School Fundraising..

[LISA]

It's that wonderful time of year again :rolleyes:

Paige brought this (http://www.sunsweetfundraising.com/) home..

There is a mixture of chocolates and greeting cards/wrapping paper.. all shyt I don't need :rolleyes: at exorbatant prices..

Does your childs school sell anything?

[Connie1222]

Yep, we have a fundraising catalog from Cherrydale or something like that. They actually had an assembly and told the kids about the prizes! I'm just shooting to sell 10 things so Jack can go to the Ice Cream DJ party. :lol:

[LISA]

Oh don't even get me started on the crap gifts Paige would get if she sold $1,275 in crap product she would earn a craptastic mp3 player :rolleyes:

[gulp!]

we just finished a similar sale but with a company called Lavender's. They had a few kitchen gadgets that we actually needed and I did buy some wrapping paper, but that's about it.

Our school also gives you a buyout price if you'd prefer to just pay some cash. :thumbsup:

[Michele]

Last year we had to sell Yankee Candles for school. It wasn't a bad fundraiser, since I like them, but it was a PITA, and they got my Mom's order completely wrong. :rolleyes:

This year, there is an ongoing fundraiser at Jackson's school. I can't remember the name of the company, but they make these cool labels (for clothes, lunch boxes etc.). It isn't high pressure, we can order them using a code so our school gets money back, and we can give out the code to whoever...I like this much better than selling stuff!

[TtownAnne]

We're already on our second fundraiser! We did pizza/cookie dough/pretzels in September (we ordered two things and my mom ordered one), and they just sent home a packet for wreaths/garland/poinsettia for the holidays, but I said we wouldn't be able to participate because the return date is when we're away at Disney. :)

[bunybomb]

We are already done with our second fund raiser. :rolleyes: The second one I didn't even bother with as all the other kids on our block were doing the same one and my mom bought from a kid across the street from her.


My co-worker says that when kids go to kindergarten, they should be issued a briefcase for all the crap they have to sell throughout their elementary school careers.

[Becca]

We're just finishing Kenny's first fundraiser (Stickees - window clings) & he's in PRE-SCHOOL!! Apparently there's ONE A MONTH!!:faint: October's is a "Dance-A-Thon" :rolleyes: Friggin great...I think I may end up being one of those mom's who the other moms don't like b/c they're not as "involved" with the school activities (meaning I don't buy two or three things from every crap-a$$ flyer they send home) Oops...sorry if you're one of those moms anyone...its just that I can't afford to be buying tons of stuff that I don't need just b/c they've got my kid schlepping it around.:shuffle:

[sunnyflower]

We have our magazine drive start next week. The prizes are stuffed animals (for middle schoolers!). The teachers compete too which is fun.

[Cami]

We did the tub o' cookie dough one last month. :rolleyes: To avoid hitting my neighbors up directly, I had Addison write a letter to explain the fundraiser and we stapled that to the order form and stuck one in everyone's mailbox.

That's the :airquote: only :airquote: fundraiser of the year although there is a fall festival and dinner auction coming up next month. We're supposed to sell raffle tickets and apparently we're supposed to bid on overpriced auction items.

And should I point out that this is at a private school that we (obviously) already pay tuition for?

What do you do when you have multiple kids attending the same school and selling the same crap?

[MamaGoofy]

We had one and we are expecting the crap to come in on the 10th. David actually won a am/fm/cd radio. I was surprised. That's it for the fund raisers though I think.

[bunkie68]

We just finished up a miscellaneous crap fundraiser in September. Julian is in kindergarten. I don't mind doing a fundraiser, but can't we make it something good rather than the miscellaneous decorative tidbits/overpriced candy/candles/wrapping paper? (And no one could buy candles because I make better ones. :lol: ) Thankfully Kevin bought (one of Amber's kids was selling cookie dough, so we traded fundraiser purchases :lol: ), and Julian is the only grandchild, so grandparents bought, and he sold enough stuff to get the extra little prizes (crap, but he was excited about them).

[LISA]

What do you do when you have multiple kids attending the same school and selling the same crap?

I'll ask my sister, she has twins and they both are in the same class..
Really they need to get a little more creative..how about gift cards to grocery stores or hell Tim hortons/Starbucks..judging by the lineups at every store these would not be wasted :lol:

[Shel]

We did the Entertainment books the second week of school. Then we have the Market Day once a month. Tonight was Chick Fil A night. I'm sure there is more coming.

