Small Vent fundraisers at school !

[ohlas]

Our school did this last fall. They asked everyone to donate at least $25, and there would be no other fundraising for the year. They brought in 1/3 of what they had expected. A lot of our families are low income, and couldn't afford or didn't participate for whatever reason. At least a fundraiser allowed them to hit up co-workers, etc. I don't envision us ever doing the "unfundraiser" ever again.

No they just needed to up the price of the unfundraiser to 50 or 75 per kid.. trust me I know i spend atleast this much in junk i dont want,,,,

well I do love one fundraiser it is the candy bar sales,, yes I know its lots of work unloading the truck, etc etc... but i can sell 5 boxes of mallys candy bars (local made cho to die for lol ) in one saturday...

ok well i dont see what the problem is with writing a check if you can instead of buying junk..

 

[ruthgator]

yep, the hype is ridiculous!! We do a 'boosterthon' at DS's public elementary school. They give away so much crap, that the school only gets 56% of what's collected. I won't let my kids participate again. I will, however, ask people to contribute NOW, instead at the end of the year during boosterthon, so the money will go directly to the school.

 

[es45]

What bothers me about fundraisers at my kids school is the pressure put on the kids to participate. Class gifts if EVERYONE in the class participates - That doesn't seem fair to families who aren't able to. Last week my daughter came home with a wristband on to remind us to fill out a book of postcards to mail to people to buy magazines. She had to return the book with our addresses by the next day in order to get the cool prize.

If I just write a check - then DD doesn't get the prizes for the fundraiser and then she is mad at me for making her be the only in her class who didn't get something or we let her whole class down when they don't get a reward.

I don't mind the fundraisers but I wish they wouldn't bribe the kids to participate.

Exactly!

 

[mjkacmom]

Our school does one a few major fundraiser events each year.

The biggest is "Casino Night." It is in a country club $65.00 for admission & dinner. They were offering a reduced price raffle ticket option (they raffle off baskets & prizes tricky tray or chinese auction style). If bought in advance, raffle tickets were $55.00 for a pack (and that was considered a discount from the cost of tickets that night). So thats $120.00 and you haven't gambled or had a drink yet .

I live in an upscale area, so they get away with it. I have never attended. I expressed more than once, that I love chinese auction events & that if they had an event at the school or lower cost venue I would attend & buy tickets, the head of fundraising said she has heard that before. But the more expensive event gets a good turn out, so they don't change it.

They also do a 50/50 raffle up until this year the tickets were $100.00 EACH!

This year they made them $5.00 each, but split the prize 3 ways.

They do a few other fundraisers that are less money, but still end up costing me because I have 3 kids & they each want to participate.

LOL - we do a chinese auction (ie - the pc tricky tray), and it costs me $200 with the tickets and basket donation - I think I would prefer a casino night! This is really our only fundraiser, so I don't mind, and as for the magazine subscription booklets we fill out, I don't know of a single person who doesn't just put the addresses of their classmates on them! They get money for each one filled out - no one buys the magazines. Oh, and we have the $100 50/50, too, and many people go in on it with other families. And yes, I do pay over $10,000 in property taxes!

 

[Disneyrsh]

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[iwrbnd]

Our school sells T-shirts that say "Just Say No To Fundraisers" with the image of a pile of fundraising junk in the center with a red line drawn through it.

We make more money on the tshirts than we ever did on fundraising.

That's a GREAT idea! Where did you get them? I want to introduce it to my school.

I'm so sick of fundraising, especially during a recession. I hate having my kids ask for money during these hard times. I discourage them from doing it but the pressure from school and prizes makes it hard!

 

[*pixie*dust*]

My DS is in preschool and they have an unreal amount of fundraisers. I pay tuition for preschool and am happy to make a donation, if that is what is needed but I won't sell junk to friends and family.

It's not fair to friends and family to feel "obligated" to buy.

 

[Disneyrsh]

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[Bearvet]

When I was president of our PTA we started a Walk a thon as our big fundraiser. Kids collect pledges, then walk around the school field to see how many laps they can do. Everyone participates (good exercise too) even if they don't have pledges. We give the kids snacks and drinks - our only cost - the school realizes almost 100% profit and it's fun!

 

[Tnkrbelle565]

When I was president of our PTA we started a Walk a thon as our big fundraiser. Kids collect pledges, then walk around the school field to see how many laps they can do. Everyone participates (good exercise too) even if they don't have pledges. We give the kids snacks and drinks - our only cost - the school realizes almost 100% profit and it's fun!

My DD's school does this too. However, their reward was a day off So I had to pay for it in the first place and then I have to take a day off work...not very parent friendly

I pay over $4000 a year in tuition for DD. Personally, I would rather have them say "fork up a check at the beginning of the year" than do all the fundraisers. We only have a few a year but they are pricey. The latest one is selling $100 raffle tickets. Every family has to sell at least one or buy it themselves. However, in addition to the fundraisers...we have "service projects" monthly (However, this month we have 3 due to Lent). So basically that is just raising money for the community instead of the school.

 

[hedgehog2owl]

today dd went to school with $75 for jump rope for heart, and tomorrow we are suppose to send in money for peperoni balls-ick I hate peperoni balls!

Sorry 8th grade graduation fund, the American heart association got all my money this week....

of I forgot yesterdays $1.50 to donate to the children's hospital for dress down day.

 

[melancholywings]

What bothers me about fundraisers at my kids school is the pressure put on the kids to participate. Class gifts if EVERYONE in the class participates - That doesn't seem fair to families who aren't able to. Last week my daughter came home with a wristband on to remind us to fill out a book of postcards to mail to people to buy magazines. She had to return the book with our addresses by the next day in order to get the cool prize.

If I just write a check - then DD doesn't get the prizes for the fundraiser and then she is mad at me for making her be the only in her class who didn't get something or we let her whole class down when they don't get a reward.

I don't mind the fundraisers but I wish they wouldn't bribe the kids to participate.

The pressure and bribery is why we don't participate. And the school assemblies to make my kid into a junk pushing salesman. Why are the kids being taken out of class for that? I feel it's a scam to get around child labor laws.
I'll write a check out for specific fundraising, and for the non pushy fundraising like raising money to put together thanksgiving boxes for fellow students in need. Or donating extra classroom supplies or coats. I collect box tops too. But for all the rest of it I chuck it in the garbage - and feel bad that i'm recyling so much waste.

 

[ChrisinNJ]

And yes, I do pay over $10,000 in property taxes!

Yup! Us too! Are you in NJ? Taxes here are nuts!

 

[ChrisinNJ]

today dd went to school with $75 for jump rope for heart, and tomorrow we are suppose to send in money for peperoni balls-ick I hate peperoni balls!

QUOTE]

Is it me or is there something ironic about jump rope for heart one day & pepperoni balls the next!

 

[brymolmom]

So funny to hear everyone say they'd rather give a check. I am on the PTO board and I BEG every year for a 'please send us a check for $x.00 and forget the rest'. We DO put a 'or you can write a check directly to the PTO' on each of the fundraising - but, IMO, it won't work as well as asking for a specific amount. I think it scares people away from writing a check cuz they might think 'is this too little/much'? What do you think? Does your school ask for a specific amount?

Also - for anyone who doesn't know where it's going - make sure to attend some meetings. I have a couple of friends who always swear they don't know where the stuff goes - but they've never been to a meeting. We give general 'your money goes to Fall Festival, Teacher appreciaition, Dress up day, Celebrate the school night plus one field trip per year' on literature, but we go into detail at the meetings. So if you want to know, really, attend and ASK!

 

[Mickeypooh99]

When I was president of our PTA we started a Walk a thon as our big fundraiser. Kids collect pledges, then walk around the school field to see how many laps they can do. Everyone participates (good exercise too) even if they don't have pledges. We give the kids snacks and drinks - our only cost - the school realizes almost 100% profit and it's fun!

