fundraisers - good, bad, and interesting

[SheltieMom]

With 3 kids having gone through school, plus 29 years of teaching, I've seen lots of fundraisers. Other than Girl Scout cookies, the most successful were usually candy sales. I'd much rather buy a candy bar or two on the spot, than order something over-priced that I'm not going to use.
My middle son did learn in middle school that his little sister could sell anything by saying, "Would you like to buy this for my brother's band?" with that sweet, innocent face of hers.

The worst rip-off I ever saw was when the band at the school I was teaching at sold some kind of product, and the prize for selling a certain amount was a "sport bag" with the school logo. The kids thought it would be great if everyone had one, so they went all out selling. When the incentives arrived, they were key chain size, about 3 inches long. And no, there was nothing in the literature to indicate the size. The pictures looked like a regular sized duffle bag.

[Library Dragon]

The best fundraiser we had in high school was our "music card" one. For $10, you could buy a card that gave you discounts at several local places (i.e. 10% off at Taco Bell, 5% at the drycleaner, etc. There were about 20 places on the card) that was good for the whole year. We never had any problem selling those, and anyone who bought could easily make their money back (+ more) over the course of the year because the discount was given on every purchase you made that year. Plus, the school got most of the money (just had to pay the cost of creating the card)

When DS1 was on the Jr.ROTC Rifle Team they sold a version of this card.  The fundraiser was so wildly successful that the school took it away and gave it to the football team.  I just bought one for the first time since 2000.

DH always disliked people bringing their kids cookie and wrapping paper catalogs into the OR.  He did change his tune when it was time to sell candy bars for little league.  He didn't take in DS' but with 4 boys on our block alone it was a challenge.  DH took in the candy bars for friends who have 5 sons.  The OR staff snapped them and it was the first time the boys had ever "sold" all their candy.

I jokingly suggested a library fundraiser the other day.  Our Foundation's vice president brought in her son's University of Alabama Football championship rings and Pasedena watch and showing them to another FANatic.  We could charge $$ to let people wear them and take their photos.  Another member of the board thought I was serious and almost had a stroke.  Seriously though, we would make serious cash  .

[dawnfire]

the best fundraising: A weekend market. My sons scout troop ran a market one Saturday a month.  It's now probably one of the biggest in the area (attracting about 100 stallholders) and brings in thousands of dollars for the troop which is divided between the group who's running it (joeys, cubs, scouts, rovers and venturers) [they take it in turn] , the volunteer scouts (who do clean up and man the egg and bacon stall) and hall management.

a good fall back one is sausage sizzle

bring home ones: chocolate is always good but quality chocolate. we wouldn't sell it to anyone, we'd just buy the whole lot

[daen]

My dad was an elementary-school principal for a while, and the annual provincial conference would bring out the fundraising companies, who would hand out samples. Two that I recall were the travel toothbrushes with the refillable toothpaste tube in the handle (the coolest thing ever when I was eight) and the garbage bags in pastel colours. There was no way they would have sold, even as a fundraiser - they were about ten times the price of package of regular garbage bags, and there were only six or eight in a package. They were, however, extra-thick and durable, and we used them for transporting sleeping bags on trips. When you're at camp with a hundred and fifty other kids, all of whom have their sleeping bag stuffed in a garbage bag for protection, having your sleeping bag in a robin's-egg blue bag makes it very easy to pick out in the sea of black and green. Those bags lasted us about fifteen years.

For the most part, our elementary school fundraisers were chocolate-covered almonds, which sold quite well year after year. I recall that one year, my older cousins had catalogs of "candle-holders" - various ceramic tchotchkes of cartoony children doing cute things, with a cup beside them to hold a votive candle. That was never repeated.  Aside from the chocolate, I went door-to-door for sponsorships for the heart foundation's skip-a-thon for a few years running. (Jumping rope for three-hours in tag-teams of four.)

I went to a private high school that had an annual work day to raise capital-improvement funds - we'd get sponsors and then spend a day volunteering at different places, usually doing outdoor cleanup. For my grad year, we had a ten-day trip that we were responsible to pay $x for, and there were a variety of fund-raisers to help us do so. (We could have just paid out of pocket if we had wanted, but that wasn't an option for a lot of people.) I did most of my fundraising via the "chicken pull." There were a lot of laying barns in the surrounding area, and the farmers would hire a crew of us to take the old chickens out of the barn so it could be cleaned and new hens brought in. Yes, it was disgusting.

