School Fundraising: Ask and Ye Shall Receive
The annual school selling nonsense has begun--magazines, wrapping paper, candy bars, cookie tins. This whole fundraising hoopla eludes me. My own kindergartener arrived home last week--the second week of school--with a giant package of fundraising crap. This time it included all of the above. We couldn't find one particular thing to make people purchase so now we have to offer it all.
Here's the deal. All of this stuff is just excess waste. I currently get magazines for $10 a year. In fact some of them come without me even renewing them. (I have just jinxed myself and tomorrow someone from Cooking Light will call and tell me I'm not getting one anymore.) But I digress. I cannot stand school fundraising projects. I hated as a child being pimped out to sell unnecessary stuff to people I didn't know.
For many years, I thought the best solution was just asking people for money. But this hasn't become very popular until just recently.
I was not optimistic that this trend would pick up, but last week a mini van arrived in our neighborhood with 6 high school band members in full uniform. They went door-to-door asking for donations. They weren't selling plants or raffle tickets, just asking for donations. As a former band geek myself, I was sympathetic to their financial needs. Again, I opened up my wallet and handed them a nice donation. They offered a receipt for tax purposes and everything. Again, no muss no fuss I guarantee they will come out head of any fund raising sales project.
Our family has a vested interested in our new community--school, sports, music programs. I'm more than happy to help support, but I will not do it wrapped up in paper.
Just ask for a donation and I'm happy to contribute.
Original DC Metro Moms post.
When not dodging magazine sales, Linda Kerr writes at Baby Bunching.
