Fundraising

[Rhonwyn]

How much fundraising does your school do?

At our school the tuition is $9800 a year for 1st to 8th grade (less for Kindergarten 3, 4 and 5 day options). We have 3 official fundraisers a year: Wreath sale in the fall (raises about 20K), Auction in the spring (raises about 35K), and the Annual Fund from Sept - July (raises about 80K). The fundraisers are to help with keeping tuition down so the more money we raise the less tuition goes up.

Now I went to a private Catholic High School where we did a lot of fundraising so I expected the fund raising at any private school. Many new families are shocked or put off by the fund raising, especially the Annual Fund where it is an outright monetary donation. They feel that they have paid tuition, why should they donate too? I can understand their point of view but if we were to charge the actual cost to educate the kids our tuition would be a lot higher and more people wouldn't be able to afford it. Also, donations to fund raising are tax deductible while tuition is not. (If I had it my way, we would pledge say half of our tuition as a fund raiser and take that as a deduction but of course a pledge is not enforcable while a tuition contract is and the school needs to have at least a basic amount of money gaurenteed.) People who can't donate often make up the difference by donating thier time and talents.

Also, many public schools have almost the exact same fund raisers in our area.

How do you feel about fund raisers at your school? What is the balance of tuition to fundraising? If it is a public school, do you have to participate?

Our school doesn't force anyone to participate but everyone is strongly encouraged to at least donate a dollar to the Annual Fund so that we can get the participation percentages up. Higher participation rates help when you are grant writing. What foundation will give money to a school where the parents don't even care enough to donate?

[Rhonwyn]

I should mention that parents know about the fundraising before they enroll.

Yet they always act surprised. Maybe it is the excitement of being accepted and they overlook all the details.

Another thing, the kids are not required to participate. Some kids do especially for the Wreath Sale and some participate in the auction by solicting donations or making something for the auction. Kid made items always sell well. Each class usually does a class project to donate also.

[HollyBearsMom]

My only issue with fundraising is when it is under the guise of something else. When they say the point of selling candy bars or gift wrap or pizza is to "teach" the child about money, teaching them about marketing skills, etc and then re-warding the child who "sells" the most when in fact the kids don't have anything to do with it. The biggest winner is always the kid who's parent or parents works in the biggest offices. What does the child learn?? That he/she can be re-warded and recognized for doing nothing. And what does the child who actually tried to do on its own learn? That their best efforts where wasted and cheating is better.

But then again I have an issue about Girl Scout cookies too. Give it up and just sell them in a store. I can't tell you how many tables I see set up outside manned by a parent with no girl scout anywhere to be seen. Or how many women I work with boast about how many cookies their daughters have "sold" when the sales sheets is just posted on their office door. I do give credit to the mom who did bring her daughter to work the day sign up sheet when up and then brought her back and had her hand deliver and then thank the people she "sold" the 200 boxes to at her mom's office.

[EFmom]

:

I am sick to death of fundraising, and I hate it with a passion.

My kid goes to public school in a fairly well-off district. She brings home flyers about some stupid fundraiser at least every week. They mostly go directly into the trash.

Obviously, they can't make you participate in a public school. I'm sure when it gets to fundraising for extracurricular music and sports stuff, there will be more pressure, but still, I don't know that you can be forced.

I don't mind a direct appeal. I am happy to support the school, as they do an excellent job, and in general are very careful about money. I would be very happy to get a letter that states how much they need to raise and how many children are enrolled in the school and I would whip out my checkbook in a minute.

Our PTA doesn't seem much inclined to do that, however. My child is not selling crap for corporate America, and I resent the pressure on her to do so. On the rare (very rare) opportunity when the flyer has a space for declining to do the fundraiser but contributing cash instead, I always send in money and thank them on the form for putting that down as an option.

For most things, I really feel that the families that can afford to ought to just pay for what they need. For the most part, they are just getting the same money out of the hides of the same group of families who go to the school. I would much rather shell out $50 for the class trip than to be pressured to buy $200 worth of crap so that the school can get $50 of it. Obviously, there will always be some families that cannot afford it, so I would have no problem with trying to raise some money for that through appeal.

I am working to simplify my life. I do not wish to shop for bakesales, bake, and buy back junk at an inflated price. My time is at a premium as it is, without undertaking a flurry of largely needless activity. I have no need for frozen pies, yankee candles, $8/roll gift wrap ("Oh, but it's such nice gift wrap," the PTA ladies say. It's going straight in the landfill, so who cares how nice it is?) I would like to smack many of our PTA ladies upside their heads. They clearly have too much time on their hands.

