Fundraising gone wild...

[sk!mom]

The "Do you allow your children to "fund raise" to your friends?" thread made me think to post the craziest fundraising proposition I've been approached with recently.

I've been bugged for several months now by two friends with college aged sons who are raising funds to go on "Mission" trips this summer. They've sent links to "Go Fund Me" pages, mailed fundraising letters asking for a hand out, etc...

Now I'm admittedly not a fan of these trips. I view them as pseudo vacations but if you're going to do them, at least pay your own way.

Last Thursday, one of these friends sent an email to our entire work email list stating that it was her son's last day of his part time job here and he would be coming around with envelopes to sell for his summer trip. The envelopes had numbers on them and you would pay the number on the envelope.

I was confused (and curious) so I replied, "What's in the envelopes?" Thinking that surely they were maybe random gift cards he'd gotten donated or something. Nope- They were empty envelopes for you to just fill with the amount written on the outside.

Are you kidding me? How about get a second part time job? Hold a garage sale? Mow lawns on weekends? Anything but selling empty envelopes.

I just don't get asking for a hand-out for a want.

 

[gwynne]

I agree with you. I'm not giving cash to help someone take a nice summer getaway.
If a young person wants to go on a mission or a vacation...great. Get busy and work to earn the cost.
A few years ago a church in our area was looking for opportunities for high school age kids to earn money for a mission. They organized a lawn mowing, yard clearing and painting business for the entire summer. I hired them.

 

[NHdisneylover]

Wow--someone found a tackier way than gofundme to solicit money. Dang! Going to people directly, who are already aware of what you want and have chosen to donate or not, and more or less demanding the money, and even in certain amounts. I hope no one gives in and buys one of those envelopes of air.

I have had a similar one recently. An acquaintance who was in community theatre with us before we moved 7 years ago and is still on my facebook feed had been posting for several weeks about her gofundme to sponsor her on a trip to Tunisia to do volunteer work. It is a glorified vacation where she will do a bit of unskilled manual labor instead of locals who need work being hired to do the same (yes, I am leery of such trips--but even the company website says it is up to 30 hours of working over the course of a three week trip).
She is 20 years old and trying to raise 5 thousand dollars for this and trying to make it sound like she is some great humanitarian instead of just wanting an adventure. (if she wants to vacation there--great! But pay for it herself and don't try to pretend you are helping the locals)
Oh! and her page is full of her photos of her grand adventure in Prague from a couple of moths ago--so you know, she prioritized whereto spend her money.

Now she has taken to sending PMs to people and emails. Thankfully we are too far away for empty envelopes though!

 

[Disneylover99]

I just ignore fundraising requests.

 

[MaryLovesPoohBear]

Wow, your friend's mission trips must be very different from ours.

Our church sends high school students to Akil Mexico. They sleep in tents and eat cold food for 2 weeks. All of the teens come back worn out and tired. Not one sees it as a vacation.

The church also makes them earn at least half of what they need to travel. The other half can come from family and friends.

Fund raisers like that don't bother me.

Someone handing me an envelope with a number on it, now that wouldn't fly. I don't hand out money, willy nilly. And I am not afraid to tell someone that they need to rethink their fund raising plan.

 

[Julie's Haircut]

Last Thursday, one of these friends sent an email to our entire work email list stating that it was her son's last day of his part time job here and he would be coming around with envelopes to sell for his summer trip. The envelopes had numbers on them and you would pay the number on the envelope.

.

I'm confused. Did Sonny Boy work part-time at your workplace? Or does Mommy work with you and is soliciting on son's behalf?

In either case, I'd take an envelope and fill it with a snotty tissue. Or worse.

 

[NHdisneylover]

I am really surprised the company allows this sort of thing

 

[Julie's Haircut]

I am really surprised the company allows this sort of thing

Exactly. My company banned such in-office fundraising at least a decade ago. It got way out of hand, what with people selling Girl Scout cookies, Entertainment Coupon Books, candy bars, and other things for their kids' activities.

A flat out cash solicitation would never have been tolerated even back then.

 

[justgrace]

I have no problem with people fundraising for mission trips, if they are in fact mission trips and not vacations. What your coworker did was....interesting and a little on the tackier side IMHO. That makes things awkward in the workplace if you refuse to "participate".

I've actually never heard of this envelope thing. They tell me how much I want to give? People should start doing this for weddings and graduations. You send the invitation to the guest with a # on the envelope. Then you tell the guests that that is how much the guest needs to gift to "cover their plate" (in DISboard speak)! lol

I've had two friends now in the past year do a similar fundraiser to GoFundMe for vacations. One for a vacation to Hawaii and one for a vacation to Australia. They both said they've always wanted to go to both places, so if you have anything to donate ($$$) to them to help them achieve their dreams, they would be appreciative. Both are young and do not work. Both are not in school. Both are requesting donations for the total cost of their vacations, in the thousands of dollars.

