School Organization Fundraisers...........(Cheer, Dance, Etc) What Do You Do?
Updated on
April 08, 2009
T.F.
asks from
Plano, TX
4
answers
I will start off....I HATE school fundraisers. I would MUCH rather just write a check to the organization.
This is the 6th (at least) year for us. Of course the sales job to the kiddos is fantastic....sell sell sell and you will win this.....WHOO HOO My daughter's latest "prize" is a ride in a hummer limo..... BLAH....... Tell me what that costs and I will pay for the freaking limo...It can't be more than what they are already asking of me....
I refuse to allow my daughter to go door to door to neighbors and extort money from them for her organization. Yes, I believe in raising money but at this point, I do not need 35 (minimum # of ordered items) tubs of cookie dough in various flavors at $14 a tub which is around $500. ADD to that.....PISD will no longer take a check...they want CASH. SO....IF my daughter were to sell to someone other than me....she has to ask for CASH or a check (at the time of the order) made out to ME....ABSURD....so that I can give PISD CASH.
On top of this, I have a ton of neighbor kiddos coming to me for their fundraisers. I am not going to say no to a little kid I know down the street from me. They are doing "as they are told from the fundraiser sales rep". I am not going to crush the confidence they have.
We (daughter) are also selling magazines and I did find 8 at $12 each for a year or so to add toward the 35 minimum. The webiste has lovely offerings for credit to the school and child named but the shipping charges are absurd. It costs $6 to mail a $9 book to me??? NOT
What do you moms do? I have the Fundraisers, Boosters and more hitting me up everytime I go to school. I want to support her cause and I am able to (thankfully) but I am not willing to extort from neighbors and friends.
I don't understand.......they are adamant on the number of items sold vs a donation. I would be MORE than happy as well as some friends to simply give a donation to the cause. Do the sponsors get that much of a cut of the profit????
I will EDIT here..... I inquired to the sponsor about a donation and the response I was given was..........."just buy it and donate it to a worthy cause". I would consider that if I got a decent tax deduction....
Your thoughts are welcome.... If you need some cookie dough let me know....LOL,,, just kidding.
Thank you for the responses. I just feel that fundraisers are a rip off. Of course I am not going to tell a little kid no. At the same time, I am not going to allow my daughter to go out selling this stuff we (as most families) do not need. It would be different if I could buy something I could actually use.
I guess what really irks me is that I offer a cash donation instead and get a response of thank you, we take donations but she/he still needs to sell the minimum number of items to get credit. A teacher actually told me this week ..."well just order the minimum items and give the cookie dough to some organization". WHAT???? THat is asking me to give them $500 cash (which is the cost of 35 tubs of cookie dough) and then give it away. If I give them $500 cash with no cookie dough, my child get NO credit for helping with the fundraiser. This sends signals to me that staffing at the school get kickbacks from these fundraisers.
Mind you. I want the teams to do well and I support them but I feel like I am blackmailed because they look at what each child does as his/her fair share.
I am checking into the "reward" they offered if everyone sells and we might fund that ourselves.
More Answers
E.J.
answers from
Dallas
on
T F,
I totally agree with you and I laughed out loud, too! Thank you for your insight. Here's what I had my son do this year for the fund raisers. Most of them now have some type of internet web site where you can enter email addresses to send to family and friends. I had my son type a note about what the school planned to use the money for (playground, sound system, etc.) and we sent it to our family and friends (all out of town or state). This was very successful, because many of them don't have school age children or feel good about buying one or two items. We didn't collect a dime! He raised over $200 in PTA sell of wrapping paper, etc. and over $300 for American Heart Association. He's happy, they're happy, school happy and I'm happy!
Good luck!
1 mom found this helpful
Report This
E.W.
answers from
Dallas
on
I have no advise to offer, sorry, I just wanted to say thank you for the laugh. Not laughing at your expense, but I did find this hilarious. So witty... LOL
My daughter is only 3, but with all of the build up you just gave I cannot wait for fund raising.
1 mom found this helpful
Report This
A.A.
answers from
Dallas
on
Please don't flame me for this, but to answer your question, we do not participate in fund raisers for the most part. My husband and I prefer to be very specific in what we support and who we support. We research how the money is used and investigate the organization/people first.
When we have had the opportunity to give to the teachers, classroom, or organization's need specifically, we have often done this. But we feel that there is incredible waste and corruption in many of our school districts and that it does not get addressed; our property taxes simply get raised (even if our houses are worth less!)
Report This
J.D.
answers from
Dallas
on
If you have to give ideas, http://www.easy-fundraising-ideas.com/ . The man who runs this site was a client of mine when I developed web sites. As far as venting, I completely understand. There are 4 girls on my block in Girl Scouts.... Aaaarrrgggg!
