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This year, I've gotten one from my son's school, wrapping paper, trinkets, etc. My daughter got one from Ballet on a Monday then they gave her another one at Acro that Thursday, I just dumped it at the dance place. My daughter also got one from preschool, it was Yankee Candle.
The kicker was the popcorn one my son just got from Cub Scouts. $50 for popcorn?!?!?!?!??! :shoc ked: OMG!
The school fundraisers get 40-50% I think.
The Cub Scout popcorn program was the best one, they get 70% (half goes to the pack, half goes to the scout for summer camp).
The dance fundraiser supposedly went to the kid to help with the cost of the costumes ($50 each)
So, I have thrown them all out. I was going to order something from each one but I decided not even to do that. I don't care how much the money is needed. It is ridiculous.
For the Cub Scouts and dancing, they are extracurricular activities I have chosen to get my kids into, not so someone else can buy crap available at the dollar store or somewhere else for $8.00 just so I can save money on the costume. I simply, in good conscience, cannot ask someone to spend their hard earned money to save me a buck.
As for the schools, my daughter's school is a private school, where I pay tuition. Now I have to do a fundraiser?!?! I already get 2 scholastic book orders from one kid and FOUR for the other! OMG!
My son goes to public school so they could probably use it (although that is debatable because we are in a nice district).
The deal breaker on these fundraisers was when I saw two ice cube trays that make stick ice for water bottles on sale for $10. when they are $5 at Bed Bath and beyond and we all have a 20% off coupon for there, which would make it $4. So, no I am not going to ask my family to spend $10 on something they can buy at the store for $4.
And who the hell is going to buy this crap from me? They already have kids bringing their own fundraisers home. My aunt has a 2nd grader and 2 1st graders who all came home with the same fundraiser. Yeah, I'm going to ask her to buy from my fundraiser on top of that? Nope, I don't think so.
How many can we take? I have more disposable income than most people I know, and I simply cannot ask them to buy crap no matter how justifiable the reason is. I would rather just ask them for a monetary donation and provide a tax deductible receipt.
One preschool I looked at told me about their fundraisers. One was some sort of calendar thing where every day has a dollar value on it and if you win that day you get the money. Each student has to sell 10 of these calendars. the other one was the typical student fundraiser. another was a family day trip somewhere. I told her I would have no problem selling the calendars to my family members who are always down for some type of raffle, but I didn't want to do the other one. she said it was required and if I wanted to opt out of fundraisers for the year there was a $250 fee. WHHHAAAATTT? needless to say based on that issue and some other more important issues I had with that particular place, my DD didn't go there.
My son has another fundraiser that I actually LOVE, and spent about $500 on last year before Christmas. They sell gift cards to 100's of places, and there is a list showing what percentage of the gift card is donated to the school. gas cards usually gave a small amount, like 1.5% or somehting, but some were really high, I think the highest one was something like 20% from LLBean or someone. Very good, and right before Christmas I was able to buy gift cards as gifts, stocking stuffers, and even gift cards for my own use for stores I new I would be doing my Christmas shopping at, so the school could get the money. NOW THAT is a fundraiser I wouldn't mind sellign to people, because they are getting exactly what they are paying for.
What do you all think? Would you rather just be asked for money? If you participate in the fundraiser, how much do you usually sell?
Both of my daughtlers had a fund raiser too and mostly stuff you could buy was cheaper in a store then what the fund raiser was selling it for . all the proceeds were going to field trips and a marquee for the school this school is a brand new in the area where alot of higher class people live and we live in town where there is a casino that gives soo much money to schools in this town. i decided to throw it away because it was around the same time they were doing school picture so i thank it was more important for school picture and not a marquee in the school.
My oldest daughter is in Spanish Club, Business-Professional Association, Teens-4-Christ, Girl Scouts, and Tae Kwon Do.
Last year the Spanish Club sold beef jerky that was actually really good for $1.00 a stick. She sold $300 worth of the stuff and then when it was time to go on the play and dinner out at El Chico's they said only have limited spaces so we are drawing for spots. Her name wasn't drawn. OMG I was extremely angry. Told her no more fund raisers for clubs EXCEPT Girl Scouts. If they want you to go on a trip, I will send you however much you need. I do support Girl Scouts in Fall Product sales (to a point) but we go all out on Cookies. As much as she wants to sell. Last year she sold 150 boxes.
My youngest is in Choir, Band, Girl Scouts, and Tae Kwon Do.
The deal with band is the trip cost you $30 + a $10 t-shirt. If you sell $40 worth of hamburger dinner tickets (plus bring something I usually bring some chips) they go for free. They get the equivalent of whatever they sell. I like that. I do Girl Scouts like I said. Last year she sold 638 boxes of cookies. She paid for her trip to camp (almost $200) totally. I can really do that. Plus we made money for our troop.
For Tae Kwon Do I figure if I am paying tuition I am NOT selling junk. I pay $40 per child per month+ uniforms and if they can't manage their bills and equipment from that then they shouldn't be in business.
My oldest daughter is in Spanish Club, Business-Professional Association, Teens-4-Christ, Girl Scouts, and Tae Kwon Do.
