Parents Balking At School Fundraising

Some Say It Takes Up Too Much Time And Prefer To Just Write A Check

(CBS)  Schools seem to be calling on students more and more to help them raise money.

And, as CBS News correspondent Susan McGinnis reports, as the number of school fundraisers have grown, so has frustration.

"I don't believe it's appropriate for the schools to use the children to fund their own education," objects Beth Eagleson of San Clemente, Calif., who says families today have limited time, and fundraising is a huge imposition.

"We have to pitch the merchandise, collect the money for the merchandise, and deliver the merchandise, and I'm not, as a mom and a family, set up to do that," she says.

And, after years of being asked to sell things such as wrapping paper, Eagleson finally had had enough.

"I simply called the school and called the principal and said my son will not be participating any further in sale-type of fundraisers," she told McGinnis.

And, McGinnis points out, she's not alone.

At Dutch Neck Elementary School in Princeton Junction, N.J., parents voted to do away traditional school fundraisers.

Principal Scott Feder says they "went away, and now we do a 'Write a Check' campaign, where we send a letter home and the parents respond with sending in what they feel is appropriate."

Checks are written directly to the school, are tax deductible, and are producing as much money as traditional fundraisers did. Feder says the school even exceeded its goal for the campaign, two years in a row.

How much time do parents save by just writing that check?

"Maybe a week's worth of hours, hours and hours and hours of time," says Feder.

Many schools are turning to the Internet for new ideas for fundraising.

One site helps them create school directories where businesses pay to be advertised, then they're distributed free to families.

And on PledgePlay.com, you play video games in return for making donations to a school.

One Web-based fundraiser, at the Infant Jesus of Prague parochial school, in Flossmoor, Ill., brought in more than $1,200 in Easter candy proceeds. And Principal Thomas Sedor says it was an improvement over some past fundraisers.

Another site offering innovative ideas for school fundraisers is Fundraiser Help.

[ecuadoriana]

Just want to add one more element to this debate for everyone opening the door to "little sales reps":

2 yrs ago, in my town, there had been a rash of daylight hours home invasions- theft of computers, jewelry, wallets, guns, etc. The police suspected there might have been a connection w/a robbery at the high school of video equipment.

One day, before the "perps" were caught, I answered the door to a high school kid claiming he was raising money for the soccer team. A lot of things didn't look right: He didn't look like he played soccer- he was far too muscular in the upper body, he had no pamphlets or paper work w/him, no ID tag. I suggested he come back in a 1/2 hr when my husband, a huge soccer fan, would be home, that he'd be happy to talk about & support soccer. Suddenly the kid looked nervous & said he needed to catch his ride. After he left I made a quick call to the sheriff dept just to mention my concern.

3 mnths later I saw a foto in the paper of the 4 high school wrestling team members who had been arrested for theft & selling the stolen items on ebay. The "soccer team" kid was one of them! The MO was if no one answered the door they'd break in.

The fact that these kids had been keeping the stuff in the bedrooms w/out the parents knowledge is a topic for another time.

Point of story: Check for proof that they are legitimate. A box of stolen candy & a pitch of "raising money for..." is easy to fall for.

[allymonk]

With a ever growing list of options a fundraising volenteer has to choose from, things can become totally confusing very quickly.
Just looking for a fundraising solution can bring in too many choices.
I use www.superfundraiser.com which has a great free matching service, so you only see a handful of proven options that you can then choose to receive info from - highly recommended.

[allymonk]

With a ever growing list of options a fundraising volenteer has to choose from, things can become totally confusing very quickly.
Just looking for a fundraising solution can bring in too many choices.
I use www.superfundraiser.com which has a great free matching service, so you only see a handful of proven options that you can then choose to receive info from - highly recommended.

[georgebou-2009]

we used to have the same problem when our kids were young and when the grandkids started the same, only it was for girl scout cookies. when we found out that the scouts were getting very little for their efforts, we started giving them $10.00 for their scout troop and elimated the big shots. this way there was more money for the troops and they didn't have to work their butts off running around in cold weather just to make .30 cents on a box of cookies. After they figured it out that they got more this way, they were all for it..

[mizpah63]

Response to jburress:

Athletics is a priority activity that schools liberally fund because so many parents and other taxpayers demand it. When parents and other taxpayers place a higher priority on other activities, then those activities will receive the funding. Personally, I would rather have my education tax dollars spent on classroom education.

[tyranmex8810]

i hate fundraisers and will not buy from anyone comming to the door . i dont believe kids should be out in the streets with all the sickos that are around .

[gordon.couger]

I spite of not liking fund raisers it does teach the kid selling skills and how to meet the public. Two things they don't learn at home or at school.

I never buy the junk that don't eat but give the kid a check made out to the school so the the school gets the money.

