school fundraisers

[Joan.of.the.Arch]

How are the school fundraisers going this year?

Today I was targeted in a way that is new to me. An envelope arrived in the mail containing a card filled out by the child's parent, a fill-in-the-blank plea to "sponsor" little Sammy, grade 3, by buying at least two magazines from the included brochure. Then Sammy would get a Scooby Doo T-shirt. Also included is a post card for me to stick a stamp on and fill out to let Sammy know that I am "sponsoring" him. I also get to put a stamp on the envelope with which to mail in my order. Then I get to wait 6-8 weeks for the magazines if they are weeklies, and "a few more weeks" if they are monthlies. Oh, what service.

The school may have chosen this fund raiser in reaction to parents complaining about the school wanting to send little kids out door to door. There is no info as to what percentage goes to the school nor even as to what the fundraiser is for, though two of the papers in the envelope are entitled, "Computers for Education." Yeah, yeah. Blah, blah, blah.

Sorry Sammy, it's a no-go this time.

Have any school fund raisers charmed you into great generosity this year?

[jIM_Ohio]

I received a similar card from a neighbor's kid which attends a private school. My thought is private schools should not need fundraisers. Just increase tuition more.

[simpleyme]

the kids usually get a candy for turning in the booklet of post cards with the names and addresses of family and friends on them so I doubt that it matters to little sammy if you order ;-)
so far I have had no fundraisers whoohooo I bet this luck can't hold out

[MonkeyMama]

No fundraisers here. Not yet anyway.

The kids go to a public school, but it is pretty anti-door-to-door fundraiser. They focus on a couple of big events a year. I think moreso there are parents with deep pockets happy to just pay the school and avoid the whole hassle.

I've only had a child in this system for a month. I just find it interesting.

[disneysteve]

We've only had one - the magazine sale. We renewed 3 magazines that we always get. DD wanted 3 because she gets something for selling 3.

[rob62521]

I work for one district and live in another. The district I live in had a fundraiser with candy bars for a Washington trip. The kid was polite, asked nicely, and I bought the candy. Of course it helped that he told me what grade he was in and why he was selling the candy. Our neighborhood is pretty safe so they still do the door to door. The district I work for can't allow the door to door -- it's pretty dangerous.

[momof1in150]

We have had two so far - elementary school was cookie dough & soup. The Middle School was Reader's Digest, chocolate & gift wrap. They were my sons' school so I spent $20 on each. I don't let my kids go door to door and all of my friends have children in the same schools so we don't ask them. My youngest did have to sell raffle tickets for his therapeutic horseback riding program but they run on a shoe string budget so I didn't mind that one.

[mom-from-missouri]

The best ones are the ones that require NO SELLING!.

Office Depot--schools sign up and are given an ID number . When parents buy at Office Depot they tell the clerk the school name (or the parents may have been given a business card with the ID number on it). 5% of their sale amount goes to the school.

Country Mart stores--you have a small tag on your keychain which the clerk scans at the checkout. 5% of your sale goes to the school that you are linked with.

Both of these work ANYWHERE. So Grandma in FL can help little Johnny in NY raise money if she shops at these stores.

Some Pizza Hut and Sonics will have a night for the school. A % of your meal goes to the school, or they let parents be the car hop/waitress for the night and all the tips go to the school. In our old town the high school band parents did that once a quarter on a Friday or Saturday night and usually raised a couple thousand each time.

Best Choice labels--clip out the UPC and turn them into the school. For every 1000 the school turns in, they get $30 or $60 dollars ($60 if they have a bonus coupon which are sent to the schools once a year). Also, there is the campbells and box top for ed programs.

The nice part is that in our area, even homeschoolers can register their "school" in several of the programs. So far in 2 years, we have earned about $20. When combined with a sale & a coupon, it was enough for a case of paper for school. Not a lot, but better than no case of paper, which I had to buy anyway.

Some of the programs don't let homeschools individually earn, but will let their coop earn. Then there are a few that we do for the local public school here.