Last year the Spanish Club sold beef jerky that was actually really good for $1.00 a stick. She sold $300 worth of the stuff and then when it was time to go on the play and dinner out at El Chico's they said only have limited spaces so we are drawing for spots. Her name wasn't drawn. OMG I was extremely angry. Told her no more fund raisers for clubs EXCEPT Girl Scouts. If they want you to go on a trip, I will send you however much you need. I do support Girl Scouts in Fall Product sales (to a point) but we go all out on Cookies. As much as she wants to sell. Last year she sold 150 boxes.
My youngest is in Choir, Band, Girl Scouts, and Tae Kwon Do.
The deal with band is the trip cost you $30 + a $10 t-shirt. If you sell $40 worth of hamburger dinner tickets (plus bring something I usually bring some chips) they go for free. They get the equivalent of whatever they sell. I like that. I do Girl Scouts like I said. Last year she sold 638 boxes of cookies. She paid for her trip to camp (almost $200) totally. I can really do that. Plus we made money for our troop.
For Tae Kwon Do I figure if I am paying tuition I am NOT selling junk. I pay $40 per child per month+ uniforms and if they can't manage their bills and equipment from that then they shouldn't be in business.
WOW That is a lot of cookies.
While I generally feel the Girl Scout Cookies are overpriced, they ARE a good product that you really cannot buy anywhere else because a lot of the cookies are not standard types that you can get at your local grocery store.
Esp. Now that I have see the Cub Scout popcorn thing, I feel much better about the Girl Scout cookies, because they probably get quite a bit of the money. (like I said, Cub Scouts get 70% off the popcorn, which is phenomenal) I have a new view of Girl Scout cookie now after thinking over the popcorn thing.
I'd rather buy cookies than $40 worth of popcorn any day, though.
Don't you think it is just too much, asking someone to spend $40 on popcorn? I think the cheapest item on there is $17 for a 15 pack of regular microwave popcorn. So you can't even go cheap if you feel bad for the kid....
I throw almost all of them in the garbage and write a check for whatever amount I can give directly to the school or organization.
I can't stand the fundraisers and refuse to participate. I am not going to go around my neighborhood or to my family members and guilt them into purchasing crap they do not need. It just doesn't seem right to me.
I also can't stand the way the hard sell the kids with cheap prizes to get them to sell, sell, sell! I would rather toss the packet, send a check to the school and take my kid and purchase a cheap, mindless toy for him myself.
With the Scouts popcorn, I buy a couple things from my son, but we do not pass it around. Our pack does NOT give the boys 1/2 for camp, they give them cheesy crap prizes. But I have to buy it, or I could not in all fairness buy GS Cookies from my daughter. Buying GS Cookies is such a trial.
With all the school's fundraisers, I send in a check for $10 each child. It saves me $$ and the school gets more $$. For instance, Entertainment books. The school sells them for $30. We use them once and then forget them. The school gets $7 per book. To be "fair" to my kids, I'd have to buy 2. Sending each child in with a check for $10 means everyone wins!
My kid's private preschool (many moons ago) did fundraisers to pay for extras, things like new carpet and toys. It helped keep tuition low ($125/mo for 3 yo, $155/mo for 4 yo)
I teach in our local public high school. Not only do I buy from my students but also from the kids in the neighborhood. I have asked to just make a donation, but that is not acceptable. So I have a freezer full of cookie dough and pizza that will be thrown out soon so that I can start again with a new batch. Unfortunatley, the candy gets eaten. I don't know the answer, except maybe other products so there is a variety.
I teach in our local public high school. Not only do I buy from my students but also from the kids in the neighborhood. I have asked to just make a donation, but that is not acceptable. So I have a freezer full of cookie dough and pizza that will be thrown out soon so that I can start again with a new batch. Unfortunatley, the candy gets eaten. I don't know the answer, except maybe other products so there is a variety.
The schools will not let you make a donation? I have never had a problem with them taking my money. Ditto for other organizations. I know schools need more money. I would just rather hand mine over directly. I wonder if schools that will not take monetary donations would accept a gift of school supplies? It certainly would be better than buying food you never intend to eat. Or maybe you could buy the food items and donate them to a local women's or homeless shelter. Just a thought. I just hate waste of any kind.
Around here it amounts to roughly 25% of the $4.00. BUT. I heard that speech they give about the other $3.00 supporting our facilities. I have Camp Girls. If I say, "There is an event happening at Camp" Before I can finish my sentence they are saying YESSSSSSSSSS They wanna go. My oldest is going to go next summer and work in the kitchen also to help pay for her camp. She is extremely excited and it is the perfect summer job for her. She wants to be a camp counselor but... maybe in a couple of years. I don't think she is ready for that much responsibility yet.
Back to cookies. IF IF IF IF the troop works the marketing plan, like they are supposed to, IF they teach them, like they are supposed to.. not just here is the sales forms, here is the prizes. We also do forming a budget, balancing our checkbook, when we go camping we make lists of what we want for meals (from 2 choices of each they pick one), then they have to figure out a shopping list, then we go shopping for the items, then when we are on our campout we cook the stuff, just like we planned. Of course, this is assuming they do all these things within their troop. It is part of the Girl Scout program and they learn ALOT from it. My girls know we have to sell this amount to get to do this FOR FREE. If we don't, then we have to pay for it. We are planning on going to the zoo for an overnight stay and a nocturnal hike. The cost is $25 for the girls and gotta have 20 of them. $10 for adults. Plus gas. Hopefully we will have enough in our fund to pay our gas, no guarantees.
This is why I sell cookies
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Buying GS Cookies is such a trial. 
