School Fundraising Questions

Go back to door-to-door sales of candy! This world of technology doesn't always make life easier. If people used paper calendars and door-to-door sales for fundraisers, this would NEVER be an issue. To me, this is just another avenue where face time/personal touch is taken away and replaced with an inpersonal machine! I hate it! The art of conversation is lost!

I hope you are contacting the school and it's getting worked out.

As far as you question about time, I'm always a little frustrated with my son's school, he only gets his for about 9 days this time. Last time it was about 5 I think (over a weekend and a day or two on either end). So 18 days sounds like plenty to me.

If the PTA has a way for me to write them a check - then all is well.
Otherwise they get nothing from me.
My time is valuable - I refuse to be any fund raising company s unpaid employee.
I also refuse to pimp my kid to sell/distribute over priced stuff that nobody really wants or needs.
I know some people really enjoy doing this - good for them!
Just leave me out of it.

Take a deep breath, this is not a big deal, seriously. The site will come up when it comes up, you'll have info sent to whomever you choose, they'll buy something they probably really don't want, or they won't. Don't waste any energy stressing over this, I can assure you it's no big deal.

with 4 boys in 3 different schools, there is no way I'm going to ask friends and family to support my kids schools like that.

We write a check to each school. That's it. I volunteer at the schools in the nurses's office and in the library.

The time they are giving you is well beyond what our schools do! We get maybe 2 weeks. Since we typically do not buy, it doesn't matter to us. Why not ask the school to do direct donations? Stop the stress of asking people to buy over-priced items when the school only gets 20% of the sales. The school makes more money with direct donations.

Don't sweat it, really. It's nice that you want to send to family and friends but expect that most will totally ignore this. On occasion my parents or in-laws will buy something from a fundraiser and your friends definitely don't want to hear from you as they no doubt have their own kids, nieces, nephews, neighbors, and co-workers' kids hitting them up. If anyone is interested, they'll just place the order online in a few minutes, they won't need tons of time to shop.

Yes that's a normal time frame for a fundraiser and may be a bit long. Most run for about 2 weeks and they normally will accept late orders within a couple of days of the due date.

Really, just do what you can when the site is up and if someone you know participates, great. But most won't and that's OK, it's the norm.

I support my kids schools and I will purchase 2 boxes of Girl Scout cookies a year. Other than that, I ignore all other request to donate. We personally support Wounded Warriors and Shriners Hospital and I don't expect my friends and family to support my causes. I figure they already donate to the charities they like.

Obviously, not every mom is as enthusiastic about fundraisers! Lol
We just finished ours--we had 2 weeks, from distribution to collection.
Plenty of time.

I'm not sure I follow - are you on the task force to run this thing at the school, or you just want to send out the information to your friends and family so they can support the kids' school?

Sounds like the site crashed when they were about to do a test run or it went live and it crashed. If it goes on for a long time, they will I'm sure extend the fundraiser. They will have an agreement with the school based on length of time their website is up and will have to honor that. Or most companies do.

Two weeks is plenty. That's usually what we're given. And they will extend if they didn't hit their goal.

I'll be honest - in alllll the years we've done these (we have seen it all, catalogs, websites, chocolate bars, gift wraps, wreaths, bulbs, flower baskets, etc.) our family (and it's big - both sides) never really gets anything. I think the grandparents do out of duty. Like they'll buy gift wrap. I am sure they dread it. It's usually way over priced and as I said, they'll buy something they don't really need. They decide within a day. Sometimes they do it while we're visiting. It's not complicated and there will so few things they want it's quick.

I bet if you leave it, the school will put out a notice about it next week. They likely aren't because they don't have a firm date when the website will be up and working. But they won't jeopardize their chance to make sales. You can be sure of that. So no rush :)

Good luck! Happy weekend :)

ooh I HATE this part of school!!

I will NOT put my kids out there like this - if we want something - we order it - I do NOT ask neighbors, friends or family to participate in it. Especially when many of the things are over priced.

I have suggested on MANY occasions that the PTA set up a donation system or even fundraising at the school - bake sales, home made items, etc. instead of the Christmas paper that is over priced.

