fund raising in your child's school - Page 2

[Luvmyboyz]

Originally Posted by lisalou

We actually didn't look at a preschool for dd b/c right on their website it stated every Valentine's day you had to write 10 letters to family and friends asking for donations to the school. We'll happily write checks at the beginning of the year and let dd decide to be a salesperson when she's an adult if she wants to.

YIKES!!!!! How absolutely annoying! I would have passed on that school as well.

[Luvmyboyz]

Originally Posted by mirlee

We are in private school this year. There is a $250 fundraising goal for each family. It tallies up very quickly, but it makes me crazy thinking about it. There is the option of just donating the cash, but not too many do that.

My kids went to a private school last year for preschool. Their goal was $250 each selling Yankee Candles. Some families had even more than two kids in the school. How crazy?!?!?!? The scary thing is....the school made tens of thousands of dollars on the fundrasier. I kept thinking about all of the wealthy parents that probably bought TONS of candles.......couldn't they just write a check to the school instead? We are far from rich but I would prefer to write a check to the school than make my kids sell a bunch of stuff.

[jennlyn]

At the beginning of the school year we receive a ton of parental forms to fill out. On one of them there is the option to OPT -OUT of any fundraising. Yes, I always check that box. I would rather volunteer my time than purchase overpriced things I do not need. Or to ask anyone I know to purchase them.

[GruppieGirl]

Originally Posted by green

I am contemplating just writing the school a check for a small amount as a donation and tossing those forms. I want to support my childrens' school but I do not like these sell a thons.

Anyone else?

YES! That would be greatly appreciated by your school's PTO!!

Many parents mistakenly think that their taxes cover everthing the school needs. That is a huge misconception.

PTO's HAVE TO fund raise for their schools. They purchase PE equipment, donate to school families in crisis, bring in author visits, help to fund field trips, bring in book fairs, fill the gaps in teacher supplies plus a lot more!

If you send in a check instead of buying wrapping paper or cookie dough, the school gets 100% of your donation opposed to 10% to 30%. You can also write off 100% of your check donation. Everyone wins!

My dd's PTO does an actual donation request fundraiser. Many families have companies that match their donations. The PTO has since been able to cut out a few of the "annoying' fundraisers because they were able to raise enough money to cover them.

[rainyday]

Originally Posted by EFmom

I don't do the fundraisers, either. Corporate America can sell its own crap--they aren't going to do it on the backs of my children. My kids were upset because they'd gone to the marketing hype assemblies, and thought I was being mean for not letting them win some junky prize.

I sat them down and explained how these companies were trying to use them as an unpaid sales force. We discussed the fairness of that. Then we talked about the actual prizes they might win, and the value (or lack thereof) of them. We also talked about the percentage of the money that goes to the school, compared to the percentage that the companies make.

I love this. I'm going to use it when the inevitable time arises.

Originally Posted by Nikki Christina

i hate them too

the crappy thing they do here.. any kid who sells over $100 worth of stuff gets to go to a party.
its during school hours, so the kids who dont sell $100 worth have to stay in class while the other kids go party.. play on fun jumps, get their face painted.etc
id feel real bad if my kid didnt get to go i also feel bad for the kids who have to stay behind

i only have 1 in school..so it wasent too hard to sell $100 worth.. we just hit up grandparents & an aunt..
but i hate it

This is absolutely awful. I would still refuse to have my child participate, and I'd be darn sure to pull her out of school that day to do something fun. What a way to penalize kids whose parents are less supportive of the fundraising or too busy to help - at least around here, the kids who sell the most are the ones whose parents hit up their colleagues at work.

[kittywitty]

This was my least favorite memory from school, probably. We had several of these things a year. If you didn't sell over a certain amount, you would have to sit in your classroom/homeroom while everyone else had an ice cream party.

It's not fair. My family is dirt poor. They would be happy to afford mac & cheese, paying to register for school, school supplies, and endless fundraisers is a HUGE financial burden on a lot of people.

