Which school fundraisers do you support?

[disneychrista]

I choose to not participate in most school fundraisers. I need over priced wrapping paper or most of the other thing that they sell.

I would rather pay full price for field trips.

 

[Cindi0511]

OK, this is a super hot button issue for me, too. I already pay mandatory taxes that are used to educate other children and homeschool my own. I am NOT bashing public school education or other private school education. What I hate is the parents who expect me to give money to them when their kid isn't even doing the work. One nurse that my husband works with always throws the sign up lists at him and says, "You make a lot of money, give me some." She expects everyone else to pony up all kinds of money, but she won't that's for sure. (Yes, I'm ranting on this one!). If it was truly worth getting (like those gift cards I've read about here for the first time), it would be one thing, but a Schwan's fundraiser cost something like $58 for six mini pizzas, a box of sherbet pushups and a box of ice cream sandwiches! Another one was two cheesecakes for $40. And then there was the 25 cent per math question one that ended up costing $140!! That is so far past insane that I can't see the end of it.

I hate fundraisers!

Whew, now I feel better.

 

[brandip22]

Well, my son is only 4 and his preschool doesn't have any yet. But, I manage a bank and we are actually doing a fundraiser for the schools. Anyone who opens an account gets $10 donated in their name to the school of their choice. It's pretty cool and I've heard it's been done a little around the country. Helps the bank get our name out since we're new in town, e can give back to the community and schools, too. Every little bit helps, right?

 

[*JoGo*]

My son goes to a private school, and they send out surveys asking parents which fundraisers they like, don't like, suggestions, etc. They don't want us burned out on fundraisers. I'm most likely to participate only if it directly affects my son's tuition. We're on a very tight budget in order to send him to this school, we have to watch every little thing we spend and plan for it.
We do
Scrip -- buy gift cards & % goes towards our tuition acct, not general school fund... like Old Navy - 7% off $25gc = 1.75off my son's tuition. It doesn't sound like much, but it adds up if you buy them for stores you shop at frequently (there are groceries, gas stations, etc) and if your relatives buy cards also.

Market Day - frozen foods, I've never done this one.
Cheese Sale - general school fund
Box Tops - general school fund, do this one
Book Fair - too expensive for us
Scholastic Book fliers - I've never bought anything from here, and already felt guilty (I see some kids with a stack of books), after reading the book fair thread, I feel even worse. Just today he brought home two fliers and has asked if he can get one this time because he never has.

Magazine Sales - you can opt to have 40% of each sale to go towards your tuition OR get the cheesey prizes. We get the $ off tuition and buy our son a small prize instead. He loves those prize sheets, the sale was a month ago and he still has the sheet taped to his wall with things circled. Luckily, we can easily apease him with the prize we buy for him. Also, once you buy a magazine, the following yrs you can simply renew it thru the sale.

Avon - this yr, it's to benefit MiniTerm, which is secondary students.

Our biggest fundraiser is the annual auction in March. There's a bake sale, concessions, breakfast beforehand, silent auctions, and a live auction. It raises the most money. Each class, preschool thru 12 makes up a themed basket which is auctioned, and families/businesses/doctors donate things.

In the High School, each grade has to raise money for their senior trip. Each month there is a Spaghetti or Roast beef dinner. One of the classes, or sometimes cheerleaders/basketball/theater/etc does the dinner, all donations go towards that class after paying the expenses of the dinner (food). Also, each class has their own fundraiser, ex. Class of 2008 does candy-gram sales for Sweetest Day, Valentine's Day, Xmas, etc. Class of 2009 is collecting cans. Another sells hot cocoa and donuts on Friday mornings before school. These are things the classes do throughout their 4yrs of high school.

 

[SunKat]

I hope this isn't off topic, but I'd just like to get opinions on this. My dd is in 5th grade and their big fundraiser this year took place a few weeks ago. It was the 5th grade carwash. We all received 10 tickets to be sold for $5 each to friends, family, neighbors, etc. We need to raise $5000 for the year end graduation/fun day celebration. Our carwash packet clearly stated that if we didn't sell $50 worth of tickets that we'd be responsible to pay $50 towards the 5th grade celebration. Most of us parents sold $50 worth and helped at the carwash. However, we have about 30 parents who didn't help and didn't sell any tickets, therefore not contributing to the celebration. The 5th grade committee has now decided that instead of requesting the money from the non-paying parents, we will have another fund raiser to make up the difference. Do you think this is fair? We've paid our share and shouldn't have to buy something else to try and make up the difference for the parents who didn't pay. Am I wrong?

 

[luvsmickeymouse]

we had one that you bought tickets to the automatic car wash in town, that was my favorite, because they did that one in the winter, and our cars up here in the north are so dirty from the roads, they sold a ton of ticket books. That is one that I will always buy from.

 

[ceecee]

Our PTO does Market Day as an on going fund raiser. I usually try to buy things, but am not happy with most of it. A lot of people buy it though. I do magazine sales (prize is a limo ride to Ponderosa for lunch for selling 7). We did Entertainment Books (usually buy anyway).