[Girlo]

Our preschool is doing flower bulbs right now. :) I haven't even showed the flyer to anyone yet and I don't think there's any prizes involved....just a "if you can sell some of these, cool!" attitude. :aok:

[Hilary]

Nothing too bad at Madelynn's school yet, they had the book fair, and the PTA is doing family portraits for $10, which I think is a great idea! We signed up, we haven't had one since Madelynn was 9 months. :blush:

[Clare]

What do you do when you have multiple kids attending the same school and selling the same crap?

We get one box/order or whatever per family not per child.

Let's see, this year we've done Cadbury chocolates and wine.

[LISA]

Pictures are a great idea Hilary :nod:

Shel's post just reminded me that Paige is also selling the Entertaiment book..not sure if I will buy one of those..last time I bought one I alway's forgot to use the coupons.

[Clare]

We've had a book fair too and have family portraits coming up in November. We're also having a fete in October.

[Jayne]

We just finished up cookie dough/candles/pretzells/pizza/something else. Tylor actually sold like 250 worth and Alyssa sold 200 worth of it. We only sold to my parents, DH's parents, my aunts and then DH's mom sold it to a few of her co-workers. It is a huge seller here and people actually ask for it. The cookie dough is fantastic. It is Gormet something or other :lol: Tylor and Alyssa are actually in different schools (hers is K-2 and his is 5-6) but they sold the same stuff. I didn't push them to sell it at all in fact I could have cared less but people asked for it.

The only other things they will do is a book fair (which I don't count as a fundraiser) and then they have acarnival at the end of the year at Alyssa's school. Neither of those actually seem "Fundraiser" to me.

[magoo]

Magazine subscriptions... same as both my nieces and my nephew, so I don't know how many we'll sell.

Hey LISA (and any other Canadians...) anyone want to renew a subscription? :heee:

[Alyssa]

I am pretty sure we paid PTA fees to avoid fundraising. :crossfing I HATE them. HATE HATE HATE.

[Alyssa]

=
Let's see, this year we've done Cadbury chocolates and wine.:woa: Wine! That is one I could get into! :woot: That would never be done here, I can't imagine it flying! :rolleyes:

[Mary DK]

the PTA is doing family portraits for $10, which I think is a great idea!
Now see, that is a great idea :aok: If school would do something like that I bet they would get a lot more participation than with the crappy overpriced stuffed both of my kids have brought home :dead:

I found a couple of affordable things in the one Ian brought, Eliot's I totally forgot and when I did look at it there is no way I would've bought anything as the stuff was way overpriced, he was dissapointed a bit b/c he wasn't gonna earn the inflatable fuzzy ball... hmmm, we can go to the party store and get one for $2!!! :silly:

[Bonnie]

We've already had the book fair, Innisbrook wrapping paper fundraiser and are in the middle of the contributions drive, where you just write a check for whatever you want... They also did a t-shirt sale already. They have tons and tons of fundraisers out here b/c most of the programs are not funded by the school district but from grants and fundraising.

[Clare]

:woa: Wine! That is one I could get into! :woot: That would never be done here, I can't imagine it flying! :rolleyes:

Would you be surprised to know that I was the first one to put an order in :blush1:

The principal was a bit hesitant about selling alcohol at first, but once he realised the school got $10 per case, he was all for it! :lol:

We have the $10 family photos too, which I thought was a great idea but it turned out the the $10 was a sitting fee and the photos cost $130 :rolleyes:

[Kristen]

Our system sell coupon books for local retailers for $10. They really are awesome! The school makes $7.50 per book and people actually want to purchase them. This keeps atleast the elementary schools from selling anything else. Of course the high school bands still sell fruit and clubs sell random items. When I taught at a local middle school they still had one other fundraiser, but our system supposedly only allows the sale of the coupon books.

[Kate]

We just finished with the fall fundraiser of misc. crap that is over priced. Starting in October we are selling giftcards. You buy them at facevalue, but a certain percentage is given back to the PTA. That one I could actually stomach selling to people...

[Jayne]

We did Soccer Cards too. I forgot about those. They were for Soccer but never the less a fundraiser I could do without. The soccer group goes around and gets local area's to put their discount on their card (Taco Bell 10% off, Free bucket of balls at a local Golf club, Buy one large pizza at Pizza Hut get a medium free) and then they sell them for 10$ a card. I hate them. We usually get two per kid to sell so my mom and dad get one, my MIL gets one, My Sister and BIL get one and we get one and call it a day. This year Alyssa's idiot coach tried to tell newbe parents (U-6) that they had to sell 10 cards each because she wanted the free pizza party at the end. I quickly spread the rumor that the soccer association only asks that you try and sell up to 4 :lol: (And that is per family!)

