Okay, I will tread very lightly here but I need some inside tips. I am promoting a family portrait fundraiser to my local schools. It's a really good deal at $0.50 on the dollar plus bonuses and no investment.

Anyway, I've approached a couple of people with this and they get really excited and then say I have to find the PTO person to make the decision. Well, how can I even find this person? Or should I contact the school first?

Also, it seems like when I calculate a earnings estimate for a school, I get a weird look and get blown off. Are the other fundraising companies giving unrealistic numbers or something? Or should I cut my numbers down so that when the fundraiser is over, they'll be thrilled that they are so far over the estimate? I would think that they would be happy to make a good profit off a single fundraiser but for some reason, everybody keeps saying "but we've been selling the same candy bars for years and it works okay."

What's the deal? I mean, what do you want to hear for a fundraiser? I really thought I had all the answers, (it's free, you make really good money, it's something totally different.) I'm really at a loss here and I don't know who else could make a suggestion for me. I mean, are magazine and candy bar sales that great? Even when my sister was in school, door to door selling went out for safety reasons and parents became responsible for finding ways to sell these things. I've also been told it's really hard to sell stuff anymore and participation is way down to 30-40% at best. Why, then wouldn't someone want to try something different just to see if it might be better? I'm missing something very serious here, please someone clue me in.

Oh, and I have a son who will start kindergarten in 2006 so part of me really doesn't want to go through these garbage sales things either, even though I know the cause is a good one.

Thanks for any help, I really appreciate it as a fundraising company, and as a parent.

Chris