Fundraisers

[aggiefamily]

I know we have talked about this before but I hate them.

I understand the need for them but still hate them. I would rather have the option to give the school more money than have my child sit through a fundraiser presentation and have his head filled with expectations. Do they not realize that a 5 year old can't really comprehend the concept? Now I have an upset little boy that thinks he is going to either get in trouble for not selling (because mommy won't go knock on the weird neighbor's door) or that he isn't going to get enough points to get some slime or some other cheap toy.

[Robin Carlton]

Yes! Yes! Yes! I hate, loathe, despise them too. I never do them. My kids dont even ask anymore. I'm happy to take box-loads of copy paper and snacks to the school as donations and would happily give my kid's teachers a check so they could buy supplies. I just hate the BS collect $500 in crappy fundraiser cookie dough so the school can earn $250 : /

Lame lame lame.

R

[BrattyMeg]

ughhhhhhhhhhhh mine brought home one today..I have THREE kids in the school district selling the SAME thing along with the rest of the neighborhood!

I'd gladly write a donation check or something just to not have to do this. My son said today if he sells 100 magazine subscriptions he can earn a netbook...uh good luck with that. I already get People Magazine, Reader's Digest, and Teen People from last years fundraisers lol

[KristinCB]

I hate them tooo! Not only with school but the sports and activities that have them too! Lily does skating and there is SO much of fundraising but we have the option to write a cheque instead and not be bothered with it and we do that! In the end it saves us time and money because so often we end up buying the stupid junk ourselves because you need to sell a certain amount and it ends up pretty tough when you live in a small town and the people have already bought from someone else.

[lhaslem]

it's the worst....our elementary school has started a "write a check campaign" over the last 3 years and you can just write a check at the beginning of the year (suggested amount, but not mandated, based on the PTO operating budget and number of kids)...and be DONE!

[sprauncey1]

I loathe them! I did so many in high school as class treasurer and president that I swore I wouldn't do them anymore. I explain to my boys that I donate money to the school/club/team and that we don't do fundraisers. We have no family here locally so I just don't try. And yes I am upset with the whole "assembly" explaining the selling. DS last year was upset that he didn't get a t-shirt for selling.

Thankfully his school does a spaghetti dinner for their big fundraiser every year and I buy tickets for our family and some raffle tickets. All the money goes to the PTA so there is no hidden costs. That I like and appreciate them trying not to bombard us with tons of little crappy ones!!!

And they start so early with the fundraisers now! My DS got them in pre-school!!! Seriously...I pay money for him to go there and your asking me to sell crap!

[aggiefamily]

Oh and get this. Part of the homework today was to fill out your name and info on the form.

[MamaBee]

LOL... I don't even have a kid in school and they annoy me! I use to be bombarded with them when I was working... I thought for sure that when I had a kid it would be pay back... LOL! Now I don't even work there... I just wish they didn't make the child feel bad because they don't bring in the big orders... family's only have so many relatives and friends they can tap in. Also we live in a neighborhood with a ton of kids... it gets a bit much that they are coming daily with something...

I wish more schools would just have a check policy... but I suppose they have to do fund raising for those parents who can't afford to hand over a check...

[jessica31876]

I do not do them. Had a bad experience where my daughter lost the envelope with the payments in it. It was a long time ago and I think she eventually found it so we didnt have to pay but if she had not we would have had to pay for what she had already collected.

[nikkiARNGwife]

Yep..we've been in school 1 month and just today got our THIRD fundraiser sent home. And we're quickly learning that in a private school the expectations for parents to get involved with this kind of stuff is very high... crazy.

[BrattyMeg]

since I typed my reply earlier..I've had 2 kids from the neighborhood come ask if I wanted a magazine subscription (that's what we're selling right now)

sorry kiddos..

