exact person that you should be reaching out to and invite them to come to a PTO event or meeting.
The bottom line is that you’re going to have to talk to people outside of your friend group.
This may be hard for you, but it’s not optional if you are really serious about getting new faces into the mix with your school parent group.
Maybe you don’t want to just start off with the big ask for the volunteering of their time, but start with the smaller ask of getting them to just show up.
Getting someone just to come to an event that they weren’t already going to maybe attend is like a great first step.
Because then you’re not really playing into the stereotype that PTO is nothing but a volunteer black hole and that all of their time is gonna get sucked up.
You’re inviting them into your circle in an attempt to make a connection with them, which is what so many people crave.
Use this to your advantage.
I did this many times, including with my friend Gretchen.
In fact, she’s told me on several occasions how thankful she is that I got her involved in our PTO.
The thing is, I’d seen her at the pick up spot after school and casually mentioned one day, “I’d love for you to come to the PTA meeting. You don’t have to sign up; you’re not going to be voluntold to do anything. Just come and check it out. I’ll be looking for you!”
She was new to the school, and I thought it was a great way for her to meet people and learn about what’s going on at the school because your kids don’t always tell you what’s going on.
She said “okay” and then she actually showed up at the meeting.
I talked to her and welcomed her.
It was so simple because it wasn’t anything I wouldn’t already do.
But this was all it took to get her involved.
Gretchen kept coming to meetings, got super involved shortly thereafter, signing up for lots of things, and eventually was in charge of three different programs.
She loved it!
When her kids moved on to the next school, she told that she was so appreciative of me going out of my way to ask her to get involved because she never would’ve done it without that initial ask.
She went on to say that because I told her I was expecting to see her at the meeting, that was the reason she showed up in the first place.
Even though we didn’t really know each other at that point, she felt a strong enough connection with me to meet that expectation.
Why This Volunteer Recruitment Strategy Works
One of the main reasons why this strategy for getting more PTO volunteers actually works is because it’s rooted in authentic relationship and connections.
So many people are craving that and they might not initially see that PTO is a way to get what they want.
Throughout my time in PTO, I’ve done many things I wasn’t very excited to do or even wanted to do because I knew my friends needed my help and I love my friends and will do just about anything for them.
One of those friends I will do anything for is Stefanie.
Let me tell you about Stefanie for a bit.
She’s been PTA President at every single school in the district, just retired for the school board after a double digit tenure and is overall a fantastic human being.
Anything she asks me to do, I will do, even if I’m busy because I love Stephanie, and I just think the world of her.
But it didn’t start out that way because we didn’t have the relationship that we now do.
It’s a relationship that’s evolved over the last 14 years that I’ve known her.
So look to become the Stefanie for others.
Look at other parents in that way, and just start being a friend to them.
Too many PTOs make the mistake of just putting out a volunteer request or even just like a meeting notice and hoping that’ll do the trick to bring new volunteers in.
But the truth is, that’s just not going to cut it.
Taking that next step, to personally extend an invitation to individual parents is really what’s going to make the difference.
They’ll feel so special when you reach out to them individually.
So just think about it, if someone personally invited you to something, don’t you one, feel great about being asked, and two, feel more of an obligation to go?
Heck yes!
When I make the ask, it’s friendly and engaging in that way, and I try and make people feel like I genuinely want them there, and that’s easy to do because I do genuinely want them there.
Watch this!
Over to you!
To get more volunteers for your PTO, you’ll need to approach your friends and even people you don’t know very well at all and extend a personal invitation to get them involved.
What involvement looks like is going to vary, given what they’re balancing in life at the moment, but your results may surprise you, just like they did for me with Gretchen and Lesa.
But know that there are parents who are interested in helping, but are waiting for a nudge.
Let that nudge be the personal ask to come to an event or meeting.
It’s a simple thing to do and can really be the difference you and your PTO are looking for!
