OT-schools about to start, which means so are those horrible fundraisers!

[Twingle]

This post is based on a thread on the CB. Fundraisers at school are a necessary evil, so that teachers and the school can get the money they need for "extras" that the school board does not allow for in their funds.

So, knowing that fundraisers are NEEDED, what do you like/don't like that your school does? Remembering that many schools can not make a direct plea for cash, what would you like them to do?

Personally, our school does Market Days once a month, which is like Schwans. Frozen foods and such. Everything that I've tried has been pretty tasty, enough so that I purchase it again.

Also in the Spring their is a Fun Fair, with games and such. My son loves this.

And, I really don't like the catalog stuff or the magazine subscriptions.

So, how about you? No, not a member of the PTO/PTA, just wondering what your school does.

 

[DawnM]

Our school DOES ask for cash! We haven't even started yet (we have been homeschooling until this year) and we have been asked for $300 for the library and $100 donation to the school.

They also do some horrible magazine sales. We will not be participating. I don't mind donating some cash, but I will not do fundraisers, period. The only fundraiser we participate in is Scout popcorn sales.

Dawn

 

[MSSANDRA]

I HATE fundrasiers but i am the director for a non profit preschool and my budget assumes two large fund-raisers a year. My parents are not great at supporting these .I however asked in a survey how many would rather have a tuition increase and not one said yes!! We try to do one sale and one meal type idea each year.

What worked well for us was a dinner and art show where parent ate and were allowed to buy the children's art work. Also tying the meal with a program the chidlren are involded in helps too. Dinner before the Christmas program for example.

Sales are hard for me. We have done candy bars and made lot of money though I gained 5 pounds!!! We have sold candles and avon. I liike to buy the pizza kits and we are looking at them for this year.


I do have parents that will write out a check instead of selling which is great!!

Would love to hear other ideas!

 

[mjantz]

I like the Entertainment books. For one thing, they're on-line so our family in other states can buy them and we really do use ours for eating out & such.

 

[SherylR]

I'm surprised at the animosity towards magazine sales. We do them and have for the past six years with Reader's Digest/QSP. It's really well run and we made $5000 last year. We tie it in with our literacy component at the school.
I am the chairperson of our PTO and I can tell you we HATE fundraising but it is a necessary evil. We try to keep it to a minimum though.
Last year this is what we did:
Magazine Fundraiser (that's the big fall one)
Fall Fun Fair - we have carnival games, white elephant tables (where you make HUGE money), draws, cake walk, raffles, silent auction, face painting, bake sale. We only charge .25 a ticket. Every child gets a prize at the games. Everything with the exception of the silent auction is 1 ticket. We made about $1000 last year on it. The beauty of charging only .25 a ticket is that you don't have piles of white elephant table stuff left over. It nearly all goes. And no matter what the income level of the families, they can still participate. Oh we also have a guy who brings in snakes and various reptiles and another guy who has a huge fossil collection. We do charge 4 tickets for those because they cost us a lot of money.
Pizza Day - once a month we have Pizza Lunch. It's a personal pan pizza from Pizza Hut (which is way easier than doling out slices), a milk and a chocolate chip cookie for $3.50. We typically make $150 or so each lunch. And that's competing with a hot lunch program that runs three days a week.
Holiday Gift Shop - We tried this the year before with a company who sends you all the merchandise and order forms and stuff. It was alright. We decided we could do it better with things we bought throughout the year. So we buy items at liquidation stores and here and there when they are really cheap and sell them. Nothing is over $5.00. The stuff we got from the company to sell was kinda crappy. lol This way we guarantee quality as well. It's a great way for kids to learn how to save and budget money. The kids LOVED it and we're going to do it again this year.
Flower Fundraiser - We've been doing this for the past three years. We get annuals and baskets from a greenhouse dirt cheap and mark them up 30% (but still cheaper than Walmart and other stores) and send out an order form to families. We made about $1000 this year. It's an easy fundraiser BUT you need to have people who know their flowers! lol
That's it. That's pretty much all we do through the year. We don't do candy anymore as we're trying to promote a healthy eating image for the school (okay, except for the pizza ).

 

[*KeepMovingForward*]

Our schools are pretty blunt in saying that if you'd prefer to just make a once a year monetary donation, feel free to do so in lieu of participating in the fundraisers. My kids attend public schools.

