I can't stand these fundraisers!

[punkin]

Why should my child have to hit up all the relatives for magazine subscriptions for 6th grade Orchestra fundraising? I know the school budget has been slashed and they need to keep the program open, but I hate the magazine things. I would prefer just to donate whatever my child would have brought in...but it's a homework assignment and graded. To get a A she needs to send out 7 "postcards" to "people who love her" to get them to buy magazines.

I have some relatives who really have no money for this nonsense. Is this fair? Grrr...sorry for the vent. Any constructive ideas about what to do?

 

[Lisa_M]

Tell the teacher what you're willing to do. I'm sure they would be fine with that. Instead of just getting postcards sent out, they would actually get the money for the program.

ETA: My other idea You can send 2 here. One to me and one to DH. We'll pretend that we are someone who "loves her," but we won't buy magazines.

 

[NYCDiane]

I agree... when my DD was in Catholic School, every other week there seemed to be some fund raiser or "mandatory donation" or some other nonsense.

She's been in public school for the past 2 years and thankfully, there aren't as many and they're not "mandatory".

 

[MickeyMomOfThree]

Forget "people who love her," send them to all your family doctors. They actually buy magaizines (unlike anyone in our family.) That is what we have done in the past.
I would not be happy if they graded my kids on participation in fundraisers. We don't participate. We have almost no family, and the only ones who would feel obligated to buy can't afford to. DH works with just a handful of people and they try not to fundraise at work (sort of a you don't ask me I won't ask you.) And all our friend kids are selling the same stuff.

 

[punkin]

Actually, I am taking DD to the doctor today. Maybe she can hit them up for it.

I will email the teacher tonight and ask if I can just donate. What's really weird is that this is a public school. It is DD's first year in a public school. She was in a small Montessori school before and we never did fundraising through the kids. They would hit the parents up directly and it was a tax write-off. I guess that's what I'm used to.

 

[eeyorethegreat]

With 4 kids I always have a fundraiser coming home for one thing or another not to mention the fundraisers that I have to work for my job so that I can get paid my regualr meager salary. I understand the need for fundraisers but it is getting over the top. Now when the kids come home with one, I write a check for an amount I feel comfortable with and send that it rather than sending out postcards, sell stuff no one wants. Contact the teacher and let him/her know you will be willing to donate $x however, you will not be sending out these post cards to people that love your daughter. Tell the teacher that this donation should be sufficient for her grade or the teacher can make this grade exempt for her.

 

[christa112]

We do not participate in most of the fund raisers at the school. We have already had 3 this year. I am sorry, but I am not going to keep hitting my family up for stuff.

 

[wdwfan16]

Why should my child have to hit up all the relatives for magazine subscriptions for 6th grade Orchestra fundraising? I know the school budget has been slashed and they need to keep the program open, but I hate the magazine things. I would prefer just to donate whatever my child would have brought in...but it's a homework assignment and graded. To get a A she needs to send out 7 "postcards" to "people who love her" to get them to buy magazines.

I have some relatives who really have no money for this nonsense. Is this fair? Grrr...sorry for the vent. Any constructive ideas about what to do?

You think that is bad try this was even worse. My nephew plays for a state college sports team. We got a postcard from him to send in money so his team could do X, Y and Z. So it is not enought that I pay state taxes to fund the school but now you want me to send money so my nephew can play a sport too? He is not on a scholarship.

Needless to say after DH got done laughing we threw out the postcard.

 

[momof2gr8kids]

Might the teacher be incorporating it into an English assignment or something, since it's being graded?

I would offer to make a donation, and tell the teacher your child will send postcards to those who love her to say hello and I love you too! Not asking to buy anything.

We have one relative in our city, so I hate fundraisers as well. Especially the chocolate bar ones, where you have to pre-purchase them and you're stuck with them - and end up eating them all!

 

[dogodisney]

Why should my child have to hit up all the relatives for magazine subscriptions for 6th grade Orchestra fundraising? I know the school budget has been slashed and they need to keep the program open, but I hate the magazine things. I would prefer just to donate whatever my child would have brought in...but it's a homework assignment and graded. To get a A she needs to send out 7 "postcards" to "people who love her" to get them to buy magazines.