And most of us don't have the $ to hand out ($140 here) at the beginning of the year for registration, let alone countless fundraisers so that our kids aren't ostracized for being poor.

[lalaland42]

Originally Posted by dnw826

This was my least favorite memory from school, probably. We had several of these things a year. If you didn't sell over a certain amount, you would have to sit in your classroom/homeroom while everyone else had an ice cream party.

It's not fair. My family is dirt poor. They would be happy to afford mac & cheese, paying to register for school, school supplies, and endless fundraisers is a HUGE financial burden on a lot of people.

And most of us don't have the $ to hand out ($140 here) at the beginning of the year for registration, let alone countless fundraisers so that our kids aren't ostracized for being poor.

That is awful.

I have strong philosophical objections to the kinds of fundraisers DD has at school. What happened to newspaper drives? I guess no one reads the newspaper anymore but I remember being very proud of the newspapers I collected and bundled up for my school when I was in 5th grade. We were also poor at the time and I remember that I only actually had a small stack of newspapers but I felt like I was contributing.

The annual wrapping paper fundraiser is approaching. I didn't buy any last year and I won't again this year. Instead, I am sending a small donation and a letter (that DD will "help" me compose) that details more conscious choices for supporting our schools. The more I learn about DD's school the more classist I think it is. We will be moving in 2 years so I want to keep her there while we are still here but I am the noisy kind of person who will hopefully make a small impact.

Any other fundraiser suggestions?

[1xmom]

We did a bike race over the summer and sold food and drinks for bikers and spectators. It went pretty well, one of the organizers of the race happens to be in the PTA so we just worked w/him. Our PTA is also trying to get away from the nasty fundraisers. Right now we do candy, but it b/c it brings it so much $, they haven't been able to do away w/it yet. The candy sale, however, is the only fundraiser they do in that the kids have to sell stuff. We are trying to find ways to get more of the parents and children involved together. Let's fact it, most of the time the parents have to sell the stuff for the kids. But more and more businesses (my job included) is starting to prohibit any fundraisers on worktime.

[Zach'smom]

Originally Posted by averysmom

YES! That would be greatly appreciated by your school's PTO!!

Many parents mistakenly think that their taxes cover everthing the school needs. That is a huge misconception.

PTO's HAVE TO fund raise for their schools. They purchase PE equipment, donate to school families in crisis, bring in author visits, help to fund field trips, bring in book fairs, fill the gaps in teacher supplies plus a lot more!

If you send in a check instead of buying wrapping paper or cookie dough, the school gets 100% of your donation opposed to 10% to 30%. You can also write off 100% of your check donation. Everyone wins!

My dd's PTO does an actual donation request fundraiser. Many families have companies that match their donations. The PTO has since been able to cut out a few of the "annoying' fundraisers because they were able to raise enough money to cover them.

I am joining our schools PTA. I am also planning on writing a nice check and skipping the fundraiser. A lot of parents arond here do the same. On top of the school only getting a tiny precentage of the profits, our neighborhood is loaded with kids that go to that school. There is nobody to sell to.
I am certainly not calling relatives over 400 miles away to buy overpriced wrapping paper and the dreaded entertainment books. :

[LiamnEmma]

Originally Posted by 3boysmom

Our school has (thank goodness!) made the move to Direct Donation in lieu of those terrible fundraisers. Each family is asked to give a direct doantion of $50 per student (or whatever they can afford, but most give at least $50) at the beginning of the year to support the various programs at the school. This is tax deductible and the entire amount goes straight to the school - with most fundraisers, the school only gets about 30-50% of the funds raised. We switched a few years ago, when I was PTA President , but even before then, I refused to take part in the sell-a-thons. I simply wrote a check each year directly to the school...just like I do now, and I ignored all fundraising info. that came home. When you do it that way, it is a donation so you can use your cancelled check as a receipt and deduct it at tax time.

: Except that I won't be PTA president until next year.

[GuildJenn]

Originally Posted by averysmom

YES! That would be greatly appreciated by your school's PTO!!