That said, our middle schools do a catalog fundraiser in Fall and Spring and I'm not really hip to how they handle it. Kids who participate and sell a certain dollar amount get to participate in a carnival that comes to the school on a certain date. Kids that don't partcipate (or sell enough) just get to sit in class while the others enjoy the festivities. I think its a pretty hideous arrangement. Nobody wants their kid to be left out, but normally the selling bar is set around $250-$300 for your kid to participate in this carnival. So you either wind up hawking the useless catalog stuff to all your family and friends (whose eyes roll back in their head when you whip out the catalog) or you deal with the terribly disappointed kid who had to sit out on the fun while their friends had a ball. It really puts the parents in quite a position, although I'm sure that is the whole point-intimidate the parents into selling.

Personally, I like how our high school fundraises. The kids sell chocolate lollipops at the sporting events, they sell poinsettias at Christmas (with the assistance of our local nursery) and they hold chinese auctions (and most parents and local businesses are only too happy to donate). Bake sales are always great-I am forever baking for these and will continue to do so happily. These are things that I don't mind and I think more often than not, they yield more of a profit for the school than those catalog sales. Everyone feels good, people are getting something they actually want or enjoying themselves while helping the school out.

We've seen everything as far as the catalogs: pizza, cookie dough, cakes and pies, candy, wrapping paper and all the useless home stuff. As I type, I have about 5 boxes of those Joe Corbi Pizzas and garlic breads in my freezer. They've been there for a year...I need to throw them out!

 

[barkley]

my kid's school (private) does'nt do fundraising-they increase the tuition a very modest amount each year to cover costs that said, one of their former schools was big on fundraising and the only one i actualy like was the scrip program. since people buy groceries and such it was not a hit to their family budget to simply buy the scrip from the school and use it. it was a steady source of income all year round-allthough at christmas they made much more because people would buy more to use for holiday shopping.

 

[super_crunch]

My kids school does a wrapping paper fundraiser.

I usually buy a roll or two, but it kills me to pay $7+ for one roll of wrapping paper. Ugh!

 

[sweetpeakaris]

Our school has done away with Fundraisers and intstead have asked each family to donate a minimum of $50, this seems to be working so far.

 

[Shagley]

the only one i actualy like was the scrip program. since people buy groceries and such it was not a hit to their family budget to simply buy the scrip from the school and use it. it was a steady source of income all year round-allthough at christmas they made much more because people would buy more to use for holiday shopping.

I agree that the Scrip program is great. We would always try to plan ahead and get the gift cards for the grocery stores, gas stations and restaurants. That way the school gets to keep a percentage of the money that we would be spending anyway on groceries, gas, and eating out. The school gets to keep around 2-5%, it varies depending on the company the card is for.

 

[stefffe]

my kids school has 3 or 4 fundraisers a year. (UGH) we get to buy( i mean sell) cookie dough...wrapping paper...and magazines atleast once during the school year. i know they need the money but wouldnt it be easier to just ask us to give them 100 bucks a year and be done?

 

[mickeylove2]

I like the barrel of cash, a few teachers volunteer to get a pie in the face and the kids get to put money into 5 gallon water jugs designated to each teacher and the jug with the most money at the end of the time frame, the teacher gets a pie in the face. We did this for an upcoming Spring Fling, which we also use as a fundraiser. We did this last year and only had the jugs set up for 9 school days...very short notice, and we still made $240.
We like Market Days, and Entertainment books, I am trying to convince our school to participate in the Scrips program although I haven't used it I think it would be a great money maker.

 

[Becky2005]

Let's see --

Elementary -- come right out and ask for $$$; in addition to Market Day, school picnic, Box tops, Manna Express (I think that's what it's called -- basically Gift Certificates & then they give a % to the school) and various other things like Silent Auctions, etc...

Middle School -- the QSP magazine sale which I *do* hate. I just found out this year that it was optional but DD never told me because she wanted some of the magazines. I was going to opt-out for this year but she wants to renew some of her magazines through it & I know for a couple, it really IS the cheapest way. There is also a spot for donation to the PTO but they don't tell us what that is for, where as the Elementary told you it's *instead* of doing any selling. Since we have the magazine sale, I'm not quite sure what the donation request from the PTO is for but since I have to do the fundraiser, I'm not just going to donate too.