[jessica31876]

it gets alot worse when they are in high school/middle school and get into extracurricular activities. Every activity has at least one fundraiser...most have several a year. I prefer ones like car washes, silent auctions, selling stuff that are actually good like cheesecakes and then the smaller purchases like candy bars. Sure it is 2 or 3 times what youd pay in a store but it is for a good cause and it is something youd probably buy anyway.


Oh and when my daughter was doing it (she is out of school now) they had this sub shop who would donate 20% of all sales for one night and it brought in alot of money. The subs were really good. It was a place alot of the people would normally eat at anyhow but if you went in on Wolves night (thats the mascot for the school) then part of the money went to the school.

Another thing...if you shop at Target alot they donate part of your purchase to the school of your choice. I am not sure if it has to be a Target credit card or not but thats another thing you can do

[sevenupps]

Hate them! I will forever love our junior high band director because she lets everyone know that they will be "passing the plate" at the kid's concerts and we are all so grateful we don't have to mess with fundraisers that we give generously. All the grandparents in the audience give even more generously, LOL!
We have earned enough just doing that that we haven't had to do anything else! I'm sure the fundraiser companies hate us.
I know this wouldn't work for high school, but I so wish it would!

[SmallMoments]

This is why I'm so thankful we're having a walk-a-thon to raise money instead of selling dumb "gift" items like a $30 cheeseball or $15 square of wrapping paper.

[Stacey42]

Mine came home today with them. Looks like a combo of cheaply made overpriced Xmas related stuff, cookie dough and magazine subscriptions.

Apparently my oldest told the teacher "Mom's just going to give you money. She doesn't sell stuff"

Which is totally correct. Each boy gets $20 to turn in in lieu of a sales form. DH is the manager at his office & feels weird bringing in stuff to sell, like it's compulsive to buy the boss' kids stuff. It's not but he always felt that way when any boss he had brought stuff in. We're rural so door to door is out too.

[meems]

Originally Posted by aggiefamily

Oh and get this. Part of the homework today was to fill out your name and info on the form.

bwahahahahahahaha! oh that is good!

my son has been staring at the possible prizes he could win if he could sell enough cookie dough or pretzel kits. I told him to face facts and forget about getting any real prize. I might buy enough for him to get the crap prize at the bottom

[Jenn Barrette]

For the preschool, we have have to earn $125 in fundraising or just write them a check. This is Ava's first year in the grade school here, so I am not looking forward to it.

[emmasmommy]

:/ we haven't had this yet...i can see mommy having a very short fuse when it comes to this stuff

[newfiemountiewife]

All of the extra curricular activities have them, last year at one point I had 2 huge boxes of bars to sell (one for figure skating for Amelia, and one for gymnastics for the other two). It sucked. We live in a very small town too and it sucks.

I wish they'd all give us the option to just pay, because we would. I don't know what the school will give us, we start tomorrow. I hope that's not the first friggin thing they bring home though.

[lauren grier]

we had *so* many last year.. and the district is even in more of a dire need of money this year- so i'm ergh. The only one we participated in was the walk-a-thon one cause, well.. I think forcing a 6 yr old to sell crap is silly

[DawnMarch]

We pretty much just write a check too. We have no family in town, our neighbors all have their own kids and I don't feel it's appropriate to try to sell stuff at work. Needless to say, we don't win many prizes.

[d2vasquez]

lol I am reading this thread and smiling because I am on the PTG and one of our main functions is to organize fundraisers for our families. My children go to private schools and we are required to pay a certain amount to each school to help with costs. Both schools give their familes the option to sell the items or just write a check to pay the amount.

Our school does elect to opt out of the prizes for the fundraisers (since they are just plain junk) and by doing so this increases the amount that goes back to the school and/or families as a credit for the amount owed above. Perhaps some of you can ask about that and then the pressure to sell isn't so tough to deal with. We also do not have rallies promoting any fundraising items so as not to put pressures on families from kids who *think* they have to sell this or that. It has really helped make things easier for our families who are trying their best to meet their obligations.

