Fundraising, when is enough enough (a little vent)

[luvmarypoppins]

I feel so overwhelmed with and by fundraising lately. I have 3 ds in 2 different schools.
First ds 17 a senior. They must fundraise for their senior class trip. All money is divided or applied to the seniors seperate account based on what they sell. So far they had a school wide wrapping paper event, I never buy this stuff
DS himself is selling snacks at home games
Tupperware (he gave me this too late to order)
Entertainment book (didnt think it was worth what we would use in it so didnt get it)
Cookie dough (debating wether to buy or not, anyone purchase the Sally Foster brand I think its called)
Calendars $6.00 for something I can get in the dollar store for $1, sorry no thanks
Wreaths, maybe I might get one
Now Pies for the 11 grade class
Christmas Store, the letter says they only want homemade craft stuff. I told ds I dont do crafts and maybe I can call the school and donate something they tell me too.

Not to mention for other ds school they just did jogathon which we contributed to
Now food drive which we will do
Samaritans Purse shoe boxes , we do about 4
Just did the 8th grade tag sale for class trip funds
I am co chair of the childrens christmas store, 2 day event
Even ds 12th grade homeroom teacher enough of this already. Not to mention I also collect the labels for education and betty crocker box tops for education. My head is spinning. How much do you fundraise and what % do you contribute either moneywise, timewise etc.

 

[ckay87]

Well, to be the devil's advocate, I'd say the money for a lot of this stuff has to come from somewhere.

I try to pace myself - can't buy from and support every fund raiser. Just bought a bunch of Boy Scout popcorn because we love it and the $$ goes directly to my sons. Otherwise, don't contribute a lot to Boy Scouts because I'm a leader and I pay for most...no, all of the materials for my den.

Mostly I buy products or services that I like or need. If an organization can identify and use those, that's the key.

 

[golfgal]

We are lucky that our school has 2 big fundraisers each year (it's a Catholic school). We have a huge magazine sale in the fall that I co-chair. We sell in the neighborhood of $90,000 worth of magazines. In the spring we do a festival and the main fundraiser for that is raffle tickets, we usually just buy our allotment and don't sell any. I think the real key to fundraising is to sell things people will buy anyway, Christmas wreaths, magazines, etc. When you start selling things like cookie dough, gift items, etc. people really dislike those because they feel they have to buy something they don't want. Our volleyball team sold pumpkins-someone on the team raised them on their farm, so no overhear. It was a great success because they brought them to your house. If groups would have one LARGE event/sale more people would participate knowing it was the only thing they would have to do.

 

[Castlebound]

Fundraising can get overwhelming. But at the same time where else does the money come from to support different programs or events (like the senior trip)? Would you rather get a monthly bill for these things? When I was a senior and went on the senior trip my parents had to pay $1,500 plus I had to sell 6 boxes of candy. If I didn't want to sell the candy my parents could have written another check for the total profit of the 6 boxes of candy. The more involved you kids are with extra programs and events the more fundraising you will have to do.

 

[ElizaB39]

I have been talking about this lately because I am part of an organization that puts on a Christmas Bazaar and we saw a much smaller turnout this year than in past years. Net profit was down about 25% from last year.

This is what we get hit with; DD11 in 6th, DS in 3rd.

Fall fundraiser for DS wrapping paper and etc.
Fall coupon book for DS
School basket raffle for DS
box tops for DS
various nights out at restaurants, McD's, Longhorn Steakhouse and etc with proceeds going to school
Spring fundraiser for DS, first aid kits and kitchen fire extinguishers.

Fall Yankee candle fundraiser for DD
Fall magazine fundraiser for DD
Spring fundraiser for DD

Then we have the monthly askings from CCD and school. coins for hurricane victims, school supplies for hurricane victims, PB&J for the local food shelter and etc.

At church we have something monthly, boy scouts and popcorn, CYO and hoagies, thanksgiving and Christmas dinners, gift trees at Christmas, food bank requests, second collections during church. and so on and so on and so on.

One mom's new mantra is "i'm monied out!"

Gonna be my new one!

