school fundraisers frustrate me :(

[castleview]

I hear you. We've been hit with the Yankee Candle fundraiser where I pay more than I would at the mall up the road. Top it off with Book Club orders, filling up the lunch accounts, back to school supplies, and class pictures…well, I'm broke. We haven't even received the big fundraiser yet where they brainwash the kids before sending it home.

I get the OP's situation though. DH won't bring in fundraisers because he doesn't want to feel obligated to buy from others. We live on an interior lot with only one neighbor, and frankly the only people the kids sell to are us and the grandparents.

 

[jodifla]

Our school has moved to a Fun(d) Run. It's like a walkathon, only the kids run laps for 20 minutes, and get flat-rate pledges or per lap money from family and friends.

The whole school does it, it raises a TON of money, and the kids enjoy running around. Each class gets its own fun-run T-shirts, which are donated by a local doctor.

And nobody had to buy any crap they don't need!

 

[bored]

Let me address it from the other side. My wife is the PTO President and the officers DESPISE the fundraisers. The problem is the PTO is responsible for buying all the toner cartridges for the school ($7,000 last year) and half the paper the kids use. Due to "budget cuts" without the fundraisers the kids wouldn't have printers or paper.

The school system can "afford" 10 superintendents and assistants but not paper and cartridges. Sadly in our case the fundraisers are a necessity, not just for kicks. They tried to just sell memberships and stay away from the fundraisers but that flopped so back to fundraisers it is this year.

 

[jme829]

We started school on Sept 1 here...We're on our FOURTH fundraiser already..

DD17 did cookie dough for volleyball. DD11 is selling Yankee Candles (I like this one!), DS is selling cookie dough/kitchen gadget crap, and now he just got his Boy Scout popcorn order forms. Plus girl scout cookies are just a few months away.

I know they need to raise extra money for various thing, I get that...but geez do they have to slam you with EVERYTHING right at once? Can these people not coordinate better and spread it out some??

With all the other back to school expenses on top of all this, plus the economy, people are just plain tapped out.

Enough already!!

 

[Mouse House Mama]

Our school has moved to a Fun(d) Run. It's like a walkathon, only the kids run laps for 20 minutes, and get flat-rate pledges or per lap money from family and friends.

The whole school does it, it raises a TON of money, and the kids enjoy running around. Each class gets its own fun-run T-shirts, which are donated by a local doctor.

And nobody had to buy any crap they don't need!

They don't take them out of instructional time to do this do they?

 

[N&B'smom]

Ahhhh, yes....school fundraisers. We had one before school even started!!!

My DS11 is in the middle school band and they do 3 fundraisers throughout the year, the first of which is due in by 9/15. I don't mind it though because a portion of the money goes to the general band fund and the rest of the profit goes to my DS's account towards his 5 day band trip in the Spring. (you're only required to sell 3) It's for mums which are an easy sale. I think we sold 33 and that was after only asking 4 people. (next year I plan to get on it very early!)

I already have the papers for the next one that will be right before Christmas, huge overly priced boxes of fruit. This one I do mind because it's so expensive! The last one is a pizza one which is actually pretty good too, frozen stuff!

But I can tell you my DD7 came home with a fundraiser the first Friday they were back in school, it went right in the trash. I can't hit up my family and friends to buy more stuff! I've already got the other 3 fundraisers!!!

So, OP...I feel your pain. I'm impressed with your DD's sweet heart wanting to give that trip to her grandparents. You've got a wonderful little girl!

 

[design_mom]

They don't take them out of instructional time to do this do they?

Not at our school. They do it during recess...but the kids don't seem to mind.

 

[surfergirl602]

She ended up with around 40 items as of this morning, but oh well. When I told her she still won the limo ride, she was happy with that! i also explained that even though she didn't win this trip prize, it doesn't mean that grandma and grandpa won't be able to come with us on the next vacation. She seemed to get it - lets just hope she did. LOL

I would love a yankee candle or a fun run/walk type of fundraiser. that would work so much better!

 

[N&B'smom]

When I was a kid we did the most FUN fundraiser. It was called a 'Rock-a-thon'. It was in the school gymnasium and we all had rocking chairs. We had to rock in the chair all night long except for a few bathroom breaks. (this was middle school age) It was AWESOME! My friends and I had so much fun and raised a ton of money!! People would commit to a certain amount per hour that you would rock in your chair.

 

[jodifla]

They don't take them out of instructional time to do this do they?

Yes, they do. No different than having an assembly.

It's not the whole day; it's less than an hour for each grade once a year. They run for 20 minutes or so, have a snack, get a class picture, then go inside and resume schoolwork.

 

[NAB]

Our school also did away with selling stuff.

We do power hour now. Something like the walk a thon thing. The kids are out for an hour almost 2 and do sport type things. Dodge ball, soccer, skipping. This is done on school time. Our school is kindergarten - grade 8 so we have to do some in the morning and some in the afternoon.

All the money comes from family. In our case just us. If they bring in a $10 donation they get there name in a draw for gift cards. Highest donation in each class gets a limo ride with friend for McDonald's lunch.

This way all money goes to the school and no selling. The money goes to band instrruments, buses for field trips (that is a big one) and other school supplies they need. Our budget is tight.

 

[ilovejack02]

I don't do fundraisers like this . I have several relatives with children all the same age, I am a SAHM, all my friends have children the same age as does my DH's coworkers.

I happily spend quite a bit at the bookfair, donated 50.00 last week to his teacher's limeaid for learning project and convinced the grandparents to donate too. She is trying to get a new Multiplication teaching CD and DVD set for her classroom.

I buy 10 dinners at the school fair and give tickets to family and always buy tickets for the silent auction and donate items for the auction. Usually end of spending a bunch of money that weekend lol. Also when I buy all the dinner tickets they give us to sell that weekend, DS gets a special fun day off of school , so it makes up for not winning some junky award for selling gift wrap.

I will not buy gift wrap etc or cookie dough that I don't want , nor will I try to pawn it off on friends and family who have the same fundraisers at their schools.

DS8 has known this since kindergarten .

 

[bethy]

We let our kids know every year before school even starts that we don't do fundraisers, period.

We explain to them how the fundraiser companies exploit children as an unpaid salesforce and how the school doesn't get most of the money, the company does. We explain about how most of the prizes are dollar store crap.

Then we explain that we do a substantial direct donation to the PTA, and that way the school gets all the money, not a percentage.

They still get a little miffed that we don't do it, but a reminder about how the companies are ripping off kids by not paying them to sell stuff usually quiets them down.

Good luck. We also had some luck with putting pressure on the school to not have assemblies designed to get the kids spun up. We sent in some highlighted of the school's own newsletters that drone on about how important instructional time is, and how parents shouldn't waste it on things like doctor's appointments, so why is it OK to use it to brainwash kids?

We do the exact same thing. My kids have never sold anything to anyone. I have less of an issue with older kids selling stuff or doing car washes, etc to support different extra curricular activities. When it's driven by the children themselves then I think that can be a healthly lesson in team work and resourcefulness.

Our school luckily raises 80% of it's money at a biannual auction event. We fully support the auction.