 

[jennifer293]

DD6 came home with the whole gift wrap thing within like a week of school startingand I think she sold 4 things to family. We just had the bake sale and since I decorate cakes they hit me up and I donated 2 cakes to it. We just had the fall festival and it seemed to do OK , but not as well as last year. We have not had the PTO meeting yet so I have yet to see how much exactly was made. Last year they completed the playground and this year they want to build a pavilion out there with tables, trashcans, water fountain, and a boy and girl bathroom so that the public can come and have get togethers out there!! I am all for helping the school out, but I need to know where the money is going before I will give.

 

[Nienor]

Lessee, so far I refused the candy sale for soccer and the candy sale for school. In general I refuse to sell overpriced crap from a catalog. I would never pay that much for candy or gift items so I would never expect anyone else.

We do buy from scholastic and the book fair, because I think the prices are reasonable for the merchandise sold. We always buy from the bake sales because people put hard work into those sales. (and it's hard for my son to pass up cookies and cupcakes) I save boxtops and campbells coupons labels, I think that can really add up for the school if all parnts do it. And I'll sell the entertainment books. I just got this years and you can save hundreds of dollars with them for just paying 25. I buy two for myself since they have lots of great coupons for the local children's museums.

 

[arielsleepingbeauty]

This fundraising stuff is out of hand. When i was a kid we never had any fundraisers and I turned out fine. I feel that I pay enough taxes in my town that I shouldn't also have to dish out more money each time the school has a funmdraiser. So far we have had a wrapping paper fundraiser, cookie sale, candy sale, Logo clothing sale and yesterday was the book fair. I have only supported the book fair so far. I can't see spending money on things i won't use just to give to the school. My daughters enjoy reading and I feel that my money is well spent on books. We also purchase a book for my daughter's classroom that her teacher puts on her wish list. In the next few months we will have a Yankee Candle fundraiser and also an artwork fundraise. The artwork one is cute, the kids draw a picture and you can purchase their artwork on a mug or t- shirt. I will buy her artwork on a tile. I have done that for both of my children and someday i will make a mosaic of their tiles.
I used to feel bad when i didn't purchase anything, but i just can't. It is too much! I will volunteer my time to assist the school in anyway i can, but financially i just can't.

 

[KaitlinsMom]

I will X the ones I supported last year


Reverse raffle($100pt)

What is a "reverse raffle"?

 

[canwegosoon]

What is a "reverse raffle"?

They sell a set number of tickets (min 260), each a $100. For every 20 tickets there is a 200 dollar winner, and then you take all the $200 winners and pull one of them to be a $10,000 winner. School makes $10,000 and there are $12,600 in prizes. The printing is usually donated. It was very successful the first year with the promise that there would be no other fundraising except the Auction...but that didn't happen, so in the second year ticket sales just covered the 260(I supported this in the first year, but when they started in with more fundraising-I wouldn't do it the second year), and then there were complaints that everyone couldn't afford the $100 ticket.

 

[KirstenB]

Our school does Trunk or Treat for Halloween. They charge $10 per car, and get about 250 families, which is most of the school. We also do a Virginia Diner peanuts fundraiser, and in the spring, a Spaghetti Dinner/auction. We support all 3 of these, as they are all things we like.

 

[Stepht5]

On top of tuition which is $400 person per month. We used to do script...but they stopped doing that.

Oh My! Your tuition is SOOOO cheap!!! Tuition at schools in our area are between $7,000 - 15,000 a year, per child. Plus they still have tons of fundraisers!

 

[canwegosoon]

Oh My! Your tuition is SOOOO cheap!!! Tuition at schools in our area are between $7,000 - 15,000 a year, per child. Plus they still have tons of fundraisers!

That's intresting...our school is middle of the road ...there are more expensive elementry school and less expensive too, private HS in our area runs about 10-12K pypc.

 

[DisneyJo]

I can't believe what I'm reading! In England our school only does a few things like the Christmas and Summer fayres and maybe a quiz night. We ran a pampering evening a few months ago and only 4 people came!!! Maybe we should start fining parents too! Parents at our Church school just don't seem to support anything anymore, not sure why.

 

[Banana magic]

We do not participate in the school fundraiser where they sell wrapping paper, etc. Instead we donate directly to the PTA. We don't need any of the stuff they are selling, and that way the PTA gets all the money. We do get Market Day products and Scholastic book orders. We also have our credit cards set up to donate to the schools. If we are using them anyways, we may as well give to the school. My daughter sells girl scout cookies too and we always participate in classroom donations for parties/teachers.

 

[cnids00]

We support:

Bookfair
I buy one Entertainment book
We go to most restaurants when there is "eat here between 4-8Pm and our school will get 15% of all sales" etc
Sally Foster wrapping paper
Frozen cookie dough

I agree with the hyped up children coming home expecting they will sell for the dinky toy or hoping for the limo ride... I won't let her sell up and down streets & our family is small, can't bring to work either.

I wish I could just donate a certain amount and be done for the whole year, some schools do that too!