I have some relatives who really have no money for this nonsense. Is this fair? Grrr...sorry for the vent. Any constructive ideas about what to do?

What I find appalling is that this is being used as a homework assignment with a grade attached. That is wrong. Fund raisers are supposed to be voluntary not mandatory.

 

[mjkacmom]

I get hit with this particular fundraiser 3 times a year. In daisy's and girl scouts, they get a badge. In school, they get a prize. However, we are all in this together - we just put down other classmates' names, and they do the same. My mailbox sure does fill up!

 

[punkin]

Might the teacher be incorporating it into an English assignment or something, since it's being graded?

I would offer to make a donation, and tell the teacher your child will send postcards to those who love her to say hello and I love you too! Not asking to buy anything.

We have one relative in our city, so I hate fundraisers as well. Especially the chocolate bar ones, where you have to pre-purchase them and you're stuck with them - and end up eating them all!

Orchestra is a class for credit, so this is an orchestra assignment. It is not weighted significantly and will not affect her final grade.

 

[Alesia]

With the postcards, they don't have to sell a thing. The school gets paid a specific amount per completed book of postcards. They don't get more money if people actually buy them. I fill out the postcards and send an email to the recipients telling them that they can just throw them in the trash.

 

[torinsmom]

So, is just sending the cards out the requirement for the grade, or getting people to buy the magazine? If its buying, that seems a bit much. If its just sending them, send them to made-up relatives, or let certain relatives know what is going on and that they don't need to buy anything.

As far as the prize thing goes, I got sick and tired of DS getting excited about selling stuff noone wants in order to get a $4 prize. It got to the point that I would just take him to Big Lots and buy him the $4 item and forget the fundraiser, LOL.

 

[punkin]

With the postcards, they don't have to sell a thing. The school gets paid a specific amount per completed book of postcards. They don't get more money if people actually buy them. I fill out the postcards and send an email to the recipients telling them that they can just throw them in the trash.

Really? Is that how it works? Hmm, no one told me. May be worth sending out some postcards then...Is it just to collect names and addresses for junk mail later on?

 

[Robbiesmommy21]

My sons school just did a really cool fundraiser. They did a fun run. There is a company that will come to your school for 2 weeks, they do programs about doing your best and about being healthy. They run no more than 35 laps and you can donate either per lap or a flat rate. The best part is instead of the company taking 50% of the money raised they only take 10%. My sons class alone raised $1600. The fun run was so much fun!!! The kids had a great time and it's so much better than cookie dough or magazines.

 

[MickeyMomOfThree]

Yep, the school gets money for the addresses not the magazines. Same goes for Girl Scouts. When my girls do them for Girl Scouts we just send them to all doctor's in our area. Doctors, eye doctors, dentists, I am sure many of them toss them, some night order, but in the end we get $1 per card no matter what so I don't care who orders or doesn't. I prefer this in cse I don't get to tell everyone I send them to not to worry about ordering.

 

[benolathe]

What I find appalling is that this is being used as a homework assignment with a grade attached. That is wrong. Fund raisers are supposed to be voluntary not mandatory.

Totally agree - this should NOT be a graded assignment. Fundraisers should be totally voluntary.

 

[okeydokey]

With the postcards, they don't have to sell a thing. The school gets paid a specific amount per completed book of postcards. They don't get more money if people actually buy them. I fill out the postcards and send an email to the recipients telling them that they can just throw them in the trash.

That's what we were told too. I wouldn't let my DD send them out to relatives so she and her friends got together and filled out each other's names on the cards. That way she earned her fat red pen as a prize.

 

[eliza61]

No ideas punkin. sorry. The one thing I loved about my kids getting older was they no longer had to go around "begging" as I called it.

Now it's girl scout cookie time. Every person on my job is selling and every supermarket in my area has girls outside of it. I ended up buying 1 book from each coworker and then having the cookies shipped to the troops simply because I don't need 10 boxes of cookies.