[img]smile.gif[/img] [img]smile.gif[/img] Thanks njmom! That is a great solution to the flat donation vs. fundraising situation.
I appreciate your help!
Concerned Mom - You brought up a really good point that I forgot to include in my previous post. We track donations in an Excel spreadsheet and provide a list of childrens' names (sorted by teacher) to the fundraising chairs.
For our gift wrap fundraiser, we have a party for the class with the highest participation regardless of the dollar amount. The chair counts total number of children who sold gift wrap and adds in the children whose parents made a donation.
For our pie & cookie dough fundraiser, the class that sold the most items wins a party. The donation amount is divided by the average price in the catalog (about $13) and the chair gets the list along with the above calculation. This helps to take off some of the pressure to "sell" from the catalog fundraisers for the families that choose to make a direct donation.
With my kids I always just bought a couple of items for each fundraiser and that was it. We don't have relatives that live nearby and for awhile, the kids in the neighborhood were all in the same school, so there was no point in asking them. I found that telling them what the deal was straight up worked well. Since we bought something at every single fundraiser plus market day, they could understand that we were still participating. Also, if you have multiple children at more then one school, in scouts, sports, etc. there's no way you should feel obligated to donate to all.
Something that really helped at our school too was the no kick off policy. That meant that no rep came in for a grand assembly and got the kids excited about selling for the somewhat junky prizes. We did a cover letter that talked more about what the fundraiser was for, what the profit was and details like when it was due and delivery date. No assumption of kids selling at all.
If we had a fundraiser I didn't want to participate in and my son wanted to, I would let him call relatives or whatever. I know it is still work for you, but you can't feel bad about a child that is willing to help his school and try to earn prizes.
The irony of commitment is that it’s deeply liberating-in work, in play, in love. The act frees you from the tyranny of your internal critic, from the fear that likes to dress itself up and parade around as rational hesitation. To commit is to remove your head as the barrier to your life. --Anne Morris
How do avoid the kids feeling like they still have to do the fundraising, even though the parents wrote a check. We considered the "either or" option, but many parents were concerned that their children would feel left out or pressured to still fundraise, because we traditionally have contests between classes etc. I know my 2nd grader feel compelled to do whatever the school tells them to, and would want to sell something even though we opted for the flat donation. Do you have any problems with this type of situation? Thanks
Tammy - We do a combination of flat donations AND traditional fundraisers. This allows families to choose what works for them. We found that we were still making about the same amount from the fundraisers. Many families who had not previously purchased from fundraisers were more than happy to "just write a check"! We send home a receipt for the donations along with a thank you note.
