The Great Fundraising Debate

My all-time favorite fundraiser so far was the one my son's soccer team did last spring - they sold flats of bedding plants. It was $20/flat and the team got a percentage (no idea how much), but it was a pretty easy sell since most people are buying bedding plants/flowers in the spring anyway.

Since you asked (and I realize my opinion is going to rub some (OK, a lot of) people the wrong way) - I refuse to pimp my kid.
When I have an opt out option (thank goodness the PTA does this), I write them a one time check and I'm good for the season.
When I worked in an office, after awhile they banned fund raising activities during work hours because it was getting way too disruptive. People were selling (I kid you not) - cookies, candy, popcorn, frozen pizzas, frozen cookie dough, candles, wrapping paper, cases of fruit, magazine subscriptions - you name it and it was seriously biting into working hours (plus the office was beginning to look like a swap meet and there was not enough fridge space to keep it all).
Almost every kid based fund raiser is using your child as a marketing ploy to ask people to buy things they would not normally buy at prices they would not normally pay. And on TOP of that, the charity in question only makes 20 cents (if you are lucky - I've heard quotes as low as 8 cents) for every dollar spent.
I've done it myself back in the 70's. I sold candy as a Camp Fire girl and magazine subscriptions door to door to fund my senior trip to NY. It was never a safe thing to do.
Since my son was in preschool, it seems you can't turn around without falling over a fund raising activity somewhere for something (every where for every thing). I realize some people have no other way to raise the funds and I am very fortunate to be able to just pay up front for what ever my son is involved in.
The whole fund raising industry (and it's a big industry) just seems like a very inefficient way to achieve a means and I just can't bring myself to feed the beast.
(Spare me the hate mail. You're not going to change my mind and I'll only delete it.)

Just finished up a term as a PTO president, had this debate from every angle. I tend to dislike the middle man-cateloge fund raisers because the money you raise is split with the vendor, and you are offering high priced goods with little value that most people would never buy otherwise, and it functions on guilt and imposition of your friends and family. That said, the reason that they even exist is that most orgnaizations can't make that much money in any other way (we are talking about the thousands, when you have hundreds of children participating) So, with a sports team, I would guess that you are not in that situation, so you can probably make a better impression, and just as much money, by avoiding these kinds of deals. What we were finding in this econemy was that our parents were more favorable toward event based fundraising and buying items that they were going to buy otherwise.

Find some local restaurants, see if they will sponsor a few "family nights" for you. They kick back a percentage of the bills to your orgnaization. You can then pass out the fliers to your family, neighbors, and friends, and encourage them to eat out at that particular night. Pizza is especially popular, and if you do this once per month it adds up. You are not really asking anyone to do anything that they would not do at some point anyway, and they get the regular benefit that they would if they just went out to dinner, they just do so on your behalf.

If your organization is 501c3, this will help with the sponsorships, if not, you can still seek them for advertisements also. Real estate agents are good sponsors. You can let them plant one of their signs at your home games with some balloons on it, with a computer printed banner (try microsoft publisher) taped on it that says "sponsor." Landscaping companies, roofing companies, and construction companies also have yard signs and are looking for ways to get their name out there.

Some car washes will offer a code for your organization, and you get a kick back, or will let you work the car wash for tips on a given day.

Walmart will let organizations sell candy at the doors for donations. Call the service desk and get some Friday, Saturday, Sunday dates.

A garage sale is another profitable way to make money. If you can use the soft ball practice field, you may be able to organize a community garage sale, where you have a small space, but you also sell space to the rest of the community to come sell as well. Sell a 15 by15 food space for 35 dollars (adds up) then you arrainge for the publicity, a salvation army truck to pick up the leftovers, your team has its own space, and your organization sells hot dogs, sodas, bake sale items, does face painting, puts out a duck pond and lets kids win small candy items, etc. Check with the city before you do this, you may need permits.

Just a few things working for us.

M.

I have always not been fond of FR (fundraisers) and I refuse to have my daughter extort from neighbors by selling things I know they do not want or need. I prefer to write a check to the organization. The odd part is......they have "prizes" for who sells the most in some organizations and it does not matter if you donate 3 times the $$, if you don't sell the product, you don't get the "prize". THAT tells me that someone on the FR end of organizing the FR is getting a kickback.

Move ahead to high school. My daughter is a cheerleader. This year I am the President of the Cheer Booster club and FR is a HUGE part of our organization. Here is what we do.... we GLADLY accept cash donations. Our largest activity is selling ads, publishing the football program and selling the football program at football games. This is a huge job but we bring in around $10,000 from this alone. We sell a LOT of programs because parents who have athletes want a program with their kid's picture. The people who advertise get a "thank you" program and other parents with kid's pictures in the program (band, cheer, dancers) want a copy.

We design clothing (t shirts, shorts, sweatshirts) to sell at every opportunity.....Schedule pick up, Open House, football games and it is our next most profitable FR. At schedule pick up this year (2 weeks ago) we sold more Spiritwear than the Booster club sold the entire year last year and we have 10 games and Open house to go! We have a good source, good price and we don't overcharge....we are fair with pricing and still make a profit.

Our money goes toward our training for competition in January. The training by an outside cheer gym runs $5000.

