Office Employees Asking for Money for Fundraisers - Opinions Wanted

[TrystInn]

May I add our shared frustration - family members who expect you to constantly donate to their pet causes.

I do want to mention, that as a family we donate to several foundations already, due to our having lost family members to them (i.e. diabetes, spina bifida, MADD, etc.) and we have quasi-organized family involvement in them.

 

[Avalon1984]

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I like to put my signs in German "Betreten Strengstens Verboten". The "verboten" part gets the point across for most people. Anybody in need of some strange sounding signs?????

Ich werde nicht kaufen Ihr Mist

Awesome...just awesome...

 

[jcatblum]

I understand how the fundraising is non-stop. My kids recently started school-- after being homeschooled for many yrs. We have not made it a wk without a fundraiser for something. The school is in a poor community & the fundraisers support everything! Both of my girls are cheering & one also playing basketball. They have not had any fees at all!!! I am talking hoodies, gym bags wig names on them, shoes, varsity uniforms, the works at no cost.

I am the parent that would rather be told we need to pay $300 for uniforms than have a fundraiser every wk. I understand not all parents can afford it & that is why everyone does the fundraisers. Newest fundraiser is $5 raffle tickets for a chance to win $1000. We had had. Dozen different fundraisers & school has been in for 9 wks.

We support almost every fundraiser-- only thing we didn't buy was donuts--because we didn't like them. I think it is great that finances will not limit any child from participating. I always ask how much does the school get to keep & what is it for. If they don't know I don't buy.

FYI. Used to be a girl scout leader. $3.50 box of cookies we got 40c. Serious waste of time & energy on my troop, but we are expected to sell. That is why I ask how much proceeds they keep.

 

[chickened]

I work outdoors in the woods and usually do not get solicited by anything but wildlife after my lunch. I would not be bothered by it unless the same person was too aggressive about asking.

The Boy Scout group my boys were in were dominated by Mormons and were pretty well funded. The fundraisers were symbolic for the kids more than for profit.

 

[debilorrah]

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Often these fundraisers don't pay for the stuff kids need, but gives them a pizza party. Which is why I say No more often than not. Of course, if food is involved, that is another story.

 

[lockedhearts]

Got my mail the other day, had two envelopes in there with the neighbors grandkids names on them...... yep they are now sending the "magazine" requests in the mail

I barely have time to read the paper on Sunday, much less magazines. And really isn't part of it, "making" the kids do the work and asking people to buy stuff

People wonder what is wrong with this world, HMMMM could it be making our kids lazy and not understand the right way to do things

 

[EweSheep]

One of those things I tried helping daughter's GS is the nuts and candy sales...I didn't sell anything. Common reason was this "We are in a budget and don't know if we will be able to afford it. Its the economy." In my neighborhood, they don't buy anything because so many of us do not want it. However they did ask us to come back when the cookie sales are going on!

Hubby will take a sheet to work with him as well and cookie sales are much better sales than nuts and candies.

As for BS, we always loved their popcorn and my two nephews were active in it so I always buy it from them.

 

[Southernbelle]

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Ich werde nicht kaufen Ihr Mist

Awesome...just awesome...

I had to use Google Translate on both those phrases, but those are priceless!

It's been a loooooooong time since I worked in an actual office, so I haven't had to deal with people soliciting for these things. The kids' schools always send home fund raising stuff, but I usually ignore it. The only one I participate in is Girl Scout Cookie sales. As expensive as they are, people still want to buy Girl Scout cookies, so I'll take my girls around the neighborhood to collect orders for those.

 

[Noymira]

My daughter is 2 and in an early preschool/ daycare program which we pay $5.75/hr for three 9 hour days a week. They are always sending home the scholastic book orders and fundraisers. They even sent a note with the last fundraiser begging for contributions to buy a new laptop for the teachers to do their newsletters and lesson planning on so they don't have to share with the main office computer.

We have all we can do to afford sending her there in the first place over a home based daycare, and I get really annoyed with all the fundraiser requests. We never buy from the scholastic book sales, since I get books for free as hand me downs, or at garage sales and resale shops for $.25 - $.50 each. I have never bought a brand new book for my daughter and she has more books than she knows what to do with. I also don't buy her new clothes except for the rare occasion something really cute is as cheap as I would spend on it used, but I don't usually go shopping if I can help it. Mostly we get hand me downs, or I cut up my husbands old t-shirts and make her clothes.

She also had class picture day yesterday, SHE'S 2! Last year I told them I was not paying for school pictures, I'm a photographer and have thousands of pictures of her. This year my husband really wanted to do it and I didn't feel like arguing with him so I bought the cheapest picture package at $20.50.

I only buy from other fundraisers if it's something I would buy anyway, and I usually spend less than $20. The exception is GS cookies, I LOVE thin mints...

My husband says I'm cheap, I tell him I'm frugal! The amount of waste and retail spending being pushed down our throats in this society is insane.

 

[Avalon1984]

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Couldn't agree more. I always say, the more money you save on not buying into that stuff, the more money is left to spend on things that are important for you.