My thoughts are - who hasn't wanted to take a vacation to Australia and Hawaii?! If you want to go on these special vacations, then get a job and pay your own way.

 

[hereyago]

I would have fell in the floor laughing with the envelope thing and ask if the office was being punked. Did people actually pay for an envelope?

 

[Jaya]

Ding-ding-ding!! This one wins the prize.

Back in the late 1980's, I had a boss who pretty much bulldozed everyone in the office into contributing to his son's "mission" trip to Haiti to help build a church. It cost $1000 and when he returned at the end of the week there, all I heard about was the amount of time spent on the beach and partying. I can't even imagine how far that $1000 would have stretched if it had been given as salaries to Haitian workers to build the church. I don't think that over-privileged kid got much out of the mission trip except a pretty darn good vacation. I won't support "mission trips".....I'd far rather see the money paid to locals to do the work.

 

[brooke789]

Luckily my work does not allow you to use your email to fundraise/sell things. Prior to the rule you were getting a lot from adult businesses (Mary Kay, Essential Oils) to kids selling stuff for school. My children have never participated in any selling. I was completely shocked when my older kids started daycare at 2 and the daycare had fundraising. This isn't public school; this is a business that sets it's own price. So, that makes no sense to me and we're not interested in participating. My older two started public school this year and I was so happy to find out that our school does not sell. They have fundraising events throughout the year (a fall carnival, father/daughter dance, mother/son date night, etc) to raise money instead. I much prefer the events!

 

[sk!mom]

Wow--someone found a tackier way than gofundme to solicit money. Dang! Going to people directly, who are already aware of what you want and have chosen to donate or not, and more or less demanding the money, and even in certain amounts. I hope no one gives in and buys one of those envelopes of air.

I have had a similar one recently. An acquaintance who was in community theatre with us before we moved 7 years ago and is still on my facebook feed had been posting for several weeks about her gofundme to sponsor her on a trip to Tunisia to do volunteer work. It is a glorified vacation where she will do a bit of unskilled manual labor instead of locals who need work being hired to do the same (yes, I am leery of such trips--but even the company website says it is up to 30 hours of working over the course of a three week trip).
She is 20 years old and trying to raise 5 thousand dollars for this and trying to make it sound like she is some great humanitarian instead of just wanting an adventure. (if she wants to vacation there--great! But pay for it herself and don't try to pretend you are helping the locals)
Oh! and her page is full of her photos of her grand adventure in Prague from a couple of moths ago--so you know, she prioritized whereto spend her money.

Now she has taken to sending PMs to people and emails. Thankfully we are too far away for empty envelopes though!

I shouldn't have been too surprised. The parents of the guy selling envelopes fundraised all last year for last summer's mission trip they took to Kenya. Then proceeded to fill Facebook with pictures of their safari and other adventures. They did volunteer at an orphanage for a few days but, I agree that the locals could have used the money and done the work at the orphanage.

I'm confused. Did Sonny Boy work part-time at your workplace? Or does Mommy work with you and is soliciting on son's behalf?

In either case, I'd take an envelope and fill it with a snotty tissue. Or worse.

I'm a teacher and his mom is, as well. She solicits for him all.the.time. He was a part time tutor working there this spring.

I would have fell in the floor laughing with the envelope thing and ask if the office was being punked. Did people actually pay for an envelope?

That was pretty much my reaction. I don't know of anyone who did. I certainly did not.

 

[sk!mom]

I am really surprised the company allows this sort of thing

Exactly. My company banned such in-office fundraising at least a decade ago. It got way out of hand, what with people selling Girl Scout cookies, Entertainment Coupon Books, candy bars, and other things for their kids' activities.

A flat out cash solicitation would never have been tolerated even back then.

I wish they would ban it! School's typically fundraise so much, they probably think it would be pretty hypocritical, though.

My DH's office has banned it.

 

[Allons-y!]

I wish they would ban it! School's typically fundraise so much, they probably think it would be pretty hypocritical, though.

My DH's office has banned it.

I teach and we are not allowed to fundraise at work. Nothing hypocritical there, as we don't encourage students to have their parents fo their fundraising for them at their workplace. I'm sure it happens, but we don't promote that at all.

 

[CPanther95]

Put a Chick-fil-A job application in the envelope.

 

[The Mystery Machine]

Wow, just wow.

 

[Shanan]

"Put a Chick-fil-A job application in the envelope"
LOVE this CPanther95

 

[L&Lfan]

Reminds me of when Lucy and Ethel sold raffle tickets to support the Ladies Overseas Aid so that they could go to Europe with Ricky and Fred. Said Lucy to Ethel, "We're ladies, we wanna go overseas and boy, do we need aid "!

 

[low-key]

I hated all that crap, every parent should just write a check for there own kid, and for the parents that cant afford it. the other parents need to step up and make sure all the kids are taken care of or dont do it