Many parents mistakenly think that their taxes cover everthing the school needs. That is a huge misconception.

PTO's HAVE TO fund raise for their schools. They purchase PE equipment, donate to school families in crisis, bring in author visits, help to fund field trips, bring in book fairs, fill the gaps in teacher supplies plus a lot more!

My pet peeve but - wouldn't it be nice if the taxes DID cover the real costs?

[becoming]

Yes, we are currently trying to sell a booklet full of nothing but useless, high-priced CRAP. They seriously have a frog-shaped "cell phone holder" in this book that costs $8.50!!! I can't believe it. A scouring pad (for dishes) and an apple holder that comes with it is $11.50. I am just appalled. I don't even know where they FIND this stuff. And of course, after the brainwashing session (which is exactly what it is!), my DS is all hyped up about getting the top prize, a plastic piece-of-junk helicopter that will probably break the first day he gets it. Did I mention we have to sell 50 items to get that?!

Editing to add that I don't mind fundraising at all, and I understand why it is necessary -- what I don't understand is why they can't find better fundraisers.

[Zach'smom]

:

Why can't we all contribute to a bake sale, an all school rummage sale or even have some kind of a fun fair. That way all the money goes to the school. I wish we could get some local business to donate goods and services and we could sell raffle tickets for them. Or even a 75%/25% raffle.

[gcgirl]

Whatever happend to jog-a-thons? The school gets all the money and the kids get in shape.

You know that old adage about it'll be a wonderful day when the military has to hold a bake sale and the public schools get fully funded? Yeah, that.

Until then, jog-a-thons. My kid won't be selling crap. I'll just write a check to the school with a letter outlining why we need jog-a-thons. Have I said jog-a-thons enough? lol.

[Mizelenius]

Originally Posted by bdavis337

this year, we're doing a walk-a-thon instead of selling candy and other junk. I'm so pleased!!!!!

That's what they are doing at my DD's school, too!

[Lingmom]

My daughter starts kindergarten at a parochial school on Tuesday, but we already have her first fundraising thing. We have a required 400$ contribution (either by fundraising or contribution). We're just considering it part of the tuition because I refuse to participate in fundraising.

[Erin+babyAndrew]

when I was in school, we mostly had a "white elephant" sale once a year to raise funds. This is where school families bring in any household items/toys/clothing/anything they would like to donate and then we had a big huge sale open to the public. Parents volunteered to work tables and sell the items. All the funds went to the school and the remainder of items went to charity. One time we had to sell crap from a catalog and i *hated* it...absolutely hated it, so I sold nothing. I'll never make my kids go door to door selling junk. I actually lost sleep and felt sick over the prospect of talking to strangers and selling them crap.

[amydawnsmommy]

Originally Posted by green

Hello -

During the first week of school (last week) my K and 3rd grader came home each with their packet of stuff to sell for the school fund raiser. This irritates the crap out of me for a couple of reasons...1. It was only the first week of school 2. The food stuff to sell is expensive and IMO not that tasty 3. The 'prizes' the children can earn are CRAP (last year the small item that my oldest 'earned' broke within a day or two) and, 4. I am pretty certain they have a school wide assembly to educate the children on the prizes they can win and the details, etc. (i.e. a brainwashing session).

I am contemplating just writing the school a check for a small amount as a donation and tossing those forms. I want to support my childrens' school but I do not like these sell a thons.

Anyone else?

Wow!!! You've started school already? We don't start until Tuesday.

In the first week of school I would be annoyed too! Our school spreads the fundraisers out over the year. Actually last year the school raised more than expected and so one of the fundraisers was actually cancelled!

I know what you mean about the plastic toys they can win, they really aren't the greatest.

If you feel like it would save you time, energy and money to write a cheque to the school for the amount, I say go for it! I was seriously considering that the year before last with the nursery school Hope went to. The amount of fundraising we had to do was ridiculous!!! Schools should have an opt-out fee for those who do not have the time, energy or inclination to fundraise.