And let the school fundraisers begin

I know how you feel and I'm our elementary PTA fundraiser chair... At least ours are coupon books and not high pressure... if you don't want one someone else will buy it.

High school on the other hand... Late last spring my kids tapped out all the grandparents for their orchestra fundraiser, today was the cross country one.  I just got home from picking dd up from it.

Both are just donate money, no "stuff." We don't have a lot of people to ask (they wanted 25 phone numbers per student!) My dd raised $120 (from me and she threw in $20 of her own money) and was ticked it wasn't enough to get win any of the prizes. They expect $200 per athlete.

In the last three weeks I've bought school supplies, paid $500 in various school fees, school photos, bought an $80 textbook for my hs senior to take a community college class, paid the music association "fee" for orchestra... and all the random teacher specific supplies (quad ruled composition book, headphones, styluses) that I am feeling a little grinchy. It's only the 3rd day of school and I'm already exhausted... and my fundraiser hasn't even started yet!

When my kids are done with school I will not miss personally financing all their fundraisers. I wish we had a huge generous family like it seems everyone else has...

We do a similar fundraiser and there is a section where you can just give a flat amount. Almost no one here would give that amount.

I cannot believe that the school or PTA, whoever is running the fundraiser, would turn down ANY donation.
If so, they must not really need the money. If they turn down my/your $2 then, too bad for them.

When DS entered middle school, at the first PTA meeting it was announced, we can do a fundraiser or you
can donate tonight and we will work with what we get. Parents happily put money in the container that
was passed around and we were done.

My 3rd Grade niece brought her fundraiser home last week. As she was unpacking her backpack, she threw the fundraiser in the trash. We asked why she did that and she said "No one wants to over pay for this stuff and the prizes are not worth my time! And Gigi makes better cookies!"

We donate to the teachers at the school for things for their class rooms and class parties. I know in the past when a couple of dollars were needed for a class project or party for my nieces class, extra was sent it with a note for the teacher to use it for maybe a student who wasn't able to bring money due to the family circumstances. At least I know it won't come from the teacher's pocket every single time.

I just gasped when I read some of you were asked to provide 25 emails so they could ask your friends and family for money. If that had been the requirement for ds, he would have quit the activity, and we would have supported that decision. However, it must be noted that he wasn't massively into any one activity. I get that there are loads of kids that are very into their activity and would not give it up no way, no how.

Running laps was my favorite fundraiser when the kids were in school but there was no minimum donation amount or number of laps.

The prepopulated donation amount isn't a big surprise, but I can't image many picking that amount. I'm sure it does help generate higher donation than people would otherwise make though. 

We’ve had jog-a-thons where per lap pledges are requested. The kids run around a baseball field for the laps. They are expected to run 25-30 laps and get pledges of $1.00 per lap from at least 10 people. That means every kid would raise $250.

Because not every kid gets sponsors, some don’t get the expected number of sponsors, and others quit running after a few laps, the average raised per student is less than $250.

The last one we had raised $18,000.

If you hate school fundraisers, consider voting for those who pledge to fully fund our public schools.  Maybe Exxon could start doing Boosterthon to raise money instead of benefitting from tax breaks (replaced in the budget by your tax money and mine).

A dollar a lap is pretty typical for those type fundraisers here.

Our biggest fundraiser is the annual auction where teachers are "encouraged" to give our own time and money to host an activity for kids that the parents bid for their kids to attend. I hate it. 

I have 2 stepsons and they were too old for fundraisers when I came along and no other kids. My little secret is I love fundraisers, probably because I never had to do them. Any kid who hits me up I will buy something from them. For family farther away I will buy something and tell them to keep it. Friend posts on fb and I’m in. I also love raffles and silent auctions as fundraisers. I know none of it is ever a good deal but I still like buying from them. I’m a sucker lol

😬
We do actual events and Penny wars. We are actually doing our own kids Christmas shop vs using a fundraiser company because it's all junk.

That sounds like extortion but I like it.

When I was a kid, and we did those for activities, it was so hard for me. We didn't have money, my parents literally had no friends, and we had very little family. My parents are/were also not what I would describe as "good at life" so it was on me. I would literally end up donating my own birthday money. The only one I didn't have was selling candy bars because the school let us sell them in class and people wanted them.

The schools here tend to just ask parents directly for money, or, at worst, do a parent-run auction with parents bidding on items. I am really thankful. Obviously the better solution would be to just actually find everything, but I can't tell you how upsetting and embarrassing it was as a kid to have the onus for raising money placed on me and to worry I'd get kicked off the team. I mean, I guess I could have just not been involved in things at school, but that is mean to do to kids.

I keep getting emails from my cousins kids band. She told me to just delete it. I gave her ALL of my email addresses (I have 11) and said to just use them. She knows I’m always down for Girl Scout cookies so I support her there.

When I’m asked to donate/purchase/fundraise, I let whoever it is know that I pay out over $500/mo in gym expenses for my kids so I have no extra money but I’d gladly take a donation from them to help support my kids extracurricular sports. They walk away.

My DS is playing soccer this year. When he signed up, we were able to pay $35 to not have to fundraise. I slapped down that cash so fast! The fundraiser was chocolate bars ($1 each) or beef sticks ($2 each). I think we came out ahead and don’t have that crap in the house!

I feel this deep! I just paid my property taxes and I pay 10's of thousands in land taxes. I know I am supporting my school district and my fire departments with it. I know that those monies do not cover it all, so the need for fundraisers is a necessary one.
I hate the ones where most of the money goes to the fundraising company - and you are getting JUNK in return. Around here we do a lot of fundraising dinners and concession stands. I try to support those.
If a group is selling something I really like, I get it. Butter Braids are my weakness. LOL They are SO expensive, but I always get a few and keep in my deep freeze. They are only available by fundraisers - the company does not sell them in any other way. The quality is SO GOOD! Whenever I bake one up, everyone goes nuts for it!


I went to battle when my kids were in elementary school. They had an awful fundraiser with kids selling absolute garbage. JUNK! And the kids that sold the most got a special day at school that started with limo rides, a special meal, basically the whole day off from school.
I said if this happened, I would raise the biggest stink the school ever saw. I would get a lawyer and shit would hit the fan. (I never ever complained about anything at school). The fund raiser went one, but the big "day" for the top sellers got dropped. I know kids got (junk) prizes for selling amounts, but no outright private party at school for it. But it was SO damn unfair to kids that didn't have a big parental network and those with limited funds.

I knew that I had to put myself behind some fundraising efforts, if I was going to make that big of a stink about it. I asked if later, we could do a different kind of fundraiser. We put a couple small ads in the local paper, and did a small mailing with a letter that asked for a straight cash donation. Basically the wording was "we won't try to sell you garbage, in return for a small donation" The money would be spent on field trips, so that all kids could go for free and other "extra's" at school so that ALL kids could have the same thing, without having to pay.

Guess what fundraiser made a LOT more money that went directly to the school - without paying a middle man. My idea. Older people in the community that had no kids in school, and did not want any more junk gave generously! Many gave anonymously.

I also recommend, if you are involved in your school fundraising, to ask them for a confirmation of the amount of money deposited and for them to report the account balance to your organization at least quarterly. Our school administration tried to 'restructure' where the money we raised went. I caught them in that act. Our playground fund was getting siphoned into a sports account.