Our school did this this year for the first time, and it was a huge success. You can still hit up friends, coworkers, and relatives if you want to for donations. I just gave a donation myself, and let my son ask his grandparents.

Our school did a raffle at the end. For every $20.00 the child turned in they got 1 entry into the raffle. The prizes were free to the school, because the PTA went around and asked local businesses for donations. One doctor donated a Wii. That was the biggest prize. Others were $5.00 subway gift cards, free movie rentals, etc. The smallest prizes were candy. My son won a sucker, and he was thrilled. It was such a fun day. We even had the local news station out to the "event."

 

[Pigeon]

Our school sells T-shirts that say "Just Say No To Fundraisers" with the image of a pile of fundraising junk in the center with a red line drawn through it.

We make more money on the tshirts than we ever did on fundraising.

That's brilliant.

We also write a big check to the PTA on back to school night and we are done with the school fundraisers. We do participate in the ones that are raising funds for good causes, like Haiti.

I just trained my kids early on that no, they wouldn't be selling piles of overpriced junk to win the dollar store crap as a prize. I emphasized to them that they shouldn't be exploited as an unpaid sales force for Sally Foster, and that made sense to them.

The PTA people never quite know how to deal with just getting a check. This year, after I'd carefully explained that I was just making a cash donation because we won't do fundraisers and I want the school to get 100% of the money, the lady took my check and tried to strong arm me into taking the crappy gift wrap.

 

[Pigeon]

So funny to hear everyone say they'd rather give a check. I am on the PTO board and I BEG every year for a 'please send us a check for $x.00 and forget the rest'. We DO put a 'or you can write a check directly to the PTO' on each of the fundraising - but, IMO, it won't work as well as asking for a specific amount. I think it scares people away from writing a check cuz they might think 'is this too little/much'? What do you think? Does your school ask for a specific amount?

Also - for anyone who doesn't know where it's going - make sure to attend some meetings. I have a couple of friends who always swear they don't know where the stuff goes - but they've never been to a meeting. We give general 'your money goes to Fall Festival, Teacher appreciaition, Dress up day, Celebrate the school night plus one field trip per year' on literature, but we go into detail at the meetings. So if you want to know, really, attend and ASK!

I'd love it if our PTA stated what they "need" to raise per child per year.

The PTA should be able to post meeting minutes and budgets on the web which give details of where the money went.

 

[katlamar]

Wow! How ironic that as the fundraising chair for our PTO I just sat through a 90 minute sales pitch to sell candy.
I am new to this position and am tired of the same ol'...I agree with most of you that I am so tired of gift wrap and candy! For the love of God if I wanted to spend a fortune on candy I would rather spend it on Godiva!
So here's my question to you all...
Would you spend $10 per ticket to go see a minor league baseball game with the family??? $5 goes to the school.
For me if I'm spending money I'd at least do something with my family rather than stuff my face with chocolate or try to stash another roll of gift wrap in a closet that's already stuffed!
Thanks for your opinions!!!

 

[ohlas]

Wow! How ironic that as the fundraising chair for our PTO I just sat through a 90 minute sales pitch to sell candy.
I am new to this position and am tired of the same ol'...I agree with most of you that I am so tired of gift wrap and candy! For the love of God if I wanted to spend a fortune on candy I would rather spend it on Godiva!
So here's my question to you all...
Would you spend $10 per ticket to go see a minor league baseball game with the family??? $5 goes to the school.
For me if I'm spending money I'd at least do something with my family rather than stuff my face with chocolate or try to stash another roll of gift wrap in a closet that's already stuffed!
Thanks for your opinions!!!

well i really dont like baseball games minor or not, but i might buy the tickets from the school if the kids wanted to go....

Oh if you had mallys cho bars/ candy you would buy it oh the mallys lol