Now that I have 3 kids in school, they are already starting to bring all of their fundraisers home. I fee like I HAVE to buy something! And I am pretty frugal, the items in these magazines are outrageously priced. I know I need to help my kids but I cannot see myself buying an item just to buy it. I have no use for any of this stuff. I feel bad. We have no family around here and I hate to make people feel they need to buy something. What do I do???

Good question! I feel that I have totally 'tapped' my co-workers for the Buddy Walk and then Abby's daycare, oh yeas... DAYCARE, came out with a fundraiser as well. (So.. this means two for me one for Abby and one for James Thomas )

I am with you Beth, cannot see myself buying anything or needing anything out of the catalog, but too am feeling the pressure to do so.

Cannot wait to hear other's responses.

Uggh FUNDRAISERS, don't get me started !!! My daughter is in cheerleading and we have had 8, my oldest son is in football and we've had 2, my daughter is in orchestra 1, and Dylan has had 2, plus my older sons school has done 1 !!!! And it's ONLY October!! I don't work so no job to bring them to, my husband is a mechanic so all men. Luckily between the two of us, we have a large family, who has been very helpful in buying!! But every time one comes home I just cringe. The sport fundraisers are a must, because if you don't sell a certain amount the money comes out of OUR pockets and lets just say, I don't have it!! I'm thrilled the kids are so involved in school activities, but my goodness SO EXPENSIVE!!!

Sorry about that rampage, lol. To answer your question. What about buying for gifts (teachers, stocking stuffers, etc.)

I know what you mean...the catalogs are being passed around my work too. I noticed that wrapping paper seems to be a big seller and I was thinking maybe you could buy a roll or two of wrapping paper and then turn around and donate it to a local children's hospital or something, since they will no doubt be delivering presents to the children who are hospitalized at Christmas.

Just an idea...and a way to make 2 charitable contributions in one.

Good luck. I have another year or two before I have to start this with Sam!

Sandy that's a really good idea!

I buy the wrapping paper and scholastic once or twice. Most relatives get things from the annual book fair. I am not looking forward to trying to hawk any food items cause i know i'll end up eating them and have to buy them (esp. chocolate). For things like girl scout cookies several kids will get together and have a table by the grocery store or on a busy corner and sell stuff.

It might make sense to just make a donation in an amount you can afford--and then all the money goes to the charity rather than just a profit amount. That way you don't have useless stuff, or worse high calorie stuff around the house.
I will tell you though that I love the wrapping paper sales by Innsbrook--half the profit goes to the charity, but even better it's really nice paper. I buy a whole year's supply and store it so I don't have to run out to the store everytime there is a birthday. And no, I don't work for Innsbrook.

By the way, does anyone want to buy a Christmas wreath for my daughter's track club? (LOL).

Here's some things parents have done at schools I have taught at:

1. Give a one-time donation. If you think about it, a one-time $50 donation (or whatever!) may be a whole lot less than what you'd spend, added up over 6 or 7 fundraisers. I knew a parent who, at the beginning of each year, told the office, "I'm giving a one-time donation. We won't be doing any fundraisers this year." The school got ALL the money, not just 50 cents on the dollar (or less) than what a typical fundraiser might have generated.

2. Give a time donation. Maybe they need someone to help tally and combine all the orders. Maybe they need people who will sort and divide up all the product for the students to take home. There is a lot of behind the scenes work with some fundraisers. Volunteering to help out will certainly be seen as being supportive of the effort, whether your kids sell or not!

3. Recruit a friend, grandparents, neighbor, etc. I've taught kids whose grandparents or neighbors took their fundraisers to work with them and sold a LOT!! Is there another friend, relative, etc. who might be interested? SOMETIMES (okay, OCCASIONALLY) there are schools that do certain fundraisers that people actually LOOK FORWARD TO!! When I was in high school, our school used to do a pie sale before Thanksgiving, and I know every year we'd get lots of calls from people who wanted pies, but no one had contacted them!! So although a lot of people don't like fundraiser sales/products, IF it's a yearly tradition in the community, or something people really will use and want, (and won't be too big of a hassle to deliver) maybe a friend/relative would sell for you??

Having worked in the education system for nearly 20 years, I know exactly how important the fundraisers are.

HOWEVER

As a parent, I refuse to participate in them. Having 5 kids, 4 of whom were in the same school, got them fighting over which neighbor each kid was going to accost for money. Not only that, but I DID NOT want them knocking on peope's doors! Grandparents get really sick and tired of my kids constantly asking them to purchase this or that, and I can't blame them.

And then there is Angela. I'm trying to teach her to stay in the yard (believe me, there are days I wish the invisible fence worked for kids!) and do NOT want to teach her to go to the neighbors asking them to buy stuff.

So we choose our cause. For us, the cause is DS, and all our donated money (what miniscule amount there is) goes in that direction. All the other stuff I just send back to school unused.

Barbie's post reminded me of a fundraiser we did at our elementary school that was really successful. On election day the kids had a half day of school and it was called visiting day--parents were encouraged to drop in for a few minutes and observe their children's classes. Election day is only a few weeks from Thanksgiving, so our PTA would hold it's annual bake sale on that day. This was a bake sale in which only cakes, pies, breads or packaged cookes (Like 2 dozen in a package) were sold. Almost every family would donate one baked item (and there was a A LOT of banana bread) and then after visiting in class would take home a cake/pie/bread, most of which were frozen for the Thanksgiving weekend. We also had a teacher's silent auction where the teachers would bake specially decorated cakes and their students would bid on them. Cakes and pies were priced at $8 and breads at $5 (more than in a bakery, but not horribly expensive). Every year the bake sale would make five thousand dollars or more and nobody had to do much work for it, or sell anything door to door. A win/win situation.

I do maybe one or two a year! You can only do so much.

Our school does about 3 fundraisers a year (and maybe the odd item in between) organised by the PTA. One at Christmas, one at Easter and one in the summer. We have lots of stalls with games, crafts, plants and refreshments (and in summer we always have a bar and lots of entertainment! ). This way we always get a great attendance without putting pressure on parents by sending things home. (Okay - I say we as I'm chair of our PTA!!).

Other than that we don't get many of the "buy so much of this and we'll give your school x amount". In fact I think last year they had a book stall at the parent/teacher meetings and that was it!

Our school does about 3 fundraisers a year (and maybe the odd item in between) organised by the PTA. One at Christmas, one at Easter and one in the summer. We have lots of stalls with games, crafts, plants and refreshments (and in summer we always have a bar and lots of entertainment! ). This way we always get a great attendance without putting pressure on parents by sending things home. (Okay - I say we as I'm chair of our PTA!!).

Other than that we don't get many of the "buy so much of this and we'll give your school x amount". In fact I think last year they had a book stall at the parent/teacher meetings and that was it!

My kids just came home with all their stuff for the annual magazine fundraiser and I just put it all in the garbage. I hate begging for money. The only fundraising I've done is for the Down Syndrome Association of Minnesota, and I only did that because I could do it all on-line: posted a link on John's website and the people could donate on-line.

One good idea I heard of for the magazine drive was to have people buy magazines for non-profit organizations, like the local women's shelter, the children's hospital, etc. I thought that was a good idea, but I really don't have the time to go around to different non-profits to see who needs magazines, so I'll leave this one up to someone else!