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For school PTOs and PTAs

An online store for your school PTO's fundraisers

What a family sees, what your officers see, and what the platform fee costs, when a school PTO sells online.

What a family sees

  • Your group gets its own store page that families open on a phone.
  • You can ask each family a question when they buy, like the child's name or the homeroom teacher.
  • Families pay by card, and they do not need an account to do it.
  • The platform fee is added to the family’s total and shown to them before they pay.
A green class shirt for $12.00 on a phone. Size M is picked. Both questions are answered. The Add to Cart button is ready.
A product page from our demo school, on a phone. The family picks a size and answers both questions before the shirt goes in the cart.
The checkout for the same shirt: Items $12.00, Platform fee $1.04, Total $13.04, and a Pay $13.04 button.
The same shirt at checkout. The $1.04 platform fee is on the screen before the family taps Pay.

What your officers see

  • Each paid order goes into your books as income on its own. Nobody types it in.
  • Each order shows the answers the family gave, so you know whose it is.
The order on the officer's screen: Class Shirt. Child's name: Ava Martinez. Homeroom teacher: Mrs. Rivera.
The same shirt, bought in a test purchase on our preview site. This is the order your officers see, with both answers on it.
The same order in the books: $12.00, Income, Completed, Product Sales. Recorded by Online store.
The same order in the books, recorded by the online store and filed as Product Sales. Nobody typed it in.

What the platform fee costs

On the Free plan, a family buying a $12.00 item pays $13.04 at checkout, and your group receives the full $12.00.

The fee goes on top of the price. It never comes out of what your group raised.

Before your first sale

  • Your group’s owner connects payouts through Stripe from the Payments & Payouts page.
  • The owner enters identity and bank details on Stripe’s own pages. GroupSmarter does not store them.
  • You answer one question about your group’s tax status, and “I’m not sure” is an allowed answer.

It helps to have the group's bank account details, and its EIN if it has one, before you start. Stripe decides how long its checks take, so leave a little time before the sale opens.

What stays with you

You share the store link with families, by text, email or the school newsletter.

You hand out what sold, whether that is shirts sent home in backpacks or orders at pickup. We do not ship orders.

Get Started Free

Create your PTO's free account. Set up your first sale when you're ready.

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