[kscwgirl]

I hate them too. We can opt out here. $50 a kid. I wrote a check.

[julifish]

Originally Posted by lhaslem

it's the worst....our elementary school has started a "write a check campaign" over the last 3 years and you can just write a check at the beginning of the year (suggested amount, but not mandated, based on the PTO operating budget and number of kids)...and be DONE!

Leslie - I totally wish my girls' schools would do this! It would be so much easier. I'm already the mom the teacher calls when they need class supplies so why not just write a check it get it over with? I hate the idea of my kids selling stuff - I wish they did more even fundraisers. Eating dinner at a local restaurant and skate night are the only fundraisers we participate in.

[knlchevys]

We just do the Walk-A-Thon too. I can't believe some places make the children do it.

[Julie Billingsley]

Logan's soccer team had an "fundraiser opt-out" fee. It cost $35 verses selling $74 of candy. Neither Tom or I can bring it to work, and I don't support door-to-door, and I certainly don't want that much candy, so we opted out.

School typically has 4 fundraisers a year, plus all the bingo nights and movie nights. I'm okay with the bingo and movie nights, but have hated the fundraisers in the past. Yucky cookies, fake jewelry, etc. I think the fundraising team has carefully picked some better ones this year, but this year I will only buy what I want and don't feel bad passing over if I don't like the items.

[TracerM]

I despise them. My niece and nephew both came home with them last week. They are only in preschool and kindergarten for goodness sake!

[pewtertm]

I was SO thrilled to see a letter from Rachel's principal last week stating that there would be no fundraisers this year. Too many people complained in the past and said they'd rather just donate some money. So this year, they are asking for families to do just that...either as a one-time thing or a monthly donation of $2 or more.

[tuneskids]

I am an awful parent. I don't have a lot of money, so I would never be able to "opt out" by writing a cheque ... and I also do not encourage my children to go door to door to sell stuff. 9/10 times my kids take the stuff back, unsold.

I will bring it with me to work, but I work with two people only. I also send it with hubby to work, to get the guys on his shift, since they don't have kids at the same school (only one of the guys on his shift actually has kids). But they still don't end up selling much.

I am sure this year will be no different, and with three kids in the same school ... this could be interesting.

[AmberK]

UGH- my kindergartener brought home his first fundraiser this year- the entertainment passbooks. I was going to say no to this but his grandparents wanted to buy one and he only has to sell 3 to get a "totally awesome frog". And I looked in the passbook and there are coupons and stuff that we will actually use.

But the PTA said that this year instead of doing the magazine fundraisers for the winter project that they were going to do a "busy parents fundraiser" where the parents could just donate money instead of the kids selling stuff. I can totally get on board with that and we will send in money.

[mkcdaisy]

ok so I have a question for you all. I know how you feel about the ones for schools but do you feel that way when it comes to girl scouts and boy scout sales?

I am a leader and I hate going to the parents about it. We have 2 sales, on in the fall and cookies after the new year. I feel bad cause I know they have all these coming from the schools but at the same time, for these groups its our operating money. The councils/states etc. don't give us anything to start and leaders spend at lot in the beginning. So I just wonder how you feel about this.

[mkcdaisy]

oh btw, I don't require any girl in the troop to sell. If the parents and and want to donate money its great but I don't ask them too. I have one mom with 5 girls all in girl scouts, its hard for them to do anyway you do it.

[newfiemountiewife]

My girls are both in girl scouts, and I wish we didn't have to do the cookies. I would pay the equivalent if it were offered to us.

[mkcdaisy]

the thing about cookies though is they tend to sell themselves and we do booth sales so if none of the girls sell to family or friends we still have the booth sales.

And we are anti door to door here except for homes of people you already know and only with your parent even then.

