We always stayed away from post-pay because of the risk of non-payment. Yes, the rep who posted above acknowledged that you'll collect only 90%, and maybe that's supposed to make it OK if your profit is more than 10% higher than with a pre-pay sale. But that wouldnt' make it ok to me. These people are not strangers, they are parents in your school community. Their kids are benefitting from the profits raised by this sale. They are not anonymous deadbeats you can just forget. The sales reps might see them that way, but it's virtually impossible to separate yourself as a PTO volunteer from those who steal from the PTO by not paying their debt. Yes, maybe you need to write it off the books, but its' far harder to write it off your mind.
I would send these parents one last letter that revokes their purchase rights from the PTO until their debt is paid up. That is, if they want to buy a school t-shirt for their kid, the money they send in goes instead to pay down their debt. If they want to order a yearbook, not before the debt is paid. If their child wants to buy books at the book fair, not unless the debt is paid. If they have money for those things, they have money to pay down their debt.
I fully understand that economic times are tough. We see it all around our community. But that doesn't forgive people from completely avoiding their obligations. If they make a good faith effort to pay, even on a protracted payment schedule, that's ok. But it's not ok for them to skate on this debt, and still enjoy all the privileges of other members in good standing.
I am a PTO mom and also work as a fundraising representative for national fundraising company (gift catalog, cookie dough and more.) I can tell you that there are only 2 methods to collect and the results from each....
Pre-collect - ALL MONEY COLLECTED prior to delivery of product. Money not in...no product given to families. Most companies will accept returned product for credit back to your school. You WIN as far as convneience and few monetary headaches.
Post- collect - Product delivered and money collected as you give product out to "customers" You will likely always get much higher sales but likely NOT to collect about 10% of the total sale. You can chase people for the money, ask them to return product for return to the company for credit (it's probably to late at this point for credit from last fall but something to think about going forward.)
In the end, did you make more money than in previous years? If so, take the $1900 as a loss as this is not unusual. If your final results are similar to those in years past...go to precollect in the future saving yourself time, energy and a lot of headaches.
You have to weigh your results....but always expect to take a loss in post-collect situation. Your fundraising rep. should have warned you about this type of sale and what to expect from it. Of all the catalog sales I conduct (elementary, middle and high school) 99% choose pre-collect. In a post-collect...high sales are a reflection of people buying things without having to pay on the spot and thus they typically tend to buy more. Come delivery time...they may decide they don't want something, can't afford the order or come up with some other reason not to pay or take product thus leaving you with a problem.
At our meetings we always had our monthly Treasurer's report. You can also have a line item for this debt that will appear every month on the report. This will keep in fresh in everyone's mind about the debt owed to the PTO.
If funds are tight this coming year, don't be afraid to state that "due to an unpaid debt of a number of families from last year's fundraiser, we have to cancel "XYZ" this year". It may be another way of making them pay up.
When we were short on volunteers for our afternoon enrichment program, we clearly stated it was due to the lack of parents volunteering. funny--we didn't ahve a problem the rest of the year getting parents to step up for our other programs. They got the message loud & clear. So sometimes you have to take a stand & send that message.
I would absolutely keep trying to collect these funds... I'm sure you need these funds to help the children in your school otherwise you would not have held this fundraiser in the first place.... I'd send out a reminder right at the start of school and stay with it. I would add how much the total still owed by everyone is and that not collecting all that is owed affects what you can do for the kids.
Try and play on their hearts, something has to work... good luck on collecting.
I would not give up on trying to collect the funds. It's $1900 that could have benefited so many children in the school. You can openly discuss it at your PTO meeting and see what the consensus is from other parents as to what action to take. Maybe word would get out about the "deadbeat parents" that didn't pay for their fundraisers and you'll get payments sent in.
Either way, I would suggest you craft a letter that clearly states that the debt is being carried over from last year to this year. If their amount due cannot be paid in one payment, offer a payment plan with 3 or 5 easy payments. However, you may need to have an ultimatum. If they don't pay, then what? You don't want to penalize the child for the parents underhandedness, but it's also not fair that that other parents paid and they didn't. Ask your principal to also sign off on the letter so the parent clearly knows that he/she is aware of the debt and its frowned upon.
We have enough problem getting reimbursed for bounced checks, so our school would never do a fundraiser where they paid after delivery. Good Luck
