Friday, April 18, 2008

School Fundraising - Rant

I don't know about anyone else out there, but I could surely scream if my kids bring home another sausage and cheese fundraiser - or any fundraiser that requires them to market goofy, expensive stuff. I understand that the school is trying to raise money, and it's not that I don't want to support the school. It's just that these types of fundraisers are a major PITA!

They offer these prize incentives, so the more they sell, the more chance the child might have to get a cheap, useless. .50 cent toy that's going to break in the first 30 minutes. However, the kids don’t understand that. All they know is they want the cool looking toy that is on the prize list. So of course, they want to go around the neighborhood begging asking everyone they know to buy these overpriced, useless products. This, of course, is the easy part and I have discovered, this is where the child’s job ends.


In 4 - 6 weeks, all the products come in and the parent is then required to go to the school and pick them up. You then get the joy of sorting and matching up products to names and address on the form where people didn't write clearly or the form got wet and smeared making it unreadable.

Now you get to go back around to every one's house (if you can read their address) and attempt to try and catch him or her at home. This of course could take several attempts or phone calls, especially if the person owes money and either doesn’t want to pay or just ordered something to be nice to the kid. Maybe after the fifth attempt you give up and have to return the product (if it’s not lost by now) to the school. If it isn’t lost then it’s probably bent up or in bad shape from being scuffled around all over the place. All this, of course, falls in place as the parents responsibility. Especially reminding the child daily to see if Mr. Baker or Mrs. Robinson is home to collect the money they owe and give them their order.

And not to mention the money. Either way, if the child collects at the time of order or after the products come in – is just another added headache, I personally don’t need. Somehow, I always either end up paying for a product I don’t want or dishing out some of my own money cause someone, somewhere, didn’t pay the correct amount and I am coming up short. Who ever in the world invented these types of fundraisers, I would have to question their insanity. The fundraiser alone is enough to drive you insane. My biggest complaint is that the parent is the one who has to do most of the work. That is why I have taken an oath to never do another fundraiser, like this, ever, ever, ever again.

On the other side, I do understand that the schools need to raise money. For that reason, I wrote two articles below that explain a much better, calmer, peaceful way to raise money for your school or other non-profit organization. I hope you find them useful.

Carnival Ideas for How to Raise Money for Your School


How to Raise Funds Without Selling Anything

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