Gordon

When my kids were in school I would give them $50.00 each not to bring that fund raising *** home

[cecndot]

Even as far back as 30 years ago, I never let my
boys go "begging" to the neighbors when the school sent things home to sell. I always wrote
down relatives names and I wrote the check.
Just last week my eleven year old grand daughter
asked me to buy a "saver" card to be used at different food places. It was $10 and expires in 6 months. Last year it was $10 and expired in eleven months, the year before that it was $10 and expired in twelve months. I'm sure she will be selling one in September so they can get $20 for a year. Maybe next time it will be for three months.
Of course, I always buy from my grand
daughter and I'm sure I will be buying from her Sister when she gets in school in another year.
Oh well, that's what Grandma's are for.

[joey2700]

This is a tough topic. Schools need funding and who better to go after than the families who utilize the schools. However, it gets out of hand when we are purchasing gift wrap, candy, raffle tickets and Bingo nights on a regular basis.

My concern is not so much the hounding for money on a constant basis but I worry about the possible danger the kids may be put in. There are so many incentives (games, gift cards, etc) for kids to sell the most products, that I worry they may try and sell to just about anyone.

Our school just did a fundraiser with a company called CoolZips.

They handle everything. No door to door sales for the kids and no deliveries by the parents. This is something for your schools to consider. It is another fundraiser but boy did it eliminate the time and frustrations.

[realmom2]

No matter whose fault it is, our schools NEED fundraising to garner the extra cash not coming from sources we've had in the past. "Write a Check" is cool; however, one or two quality fundraisers a year (not 8--that's when parents get fed up and tired out) ain't so bad. Try food fundraisers (we all eat) and get away from the trinket and candy bar fundraisers that come a dime a dozen. Get the community involved and make it fun and profitable.

[ecuadoriana]

To paraphrase a bumper sticker I once saw:

When was the last time the armed forces had a bake sale to raise money for weapons?
_____________________

Why is it that schools, whose sole purpose, supposedly, is the education & enrichment of tomorrow's best & brightest, are strapped for cash, but BabyBush just requested that we fork over more money to "support the troops"?

With the education system the way it is today, why bother having schools at all? Just put the kids out to work until they're old enough to sign up. It just seems like our government's sole purpose is to kill off as many of tomorrow's best & brightest anyway for fear they'll live long enough to want to collect on their social security & medicare. If we didn't have schools to worry about funding then we'd have that much more money to kill more people!

[lenoirdenant]

25 years ago my husband told the school principal that our daughter would not be participating in any fund raisers that sold candy, spices, candles and other high priced low quality items. In fact she would not sell anything for the school. The principal was shocked to say the least.
The fund raising using our children and grandchildren has gotten out of hand. I do not know the solution, but it does have to stop.

[oleander8]

I emailed this story to my daughter and got this reply:

"Funny you should send this - Frankie just brought the spring fund raiser home. It was selling all kinds of junky candy and nuts, (think Brach's) for $6.00 per 7 oz. I threw it directly in the trash can"

[jburress]

I know the transportation director in our school district charges the student organizations (clubs not athletic teams) .99 a mile for transportation and gets .93 a mile back from the state government. The bill is automaticaly charged to our club account and paid by the school secretary before we have a chance to protest it. Teachers are paid .30 a mile when we transport students.

[truthword]

School districts, water districts, cities, counties, states, and the fed government are all running a major double bookkeeping scam called CAFR reporting. The budget they show you is just a shell game where they show you the bills and expenses and claim they're broke and need to raise taxes, meanwhile they're hiding billions and trillions of our tax dollars in their 2nd book the CAFR or Comprehensive Annual Financial Report. If things were ran honestly we'd all be getting dividend checks every year from each of these insitutions and living in a tax free society, that's how profitable our system is folks. This is no conspiracy theory, the numbers are right there in their official document the CAFR... over 85,000 CAFR's are filed every year in the USA... look into this folks, on the search engines, we're being robbed blind, our kids could have the best schools ever, even the homeless are owed tons of money. They're holding onto this money to use it as a control method, redistribute the surpluses now!

[cgesualdo]

I'll bet it hasn't occurred to most parents that they can do what the mother in the story did: call the principal and say "no more." I really have to wonder about all this fundraising. I was never asked to participate in a fund raiser until I was in high school band, and the money was used only for special trip expenses, never for every day education. And notice, I can spell and construct a proper sentence. I even went to college and earned some degrees. My education did NOT suffer for it.

[sydknott]

An important fact that was missed in the story is that typically schools only receive 50% from gift wrap, magazines, cookie sales, etc. I write a check, that way the school receives 100% of the donation and there is so much less work for everyone.

[dragonmouse-2009]

I absolutely HATE fund raisers where we have to sell garbage like over priced Sally Foster products, teeny tiny tins of candy etc. It's so embarrassing. I'd so much prefer to simply write a check. I'm not a rich woman but I always end up buying "something" just for my son to get "credit". It's nutz. Why can't he get credit for turning in a check? I realize some people can't afford a "pot to pee in" and will have a devil of a time coming up with the check and would prefer to "sell" but give us a CHOICE.

Now if they want to do a fund raiser such so the kids get out there and wash cars or something...then I don't see a problem with that. This selling fund raiser stuff needs to STOP.

[teachertoo]

If public schools received adequate funding from the federal and state governments, schools would not have to resort to fund raising.