[Tracyfish]

I was actually pretty impressed with the pasta one that L.J. is selling now. I usually hate these things, but it is affordable stuff, not overly priced and the prizes are pretty cool. Instead of prizes out of a book, they get stuff like being able to wear their fav shirt instead of a uniform one day, a bubble wrap dance party, and tie up the principal event. It's fun stuff that doesn't cost the school much and makes the kids happy.

[cheltzey]

In the first two weeks of school we've had two fundraiser requests. TWO!! And Katie was so upset when she found it in the recycling. I'm a mean mom.

[MommaTrish]

This is year three of fundraisers for us, first year with having to do it with two kids.

I had to do TONS of them in high school for FFA and since I was one of the officers I know that the every little bit helped so we the past two years we always ordered something, my brother would, my parents would, and my mom's neighbors.
HOWEVER, this year we have both doing the exact same fundraiser wanting to get enough sales to get some stupid lame gun thing (...which we wouldn't let them get anyway...) and there's like no way to get sales. lol Not with both boys doing the sales (and its not like they could combine and share) PLUS two other kids in my mom's neighborhood are now in school too. We just each ordered one thing from each boy, my mom ordered one thing, and then we ordered a second thing under my brother's name.
That's not even getting into Cub Scout fundraisers which we got the first thing on tonight.
((sigh))
And we HAVE to do that.
At least that does offer donations.

[MommaTrish]

Oh should add, our school also does a Domino's one every Tuesday night and like 30% of the profits go to the school, plus a local restaurant does it also on errrr... Wednesdays and Fridays with 25% going to the school. With each though you have to show them this little card so they can keep up with how many orders are actually from the schools. We do the pizza one once a month.

[MommaTrish]

Originally Posted by mkcdaisy

ok so I have a question for you all. I know how you feel about the ones for schools but do you feel that way when it comes to girl scouts and boy scout sales?

I am a leader and I hate going to the parents about it. We have 2 sales, on in the fall and cookies after the new year. I feel bad cause I know they have all these coming from the schools but at the same time, for these groups its our operating money. The councils/states etc. don't give us anything to start and leaders spend at lot in the beginning. So I just wonder how you feel about this.

Our's is Cub Scouts and that stuff is so darn expensive for some stupid popcorn... ugh not seeing any of the people we know buying it. So, we've already decided to just try to collect some of the donation amounts.

[CA Dreamer]

I think there has to be a balance with fundraisers. I hate when my kids are asked to sell this or that. We give to a general fund basically a $-A-Day fund at the beginning of the year and consider myself off the hook! We sell gift wrap- but I actually like the gift wrap and only buy if I like it or need it.... I usually buy a big roll at Costco for Christmas, so it is more b-day wrap or gift bag sets which are a better deal than the store.

Our fundraising people are pretty sensitive to burnout. Also fundraising choices. Like giftwrap is a 50% profit. If it doesn't bring in 40-50% then we don't do the fundraiser. Our parent club also makes it a point to have 3 family or community events for every fundraiser.

[maryinaz]

Just curious - do your schools ever tell you what the money is going towards? And does that make a difference in how you see a fundraiser?

[fruitysuet]

Thankfully we don't have to do any of those sales type things.

We have the occasional event (auction, sponsored walk or spring fair) and raffle tickets at Christmas. For tickets and sponsored events I just send a donation in myself - never ask anyone else. It's all pretty low key and there isn't any big push on the kids.

Other times there are things like dress up days or bad hair days, coffee mornings or so on, that just require a couple of pounds donation towards a charity.

At High School there was just one thing in the first year there and that was to raise money for a Leprosy charity.

Then again I guess our taxes are higher to start with (?unsure but I figure they must be as we don't have to take in the crazy amounts of school supplies either).

ETA the funds raised for the school are all organised by the PTA and are used for 'luxuries' to enhance the learning experience, such as drama workshops, playground equipment or to subsidise school day trips. The PTA newsletter will state what money was raised from each event and how that is spent. I remember when I was on the PTA myself the HT tried to get funds to replace carpeting and we refused, that sort of thing should come out of the school budget.

