those pesky fundraisers

[MommyDOK]

So, our school just sent home the first "fundraiser", which is pizza and cakes and such. We would never eat that kind of food...we have no family in town and I HATE hitting up people to buy crap. I used to be in sales and have no problem selling things, but it just seems awkward to go up to all my neighbors and ask them to buy pizza. Our neighbors across the street are always ordering domino's/pizzahut, so I guess I could have dd go there, but that's about it.

I totally love my dd's school and want to support them anyway I can. I think we're expected to sell at least 10 pizzas. Maybe I should ask them what their profit is and just write a check for that amount.

It's similar to all your friends at work that ask you to come to their candle, jewelry, make-up parties. bugs me....

how do you handle them?

[robin3]

We don't do them. I object to the products and the award system that goes along with the kids selling. We do participate in fundraisers where we can purchase our children's art work made into mugs, t-shirts and such but there is no selling to friends and neighbors for those. I'm considering making a small donation instead of participating this year. Hate the wrapping paper, pizza, cookie etc. fundraisers!!

[odenata]

We didn't do the one at my dd's school last year. I think I felt doubly annoyed by it b/c it's a private school and I'm already paying quite a bit for her to go there.

Not to diminish anyone's experience with public schools and fund raising - I remember being forced to do it for band growing up and hated it. And some kids parents would do it for them - take it to work and sell stuff - and mine wouldn't, so I really resented it.

[vtgirl]

i know fundraisers can be a PITA esp. when you want no part of what they are selling. i am part of a PTO for my dd's VERY small school (31 students k-6 this year!)and we NEED to do fundraisers to make sure the kids get field trips and new books etc. b/c it is just not in the school budget.

so, my first suggestion is to join the PTO and help out with ideas and input since often there are only a small group of moms who are willing to get involved. and IF you do join - then you have a voice and you can give other ideas.

some ideas that we have used to fund our ski program, field trips, new books and after-school-program healthy snacks are...........

a raffle - you get everyone's heads together to figure out every local business and artisan they know and get them to donate their service or product and sell tix for $5 or 5 for $20. if you only sell 500 tix thats around $2,500. pure profit. also we have done a bookshare bookfair as opposed to the normal "scholastic bookfair" where our kids come home with pencils and posters and crappy hannah montana books. the way this works is you ask for donations of books from families and other community members and you sell the books super cheap - we did $1 for kids books and $2 for other books. in a big community you could make some good $$ and send kids home with good books (and even *fluffy books* for 25c apiece if you want.) it's a real alternative to the standard bookfair and it works!!

this year we are going to do a flower bulb fundraiser - the website is kidsgardening.com/funraising.asp sorry my computer is not working well or i would link you to it. it is a site that sells bulbs for schools and gives 50% profit to the school. should be a little easier to sell around the neighbourhood than pizza and candy.

anyway - those are just some ideas - we have done the art fundraiser as well and that is a good one as well. i think it is about 40% profit from what you sell.

good luck - it's not easy to be inundated with that stuff this early in the school year but maybe you can have a little input and make some changes!!

[EFmom]

We don't do fundraisers. Corporate America can sell its own crap and they aren't doing it on the backs of my kids. All the fundraising literature goes straight into the recycling bin.

I have no problem with supporting the school. They are underfunded. I write a honking big check to the PTA at back to school night, and I'm done for the year. The school gets 100% of the money and the fundraiser companies get squat. It's all good.

[mags]

To the OP- If I were you, I'd just write a check. That's what I plan to do. I too hate fundraisers. I just got back from my son's preschool parent orientation (my first child going to, "school"), and they already talked about fundraisers. I will probably buy some books and donate campbell's labels (we don't really eat campbell's that much), and there is some sort of coin fundraiser in the spring. The other fundraisers, where they want you to sell stuff, I won't participate in that. I had a miserable exp as a child having to sell stuff as school fundraisers and refuse to make my kids go door to door to sell stuff. If they were to man a table in front of a store or something to sell stuff, I would be ok with it, but no door to door sales, it just stinks to make kids do that kind of thing, esp when they get rejected over and over again, b/c none of the neighbors want to buy anything. I think I was the only girl scout on the face of the planet who was only able to sell ONE box of cookies... to my mom! None of my neighbors would buy cookies from me, one even told me that if she wanted cookies, she would just bake some of her own. I still feel like crud from that experience.

[mommy68]

My children were in school last year. If it was a fundraiser that I didn't agree with nor did I have any use for, then I would donate money directly to the school. My kids attended a private school so they didn't mind that we did it that way.

And remember, not ALL families even participate in the fundraisers. There are going to be so many fundraisers throughout the year that you can pick and choose what you want to actually participate in. I would trash it and wait for the next one to come around. If your kids are in public school then I assure you that all kids are not participating, way more than you know.

[pibblestiltskin@ma]

I put those fundraisers right in the recycle bin! I don't want any of the junk (pizza, cookie dough, wrapping paper, candy etc) and I don't want anyone I know to feel obligated to buy it. I do buy the artwork, school t shirts, attend events, volunteer etc. Like many others here I prefer to just write a check as my fundraising contribution - and I do make a point of explaining why. Our PTO does so much for the kids/school I do want to support them.

I was at a PTO meeting once where many of the regulars and PTO officers were discussing giving up on the fundraisers because the consensus at the meeting was that it was a PITA and that many people did not want to participate. The problem was that most people do want to participate and the fundraisers bring in significant revenue that the PTO would otherwise not get.

[mojumi]

I appreciate the advice from those who have just written checks instead of participating in fundraisers. That makes so much sense to me -- the school gets all the money and you don't need to bring home the crap (pizza/cheesecake/plastic junk/etc). I had read that idea in a magazine somewhere but I wondered how it worked irl -- sounds like no one minds at the school!