Locally, the most popular fundraiser I see is the sale of gift certificates for local stores, where you purchase them for face value, and the store gives a percentage to the school. The non-school fundraiser (usually for exceptional expenses associated with medical conditions) that I see most often is the benefit supper, where you pay the admission fee and get a meal. The most popular seems to be Mexican food - usually tacos - but I've also seen fish frys and soup and pie suppers.

[Thipu1]

Back in the 1980s and early 90s there was a fund-raiser to which we eagerly awaited.  A volunteer ambulance corps sold books of coupons that gave discounts on things like movie tickets, restaurant meals and purchases at local merchants.  There was even a twofer coupon for rides at Coney Island.  The book cost about 20 USD but we certainly got our money's worth from it. 

[AylaM]

One that I haven't seen much was one I used in high school: mulch. 

Early in the year we'd sell it.  The purchaser could choose from 3-5 colors, and we'd deliver it to their house when it came in.

[Nikko-chan]

Saw the usual bake sale fundraiser at my local Walmart. Then my friend and I were walking across the parking lot to go home... this kid rides by us on a bike with two boards on him, front and back, and holding one to the side of him, and steering the bike one handed. What fundraiser was this you ask?

A mattress sale, and proceeds would go to Local School that Nikko Graduated From.

*is ashamed*

[mime]

Worst fundraiser I participated in: "Rock a Thon" my church youth group sat at the back of the church in rocking chairs. We asked for people to make pledges (like $5/hour) and we would rock in our chairs for 20 hours. We made a great profit (no cash outflow necessary for this), and one kid suggested we do it once a month. I was utterly embarrassed by the lazy 'gimme money for nothing!' approach, and so were a couple others, including our leader. We never did it again.

Best fundraiser I participated in: silent auction. Maybe it's the competition, but people always seem happy enough to part with their money for the prizes. I attended one at my old high school. They had some hockey jerseys from my school and from Team USA (actually used by the teams) that I bid on because it would be a perfect gift for my brother. I ended up bidding against Herb Brooks' brother for some of them. He won 2, I won 1. Fair enough. So my brother got a really cool gift with a fun story! I was perfectly happy to pay up in that fundraiser.

[HoneyBee42]

My daughter is in middle school and in the band.  Every year, at the school open house, they have a chili supper.  It's not fabulous food, but it does get the family fed at $5 a head.

[TeamBhakta]

I remember a Publix in Miami where scout troops used to sell cookies. There was one troop I refused to buy from; they had a bunch of bored kids lounging against a wall, muttering "Lady, you wanna buy our cookies" while looking up at the sky,  and there were no identifiable uniform or signs.

A chain restaurant out here does school fundraisers quite often. A very badly behaved elementary school held a car wash at their property. The kids were running everywhere playing loudly (inside and outside), wrestling, screaming and getting underfoot of customers. Basically everything except participate in the fundraiser. The parents / school leaders did absolutely nothing to corral the mania. Everyone from that school had a purple and gold shirt with the school name on it, so it was fairly obvious who was shirking their duties. I remember one kid screaming "LET'S WRESTLE, YOU GUYS!", a bunch of them piled on and the volunteer right in front of them didn't say a peep.

*ETA: Forgot one from years ago. On a sidewalk along the main road was a dad in a shaded beach chair. He was wearing sunglasses, sipping a drink and holding up a small sign saying "HELP SEND MY SON'S T-BALL TEAM TO CHARLESTON, SC." My first thought was "If you can afford to take off from work like that, you can afford to pay for the trip yourself."

[CrazyDaffodilLady]

I don't like the fundraisers that ask you to sponsor (i.e., give money) to a kid who's going to say, walk a mile or bowl  .  The kid who raises the most money or bowls the best score gets a prize.  Usually, once the money is handed over to the parent, not another word is said about it.  The parent could at least post a photo of the kid at the finish line and caption it something like "Tiffany raised $212 for her school.  Thanks everyone."   