[LISA]

Sarah I would have been able to do it had my sister not just the other day told me she got Cass mag subs for her Christmas present( she stole my idea :tapfoot: )

I really like the wine idea! but I know it wouldn't fly here either :rolleyes: god forbid we might be sending the wrong message to kids..but it's ok to say that selling and possibly eating chocolate bars by the case is ok though :rolleyes: talk about mixed message!

[Hannabanana]

Last week Hanna brought home one of those huge Entertainment coupon books -- last year I bought two, gave one to my cousin and kept the other and didn't use any coupons out of it :rolleyes: This year I told her to take the book back, it just doesn't work for me.
I have no idea what else they plan on selling ... the whole thing kind of annoys me ... I'm more willing to just give them money at this point.

[kalm]

Quote:
Originally Posted by Cami
What do you do when you have multiple kids attending the same school and selling the same crap?



I'll ask my sister, she has twins and they both are in the same class..


So far, we've split up our orders between the two order forms -- for instance, my mom bought an item from Connor and my dad bought one from Lilly. If I had only one child, they probably would have spent about the same amount of money. I personally bought more crap than I would have. That was for the September fundraiser.

We also had a book fair in September, which we bought two books from for each kid.

And yesterday came the October fundraiser -- cookie dough. Here's the email I sent my family:

Hello All,
Connor and Lilly came home yesterday with their second big fundraiser of the year (for goodness’ sake, it’s only the second month of school – how many more of these do I have to look forward to?) and they’re pretty eager to make some big sales. I’ll be happy with one or two, just to make a showing. J
The kids are selling Otis Spunkmeyer cookie dough from Chippery. The dough comes in a 3-lb. tub (though I can’t guarantee you’ll only gain 3 lbs if you consume the entire contents), which make 48 one-ounce cookies. The varieties include: chocolate chip, snickerdoodle, oatmeal raisin, sugar cookie, peanut butter crunch, chocolate mint chip, white chunk macadamia, M&M, lemon coolers, peanut butter cup, Heath, triple berry, apple raisin, and chocolate chunk pecan. In non-cookie offerings, we have pretzels, grilled cheese stuffed pretzels, apple-stuffed pretzels, double chocolate chip brownies and café au lait brownies. All items are priced between $12-$14. The dough can be stored in the fridge for a week or in the freezer for a year.
Best of all, all items either contain or “may contain” peanuts, so we can’t consume them in our house!
If anyone’s interested, please let me know. I’ll be happy to front your payment. Orders are due next Friday, Oct. 12.
Thanks!



I'm actually quite amazed that just about everyone in my family (except my single brother) had ordered two tubs. And Brian said he'd order some, provided I bake the cookies and deliver them to his house. :lol:

They also do Scholastic book sales EVERY MONTH, weekly fund-raisers for safety patrol (Pay $1 and you don't have to wear your uniforms on Fridays, also $.50 for popcorn snack on Fridays....and I don't know who that benefits). I'd honestly rather write a check then sell all of this junk constantly.

[Karri]

I am pretty sure we paid PTA fees to avoid fundraising. :crossfing I HATE them. HATE HATE HATE.

Huh? :scratch: Never heard of that. PTA fees or not, we're :airquote: required :airquote: to do fundraising.

We've got fundraising going on all year long.
Market Day every month
Box Tops ongiong
Scrip
we just had the Fun Fair
Scholastic Book Fair
we have a Pancake Breakfast and a Spaghetti Dinner (community wide)
they sell the School Kidz school kits to students evey year
plant sale (outdoor perennials/annuals) in spring
pointsetta sale at xmas
Entertainment Books

and then there is "the big" fundraiser. This year it was some crap through Market Day....wrapping paper, ornaments, chocolates, blah blah blah. You were supposed to sell $100 per student or opt out and donate $50 per student.

[LISA]

Ha..I contacted a local news program about the idea of selling wine at school for fundraisers and they are going to discuss it on the program this afternoon :lol: I can't wait to hear what people think of the idea :)

[~Deborah~]

We just ended our magazine fundraiser (http://www.qsp.ca/). Both Joshua and Kyle came home with forms so I split up the magazine renewals and put half on one child and the other half on the other. They supposedly get a crappy dollar store peice of sh*t for it..I intentionally didn't pick their *surprise* with hopes that they don't come home with it:lol:.

Last year Joshua had book sales (scholastics), christmas wreaths, chocolates (which I politely sent back the whole box and made a donation instead) and I am sure I am forgetting something. It seems like every month there was something.

