Confessions of a School Fundraising Blogger

There are times in the life of this blog when my experience as an elementary school principal is very relevant and useful. Then there are other times when my role as a father of four young children greatly outweighs (crushes, in fact) my time spent as a school employee. For the duration of this blog post, you will no doubt notice that I am wearing my “dad” hat.

However, I have to preface my comments with a disclaimer. Even though I am professionally employed as a blogger about school fundraising, I still have days (and there are many of them) when I am as frustrated and as overwhelmed by the staggering volume of kid-related fundraisers as anybody. That makes me feel a little guilty, because I’m supposed to be championing the practice of popcorn and cookie dough sales.

As mentioned, I have four children. All of them are in school, ranging from pre-K to fifth grade. So far this year, all four have brought home fundraising packets. The fifth grader was very keen on the Nintendo DS he could win if he only sold something like 300 magazine subscriptions. I didn’t have the heart to tell him that I didn’t know 300 people for him to ask. In addition, all four of them are involved in extra-curricular activities that require fundraising (swimming, Cub Scouts, and both girls in cheerleading).

That makes a grand total of eight fundraisers that I’m supposed to participate in. (Not to mention, the pre-school is tuition-based, so I’m paying on that each month!) That is a lot of time and effort required just to get my kids an education and keep them fit. After a long day of work, neither my wife nor I are too fired up to become salesmen.

So, what has happened then, is that we punted. So far, we’ve not raised a single dime for any of their schools. We skipped an auction. We didn’t subscribe to any magazines. We didn’t buy any popcorn. I even didn’t buy a wedding present for my daughter’s pre-school teacher. She’s nice, and I like her, but times are tough. You gotta draw a line somewhere…

Swimming is the only activity we do that mandates fundraising. If we don’t sell $100 of raffle tickets per kid, my son is off the team. It’s a tough policy, but it’s an effective strategy on their part. So, we’ll figure out a way to do that, because swimming is a priority for us.

That’s not to say that school isn’t a priority. But come on, eight fundraisers in the first month of school! I can’t even keep track of the paperwork that comes home. Which packet belongs to which kid?

And so, for at least a while, the schools have lost me. Unless they come up with a different plan to raise money that respects my parental realities, I can not help them. And I’m sad about that.

I’ve read blogs and comments on blogs that are very hostile toward school fundraising. These frustrated parents have made erroneous claims such as “schools should have plenty of money, with all the taxes we pay.” These kinds of statements could not be more ill-informed.

Schools do the best they can with the funds they have available. But, those funds aren’t as available as they were in the past. Therefore, school fundraising is desperately needed if we want our children to experience quality field trips and guest speakers at assemblies, and new playground equipment, for instance.

I will never make the argument against the need for school fundraising. But, I will question school administrators and parent-teacher organizations who don’t think about the burdens that many parents are carrying. If they are so un-creative as to just “throw a fundraiser out there” and hope for the best, then they deserve what they get (Or don’t get, as the case may be.).

Wouldn’t someone, on one of the four different PTOs that serve at my kids’ four schools, realize that there are probably a lot of parents with multiple siblings at different schools? Wouldn’t someone use a of lick common sense to come up with a unified fundraising strategy within the same school system? Doesn’t anyone get the fact that they experience lower participation because they aren’t understanding their target audience?

This lack of thought drives me crazy.

There is definitely a time and a place for product sales. Top School Fundraisers has an excellent professional relationship with eFundraising, and they offer a wide array of high-quality items that can be sold to make legitimate profit for your school. I support what they and other companies are doing 100%. However, if these “tools” are being mis-used by various schools and non-profits, then I think they are more a detriment than a help.

I would suggest that school principals and the heads of all the school groups who fundraise get together and actually plan their fundraising strategy ahead of time, so that the parents aren’t put on the spot, as many are, including myself. I’d like to see a staggered approach to product sales, so elementary, middle, and high schoolers aren’t stumbling all over each other. I’d like to see a greater emphasis put on passive fundraising events and activities that parents can plug into throughout the entire school year, not just for a frenzied two week period in September.

The magazine sales program that eFundraising puts on is an excellent example of a program that works in the right way.  It is low-key and flexible for parents, yet it is still profitable. Check this link out to see how it works.

In the near future, I will make more of an effort to use this blog to highlight alternate ways schools and parents can work together to achieve the goals we all believe in. They are out there, now all we have to do is use them.

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