Informal Fundraising in Schools

The four sources of revenue reported in school budgets are local, state, federal, and alternative (sometimes referred to as “other” or “private” by the school finance literature). The first three funding sources encompass all public funds spent on public education. Public funds constitute more than 90 percent of all public school expenditures. John Pijanowski and David Monk disaggregated alternative revenue sources, which make up less than 10 percent of public school revenues, into seven different categories: user fees, investment returns, education foundations, non-student user fees, business partnerships, fundraising and/or donations of money, supplies and equipment, and volunteering. Informal school funds are private pecuniary or monetizable resources that are allocated to schools via informal, unofficial mechanisms. The lack of involvement by the Local Education Authority (LEA) ...