The charity fundraisers - the nominated charity is always stated up front.

[nikkiARNGwife]

Apparently it doesn't end after High School lol...last night my cousin who is a sophomore at the local college here called me to ask if I wanted to order some cokes..her soccer team is selling them to raise money lol

[ariesfl326]

Ugh! Got the dreaded fundraiser forms yesterday. Cookie dough and junk food! How nice (insert sarcasm)! Last time I bought something it tasted like cardboard and I had taken the stupid thing to work to feed my co-workers; how embarassing!

What gets me is they always have the pick up for the stuff on a week day until 3pm or something. I mean HELLO I work and have to drive an hour to get back to the school. How am I supposed to even pick up the merchandise?!

[Sharon Kay]

We did those for SOOOOOOOOO many years ... ahhh now I remember why I like homeschool! We haven't had a fundraiser in a couple of years now. lol

Actually we have one through Boy Scouts ... very expensive trash bags but the people that buy the lawn bags really like the quality ... too bad we're losing that one due to the trash changes in January. Wonder what we will have to do then?

Robotics has the Sonic cards ... we sell them for $5 ... if we sell $100 worth then we don't have to pay the $50 for the opt out on the team. We also started doing car washes and they have been great! We also did a used curriculum sale and did pretty good with it for our first year.

[HeatherB]

Our school mainly has charity fundraisers.

Last year the first one was raising $ for Breast Cancer. The teachers were in 2 groups, men and women. The kids got to pick which group their $ went to. If $5000 was raised for the group, they shaved their heads. In the end, 14 teachers and support staff ended up shaving their heads in a big media event in the parking lot of the school. The kids loved it! Not sure what they are going to do to top that one.

The second was a coffee fundraiser for our city's Mustard Seed ministry that provides a drop-in center for the homeless during the day - the kids donated coffee, tea, powdered creamer, stir sticks, napkins, cups, etc. I see from the calendar they are doing that again this year.

The school also supports a sister school in Burundi Africa and they periodically raise $ for supplies and computers.


Beavers + Cubs on the other hand have mandatory bottle drive fundraisers (or else pay $100 extra) and selling overpriced popcorn. Unfortunately almost all the fees and profits go to the main organization and very little goes to our specific group.

[Sarah8914]

We haven't encountered this yet with our girl, but I'm not excited for it!

I love the alternatives some of these schools have. I think most parents around here would love to just opt out and donate money (if they can).

[Jengerbread88]

Glad to know I'm not the only one! My brother is convinced he's going to sell enough to get the electric guitar or the ride in a limo... it's not going to happen. He'll be lucky to get enough orders to get slime. We let him go to our neighbors (one of them ALWAYS comes to us and we ALWAYS buy something from her, so it's kind of a fair trade off that our parents have organized).

I looked through, and at least they're selling some magazines this time. I've been meaning to subscribe to Real Simple anyway, so it's at least something I'll use...

[ColleenSwerb]

I don't remember ever doing stuff like this as a kid. Not even for my sports teams. I definitely do NOT look forward to having to deal with it in the future, as I'm sure it'll only get worse, lol

[rach3975]

The only one I love is what our preschool does. Twice a year we have a big consignment sale. We get rid of all the kid-junk that we don't need any more, and the school makes a profit. That's my kind of fundraiser! I also like Original Works, where we buy magnets and aprons and such with our kids' art on them. We give them as holiday gifts for the grandparents.

Our elementary school let us know they've cut back on fundraisers due to the economy, but there were still 3 or 4 last year. I wish we had the check option, because I refuse to let my kids go door to door, and the few relatives we could sell to don't want the junk any more than we do.

Oh-and for the girl scout thing, I don't like that type at all. Sorry, but the last thing I need in my house is boxes of cookies. I don't do food fundraisers. I'd rather pay an activity fee or have a car wash or something.