We have 19 girls on the squad. We set a goal for each girl to raise (or donate) $500 worth of ad sales, spiritwear sales or combination of sales and cash donation. We had 2 girls not participate at all this year. You are always going to have some blow it off. We had a few other girls who exceeded the $500 goal (my daughter sold $2000 worth), a couple others sold well over $1500 worth.

I have teamed up with a local high end relatively new shopping center since last May. They have monthly activities and ask our girls to volunteer. Everytime we volunteer, they donate $100 to our fund. Sometimes more if the time is longer. Usually I have a group there for about 2 hrs. This shopping center has already donated $500 to us and by Dec we will have another $500. The girls who chose not to participate are the first to be asked to volunteer. I'll say the 2 girls not participating in FR are in competitive cheer which is also expensive so it is not a $$ issue.

The girls who have sold advertising, volunteered and participated in the FR all have a sense of pride that they helped EARN the money to train for competition. Yes, it is alot of work for parents as well. Cheer (like softball) is very expensive.

Another favorite FR for me is a simple check writing campaign. This usually works well for a school PTA group.

It does help if you have an EIN number and 501c3 forms.

Good luck to your group.

When I was in high school our cheer squad would host a carnival at the first scrimmage of the season. The FFA ran concessions and got that $$, but we ran all the games, cake walks, ticket sales, etc. It was fun and low hassle and kept us from having to fork over the funds we made to a third party (read fundraising company).
We used our for state competitions, travel, ect.
This is such a pain. My son came home with candy bars this year and I let him take to his dad's office (majority single folks) and that was it.

I read a few posts of people who don't like fundraising. I have to say, I tend to agree. My niece and nephew in 1st and 3rd grade were given coupon books to sell in the first two weeks of school. They are just fundraising for the school and not for a special activity. I thought this was too much. That being said, I do think it is a reality that kids in special activities like softball need to raise funds to help pay for things. I have done fundraising for charities through work and other things. Here are a couple of things that have worked well -- car washes, coupon books (these actually are not a bad deal as long as you use the coupons). We also raised a lot of money for a charity by getting a permit from the town to ask for money on an intersection. It was done on a Sunday morning/afternoon just as churches were getting out and it raised a lot of money. This would require a lot of adult supervision, however.

candy bars parents can take a box into work with them. My Dad used to take a box and set up on his desk at work for us when we were little. He would go through a box in 2 or 3 days. In high school we did a raffle, cub scouts this year is doing a car wash we also had a lot of success last year when we held a pancake breakfast the boys waited on the tables while a few parents cooked the only thing is we did not let them carry the coffee. Check w/ local restaurants too I know Friendlys offers a fundraiser night and so do a few of my local pizza places.

I know I always feel like you do! Every time I turn around somebody wants money, a school shirt, pto, sports. It really depends on what you're doing. I know that when I worked in an office alot of the ladies would bring in whatever catalog their child was selling from and they would put it on the front desk and just let everybody know it was there. They were really good about not being pushy.

If I'm understanding right, you're actually supposed to get sponsors? Wow, I dread ever having to do that. Always have them call grandparents and aunts and uncles, older cousins, close family friends and ask for $10. It adds up pretty quickly. My son's baseball team sold those coupon books with the restaurant deals and did pretty well with those.

If you know anyone who owns their own business or who works high up in a business, make a quick call. Or if you're too chicken ;) send a nicely worded letter. Alot of times we go to a restaurant and you see plaques on the wall where for several years they sponsored a baseball or softball team and there are none recent, give a call. Maybe they would be interested in sponsoring again.

Good luck to you!

When I was on a gymnastics team, we did car washes sometimes. Those usually went over well and many businesses will let you use their parking lot. Most of us were pretty young at that point and I think our parents did more of the washing and we did more of the having fun out front getting people to come in. We also sold wrapping paper door to door. It was a great brand and many people in my neighborhood were excited to see me each year to buy more. At the same time, I never went door to door with the magazines, etc that we could sell through school. Part of the gymnastics fund raising could go to our own travel expenses. When I worked at a vet's office a couple of the girls were raising money for a 5K walk they were doing and we held a dog wash after hours. We had signs up on the windows and there were a couple of us that volunteered to help out with the one or two that were walking. It worked out well and we did it for donations.

In general fund raising is fine and it is nice when you can avoid some of the door to door and just let people know what is coming up. If it is a good product, many people don't mind the door to door sales. Other ideas group yard sale where profits go to the team or a bake sale. Some of the ideas can be combined also. Sponsors are great ideas too, our gym sold banners that we hung up and many local businesses were willing to pay for one.

M., I could have written this! I'll be watching this too for the exact same reason!

Our girls are a little older, but with school, homework and the practice schedule we want to make the most of our limited time.

Wow! That's a lot of dedication and something to be admired.

Those candy bars, you know the almond, crispy, and caramel, are like the girl scout cookies of fundraisers. I always buy when people are selling those and I know a lot of other people that do, too. They are forever running out of the caramel because they sell the fastest and it's not wonder because they are like chocolate crack.

Also, I know that if you go through the office at a Wal-Mart they will let you set up a table in front of the store on a Saturday or Sunday and you can do a bake sell and even sell the chocolate bars there. I know people who have been successful with that.

Good luck to you!!

L.