There was one where you could sponsor the kid to read a book for $10. The money went to buy new books for the school library.  Still, something felt a little off about it. 

[kherbert05]

Generally I like the restaurant go out and eat and % of the profits go to the school - except when the restaurant is owned by hate mongers.

Bake Sales where they are legal still. I can't buy because of the food allergy thing. GIve a donation
BBQ type events I'll buy from (can't do fish fry but give a donation)


Hate -
Car washes - all that clean (before it hits the car/ground water) being wasted and washing all that soap into our storm sewers and bayous (Particularly funny when it is an environmental group.) The worst was in San Angelo 2 car washes across the street from each other - water pouring down the street. Girls in skimpy Bathing suits. When I was going to the recycling center they were standing on the curbs jumping in front of cars (Cars getting off the freeway/Highway and slowing to 45 mph. Coming back they were in the center turn lane pushing and shoving each other. Called the cops. Wasn't the first wasn't the last. Thing was the two groups were wearing the colors of the two rival HS's. So everyone assumed it was the school district. Who issued a press release saying that they had not authorized any car washing fundraisers and they would never break the law that way (drought illegal to allow water to run off your property into the street). Turned out to be two "rival" church groups - and they didn't have permission from the property owners. THey just showed up on a Sunday while one set of businesses were closed and the other side of the street just assumed they had received permission from the landlord and stole who knows how many gallons of water.

HS kids panhandling in front of stores. I went shopping one weekend - was confronted by multiple kids at each location demanding I give them money for their extra curricular activities (I swear every sport, every club, every group other than Football (bow your head) was represented). I got home with a head of steam - and sent emails to every corporate headquarters asking why the blazes they were letting these spoiled brats attack their customers - as in I was grabbed on two different occasions at two different locations. Iwanted food and was trying to find someplace to shop without these vultures. The e-mail to the school district - well they had a bond issue coming up and a huge black eye because they built a pro level sports complex, but had falling down schools and were threatening a RIF. I asked when the blue blazes Panhandling was added to the TEKS (state curriculum) threatened to call reporter who had just published the certification scores of every teacher in the greater Houston area (Guy hates plublic schools would have made mince meat out of them) Got a response - very sorry we are investigating. Then a couple of days later contacted me and said it was a stupid mistake. A group of parents had confronted a teacher about fees for an extra currricular activity - he had sarcastically suggested they have their kids go door to door asking for donations. They did. DOn't know if I believe it.

Kids panhandling in the street for sports teams - I call 911 (called non emergency first they said call 911) One time the guy banged on my window because I didn't give the kids something and I should get off the phone (stopped at a light). I had finished, hung up, and told him I was just reporting him for child endangerment and drove off. Every time I do it, when I'm on my way home there is a HC deputy parked at the corner. The kids are out of the street - and parents are doing the panhandling. One time it was a charter school - took pics of them in their school shirts with their support our charter school signs - called 911 - and when I got home sent a complaint to TEA. Honestly I wish they would slap the adults in jail for at least a night or two put a good scare in them about losing their kids might stop the stupidity. (This is the intersection of a FM 7 lane 45 MPH road and a SH 7 lane 45MPH road. Anyone with any since knows people are going faster than 45 mph.

[Please pass the Calgon]

My son came home from college one weekend with the best fundraiser sighting I'd ever heard. It's not a mass-participation thing, but one group of students was raking in the bucks out in the "quad" with just a simple sign: "Pet The Puppy, $1". Absolutely mobbed!

I'm the OP of the original band fundraiser "can I just pay?" post...have to say I love this fundraiser idea! I told DD about it and jokingly wondered if we could charge $2 for ours, she's a Great Dane  after all

[SheltieMom]

A friend of mine held a fundraiser party on her birthday a few years ago. (Not for her, for a charity dear to her heart, and mine.) At the time, we were fostering 3 week old twin boys. We jokingly told people they could hold one of the twins for $1 for the charity. Maybe we should have done it!

[TeamBhakta]

A few years back, there was a school group here doing a car wash fundraiser at a pawn shop parking lot. The pawn shop is on our busy main road. They had 12 / 13 year old girls in very teeny bikinis holding signs over their heads, bouncing up and down + doing sexy dance moves. I was appalled.