WORST Fundraisers?

[N.Bailey]

I don't know if this is just a local thing but DS and DD used to sell frozen Corbi pizza - yuck.

The BEST fundraiser that DS's new school does is marketday.com. You can order on-line and pick up is once a month. It is groceries. Good quality meats, casserolles, cheese sticks, goldfish crackers. The school makes 10 percent and I spend about 50 bucks a month. The prices are about what I'd pay at the grocery store.

We have something similar around here, but it's not a fund raiser really. Both of our main grocery stores have those shopper cards. You have to have one of those cards if you want the sale price from the grocery store. I'm sure you're all familiar with them. Anyway, if you give the school you're number, a certain % of your bill is donated to the school at both stores. I'm not sure how much they give (we just filled them out for the year and they're not activated yet), but on each of your receipts it tells you how much they give for your visit.

I'll have to start paying attention. I think it's a really good program though. Even if it's only 1%, that's better than nothing.

I also like those reward points on Betty Crocker products and stuff. I think you're all familiar with those too. The kids normally go around asking the neighbors if they'll save them for the school too. They don't get a lot, but with everyone participating, it really helps the schools.

We used to do soup labels, but they've not asked for them here since the kids left elementary school.

 

[Nancy]

ITA on the wrapping paper. I would like to add Niagara Candy ... b/c I know that Grinning Ghost knows all about Niagara Candy! I just think their candy tastes waxy!!!

Adding "Zap-A-Snack", too. $12 for a dozen cookies!? $15 for like 8 cinnamon rolls?! Please. And, I have to bake 'em myself!? They ought to walk themselves to the oven, bake and walk themselves out when they're done and make a cup of coffee to go with 'em. Then, maybe I'd think they were worth the money!

~Daxx's Wife

Niagara Candy isn't that bad...but EVERYONE sells the stuff! I personally love the zap a snacks cinnamon rolls, never found them mushy at all. They have gone up in price though, last time we sold them they were only(?) $11.00 per box and there were more then 8 in there.

I never did the wrapping paper stuff, I just refused to sell it. I very rarely do fundraisers from the schools, I only did the ones from my DD's dance teams.

 

[taximomfor4]

I do NOT mind my frequent shopper card being registered to help raise funds for my kids' school. I do NOT mind the local fire dept "filling the boot" at traffic lights for Jerry's Kids. I do NOT mind the bunch-o-junk sale the kids' school does first each year...I get my calendar there every year. One for me, and one for my friend. (The calendars have BIG squares with lines, to write things down on.) I NEVER buy the wrapping paper from it, though. Too expensive.

I DO mind Market Day...more expensive than my local grocery store, and a pain to pick it up for us. I DO mind the magazine selling. I don't fill out those little booklets and send them to ANYONE but I receive many each year from cousins, friends kids, etc. I DO mind the PTA poinsettia sale. Poinsettias are poinsonous so we don't bring them into our house (have toddler, cats, etc). I suppose that one would not be soooo bad, though, except the kids' IRish Dance school also does a poinsettia sale at the same time. We cannot choose, and I have 3 kids in Irish Dance now so none of them sell.

My husband was varsity baseball coach at the school he teaches in. He tried to get creative with fundraisers. They did this one where you go door to door (on a tag-day type setup....everyone at once, on one day). They offer people a scratch-off card to scratch off. The person donates the amount of money they scratched off. $1, 2, or $5. It went over well and the people were glad they didn't accumulate JUNK. Also, there was an entertainment-book type thing that he had made up specific to that town and surrounding area. It sold for like $15 and had great coupons in it. Local merchants volunteered to participate.

Beth

 

[SillyMe]

The worst fundraiser our school has ever done is selling CASES of oranges.

 

[momof3disneyholics]

I hate the wrapping paper one too. I just can't see spending that much on paper, and apparently noone can either because I have the hardest time selling it.

 

[Jeafl]

What I hate about those gift wrap fundraisers is that they come into the school and get the kids all hyped up about the "prizes" they could win. If they sell 500 items they get a MP3 player. Well, who is going to sell 500 items? My daughter was dying to sell 75 items so she could get these huge, inflatable clown shoes! Don't ask me what she was going to do with them.

Needless to say she sold exactly 8 items and got some kind of rubber bracelet.

 

[kitn]

What I hate is thet my sons school has parties for the kids who sell 10 tubs of cookie dough. Along with the prizes which should be enough they have a party with moon bounces that the kids get to go to if the sell enough. The other kids get left behind in the class room. I think it is crazy and it makes me really angry. I was just glad the party was when we went to Disney would this year so guess what. He did not sell his 10 tubs. Does anyone else think this is crazy?