[Koloe]

I kind of wonder why when the kids come knocking at my door why they don't just have a donate X option for those that don't want to buy the product. I would rather give the local school $7 than spend $7 for a box of candy I don't need or some trinket that will collect dust.

They talked about fundraisers at my DD's preschool open house this week too.

[AuntNi]

Originally Posted by EFmom

We don't do fundraisers. Corporate America can sell its own crap and they aren't doing it on the backs of my kids. All the fundraising literature goes straight into the recycling bin.

I have no problem with supporting the school. They are underfunded. I write a honking big check to the PTA at back to school night, and I'm done for the year. The school gets 100% of the money and the fundraiser companies get squat. It's all good.

:
I just write a check to the school, too. The one thing I do buy is the yearly Entertainment books, because those are actually worth much more than $25 to me.

What really p*ssed me off last year was that the kids who participated in the fall fund drive received a school water bottle in a very public way. DD got a water bottle because I'd written a check. But the kids who hadn't sold anything were made to feel like crap, IMO. That made me so .

[Porcelain Interior]

If you feel these things are wrong you need to decline to participate. I always nicely give my feelings on the issue every single year to the PTA heads, and they nod nicely.

These things are in the same bracket with soda machines in schools imo. I am not down for it, and I'll never pretend to be.

I always have to explain to my kids the trick. How they are tricking kids into selling junk so they can get some toy junk. Both my kids get the gimmick, and when they realize we can get bouncy balls and glow in the dark pencils at the store they lay off me.

[earthmama369]

Originally Posted by vtgirl

a raffle - you get everyone's heads together to figure out every local business and artisan they know and get them to donate their service or product and sell tix for $5 or 5 for $20. if you only sell 500 tix thats around $2,500. pure profit. also we have done a bookshare bookfair as opposed to the normal "scholastic bookfair" where our kids come home with pencils and posters and crappy hannah montana books. the way this works is you ask for donations of books from families and other community members and you sell the books super cheap - we did $1 for kids books and $2 for other books. in a big community you could make some good $$ and send kids home with good books (and even *fluffy books* for 25c apiece if you want.) it's a real alternative to the standard bookfair and it works!!

this year we are going to do a flower bulb fundraiser - the website is kidsgardening.com/funraising.asp sorry my computer is not working well or i would link you to it. it is a site that sells bulbs for schools and gives 50% profit to the school. should be a little easier to sell around the neighbourhood than pizza and candy.

anyway - those are just some ideas - we have done the art fundraiser as well and that is a good one as well. i think it is about 40% profit from what you sell.

These are great fundraiser ideas! I might borrow some of these for a local nonprofit I work with.

[annethcz]

I also decline to participate. It does make me frustrated the way children get prizes for fundraising, but OTOH I know the school needs the money. FWIW, most of our fundraisers are raffles, silent auctions, etc. rather than selling corporate crap that no one really needs.

If it works for our budget I write out a check to the school. I wish I could do what EFmom does and just write out a big check at the beginning of the school year, but considering that I spent $400 on various school fees at back to school night yesterday, it's not gonna happen this month.

[Peppermint Leaf]

This is only MY opinion and I dont mind if nobody else agrees with me

My DS is now entering grade 12 and fortunately his school for the most part has never really asked them to go door to door and sell anything. But even if they did - I wouldnt allow it. I think its terrible to expect little children to go knocking on doors of strangers and expect them to give you money.

I also think that starting that right in September when there are so many other expenses getting a child ready for school is inappropriate !

They do have one walking marathon per year as a fund rasier and I just sent in a cheque for him .. I would not allow him to hit up neighbours, friends or relatives.

Here is what our DS school does - if anyone is looking for ideas

Each classroom is given a "theme" for a basket and each child is asked to bring 1 item related to their theme basket. Someone donates large baskets and volunteers do these baskets up and they have silent auctions at school events -- ie concerts etc.

Everyone is on a different budget so every little item contributes to the basket. I love the idea and it DOES bring more people out to the school events because they love the silent auctions.

Example of Theme Baskets: bbq, movie night, stationary, christmas, baby, cookies

So - if your classroom's theme basket is Cookies -- you could send something as simple as a cookie cutter or a cookie sheet, oven mitts, choc chips, cook book. etc etc.

Each basket has approx 25 - 40 items in it. (some people donate more than one item)

There is a box in the classroom that kids put their items in so nobody knows who donated what and there is no comparrisons as to the amount each person spent.

By the way -- most baskets end up going for $100 and up !!!
ME

[wednesday]

I think my son's school must have had a lot of parents just write checks in the past. The school is sort of a magnet and draws a pretty affluent population. This is our first year there and we just got a notice home that this year the PTO will not have a selling-type fundraiser, but rather they are asking every family to donate what they can with a suggested minimum of $50/child. I'm totally thrilled, I hated fundraisers as a kid and was dreading the prospect as a parent.

[littleaugustbaby]

We don't do them. If she is selling something that we would actually use, and I have the extra money for it, then I'll buy it. But most of the time...no.

Luckily, her current school doesn't do them.

[NikonMama]

Our school doesn't do fundraisers like that, thankfully! The only fundraiser they have all year long is the carnival in the fall. I'm glad we don't have to deal with that. Sorry I have no advise for you, though. When I worked in childcare centers that sent these home, a lot of parents just didn't do them. *shrug*

[cedoreilly]

I pick and choose as far as fundraisers. I will not buy random "crap". I will save my soda cans, boxtops and help out/attend fundraiser events (oldest two's preschool last year did a children's fair. I worked the event and my DH bought a reasonable amount of tickets ($10) and took the kids around). My feeling is that not every family does every fundraiser.

[langyork]

I don't buy that stuff, and I object to what the school spends the money on: dvd players to watch movies in class.