When our daughter was little and was in school she used to come home with a few school fundraisers every year. Like most parents we participated in the majority of the ones she brought home.
With that said…over the past few years I have noticed a trend with these school fundraisers and frankly…I don’t like it…not one bit at all. Don’t get me wrong, I understand the schools are hurting for money but so are American families.
I have at least a dozen nieces and nephews in school and a 5 year old grand daughter attending full day Kindergarten. Already this year these kids have hit us up & down with these fundraisers. My one nephew is on his 4th fundraiser in just 2 months sponsored by his school.
My vent today is this…
1. Fundraisers need to be kept limited! Families do NOT have an unlimited amount of funds available to them. On top of that…we all lead very busy lives and collecting orders is a time consuming process.
2. Make them affordable! I just looked at one a few days ago that my nephew brought over to me. The cheapest item was $25.00 with the most expensive item being just under $50 bucks. What? Are you kidding me? Really?
Whatever happened to the $1.00 candy bars and $5.00 subs/hoagies? Again…Really? Are you kidding me? Come on now!!!
If you want kids and families to spend time and money raising money for the school, athletic programs, etc. You need to keep them limited and you need to make them affordable!
It is OUTRAGEOUS that you expect our kids to be hitting the pavement every 4 weeks out selling these products when they should be reading books & doing their homework. Furthermore, families are on limited incomes and can NOT afford to be spending $50+ dollars a month on buying things from the kids.
I understand schools are hurting financially but this school fundraising trend I see going on is really getting under my skin! Your thoughts?
I’m with you. My kids had a few but the items ranged in prices. I want to help out my grand kids, friends kids, and neighborhood kids but you just can’t anymore. You find yourself spending $20 easily for something you could get a lot cheaper at the store and really don’t even want. School and sports activities costs have become ridiculous so I feel bad for the kids and parents, but it’s not fair to put these high prices on fundraisers and having one every couple months.
I completely agree! And my daughter is only in preschool! She is expected to participate in no less than 5 fundraisers this year. That may not be much compared to a lot of other schools, but she’s only 3 years old. I know it will only get worse as she gets older. We’re on a very tight budget, as are many families we know, so I feel extremely guilty asking for them to purchase things or donate money.
Yikes, I know this happens at many workplaces, too, where they bring around a collection. What is hard is like you say, it can get out of control. Some ppl have some much dough it doesn’t really matter, but many need to be very careful, and you don’t want to look like the grinch, bad guy, person who doesn’t care, etc. Ughh.
I agree with you about the fundraisers. There are too many of them. It becomes much too time consuming and and some of the fundraisers are just too expensive.
We live in a somewhat economically depressed area and our kids do a lot of fundraisers too. Many will do the $1 candy bars and they do make them money. It is easier to throw down a few bucks for so so candy than a wad of cash on something you don’t want. Even cookie dough is hugely expensive now – like $18 for a container. Ugh