High School -- I have NO IDEA but I know seperate groups do lots of fundraisers. I know some group sells Fannie Mae candies because my DD takes gymnastics at the HS so we would see the signs up all over the place for different things. Most of them seem to be things the HSers could buy themselves though, like buying candy kisses message grams for one of the clubs around Valentine's day, etc... basically the same type of stuff we did in HS.

THEN I have the added sports team fundraisers -- I know I will be selling cookie dough or if I can opt-out of that...I definitely will be.

 

[bethifoody]

Our elementary school does several fundraisers a year... we do Market Day also; we have Little Caesar's Pizza Kit sales several times a year; we also have one 'junk' (candy, candles, wrapping paper - that stuff) fundraiser, I think. We also have cookie dough sales. In all honesty - I don't like the junk one. I'm open to the pizza kits & the cookie dough, as I know several people who like those. I'm not one to hound about it, though. I give notice that it's going on, & if someone wants it, they just need to let me know. (not a good fundraiser, am I?)

Now, our high school doesn't do them, but the individual programs w/in the school do. Our band, orchestra & chorus, through the music boosters, participate in the Scrip program. I love, love, love this one! I have simply let family members know about it & told them I'd do all the legwork if they wanted anything. Through this program, my sister & I both bought Disney gift cards & paid for our entire vacations (over $8k in gift cards!) using them; by doing this, 3/4 of my son's marching band costs have been paid! (In our program, any profit made is normally split 50/50 between the Boosters & the individual student; at Christmas time, the student gets 100%, tho.) It's just a great way to raise funds, IMO - because I'm not buying stuff I don't need, only buying stuff I'd normally have to pay for anyway.

Just my $.02!
Beth

 

[SherylR]

This Scrip program? That must be a US thing as there's nothing like it in Canada that I'm aware of. Sounds neat!
I wish we could just ask for cash (and we can) but so many of our families are below the poverty line that we just can't do it. A lot of the fundraising we do covers what those kids need through the year. We have such a wide range of incomes (from social assistance to doctors and lawyers) that fundraising is kind of wonky at times.

 

[Worfiedoodles]

Let me see if I can even remember all the fundraisers....LOL

In the Fall we have a Touch a Truck event, with firetrucks, big trucks, construction vehicles, etc., QSP, and pies (w/a local bakery) for Thanksgiving. The pies/cakes can be frozen for up to a year, so this allows people to get special desserts for Christmas, too.

Before Christmas there is Breakfast with Santa. In January there is a dinner/dance/auction, with stuff the kids have painted like a footstool or chest decorated with handprints. Lollipop sales for Valentines day.

For Spring we have a pasta dinner, luau, calendar (like a lottery with drawings each day for a month, not literally calendars), Avon, as well as a "fun" day.

The individual grades can raise money for a special event or field trip. We had to buy ('cause I was too embarrassed to sell it, it was too expensive) cookie dough for ds's class field trip to the Museum of Science. We all decided to just donate a set amount to pay for Kindergarten graduation and the party. I'm not sure what they did for the First Communion (parochial school, but we're not Catholic).

All this work does pay off. The archdiocese recently gave the school the empty convent next door, and it has been renovated into a cafeteria and other specialized rooms (computer lab, science lab, etc.), with funds raised from all these events.

 

[Shagley]

This Scrip program? That must be a US thing as there's nothing like it in Canada that I'm aware of. Sounds neat!

Here is a link that I found for Scrip in Canada. http://www.fundscrip.com/

 

[girlsx4]

I don't like all the stuff the girls bring home to sell. We usually just send it right back. With 3 of them in school it's impossible to be able to have all 3 of them selling the same stuff.
We do the Scrip thing too. It's the only one that is good(and I'd participate in), IMO!

 

[Suzanna1973]

I have been a board member of my son's PTO ever since he was in kindergarten. This year he is moving to middle school and I am on the board yet again!!

Middle school kids aren't really interested in selling things for a fundraiser so our PTO came up with a different idea this year. We are working the baseball game concession stands for the Cardinals!!

Our parents took training over the summer and we are working 4 games. We get 10% of the money our booth earns that evening. I've done this with the cubscouts previously and it is a HUGE money maker. The more parents that work the booth, the bigger the booth. The bigger the booth, the more foot traffic which means MORE MONEY!!!


All in all, it boils down to "to each his own". There's never enough money in any school's budget to do the fun stuff that PTOs want to do....therefore fundraising is a necessary evil.

 

[Twingle]

Wow - thanks for all the replies everyone!