Our state treasurer spoke on this topic at our training session. It is considered a donation because you are not selling a tangible product and exchanging it for money. People are donating their box tops (or Campbell's LFE, Tyson labels, ink cartridges, cell phones, etc) and you are sending them to the parent company who in turn sends you a check. This is deposited in your account as a donation. Nothing is taken out - only deposited. Hope this helps!
We are in TN.
We're a small catholic school and we collect box tops all year and the money goes into the principals account for her to use for the school. Our parent coordinator this year has held a couple of raffles to get the kids to bring in more box tops. At Halloween she had a theme basket full of stuff for the kids to win . For every 15 box tops they brought in they got 1 chance on the basket. She also did this at Christmas and is planning on doing it a few more times, it really gets the kids to ask all their relatives to save them for them and has increased the amount of box tops we usually get.
Our school itself actually handles the box tops collection, so the money goes directly to the school, rather than through the PTA (even though, after all, it's all going for the same cause).
We consider it a donation, not a fundraiser. Turning in some slips of paper/cardboard is a lot different from buying a product from us or going to a bingo night.
We treat the Box Tops Marketplace $$$ as a donation as well. By someone choosing to go through Marketplace rather than going directly to the online store, they are requesting that part of their purchase be donated to our school.
Maybe you should consider doing a Box Tops Store where students bring them in in exchange for small prizes like pencils and stickers. This would seem less like fundraising and more like an exchange. We have run contests before as well but they don't tend to bring in as many as the store. I understand why fundraisers are limited but I have always felt that this should be individualized to the school with an agreement made between the principal and the parent group to best meet the needs of the school. We are not fundraising for huge items but sometimes we do a small fundraiser to support one or two events at little or no cost to the students and their families that we otherwise wouldn't get to do.
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
Instead of pitching it as a fundraiser, could you not pitch it as a contest of sorts? I really only have one question for your principal: Why does she see it as a fundraiser? It's free money. Does she toss boxtops that come in because it isn't during the drive? I thinks mykidsmom will agree that this choice may put your principal right up there in the same catagory as hers... lol...