As for siblings in the same school, they sent one $100 box of chocolates home with the oldest child in the school otherwise each child gets the fundraiser stuff.

[~Deborah~]

Hey LISA (and any other Canadians...) anyone want to renew a subscription? :heee:

Did my own thanks ;)

[Lynn]

We (thankfully) don't have too many at Aaron's school. They do Scholastic books every semester which I love. :up: And this month they're hosting a huge Pampered Chef party for 200+ people.

[Alyssa]

Huh? :scratch: Never heard of that. PTA fees or not, we're :airquote: required :airquote: to do fundraising.The PTA does a couple things like Box Tops, but I thought what I heard at our parent information night is that due to PTA fees (basic level was $25, and there were other levels up to $100 - all choice) there is no other fundraising. Can't swear to it, but I've also not heard a rumble about any fundraising. At least yet.

BTW, what is Market Day?

[kalm]

Our PTA dues were $6 for the year....and 75 percent of money raised from dues went to membership in the national PTA association. Their fund raisers are totally separate from what we've seen so far from the school.

[Clare]

Ha..I contacted a local news program about the idea of selling wine at school for fundraisers and they are going to discuss it on the program this afternoon :lol: I can't wait to hear what people think of the idea :)

Go Lisa! :lol:

The way we do it is sell wine by the case for $72 (12 bottles) and the school gets $10 per case.

[TtownAnne]

Wow, I could totally get behind selling wine from school! :woot: I think that would be a wildly successful fundraiser. :dude:

[Cami]

I think the wine is an awesome fundraiser, especially now before holidays. :nod: But I know there would be some sort of tizzy about children peddling alcohol and liability issues. Crazy.

I'd much rather pay $72 for 12 bottles of wine than for 6 tubs of cookie dough.

[Dawnie]

I like the wine idea but that would never fly in our school district. :rolleyes:

Victoria already brought home the Innisbrook fundraiser but we didn't do anything with it. Everyone we know has a child at the school, my family usually orders from my niece, and I'm not working so there was no one to really ask. We're not required to do it and there is no "fundraising buy out" as far as I know which is good for us - just because our address says "Rich"field doesn't mean we are rich.

We've already had two Scholastic book order forms come home too and their fall book fair is coming up soon (they have another in the spring). We ordered some easy readers off the first book order form and we'll buy some at the book fair.

Dawn

[Mary DK]

We have the Scholastics come home about every other week from both schools. I love books so I'm a sucker and will put an order every once in awhile & Eliot's school has a book fair so we buy a couple of books there each year. I much prefer to buy books than some of that other over priced stuff :nod:

[Bev]

I joined the Parent Activity Council (fundraising committee :shuffle: ) specifically to recommend ideas besides the stinking cookie dough. HATE cookie dough.

They already had decided from last year to drop the cookie dough and do healthy things. The one that is home now is from www.lamontagne.ca (http://www.lamontagne.ca/) but you can't access the "Everyday Essentials" on line, which is what we are selling. :rolleyes: Anyway it is household gadgets, soap and miscellaneous cards/wrapping paper that are not too overpriced. It is something I will actually tell the ILs about and I am thinking about telling some people at work, but I'm not sure yet. I will definitely buy the box of assorted cards so I have some on hand for thank yous, sympathy etc. without having to run and buy one. The big prize for this is portable DVD player and age appropriate movie for JK-3 and ipod nano for the higher grades. The prize is not an incentive for me to sell things. :lol:

I have suggested a Mabel's Labels (http://www.mabel.ca/) fundraiser and to promote the FundScrip (http://www.fundscrip.com/) program better. I made a little flyer to go home with the kids for that but the head of the committee hasn't gotten back to me about it yet.

They are also thinking of selling re-usable lunch bags. Each year the grade 8s sell poinsettias for their graduation fundraiser. Every couple of months there is a "Fun Lunch" fundraiser as well, and they do Bingo night once a month and there is a "Pasta dinner" that seems to be pretty popular as well.

They had the Terry Fox Run in September, but that's for the Terry Fox foundation not the school. They made almost $800 from that and the Healthy Active Lifestyle Teacher said a "small" donation seemed to be $5; she was expecting a loonie from most people but got $5 instead. We donated $5, I think a loonie ($1 oops!) is a bit cheap for the Terry Fox run. If I'd had more than $5 in my wallet that day he'd have taken in $20! LOVE Terry Fox. Mason said he was running for Terry Fox, the superhero who ran across Canada before he got sick. :)

[LISA]

This question to everyone..Who do you push the fundraising stuff on? :giggle: aunts/uncles/grandparents/coworkers?


this campaigne I'm holding off..maybe they will have something different next round but I just can't bring myself to make people buy this shit! it's overpriced crap plain and simple..my family was at the house yesterday and I tried to find something for my mom to buy but there was nothing at all she could use..my sister bought a box of cards..they have I think 30 nice "hand" made all occasion cards inside all contained in a nice box..it goes for $30 I'm getting that and some choc's and sending it back..I'm not going to try and sell to anyone else.

