Office Employees Asking for Money for Fundraisers - Opinions Wanted

[desertdarlene]

There is some sort of policy at my work. Generally, it can't be disruptive to the workers. Mostly, someone will just announce that what they are fundraising for and leave a catalog or order sheet in the break room, etc. But, yes, I can see where the constant begging can be an annoyance, especially if they ask people individually.

With me, I travel around to work and am rarely at the same place more than once every few weeks, so people understand if I don't order anything. It would be hard for me to pick up my orders.

 

[chickbea]

I tell them that I only buy fundraisers directly from the kids. I thought these fundraisers were supposed to be educational for the kids (learn to keep records, collect money, follow through, etc.). What's the point of having parents doing all the work?

 

[OldGuy43]

Quote:
Thank you OneofSeven for that observation. You make a valid point. I was about to comment on the children doing their own fundraising when you brought up the safety issue. However, there are other options available. The first thing that comes to mind is; why do the kids have to go door to door alone? A group of them, with the addition of an adult chaperone would be reasonably safe. Yet another approach that is used here-abouts (sorry, Texas Talkin'

) is setting up a table near the entrance of local businesses. There is always an adult nearby, but the youngsters do the actual selling. All of these things are done regularly around here.

And whatever happened to group fund raisers? Paper drives, bake sales, car washes, scrap drives and slave-for-a-day are all things that I remember doing to raise money in my youth. We used to even have a Halloween Carnival held at the school to benefit the PTA. A couple the upsides to these methods are that they not only raise money, but teach children that their parents doing most of the work for them and begging are not acceptable ways to raise funds for their group. It teaches them a value given for value received ethic. It also gets them out of the house and away from the computer (Whoops, guess I have no room to speak on that subject, huh?

) and meeting people face-to-face. I overheard one young lady just the other day claiming that she had over 1200 friends, ON FACEBOOK! I would be willing to bet that she has not ever actually met with 99.7% of those folks, and yet she truly believes that they are her "friends".

My same complaint goes for the more "adult" organizations/charities, in spades. Adults have even more options available to them. Nothing irritates me more than some celebrity leaving their multimillion dollar home in Beverly Hills to go on TV and ask ME to donate to THEIR favorite charity.

Anyway, just my opinion.

 

[ChickenAlgebra]

Quote:
Thank you OneofSeven for that observation. You make a valid point. I was about to comment on the children doing their own fundraising when you brought up the safety issue. However, there are other options available. The first thing that comes to mind is; why do the kids have to go door to door alone? A group of them, with the addition of an adult chaperone would be reasonably safe. Yet another approach that is used here-abouts (sorry, Texas Talkin'

) is setting up a table near the entrance of local businesses. There is always an adult nearby, but the youngsters do the actual selling. All of these things are done regularly around here.

ARGH, that is one thing that drives me batty!

Whenever I've seen it, across the country - the kids aren't doing the work at all. I've more often than not seen the kids running around in a parking lot (eep!) without adult supervision.

I actually now will not buy ANYTHING from any Boy Scout due to how poorly mannered and behaved one group was. I said I'd look at their table once I was done shopping, the child said "Sure, that's what all you stuck-up snots say and you never come back."

I did go back to their table after that. Told the adult and children that I would have come back afterwards, but due to their behavior, I was not going to purchase from them.

Got called a B**** by the children. The adult did nothing.

So I don't support the Boy Scouts now.

 

[debilorrah]

I have no problem saying NO. Unless it is something I want. Like the lemon roll I ordered this morning. I am seriously thinking of going back and ordering the lemon swirl cheesecake too. But those cheesy holiday decorations? No way. I don;t do the cookie dough either, as I bake my own from scratch.

 

[kuntrygirl]

Quote:
Thank you OneofSeven for that observation. You make a valid point. I was about to comment on the children doing their own fundraising when you brought up the safety issue. However, there are other options available. The first thing that comes to mind is; why do the kids have to go door to door alone? A group of them, with the addition of an adult chaperone would be reasonably safe. Yet another approach that is used here-abouts (sorry, Texas Talkin'

) is setting up a table near the entrance of local businesses. There is always an adult nearby, but the youngsters do the actual selling. All of these things are done regularly around here.

And whatever happened to group fund raisers? Paper drives, bake sales, car washes, scrap drives and slave-for-a-day are all things that I remember doing to raise money in my youth. We used to even have a Halloween Carnival held at the school to benefit the PTA. A couple the upsides to these methods are that they not only raise money, but teach children that their parents doing most of the work for them and begging are not acceptable ways to raise funds for their group. It teaches them a value given for value received ethic. It also gets them out of the house and away from the computer (Whoops, guess I have no room to speak on that subject, huh?

) and meeting people face-to-face. I overheard one young lady just the other day claiming that she had over 1200 friends, ON FACEBOOK! I would be willing to bet that she has not ever actually met with 99.7% of those folks, and yet she truly believes that they are her "friends".

My same complaint goes for the more "adult" organizations/charities, in spades. Adults have even more options available to them. Nothing irritates me more than some celebrity leaving their multimillion dollar home in Beverly Hills to go on TV and ask ME to donate to THEIR favorite charity.

Anyway, just my opinion.

Yes, I also prefer group fund raisers, like car washes, etc. I will stop by and let the kids wash my cars and I give them a donation. I know the youngers kids can't do this but I'm talking about Jr High and High School kids.

There are some groups that just stand on the corner on Saturdays with signs that just ask for money as opposed to the high school cheerleaders that are around the corner at the local bank washing cars. Now, if they were washing cars like the cheerleaders, then I don't mind donating to their organization. Don't just ask me for money and I don't know why you need the money. What are you doing to earn my donation?

 

[punk-a-doodle]

Got called a B**** by the children. The adult did nothing.

So I don't support the Boy Scouts now.

I would be wary about closing off an entire group based on isolated experiences. That said, I don't personally support the Boy Scouts group, but it is due to systematic funneling of money to the CEOs.​

 

[oneofseven]

The things we did as kids, referring to fundraising, is not allowed in many places.
Bake sales- concern about litigation about harmful ingredients
Car washes - litigation about damaging vehicles
Group Door-to-door - still "unsafe" and since not everyone lives in the same neighborhood it's not "fair"
Many businesses will not allow fundraisers in front of their stores any more. Some because of situations like ChickenAlgebra's

Shcools have always depended on external funding to keep them going. It's just harder now.

 

[Oregon Blues]

The fundraiser things are easier to say no to than the endless collections for birthdays and special occasions. If you work with 30 people the requests for money are endless. It's harder to say no to donating directly to someone in the office's birthday gift, but enough is enough.

Times are tight and why should anyone expect to get a birthday present from the people they work with?

I really detest all the fund raisers where the parent have to go out and beg for money. In today's world I would never ever allow my child to go door to door, yet that is what all those youth groups and schools seem to expect them to do. It would serve them right if they got their pants sued off because someone's child was injured knocking on stranger's doors (except I'd hate to see a child get hurt)

 

[kuntrygirl]

Quote:
You're right about those birthday gifts. And please don't forget about baby showers and weddings.

If another person in our office has a baby or gets married and they ask for donations, I will tear my eyes out.

My opinion and this is MY opinion....... If you are having a baby, then that means that you have acknowledged the fact that you can afford to bring a baby into this world WITHOUT any help. AND if you are getting married, you are accepting the responsibility of everything that comes with marriage and you are not expecting to receive anything to furnish your house because you knew that was part of JOINING together in HOLY MATRIMONY!!!!!

Ok, now I will go to my corner and hide.

Just had to get that out. Thanks for listening.