The same volunteers all the time

[libraryfreak]

Does your group/organization have the problem with having the same volunteers for every fundraiser? You ask, beg and plead for more people to pitch in, but all you ever hear is, "I can't, I [insert excuse here]". Its the same people helping all the time.

In my case its for scouts and marching band.

I've wondered about using the proceeds to fund the childs account. But what percentage? 50%? Say you earn $500 for the event worked, and 10 people worked it. Are you opposed to giving each worker a portion of that into their account to be used for future expenditures? Or should you earn the money for the greater good of the organization?

Frankly, I'm tired of raising money to be shared by all when all don't help. Maybe I'm getting cranky in my old age, I've been doing this close to 20 years now. I used to be all gun ho about raising money, but lately I've become jaded. Is it just me?

 

[Sadie22]

My sons' Scout troops each had one fundraiser that made enough money to fund the troop activities for the entire year. The boys in each patrol contributed money and shopped together for food for weekend camping trips, but troop equipment such as tents, cooking pots, equipment trailer, insurance, awards, and so on were covered by the annual fundraiser. $100 or more would go toward the summer camp expenses of each Scout that participated. In cases of financial need a family could speak with a Scoutmaster if more was needed. If a High Adventure trip was planned for that year as there usually was, those boys would have a separate fundraiser if needed or would receive more money in proportion to how much they worked on the main fundraiser. Everyone participated.

Our band parents organization was large and very active and had several fundraisers throughout the year. Enough was raised to keep the performers in uniforms, to purchase some instruments and repair others, and whatever else was needed above and beyond what was provided by the school system. If a student partcipated in a fund raiser half that student's proportional share of the profits was noted as on account for that student. The funds could be used for the special band shoes; maintenance or repair of a personal instrument; additional sheet music, lessons, or travel expenses for an All-County or All-State participant; or participation in a band camp.

Some people partipated year after year while they had children involved. Others joined in when they joined the organizations. Everyone was expected to participate and most did once they understood how this could benefit their family financially.

 

[richmond282]

You'd better check your state guidelines. I am a band director in TN. It is actually against the law (per our governor) to credit individual students or parents like you are suggesting unless you fill out W-4s, take out taxes, and submit it to the IRS. Not worth the effort in my opinion.

 

[Sadie22]

We are not talking about establishing accounts for each family. Money is earned for the troop or the band and then disbursed by the treasurers as needed. There is no illegality involved.

 

[worm761]

I completely understand. DS is homeschooled now but used to go to a small Catholic school. It was understood when you signed your contract with the school that in order for the kids to have things, there would be fundraisers and you were expected to work them. Yet every single time it was always the same ones that were there working the events! And of course we all got to know each other and became friends, then the other parents would complain that we were being clickish. No not really. Do you want to talk about the fall festival design? Really...then why not volunteer to work it or help set up? It drove me crazy!

 

[3boymthr]

We do have that problem. Especially with cub scouts. I occupy 3 roles in our Cub scout pack because we have so much trouble getting volunteers (I lead 2 dens and I am the awards chair.)

Our Boy Scout troop has resolved that problem as they do have what they call scout accounts and gets a portion of the proceeds for each item in the fund raiser for which they - the child- sells. For example when they sell Christmas Wreaths, they get $3 for each one they sell. Because the money is given by the troop to the scouts and can only be used for scout activities they don't do the W-4, etc. thing. We only do one or two direct sale fund raisers a year and these are the only fundraisers that they offer the incentive and only because it's the only way to get people to participate. The rest of the fund raisers they do are activities that are fun for the scouts so they don't have trouble getting participants.

 

[descovy]

You know, I've come to realize that we all give what we got to give...

I'll give you an example... I'm in Girl Scouts. I lead 2 troops, I am "cookie manager" for 3 troops. I also volunteer heavily in my service unit (one level up from troop)

That keeps me plenty busy (from also being a working mom). At church I help once a month at Wednesday night kids night and sometimes drive the bus to camp. So I'm not the lady running every youth church function, even though I have 3 kids involved...

School, I'll teach Junior Acheivemnet for each of my 3 kids' classes, but I do not room mom, PTA workroom, spring fling, fundraise... even though I have 3 kids at the elementary school.

The bulk of the time I have to offer goes to Girl Scouts. It does not mean that I find church activities or school somehow not worthy... but my time is spent. I do what I can.