[Mary DK]

This question to everyone..Who do you push the fundraising stuff on? :giggle: aunts/uncles/grandparents/coworkers?
Nobody really, we just buy what we want & leave it at that. Blair hates it with a passion & really everybody else has their own to deal with.

[Cami]

I don't think it's fair to guilt my husband's co-workers into buying... I know they would feel like they had to. And we don't have any family close by. Not that they still can't buy something but it's more a PITA and not worth the effort. So that leaves neighbors, who we hit up once and won't bother again this year. My kids will just be small contributors to the fundraisers. :)

[Bev]

I don't like hitting up anyone! All my co-workers with kids have their own crap to buy/sell from their kids and the rest are like, 24 or something and likely uninterested in buying stuff. I was talking to SIL today and they aren't doing any fundraiser yet, so she said she'd look at the catalogue, and I'll ask MIL and AILs but that's it.

[LISA]

See I could never hit up coworkers..well my coworkers don't sell their kids crap except for Girlguide cookies but that doesn't count..that shit is the bomb and I'd pay anyprice to get my mint thins fix :lol:

Cass and I were discussing today about the fundraising at her(Paige's) school..Cass used to go there and with all the fundraising they did/do they barely ever got to go on trips :wtf: Paige had no field trips at all last year so you know what..they can kiss my :moon2: I'll be cutting my order back to just the cards and no chocolate because it obviously doesn't help the kids get "treats" from my experience..

[magoo]

LOVE Terry Fox. Mason said he was running for Terry Fox, the superhero who ran across Canada before he got sick. :)
Anna has quite the Terry Fox obsession right now. We totally missed out on the run, but I'll do it with her next year for sure.

As for who we sell to... Eric's parents bought a magazine subscription and we'll buy one. Other than that, both nieces and my nephew who are in school also sell them, so there's not much point in asking them.

[Alyssa]

People at work have left signups in our kitchen if it's something you have to order/have delievered (and sometimes sending an email to say it's there) or in the case of chocolate bars, they've just left them in the kitchen w/ a donation envelope. I think the latter works well b/c people often want an afternoon sugar fix so it's a win-win situation. (Of course, there is a risk someone could be shitty and not leave money... )

[Clare]

I I think a loonie ($1 oops!)

Emily has a loonie and a toonie in her wallet :) She took them to school for show and tell last year!

We don't sell to anyone. We just buy one of whatever ourselves. My parents never let us sell to neighbours when we were kids and I agree with that, and Alex refuses to sell anything at work so it's just us.

[MamaGoofy]

We sell to grandparents, our one neighbor nextdoor and my co-workers. We have a deal at work. I'll buy your kids crap if you buy mine. It works out. Speaking of which I have to pick up all the crap Wednesday and deliver it. :rolleyes: This is the part I don't like. :lol:

[~Deborah~]

I only hit up the grandparents and of course we buy stuff too. I school doesn't want the kids going door to door which I like.

I was thinking about setting up a fundraiser website with my company for the school...but then I thought about all the stuff I would have to do...I will stick to donating a birthday party of 8 to the pasta dinner:lol:.

[Bev]

school doesn't want the kids going door to door which I like.

Yeah, but they send the crap home so the PARENTS have to go door to door.

Too bad the school boards spend so much on themselves they don't have room to give to the schools.

At the PAC (PTA) meeting I went to last month they earned quite a bit with bingoes and they said they ask each teacher for a wish list for the class and that is what they buy with the money raised, stuff for the classrooms.

[~Deborah~]

Cass and I were discussing today about the fundraising at her(Paige's) school..Cass used to go there and with all the fundraising they did/do they barely ever got to go on trips :wtf: Paige had no field trips at all last year so you know what..they can kiss my :moon2: I'll be cutting my order back to just the cards and no chocolate because it obviously doesn't help the kids get "treats" from my experience..

Joshua had 3 field trips last year but WE had to pay for them :wtf: The fundraising was for the team uniforms....computer lab.....and science lab. Ok yes, Joshua does get computer lab time every week but I think money should go for the field trips.