 

[Beth76]

Would you rather get a monthly bill for these things?

Actually, yes. My kids aren't even in school yet and I dread fundraising. I would much rather write a check.

 

[ElizaB39]

OUr schools actually give the parents the option, based on a per family average.

I actually went to the most recent H&S meeting because I was wondering how hard up we were for cash. OUr combined accounts have $40,000.00!!! $10,000.00 is earmarked for a new pavilion for outdoors, but the rest is available to spend. Needless to say, no more fundraising this year for me for that school.

 

[nicurn]

we do an auction in the spring as our big fundraiser. (ok, we also do wrapping paper in the fall). Box tops is painless ( it's free money for the school, all you have to do is cut the boxtop off the box), we recycle ink cartridges (again, free money for the school, just send in your old ink cartridge and we send it off to the company that we use and get a check in the mail). Giant foods (I'm in va) has a program that is linked to your shopping card... also free money for the school, just register your shopping card with giant and put in your school's id. These are just some of the programs that our school does that are just plain easy. maggie

 

[Castlebound]

Actually, yes. My kids aren't even in school yet and I dread fundraising. I would much rather write a check.

I do write a check out for some of the fundraisers. Our school does Mr. Z about a month into school and I hate the junk. While I hate it and wish it would go away it raises a nice amount of money for the school. I write a check instead of sell the stuff and our school gets 100% of my check instead of 30-50% from selling overpriced junk. We are thinking about giving parents the option of writing one check at the beginning of the year to opt-out of fundraising.

 

[Toby'sFriend]

Would you rather get a monthly bill for these things?

honestly? yes

To me alot of the problem is that the activities have gotten much more extravagent while budgets have gotten tighter.

For instance - our Jr. High school USED to do a trip every 2 years, so your kid either went in 7th or 8th grade. They would take a school bus to the State Capital, stay in a moderate hotel, tour some sights, spend Friday and Saturday there and then come back home. Parents would chaperone, one Mom or Dad to every hotel room. When my older son went, I think it cost me about $70.

Now they are changing to a yearly trip to Washington DC. Plane fare, a Chartered Bus in DC, a hotel, sponsored by a Travel Company who hires Youth Counselors and a guard to sit out in the hallway to make sure nobody goes into the block of rooms who doesn't belong and make sure no kids go out. The price is now approaching $1,000.

It is the same thing with the Bands, The Sports Teams, the Church groups (used to visit a local Camp with sleeping bags, now out to Colorado for a ski trip). Honestly, I don't feel this kind of stuff is fundraising worthy. If I want my kids to go, I'll pay for it. I'm not going to ask my neighbors and relatives to pay and I'm not going to turn my kid into some Salesperson for the Corporations who push this stuff.

I gave a pretty large cash donation to the school bike-a-thon last month. I specifically sent a letter in asking them please no prizes or rewards. It didn't work, they sent home $10 in game tokens and an invitation to a Pizza Party in my son's folder. 3 days later, they sent home one of those "Christmas knick knack" magazines asking for more money. No thanks.

 

[canwegosoon]

At our school we have a different problem as the budget has grown so has the need to have more fundrasing and a larger capital improvements budget(but the schools svgs account has really grown). Last year they made 10,000 profit on a raffle+gift wrapping+ent book+boxtops and other store promos+food drive+tsunami+prayer/share+ a HUGE auction fundraiser(60,000profit)+clothes for needy students+winter coat drive+book donations+6th grade fundrasing and 8th grade fundrasing+boxes for troops+Books for Katrina+supplies for Katrina+baby bottles for loacal hospitals,etc....

Then on top of that we get nickled and dimed for every student activity(5 here, 10 there, 2 there)
I have had enough. I stopped feeling guilty when I saw the account balance, and how little other parents donate(including their time). Their school is currently doing a 5,000 can food drive (there are only 400 famlies in the whole school). I told a school board member I thought it was a little over the top.