And it doesn't matter the organization. Guess what? In scouts it's always *the same volunteers doing the bulk of the work.* Yes, in scouts, I'm one of them.

But in church, in school PTA, it is ALSO *the same volunteers doing the bulk of the work* The only difference is that I am NOT one of them.

I am one person. I do what I can. And I try not to get frustrated in my volunteer work when I realize I am one of the workhorses. Because I know I can't do this EVERYWHERE. So yes, someone is "pulling my weight" elsewhere. But what am I gonna do?

Just another perspective

 

[descovy]

Just an aside since you were talking scouts too...

I am completely fine with the "community pot" of our fundraising. As I say, I am cookie manager for 3 troops. Some girls are "super sellers" and some are not. But the money belongs to the *troop* and each girl gets equal say in how it is spent... whether they sell one box of cookies or 1000.

Troop money pays for all our troop materials, field trips, we even paid for uniforms at bridging because the troops could afford it.

Often the super sellers are such by parental opportunity alone. All the girls hit the neighborhood (often sharing the neighborhood teeming with other scouts!) But some parents work with 5 floors of co workers. Some parents work in a small office, or are not allowed to fundraise at work (my own emplyer situation)

My super sellers are the same girls every year. It's not so much that they work harder. My own 3 daughters sell, sell, sell. But shoot, sell to grandma and she'll buy whatever she can afford, but divvy it by 3. My daughters take turns ringing the bell when going door to door. So only 1 in 3 houses is a chance as a "customer". Alone, with the effort we put into cookie selling , one could be a super seller. but divided by 3 sisters in 3 troops their individual selling "stats" are pretty mediocre.

Same goes for booths. We give the girls credit for their share they sell at cookie booth. but some booths are in "better" locations than others. Some booths are heald on rainy days, some on sunny days. So as I say, even girls giving their 110% could be mediocre sellers. Do they really deserve "less" than the girl lucky enough to have a mom work with 5 floors of co-workers and inter-office email?

I'm cool with all my scouts getting equal "benefit" from fundraisers...

 

[Pigeon]

Just to give you an idea of why some people don't volunteer...

I don't do fundraisers, period. I'm not volunteering to run them and I'm not buying junk.

I'm happy to pay for my kids' activites. They are my kids, and if I want them to be in activities, it is my responsibility to pay for it, not random strangers and not other friends or family. If asked for a direct contribution, I'll cheerfully give. But no fundraisers.

I don't have a crowd of friends and neighbors that I want to hit up to buy overpriced junk. I like my friends and neighbors, and wouldn't do that to them. Time is my most precious commodity and I'm not squandering it doing the busywork generated by fundraising.

I have volunteered for things in the past, but they always seem to degenerate into fundraising. Here's an example. Several years ago, I was askedto be on the religious education committee of our church. Silly me, I thought we would be doing something about curriculum or teaching. Nope, it was all fundraisers all the time.

The last straw for me was when we were supposed to raise enough money to send all the kids to camp for a week. Ridiculous. This was an upper middle class congregation. Why would you ask committee members to perform oodles of busywork doing bake sales, raffles, selling crafts, etc. for this? The target audience was always members of the congregation anyway, so the church should have either just had the parents pay or had it funded through donations or skipped the whole thing.

This whole fundraising mentality has gotten completely out of hand. People do fundraisers for everything.

 

[chloelovesdisney]

Just to give you an idea of why some people don't volunteer...

I don't do fundraisers, period. I'm not volunteering to run them and I'm not buying junk.

I'm happy to pay for my kids' activites. They are my kids, and if I want them to be in activities, it is my responsibility to pay for it, not random strangers and not other friends or family. If asked for a direct contribution, I'll cheerfully give. But no fundraisers.

I don't have a crowd of friends and neighbors that I want to hit up to buy overpriced junk. I like my friends and neighbors, and wouldn't do that to them. Time is my most precious commodity and I'm not squandering it doing the busywork generated by fundraising.

I have volunteered for things in the past, but they always seem to degenerate into fundraising. Here's an example. Several years ago, I was askedto be on the religious education committee of our church. Silly me, I thought we would be doing something about curriculum or teaching. Nope, it was all fundraisers all the time.

The last straw for me was when we were supposed to raise enough money to send all the kids to camp for a week. Ridiculous. This was an upper middle class congregation. Why would you ask committee members to perform oodles of busywork doing bake sales, raffles, selling crafts, etc. for this? The target audience was always members of the congregation anyway, so the church should have either just had the parents pay or had it funded through donations or skipped the whole thing.