If we were sending our kids to private school, I absolutely would prefer they just charge what the tuition really needs to be, and I would refuse to participate in fundraisers.

[daylily]

I'm a public school parent and president of our school's PTO. I hear what you're saying EFMom and I share most of your opinions regarding fundraising.

That said, b/c of my position, I was heavily involved in fundraising. Since the other parents dislike corporate fundraisers as much as I do, we don't do the wrapping paper sales, etc. This year we held a dance and silent auction. Auction items were donated entirely from the school community and local business. Admission to the dance was free--we didn't want low income families to feel like they couldn't participate. Anyone could come and dance the night away and never spend a dime at the auction.

We also did a spring carnival-hokey little games, cakewalk, etc.

I really hated doing the fundraising activities and ended up feeling kind of hounded and guilty--worried that irate parents were going to call me up and yell at me b/c they weren't happy w/ how the PTO was spending their money. That didn't actually happen, but it's an enormous responsiblility to raise funds for a school and I'm glad my term is up.

Honestly, if I were to send my kids to a private school and were informed that after paying all that tuition, I'd still have to participate in fundraising, I'd take my kids out of the school. I attended private schools for my entire education and parents were not required to participate in fundraising. I'm kind of surprised to hear that schools require it.

[jannan]

[QUOTE=EFmom]:

I am sick to death of fundraising, and I hate it with a passion.

My kid goes to public school in a fairly well-off district. She brings home flyers about some stupid fundraiser at least every week. They mostly go directly into the trash.





I am working to simplify my life. I do not wish to shop for bakesales, bake, and buy back junk at an inflated price. My time is at a premium as it is, without undertaking a flurry of largely needless activity. I have no need for frozen pies, yankee candles, $8/roll gift wrap ("Oh, but it's such nice gift wrap," the PTA ladies say. It's going straight in the landfill, so who cares how nice it is?) I would like to smack many of our PTA ladies upside their heads. They clearly have too much time on their hands.

i completely agree. i hate that stupid wrapping paper!!!!!!!!!!especially when wrapping paper in general is a big waste. i wrap everything in the sunday comics or one of dd's painted art work

[lauren]

I'm with EFMom on this one. between school, cub scouts and daisy scouts, we were fundraised like crazy this year. My ds's teacher even sent home a 50/50 out of desperation because the class trip is two weeks away and they don't have enough money. We don't like selling popcorn for corporate america. Isn't that child labor?

[root*children]

Our kids aren't old enough, but we've had plenty of kids ask us to buy something or other. We just give them cash. That way I feel like I'm donating more than if I bought something, b/c my 5 bucks goes directly to their school, not $2 to their school and $3 to the candy-bar company. I pay the same amount, but I think it's to the school's advantage.

[Rhonwyn]

Interestin, every private school I know has fundraising.

Originally Posted by daylily

Honestly, if I were to send my kids to a private school and were informed that after paying all that tuition, I'd still have to participate in fundraising, I'd take my kids out of the school. I attended private schools for my entire education and parents were not required to participate in fundraising. I'm kind of surprised to hear that schools require it.

The high school I attended was private and had fundraising as did my brothers' private elementary and private high school they attended. All of the private schools around here have fundraisers including the super expensive ones. Some use it for scholarships. Our school does it to keep tuition down and because it is tax dedutible unlike tuition.

[daylily]

We did have fundraisers back when I was in private school, but no one was *required* to participate.

[lab]

My children attend public school and we do Invest-in-a-Kid.

You basically donate between 30-50 bucks per child (depends on what the budget is for the year) and that is it for the year. It works great.

We are also in a fairly wealthy area with large PTA.

Invest in a Kid is great because all of the money goes directly to the school instead of half going to some company.

[EFmom]

Lab, that sounds wonderful. Is it a local program just at your district or is it something larger?

[lab]

Thank you!

Actually, it is just something our school does. As a matter of fact, other schools in our district support fundraisers. I type the PTA Newsletter and here is what I put in the newsletter in the fall:

INVEST-IN-A-KID, NOT
WRAPPING PAPER!

Invest-In-A-Kid is a great program that raises money for ______
________ Elementary School. Without this program our school would not be able to offer some essential help to other areas of the school. Our children benefit all year from these donations.

These donations will help support our School of Excellence by offering a wide variety of programs such as, Young Authors’ Day, Young Naturalist Day, WASEP, Cultural Arts, Health & Safety, even our fun Parent/Child Event.
If you have any questions, please contact

Feel free to PM me if you would like more info!