I believe that 18 days (3 weeks) is sufficient time. I don't understand how that's not enough time for you. You knew this was coming before school started, right? If your child is in Kindergarten, I get it, but still 3 weeks is sufficient. Breathe....it's all good.

why scramble? it's seriously not likely that your family and friends are going to 'drop everything' to shop the site regardless.
your family and friends are probably squinching their eyes shut and crossing their fingers that the site stays crashed<G>.
you've got well over 2 weeks. it'll take you 2 minutes to compose a group email and send the link when it's back up.
khairete
S.

That's plenty of time. I hate the darned things so much that I rejoiced when our school went to direct donations. Hallelujah, pass the wrapping paper that I bought at Target.

All our fundraiser sales were paper (and we usually got the same ones that SIL's kids did so we couldn't even trade) so I can't speak for the website. But sometimes technology fails. Personally, I wouldn't make their problem your emergency. Tell people that it will be up soon, here's the info, order if you want. Then let it go. If they don't do well, they won't use the site again.

When our school does a fundraiser that sells something we usually just do not participate and I will write the PTA a check for $30 to $50 instead. I opt out with a little note to them saying here is a check from me instead. Some of these companies only give the school 10%...it's ridiculous. Now our fundraiser that is a "fun run" means 100% goes to the school. This one I am fully on board for and we send out the letters and emails to all our family members and local businesses asking for a donation to support the school when our kids participate in the fun run. This fundraiser is awesome and raises thousands and thousands of dollars. I also love the scholastic books fundraiser which typically raises about $3K for the school and library each year. And we also really get into the "spring fling" where each class makes a themed basket and then you buy raffle tickets to try to win a basket. I also really like Bingo night. You pay for your bingo cards and the kids can win prizes...it's a fun family night. But the door to door sales are terrible business...the school just does not make enough money for us to waste our time with that.

That's actually a few days longer than many fundraisers. The website thing is annoying for sure, but don't sweat it. I would give the school office or a PTA member the heads up in case they didn't know, but otherwise you shouldn't stress about it. Either sales are made or they are not.

Yeah, I wouldn't stress about it. I don't know anyone who's excited about school fundraisers. It's all overpriced.

Most fundraisers are pretty short. It's easy to forget about them if they run too long. If the site for this one is down a long time, your school PTO may just do an additional fundraiser later in the year to make up for the lost money.

We don't do the fundraising that sells online or door to door like that. We will participate in the school carnival, school wide garage sale, nights out at local restaurants, Harlem Wizard basketball game, walk a thon, etc. I don't need the junk and I won't ask others to buy it either. There are so many more creative ways to fundraise that bring in more money per sale then those. I think most if those fundraisers bring in less than 20% of the sales to the school. I don't buy from other kids either. Even if it is a family member. I wouldn't worry about it.

Two weeks is plenty of time for a fundraiser, much more than that and people procrastinate and miss the deadline. Some interesting data recently came to light regarding the length of Kickstarter campaigns, the shorter they are the more likely they are to meet their goals.

Deep breaths, it's ok, all of it. Good companies always make good on situations like this. IF you want to contact someone, email the head of the fundraising committee and give her/him a heads up about the website and an "I look forward to bringing in lots of sales for you guys this year!" comment. They'll let you know when they have more info.

Then collect the email addresses of the potential buyers together in a document while you wait, and copy and paste it on the website when it comes back up.

Don't be the panicking parent lol! We've all done it, too, you're not the only mom thrown for a loop when you just want everything to go perfectly. Welcome to the wonderful world of educational fundraising. Take note of some of the suggestions below, there are many many ways to "donate". I did a lot of volunteering because I had the time but not the money. We focus our monetary donations for things like school trips and such.

It's frustrating that the site is down, but you can still compile your list of people to ask. Usually, the longer the lead time, the more people postpone anyway because they think they have tons of time - so they put it aside, and forget about it. So the short time is reasonable for all practical purposes. I don't know about extending the deadlines - in part, it depends on when the order has get in to the manufacturer so that delivery can be on time. Often people are buying stuff for Christmas (wrapping paper, gifts, chocolate, nuts, etc.) so a delayed deadline may be a negative.

I agree with others that most people just hate getting these requests to help out schools. They're all being hit by everyone in the neighborhood, the church and the Scouts. So those dedicated grandparents or very dear friends with no kids and no neighbors with kids will just kick in some money and be done with it. I think you'll be okay.

If it's one of those shopping sites where you go to Amazon or Lands End and the school gets a percentage, then a longer time might make some sense. But you're talking about "the merchandise" so I'm guessing you are selling from an array of products in a catalog and so that has to get in on time.