This whole fundraising mentality has gotten completely out of hand. People do fundraisers for everything.

Agreed, I can't stand fundraisers. I'd rather them just charge what they need to and be done with it.

 

[crazelion]

Our boy scout troop do one funrasier a year. We sail oranges to support our boys troop. Also if have a big trip plan we open to friends and family. We have trip have scout rate and non scout rate. I was paying the non scout to go trips with them until I got my foster kids. I put the boy scouts. The girls went girl scouts.

Okay the also is football and cheerleadering to the fundrasiers is driving me crazy. It seem like every Saturday there is a fun rasier.

 

[NeedaVacation03]

I used to have a problem with the idea that it was the same people volunteering all the time. It would really upset me sometimes, so this summer I decided to see what kindof things other people volunteered for. So I paid better attention in my small community.
There are people who volunteer to run the weekly farm market, people who help out at the local senior center or nursing home, all the parents who help out with rec sports- coaches, concessions, field upkeep, ticket sales etc., working at the local food pantry. There are many volunteer positions within a community that keep it working. It may not be an organization that we are involved in but is important to someone.
I dont want to help coach my kids teams, but I love the people who give their time to do us. I dont want to run a program teaching kids about the United Nations, but my kids want to do it. So without volunteers, the program would not take place. So we need everyone to do what they do best.
I am a volunteer jr high/ high school youth minister at my church. I teach Sunday school and work on parish related religious ed programs for adults. That is what I am good at, other people avoid me like the plague.
We have to realize that many people due give of their time, but we may not see it. And some people just can not give time right now. They may be single parents, they maybe taking care of aging parents or something else. To not share the fundraising $$$ equally with the group is really unfair to the children that have no control in what their parents may or may not volunteer for.

 

[Cooky]

.

 

[indimom]

You know, I've come to realize that we all give what we got to give...

I'll give you an example... I'm in Girl Scouts. I lead 2 troops, I am "cookie manager" for 3 troops. I also volunteer heavily in my service unit (one level up from troop)

That keeps me plenty busy (from also being a working mom). At church I help once a month at Wednesday night kids night and sometimes drive the bus to camp. So I'm not the lady running every youth church function, even though I have 3 kids involved...

School, I'll teach Junior Acheivemnet for each of my 3 kids' classes, but I do not room mom, PTA workroom, spring fling, fundraise... even though I have 3 kids at the elementary school.

The bulk of the time I have to offer goes to Girl Scouts. It does not mean that I find church activities or school somehow not worthy... but my time is spent. I do what I can.

And it doesn't matter the organization. Guess what? In scouts it's always *the same volunteers doing the bulk of the work.* Yes, in scouts, I'm one of them.

But in church, in school PTA, it is ALSO *the same volunteers doing the bulk of the work* The only difference is that I am NOT one of them.

I am one person. I do what I can. And I try not to get frustrated in my volunteer work when I realize I am one of the workhorses. Because I know I can't do this EVERYWHERE. So yes, someone is "pulling my weight" elsewhere. But what am I gonna do?

Just another perspective

Exactly what I was thinking. You don't always know what all these families are involved in. I know my family is "less involved" in activities than others, but we've run into this problem. There is only so much time in a week and only so many fundraisers we can afford to support.

I have only two children and there was at least one occasion when we were actively selling for six different fundraisers at nearly the same time (at the very least back to back): schools, girl scounts, football, soccer and band. NUTS!!!! What am I supposed to do, walk up to my retired neighbors who live on a fixed income and ask them to buy for ALL of these organizations? Especially when I just saw another neighborhood kid with the same forms knocking on their door?

Top that off with just finding the time to sell when your kids are involved in sports, church activities, trying to get homework done nightly...Sometimes there is just no time left in a day.

I feel really lucky that my kids are old enough now they know what activities they want to focus on and we've cut back on their extracurriculars. My daughter is currently selling magazine subscriptions to fund her Washington DC trip in 8th grade (they sell for three years to raise the funds for this school trip). She has sold a LOT and may actually manage to overshoot her own personal goal and can then donate some of her proceeds to another student who hasn't done as well.

I really think most people do what they can. But we all have personal limits and there is a lot more going on in most peoples' lives than we can see at a glance.

