I skip the wrapping paper, magazines, and candy, and donate directly to the school. American parents cannot escape scholastic fundraising cycles. Whether our kids go to private, public, or pre-school, we are asked to round out budgets for desks, smart boards, and even teacher salaries.
Virginia and her third grade class learned about D.C. by making models of its monuments
I believe in supporting education, and I have dedicated my time (sometimes enormous amounts of it) to help my kids’ schools and preschools. And because our family has benefited greatly from the free education that our cities, counties, states, and our country provide us, I also feel obligated to help financially.
But it never felt right to me to squander the good will of my friends, neighbors, and relatives by asking them to buy the over-priced, under-quality goods in the fundraising catalog. My children are the ones benefiting after all, so isn’t it my responsibility to help, not my neighbors who have already paid taxes to that end?
To avoid the embarrassment and assuage the guilt, I would end up buying a bunch of stuff I didn’t need, just to support my fellow PTA volunteers who were doing their best to help the school. Finally, after years of eating bad chocolate, buying wreaths I didn’t need, trying to get people to subscribe to magazines, and giving away cheap doodads as Christmas presents, I decided to stop.
When I was presented with another coupon book to sell (50 percent of profits go to our school!), I hemmed and hawed and finally just wrote a check to the PTA. As I explained in How I Avoided the School Fundraiser and Still Felt Good About It, the school got 100 percent of our money, and I kicked the guilt.
Enrico and I went to our first school auction party last year — the theme was 80s Prom. We won tickets to a backyard barbecue party thrown by parents at the school and a tour of the U.S. Capitol. All the laughing at big hair and bad music benefited the school too.
Michelle Singletary, personal finance columnist for the Washington Post, has a similar philosophy and I thought she expressed it so well in her book, Spend Well, Live Rich:
I … object to having my children or myself used as unpaid salespeople for professional fundraising companies. Believe me, I understand the psychology behind all this selling. It’s not easy to get folks to fork over money, even for a good cause. I also realize this type of fundraising is successful in providing money for needed school supplies and activities.
But seriously, how many of us — without the guilt — would spend $11 for a five-ounce Coca-Cola mailbox tin filled with mixed candy? I know I would never pay $7 for several sheets of wrapping paper, which most of the time aren’t long or wide enough to cover anything I want to wrap. How about paying $11.50 for a tin of animal cookies? Personally, I think we parents should agree to stop peddling to one another. If you want to give money to a school, fine. But this routine of “I buy from your kid, you buy from mine” is maddening.
As a result, my husband and I just write a check directly to the school or parent association. That way they keep 100 percent of the money.
— Michelle Singletary, author of Spend Well, Live Rich: How to Get What You Want with the Money You Have
This year, Enrico and I were able to give a lot more than in years past. It feels right to give back to a system that has helped us educate our children.
Direct donations — in any amount — are simple, less wasteful, and don’t turn human relations into commercial transactions. I bet that the schools and teachers and PTA don’t mind at all if we don’t buy wrapping paper. As long as we help.
How do you handle school fundraising drives? Let me know in the comments.
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We have three kids in school and have been hit by every fundraiser known to man. I think most parents hate fundraising because so many of the products the kids are asked to sell are low quality or junk food and are always overpriced. In most cases, buying a $10 to 15 bag of junkfood or cookie dough that’s worth $5 is the same thing as writing a $5 to $10 check. The problem is, the $5 to $10 check gets split with the fundraising company, so your generous $15 didn’t donate near what you were made to think to your school AND you got stuck with a bag of junk food you didn’t really want.
We created a company called PaperFunds to sell things people need at the same price they’d pay at the grocery store. No one gets ripped off, and they only need to buy items they’re going to have to buy within the next month anyway. Our program works because we bulk deliver the toilet paper and paper towels straight to the school from the factory, and the school keeps the “retailer’s” profits for simply supplying people with products they actually need.
I invite any feedback or comments at joe@paperfunds.com and please feel free to check out our website at http://www.paperfunds.com. There are ways to raise money without getting the “I know I’m getting ripped off, but it’s for a good cause.”