General Meeting: SESSFA MOU and Move-A-Thon Funding

SESSFA and Move-A-Thon overview

**Fundraising alliance for D7, district of SPS in southeast Seattle. Started in 2020 and was more successful than anticipated. **
**Last year involved 15 D7 schools, ~$39,000 raised, split 50% equally and 50% equitably among participating schools. Kimball received ~$23,000. SESSFA received anonymous $200,000 donation not included in this number. **
**Donors included parents, North Seattle schools, community members **
**Equity model - points assigned based on number of students and number of students with specific demographic profiles. Aim of this is so that schools with increased needs will get more funding. **
**Question - do all schools in D7 have PTSAs to distribute $? Answer - yes, SESSFA has helped with this. Some schools have PTOs instead of PTAs to get around rules regarding being a PTA. **
**Question - is this model unique? Answer- Portland school district did something similar, but it’s pretty unique. Smithsonian is doing a presentation on fundraising and included the Move-A-Thon bingo board and water bottle and they may be displayed as part of this exhibit. **
New to the MOU (Memorandum of Understanding) for this year, in addition to (1) no moving related events and (2) no event that conflicts in time (during the period of the MaT in March) - also money that is made in fundraising outside of the MaT, 5% of that be brought back to the SESSFA pot. This percentage may increase as time goes on, but should never be more than 50%
Hope is this model frees up PTSAs to do community building and advocacy work.
**What does the 5% apply to? All money raised that isn’t intended for something else (ie. coat drive might not be applicable to this 5%) **
**Question - Is there an effort to help schools who don't fundraise as much have the tools to build their own campaigns? What are some reasons for why some schools do better than others? Answer - one of the great things about this model is it is less work to fundraise for everyone because it’s collaborative. One of the reasons other schools fundraise less is linked to time and resource privilege that varies by school. **
**Comment/Question - appreciate the phased approach, slowly adding the 5% this year, maybe more next year. What are the requirements for each participating school regards to involvement in SESSFA? Answer - at least one parent from each school represents their school in SESSFA. SESSFA supports schools in understanding budgeting, taxes, etc. But each school can use the money however they need. For example, some schools need more family support. In addition to each school signing the MOU to be part of MaT each year, the principal must sign it as well. **
**Question - when does the distribution of money from MaT happen? Answer - this is part of the reason MaT is moving sooner to March, so that funds can be distributed in June. Right now funds aren’t distributed until October. **
**Question about after school programs. Was that a wash financially? Answer - it was actually a fundraiser for us in the end, we made a bit of money off that program. **
**Question- can we continue to fund the things we need at Kimball as the 5% is increased to, say, 50%? Is this rate negotiable? Answer - the plan is to go from 5% to maybe 10% next year, and each year to have conversations about these changes with the community. To move slow and get a lot of feedback. To be clear, the MOU for this year is JUST for this year, and we would evaluate and renew our MOU each year. **
**Concern that Kimball parents might give less as the percentage given to the SESSFA pot increases over time, or that less energy will be put into fundraising. **
**Reflecting on what should be considered applicable to the 5% **
- **Comment- how does our PTSA savings apply here? We have a pretty solid reserve. **

**Voted to be part of the MOU for this year and give 5% of our independent fundraising this year to MaT. **

**Potentially schedule another meeting to discuss in June. **