 

[Katy Belle]

We just moved to Oklahoma and are already getting a big dose of fundraising

My DS15 is in band. They have lots of fundraising opportunities! The things that the kids sell individually (sausage, poinsettias, cookie dough, etc) the kids get that money in their account. The account stays with them throughout their band career. Once they graduate, if there is money in their account it can go to a sibling already in band. If no sibling, then it goes to the account for all the band. Their own account pays for band trips. They are going to Orlando in march. If my son doesn't do enough fundraising, then we have to pay for it. So if a kid does no fundraising, he gets no help paying for the trip.

Then there is fundraising in which the money is used for all of the band. It pays for some meals while they are at contests, some sheet music, etc, whatever the band directors need. This money comes from the football concession stand and other parent worked fundraisers. They told all of us at the first meeting that every parent is required to work 2shifts at the concession stand. I don't know what they do if you don't sign up, but there are multiple emails encouraging us to get signed up.

We have 3 in scouts and I don't know how the money distribution works for that. I'm sure I will find out!

Hey, wanna buy some popcorn?

Hee-hee
Good luck!

 

[Mermaid02]

It's been this way in every organization I have ever been a part of, from the PTO at school to Church.

I got burned out and just quit cold turkey. I'm with Pigeon, I'll pay for what my kids need to do. Volunteering is not worth the stress and the headache.

 

[PaulaSue]

I did so much with Preschool Comm and PTO at my girls schools that I got burned out fast.

I took moving away as a nice break from it all and NOW only do 1 thing(LFE). I miss the friendships it made and it has been hard moving to a different area but I dont miss all the calls to this and that every week because they know me.

 

[Bren's Mom]

My dss is preparing for a Europe trip with his HS elite choir. I absolutely LOVE that whatever proceeds the family's 'earn' from fundraisers go directly into the child's individual account for the trip. His mom worked HARD at the fundraisers, so we're (his mom, dad and myself) seeing a big benefit from that. (We're contributing in other ways, don't worry!) The kids whose parents don't want to do any fundraising and just want to write a check? That's on them. Their lack of time or desire to fundraise won't negatively reflect on our kiddo. Win-win.

As for the same people being seen over and over again...my dh can attest to that at the volunteer fire dept where he is 2nd in command. The same people show up for calls and work at fundraisers...the others just show up for the 'fun' stuff. For example, some guys never ever march in the Memorial Day Parade, but they sure do show up to drink the free beer afterward!

 

[mom2val]

I was a PTA board member when dd was in K-3 and yes it was the same 3-5 of us that did everything : bookfair, holiday store, spirit night, t-shirt sales, fundraisers, carnival, field day, ect. I got sick of it and this year dd is in 4th and I have signed up for NOTHING! I still plan on helping with 1 or 2 events but I want to be able to come work for 4 hours and leave instead of all day everyday for a week!

 

[mjkacmom]

You know, I've come to realize that we all give what we got to give...

I'll give you an example... I'm in Girl Scouts. I lead 2 troops, I am "cookie manager" for 3 troops. I also volunteer heavily in my service unit (one level up from troop)

That keeps me plenty busy (from also being a working mom). At church I help once a month at Wednesday night kids night and sometimes drive the bus to camp. So I'm not the lady running every youth church function, even though I have 3 kids involved...

School, I'll teach Junior Acheivemnet for each of my 3 kids' classes, but I do not room mom, PTA workroom, spring fling, fundraise... even though I have 3 kids at the elementary school.

The bulk of the time I have to offer goes to Girl Scouts. It does not mean that I find church activities or school somehow not worthy... but my time is spent. I do what I can.

And it doesn't matter the organization. Guess what? In scouts it's always *the same volunteers doing the bulk of the work.* Yes, in scouts, I'm one of them.

But in church, in school PTA, it is ALSO *the same volunteers doing the bulk of the work* The only difference is that I am NOT one of them.

I am one person. I do what I can. And I try not to get frustrated in my volunteer work when I realize I am one of the workhorses. Because I know I can't do this EVERYWHERE. So yes, someone is "pulling my weight" elsewhere. But what am I gonna do?

Just another perspective

I agree with this. Ds12 quit scouting when they had a "come to jesus" meeting about getting involved. Scouting just wasn't that important in our family. DH spends at least 12 hours a week as a coach to 3 teams. We have dance fundraisers, band fundraisers, choir fundraisers, travel soccer (2 teams) fundraisers, travel baseball (2 teams) fundraisers, school fundraisers. I'm sure ds7 will drop scouting, too (as well as dd7 and dd9). It's not like we're lazy - we just can't do it all.