closetwriter, I see your point. We have to have our fundraisers lined up before the calendar planning meeting in March and we don't bring in the new officers until the May meeting. I did the fundraiser planning for the 05-06 school year and it took me almost 6 months to get everything worked out. There is no way someone coming in could do it sucessfully. I'm not sure I would sign for a multiple year contract because I won't sign the contract until I see the finalized form that we will be selling, but I see why a group that had good luck with one company would continue to use them as well.

I've heard horror stories about groups signing up with the same companies for multi-year contracts. I feel this is extremely irresponsible on the part of both the PTO / PTA board who agree to these deals and the company / sales rep that signs them up. Yes, I understand that these reps with offer discounts and special deals to groups who sign up for more than one year, but it's strips control away from future board members by locking them in to a contract that they had no part of. And don't forget these sales reps work on commission, so the longer the contract, the more money that goes into their pockets. There should ALWAYS be an out clause in every fundraising agreement that gives the school group the opportunity to end the relationship at any time.

I feel that any deal longer than a year, is unfair to the next year's board. What if they want to make a change? What if the fundraiser is not working? What if they don't like the rep or the company? Each board should have the right to choose their own programs. Any current PTO / PTA board who signs multi-year deals deprives future boards of this right.

I also blame the fundraising reps and their companies because they understand this industry and they know that they are dealing with volunteers who's role will most like turnover the next year. They should know better. Yet, they aggressive push multi-year deals on these volunteers who they know will most likely not be around the next year. I just feel that this whole practice gives a black eye to the fundraising industry.

I thought everyone did this, which shows this is a great place to trade info

... and I never heard of anyone doing this...
We never sign contracts for any fundraiser for multiple years ever. One year at a time. What happens if their products are awful the following year? So many things can change within your organization and the company that I would never consider doing that - even for $500.

closetwriter, because I am curious, and have never been asked to sign a multi-year deal, what are the benefits of doing this?

We used one company for our fall fundraiser for 3 years and though they updated their catalog each year, we think people got tired of it. When we tried a different company, things picked up.

We just completed our spring fundraisers and noticed a significant decline in our results from previous years. There weren't any radical changes in our fundraising programs so we are trying to identify the cause of this decline.

One theory is that the recent relief efforts for the Tsunami in Asia this past December tapped out a lot of people's financial resources and their available funds for supporting a local fundraiser. Is this possible? Has anyone else run into this issue? I know a few years back, the events of Sept. 11th had a similar impact on our community.

Is this isolated to our community or have others felt this impact on their local school fundraisers?