 

[Chicago526]

I don't have kids yet, but I'm young enough to have done some of this fundraising myself when I was in high school (the trend was just starting then). Based on personal experiance of selling all this stuff and stories I've heard here and elsewhere about what their kids have to do, I'm not letting my future kids do fund raising. I'll be happy to just write a check to the school directly. Why buy $30 of crap I don't want so the school can get $5? I'd rather just give the full $30 to the school!

 

[clifford]

My kids are well past the fund raising ages, but I remember oh too well. It seemed like there was a fund raiser going on every month. I was a working mom and really had no time to help the kids sell, so we just started writing checks. It really was easier. No unwanted junk or candy or overpriced wrapping paper here.

 

[Sleeping~Beauty]

My kids are babies, but when I was younger I remember fundraising, and of course I see the kids outside of stores, and walking on the hwy for fundraising.

My DH and I both agree, we'd just rather write the check.

 

[golfgal]

Their school is currently doing a 5,000 can food drive (there are only 400 famlies in the whole school). I told a school board member I thought it was a little over the top.

That is only 12.5 cans of food/family. What is so over the top about that. I could easily pull 13 cans of food out of my pantry and not even notice they were gone.

 

[Barb D]

I do the check thing, too. I won't buy or sell from fundraising catalogs. I will buy Girl Scout cookies if the girls are selling the boxes directly. I made pancakes at DS's high school football team pancake breakfast. I don't have a problem with car washes, etc. where the kids are actually working. But no catalogs for me. I e-mailed the fundraising chair for DS6's school, asked her what the average profit per kid from the wrapping paper was, and wrote a check for that amount.

 

[cl1067]

I think the fundraising can get over the top. I have two DDs one is 9, the other 4. For the 9 YO, the PTA at school has gone to a scrip program, so its basically buying gift certificats for stuff you use anyway at local businesses and then the business gives a % back to the PTA...they started this this year and aren't doing any other fundraising...I think its great because I'm not spedning money I wouldn't normally and it supports our town.

We also do fundraising for our oldest DDs dance team. We just did Yankee Candles which I didn't think was too hard, but the booster club also works concessions at the hockey team in town. You make about $35 a night and I would way rather do that than sell stuff.

Now, I don't think any of that is unreasonable, but what does get me is that our for profit daycare does a fundraiser every fall and spring...makes me wonder what I pay for each week?

 

[LynnTH]

I'm at the other end of the spectrum. My kids go to a Lutheran Private School and they don't beleive in any fundraising at all. (I'm trying to get them to at least do one thing to earn money for the school). Their philosophy is that other people should not pay for our school and that we should take care of our own.

My problem is for the past many years I bought so much fundraising stuff from relatives and neighbors and supported their schools and would like them to return the favor and support my kids schools. But the powers that be don't want to do it that way - so, not much I can do.

 

[FourFlans]

I have to admit that I'm a bit overwhelmed this year. Up til now we only had one DD in school, now we have two DDs at the same school. A fundraising catalog came home in their folders THE FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL! My and my mom bought some wrapping paper and a couple of magazines, but DDs didn't go around the neighborhood (because all the other kids were doing it too).

Anyway, we also do the local restaurant thing about 4x per month. We've already done the book fair and pizza family night. We did Art To Remember (that's actually pretty cool and will make nice Christmas gifts).

What I don't get, and what makes me so furious, is the amount of money that is in the public education budget in this State that is wasted or intended for one use and used for another--but then the teachers can't get enough financial backing from the system to purchase normal supplies for the classroom.

So on top of all the fundraising we do (for what I have to say is a very responsible PTA--I give them credit for that) we get constant requests from the teachers for the things they need in the classroom. I think I've made enough copies for DD5's kindergarten class to kill a few trees myself.

And I thought I was going to save money when we graduated from day care/preschool.

 

[canwegosoon]

That is only 12.5 cans of food/family. What is so over the top about that. I could easily pull 13 cans of food out of my pantry and not even notice they were gone.

I could too, but considering like in most schools not all parents participate(30-45% don't contribute ... the cans has been going for 45 days...and have been told by teachers, I wish everyone would contribute, because it would be easier). I have sent in over 25 cans for each of my children, and the goal is still not met.