Kids Fundraisers Today

[OneOftheB's]

I haven’t seen this here.
By me it’s popcorn - every group is doing the same popcorn fundraiser - a tiny bag for $12-$15 each. I have so many bags now and I can’t even eat popcorn - LOL!

Yes! The stupid, overpriced popcorn fundraiser. My daughter participated in this one recently for one of her school groups. I hated it and sent a low key text to family and a friend (who we always contribute to her son's fundraisers) plus a link in Facebook. Our street is not conducive to knocking on doors for overpriced popcorn so that's not something I asked of her. I bought some for our house, some as a thank you gift and that was it. My brother asked if he could just donate money instead of buying the popcorn. I wish that was an option.

 

[shh]

It’s funny you mentioned The Boy Scouts because I just recently bought a $20 box of microwave popcorn from them - I couldn’t believe how expensive it was.

holy crap - $20 for a box of popcorn. Wow.

 

[slo]

holy crap - $20 for a box of popcorn. Wow.

I know….right?!
I understand that items have to be more so the organization can make money, but yikes, this stuff is getting extremely to expensive. He was so cute in his little Boy Scout Uniform and was so polite, that I just couldn’t say no.

The other popcorn fundraiser that I originally talked about has a minimum order of $22, which I hate. I have a lot of kids to buy from and I’d like to order a little from everyone, but instead I’m ordering $30+ from everyone (this is the amount after tax and shipping). Ridiculous!

 

[DodgerGirl]

It used to be that when kids used to have fundraisers they would be popular through schools because whatever money was raised would be to help the school and the school would use the donated money to buy things for the classrooms. In my school we always teamed up with supermarket chains like Safeway and my classmates had to donate money for new computers and also during holidays such as Halloween and Christmas my school would have bake sales for Christmas and cake walks for our Halloween parties and the adults would always get the cupcakes we sold and that went to the parents/teachers association and every November my school would host a annual spaghetti dinner for the parents and the parents would get a raffle ticket to attend for $20 and it would also go to the school's charity. But if you look at kids fundraisers at schools today they focus mainly on childhood illnesses and hospitals and I cannot figure out when childhood illnesses and donating to hospitals started becoming a fad with schools. Take for example you'll see many schools host toy drives where kids bring in old toys for children at hospitals and the school gets the most money and the hospitals are mainly just a sponsor for the school to promote Christmas. This also is repeated at Halloween when kids trick-or-treat for money for the school to donate to the hospital so hospitals can get new equipment. But you never see Pony Club or the 4H do fundraisers for kids because when I would always go to Target I would always see Pony Club offer fundraising for field trips or camping vacations and that seems to have disappeared. But now kids school fundraisers are all about needing money for the animal shelters and I never knew that animal shelters were so huge on kids fundraisers today

 

[auntfrannie]

I really hate fundraisers because the organizations only see a small piece of what is being spent. I would much rather donate cash so they get everything!

 

[disneychrista]

As a rule I don’t donate. My neighbor across the street tried a couple times and I always declined. They stoped asking.

I hate hate hate fundraisers. I’d rather just pay for my kids field trips than the hassle of fundraising.

 

[Skywalker3]

Both the kids did scouts, and I detested having them sell that overpriced crap, and I found out later that the local boy scout troop only get less than half, maybe like 30 percent of the sales. Anyway, the kids did go door to door in our small neighborhood, and the neighbors were always so very nice, some bought, some didn't, but I couldn't stand it. The cookies weren't as bad, as that popcorn. I did just buy some of the microwave popcorn, for $27.00, from our nephew. The honey roasted nuts, for a can, were $35.00, and 1 bag of smores popcorn was $30.00. THat's insane.
The worst to me was the wrapping paper. I am cheap....like reuse bags, tags, boxes, etc, so the idea of paying $25 for a roll of wrapping paper just made me so mad. DD sold overpriced candles a couple of years. But I will say the quality is good. I still have a couple of those.
I don't think it's good for kids to be out roaming the neighborhoods, knocking on doors. Better to set up at a store, or sell online, etc. but I do think it was good for my shy kids to get out and do the process, not having me do it. I'm shy too though, and didn't want to!
I'd rather just make a donation that I know goes directly to the local org.

 

[Pink Partridge]

....and I have not received one thank you, verbal or nonverbal, from any child/teen I supported.

Incredibly rude. I can't imagine every accepting money and not acknowledging it. I would not donate to someone who behaved like this.

 

[shh]

I know….right?!
I understand that items have to be more so the organization can make money, but yikes, this stuff is getting extremely to expensive. He was so cute in his little Boy Scout Uniform and was so polite, that I just couldn’t say no.

The other popcorn fundraiser that I originally talked about has a minimum order of $22, which I hate. I have a lot of kids to buy from and I’d like to order a little from everyone, but instead I’m ordering $30+ from everyone (this is the amount after tax and shipping). Ridiculous!

you have a good heart

 

[LynnTH]

Our kids our both way out of school, so no more fundraisers for us. DH and I will buy pretty much anything if a kid comes to our door selling something. Just had 2 Boy Scouts come selling Christmas Wreaths. Bought a 3 foot one from them. Will always buy from Girl Scouts coming to our house (even if we already have 10 boxes). We figure if they come to our house and give us their spiel about what they are selling and why, we will gladly buy from them. Not many kids do that anymore so if they go the extra mile to do that then we contribute, whether it is something we need or not.

 

[barkley]

where we live now we've only gotten 1 kid in 17 years selling door to door (we bought from him b/c of his initiative walking all the miles down people's long driveways-we saw him doing the actual walking around the neighborhood). other than that we used to buy a specific bakery item only sold through fundraisers so if we heard a particular school/group was doing it we would reach out to a neighbor we knew had an affiliation to ask they contact us.

we saw the real death of school door to door sales back in the 90's-our small city in California outlawed children selling door to door by the time we moved there in '99. school fundraisers had to be a bit more creative and honestly the stuff they came up with raised much more money and were more supported than the sales schemes.

 

[mmbrad02]

My personal experience is...we live in a rural area where it is not possible for my daughter to go door to door to ask people to support a fundraiser. That said, I also feel extremely blessed not to have a school district that pushed it too heavily. Her elementary school (K-5) did two fundraisers each year - in the fall they sold "crappy" mailorder items; I would order something like wrapping paper and she would ask her grandma (my mom) and then we returned the form. In the spring they did Little Cesear pizza kits and I did share those on my personal FB page because they are popular around here and people (at least act like ) they like those. They were a PAIN though because you had to pick them up during the school day (we both work) and keep them frozen until delivery - that alone discouraged us from wanting to sell a bunch.

In middle school we have had NO fundraisers for the school itself. Which is why when they ask for any type of items or need donations, i have zero issues supporting whatever the cause is (Clorox wipes, tissues, snacks during testing...). I would much rather do that than fundraise. My daughter did run track in 6th grade and they had a lap a thon. She had her own phone by then so I had her text her grandparents and aunts and uncles. That was all we did and that worked easily and well. Likewise she thanked them in the same manor. She did cross country this year (8th grade) and they asked parents to donate a Sams club size snack and drink for the team meets - easy enough - in lieu of any fundraising.

I agree that its best practice for kids to ask and thank the person also - but its also hard sometimes in todays world because I don't want my kiddo going door to door alone, nor does she have a lot of social media either.

 

[Frank Thomas]

I think we live in a world of "entitlement". Kids believe they are owed special treatment or favors without necessarily putting in the effort to earn them. This "you owe me" attitude is not inclined to say thank you.

How sad.

The people who supported their fundraiser will not be willing to do it again in the future. At least that is how i feel.