School Fundraisers

**jodi** · 09-05-2007, 05:13 PM

Personally, I hate it too. And my kids are not even to that age yet! However, there is a constant stream of products in my office from coworkers' kids. I dislike the entire idea of selling overpriced items for a small profit for the group and a much larger (I presume) profit for the company.
As I said, my kids are not old enough yet, but when they are, I don't want them to have to hawk this stuff. Amy Dacyzyn (Tightwad Gazette) suggested giving a donation to the cause rather than buying an overpriced item you don't want - kind of "cutting out the middleman", I guess. This idea appeals to me because 1. you're likely to spend less (i.e. $20 for an item would probably only put a few bucks in the school's pockets, but I could donate $10 directly to the school instead), and 2. the organization receiving the donation benefits directly.

**PrincessPerky** · 09-05-2007, 06:25 PM

Personally if you want to donate donate, if you want crap, buy it at junks are us for less.

Also what does it teach him?...well you really don't want a home schoolers opinion on that.....But I will say my personal pet peeve is 'get out of class'...why is that a reward? if suspension (no class) is a punishment, why is getting out of class a reward?

**LuckyRobin** · 09-05-2007, 07:27 PM

It depends on the fundraiser. We have a jog-a-thon that the kids get sponsors for. I like that one. You can sponser by the 1/4 mile or just give a flat donation. The kids put forth effort in a safe way. I like the entertainment book one as well, but that is at the junior high school level. I hate candy sales. I hate magazine sales. I hate those stupid purse size calenders. I hate anything that really requires door to door, except the entertainment book and I would limit that to me buying a couple and they can ask the grandparents but that's about it.

I always explain to my kids that the prizes are cheap and stupid and that they are not worth anything and most of it can easily be purchased with less than half their allowance if they really think they need to have it.

**Exile** · 09-05-2007, 07:51 PM

When I was working, hardly a day went by when some co-worker who was a parent would be soliciting for their kid(s)' school fundraiser. What a nuisance that was.

Also I think it's a form of exploitation because these events put undue pressure on the kids themselves, especially the younger ones.

**TBH** · 09-06-2007, 05:59 AM

My kid is only in preschool but I've already been struggling with this issue. I wrote a blog post about it a while back:

Frugal fundraising for schools

The post needs updating, but it has some ideas that have worked for me.

**eisor** · 09-06-2007, 09:16 AM

I agree! My sister's school at least goes with the Reader's Digest fundraiser, where at least 50% of each item sold goes right back to the school. But, the stuff is still overpriced. I usually buy the $12 Reader's Digest subscription because she gets extra prizes for it, it qualifies as a renewal and the school gets ALL of the $12. So, it's win-win.

What I also hate are those stupid Chirstmas stores that the PTA puts on. Kids are encouraged to bring their money and buy gifts for friends & family. My sister's school used a company to do it and they only got 20% of the sales!! The crap was sooo overpriced. I'm talking $5 for a VERY VERY cheap bracelet that fell apart before it got home. It's ridiculous. My mom tried to tell the PTA that they could go to a dollar store and buy a TON of stuff. Sell it all for $1.5-$3 and make a ton more money.

**momof1in150** · 09-06-2007, 11:31 AM

We are about to have 2 different fundraisers sent home for both of my children. I will spend less then $10 on each. I hate them. My oldest has gotten over the fact that I am not going to run around and sell for him. I won't let him go door-to-door because it is not safe.

I tried to donate the $10 each to the school but they told me that it messes up their accounting.

**cschin4** · 09-06-2007, 10:23 PM

I don't bother others with this nonsense. I usually just buy the minimum amount and then give the stuff as gifts throughout the year. Kids should not have to sell this junk. I think they learn much more by doing a car wash, making hoagies, etc where they actually have to work to provide something rather than just hawking some junk that nobody wants.

**Lori63** · 09-07-2007, 01:45 AM

I have three boys, and I always just donated $20 or so at the beginning fo the year and skipped the fundraisers.

**disneysteve** · 09-07-2007, 04:34 AM

We have no problem skipping the fundraisers when they are things we neither want nor need. They are typically overpriced and things that we wouldn't buy anyway, even if the price was lower, like candy, wrapping paper, candles, etc. Stuff we just don't use.

We do generally do the magazine sales because the prices are good and we order magazines we'd be getting anyway.

**SnoopyCool** · 09-07-2007, 07:05 AM

We're going to skip this fundraiser (its the gift wrap paper/chocolates/etc kind). I thought a lot about it and I just don't feel that I want to allot money for this stuff. We've instead joined the PTA and we will buy the school's t-shirts for DS and DH.

**herm4** · 09-07-2007, 07:08 AM

I always skip the fund raisers. We pay $9,000 a year in property taxes. A huge chunk of that goes to the schools. Plus, I help in my kids classroom weekly. I think that's probably enough.

**simpleyme** · 09-07-2007, 07:26 AM

one year I spent 50 dollars buying stuff from my sons popcorn sale in cub scouts and they proudly announced that he had raised 16 bucks towards camp,I felt like such an idiot

I do not buy from fundraisers anymore , our boy scouts have a huge plant sale and since we need no plants we bought nothing ,

we do work the sale extensively and my son earned over 600 dollars towards his high adventured camp

one of the dads bought over 300 dollars worth of plants and asked my DH how much he had bought when DH said nothing the guy said "but it supports the kids" and DH said I would rather just put the 300 dollars to my sons account and then he would 900 towards the trip

the guy looks at my DH and says "o'man do I have buyers remorse "

**DayByDay** · 09-07-2007, 08:21 AM

Just thought I'd throw this in.....Here's a Census Bureau report showing the annual per-pupil-expenditure (on page 12).

School Fundraisers