School Fundraisers - A blessing or a curse?

With traditional schools starting back up, it won't be long before your kids start bringing home those fundraising packets.

Does your school do fundraisers?

Is it effective?

How about online fundraising where you purchase products from companies through a web link from your school website with the companies giving a portion back to the schools? Any success stories for that method?

How about year-round schools - do they do fundraisers at the same time?

Any favorites?

One fundraiser that I look forward to are the World's Finest Chocolate bars!

I buy a whole box, which usually lasts until the next fundraiser.

I used to sell those when I was a kid.

 

I don't really mind the fundraisers, understand why they do it. But do wish they'd come up with something better than $20 wrapping paper! Last years' at West View wasn't so bad, it was a catalog with a little bit of everything, I even did some Xmas shopping from it. I know it's for a good cause, but I hate having my son "selling" things to people, I'm not really a pushy person so not much help. I loved the auction they did in March though, you actually got something good for your money, and they made a lot that night. Things like that are neat. I always wonder why they don't do more dinners/breakfasts like the churches do? Or maybe like a springime baseball/soccer game, something the kids can participate in and the people that come to watch pay like a dollar to get in, and they can sell refreshments, something like that?

 

I miss the days of REAL fundraisers. What the kids do now isn't fundraising...they are nothing more than door-to-door salesmen.

We used to have car washes at the bank, and bake sales in the school lobby.

We used to do BBQ chicken dinners sold to the public, like churches do now.

We held "beauty contests" where the male students dressed up as females. We had talent, bathing suit competition and everything. People lined up to attend and pay $5.00 or $10.00 to come, and the overhead was nothing. It was our best fundraiser.

We also held talent shows with entry fees for the contestants and an at-the-door fee for those who attended the show.

We bought donuts from Krispy Kreme and sold them in the mornings before school in the lobby.

Now, kids can't sell any food at the school. No donuts, no bake sales, no BBQ chicken dinners. The reason? Wake Co. schools outsources their cafeteria responsibilities. And part of the contract is that there will be no food sold on school grounds because it could be considered "competition" for the outsourcing company. We checked last year with the 3rd party cafeteria people to see what they would charge us to cook the BBQ chicken dinner, and their cost was so high, and the profit for the fundraising was so low...it wasn't worth the hassle.

Can't have car washes because of the liability.

Can't have anything like the male "beauty contest" because it may offend transgendered students.

Can't have talent shows because it may hurt the feelings of those kids who don't have a "talent."

So our kids are left peddling commercialized and overpriced candy and wrapping paper and candles...and all the kids are selling all the same things from all the same catalogs because Wake Co. has "contract" with specific fundraising companies. So there are less people for the kids to sell to because if the neighbor knows any kid attending school anywhere in Wake Co...they've already bought from the same catalogs.

It just plain sucks.

 

Girl, i could not have said it better.

 

Thank you, Mag! I was really biting my tongue and trying not to post here. The school fundraisers now just give me hives I get so irritated :evil:.


Frogger

 

What makes me mad about school fundraisers is they always promise them this prize if they sale a certain amount like for $400.00 worth of sales little suzzy can get this great hunk of junk that looks like it came from the dollar tree. Oh yea and it will break and have to be thrown away before you have had it a whole day.


Whats really funny is when you sale something and when its delivery time the buyer laughs and says I thought it would be bigger than this or more candy than this.

 

Most of the stuff, you do not get your money's worth. I'd just about rather give a flat out donation than buy the stuff from some fundraisers. I got a nice discount card and some cookie dough the other day though, thanks FF!

However, if anyone want to get some popcorn from the Cubscouts, PM me! 8)

 

What Mag said...

(plus all the other stuff she said that I didn't want to quote to save space)
Yup.

 

I had an idea for a fundraiser for one of the kidlet's clubs that needs funds for a trip.

They would "decorate" a bunch of ties with feathers and jewels and all kinds of crazy things. One kid wanted to decorate his with anchovies! The kids would post pictures of the ties with jars. Students would vote with money they put into the jars, for the tie they wanted the principal to have to wear all week long. The jar with the most money...that's the tie he has to wear. (I would have placed my bet on the anchovy tie...that would have been a blast after a week)

Was told we couldn't do this because having jars of money sitting in the office was "inviting trouble."

:evil:

 

Do not get me started please.

 

Don't send your kids to my house - I'm NOT afraid to tell them NO!

 

We usually just make a donation to the schools if there is absolutely nothing to buy in the catalogs. Some of them have good stuff but others is just overpriced crap!

 

Last year West View used Innisbrook. This year the PTA polled parents & decided to use Jaxco (there is a link on the PTA website www.westviewpta.com). Last year the PTA was very successful in raising funds that were spent to purchase many, many computers for the classrooms. This year the PTA is hoping to raise $61,400 of which $41,924 would be spent on playground equipment.
( The proposed budget can be seen on the following link http://www.westviewpta.com/prod01.htm ) When I originally looked at those numbers I felt the goal was unreachable - then I listened to and watched the group of dedicated folks working with the West View PTA and decided that they can do it ... they can do anything. The PTA's budget is posted out on the website along with the other fundraisers/spirit nights at local eateries/auction/Holiday Bazaar ... and the other plans the West View PTA has already been put into place. I am constantly amazed at how hard the PTA members work and the huge amount they have been able to accomplish in such a short amount of time. Last year was West View's 1st year in existence and many of the PTA members (including the president) were brand new to the job. I was amazed with what the PTA folks, parents, volunteers & West View Staff were able to do last year. If you haven't figured it out already ... I think the West View PTA folks are AMAZING but then again I think everything about West View is pretty impressive

 

I don't mind the fundraisers. It's part of my kid's childhood and I help and support anyway I can. It's not their fault that most grown-ups are grumpy and don't agree with the way they do fundraising now. Pretty sure they don't care either. I help them sell stuff to close family and friends and all is good.

 

I just wish they didnt make them sell so much stuff for the "good" prizes!

 

I diffuse the 'prize' thing with my kids. They understand that the fundraiser is not about getting some useless peice of plastic, that it's to make a bit of money to help out their school. They get it. :-D

 

I have my own kids. Keep your begging kids home.

 

Well thats good! I know some kids are just looking for the prizes, which is a "bonus" to helping out the school but some of the things that they give out is pretty lame

 

Oh definitely, they pump them up so much about those prizes...it's almost like feeding them straight Mountain Dew ....I try real hard to not let the kids 'believe the hype' about alot of the nonsense they are subjected to (not just fundraising). My favorite preamble with them is 'Let's try and keep it real......"

 

:mrgreen: