Selling Crap for Kids

[nicolewi]

Who do you go to with kid fundraisers??

The only thing we really SELL door-to-door or try hard with is Girl Scout cookies. And it's not like we're top sellers at ALL. 

I'm not working anymore=no office to put a form in. DH is self-employed and "the boss" and not comfortable hitting anyone up (understandably) except for a few people for cookies. 

My siblings don't want to buy this stuff and their own kids are often selling. Even the grandparents aren't really great about it and I've started often just not asking unless it's really key. 

Just curious...where do the funds actually come from? To whom do you sell stuff?? 

I just spent $150 to buy 3 items from each of my kids for the band fundraiser and donated online to the elementary school fun run (you just give money, not buying stuff). Our troop is opting out of Girl Scout fall nut sale but that would be going on right now as well. If my son were doing the band trip to Spain (not the trip to NYC I posted about separately), they were AGAIN going to be selling the same crappy products we just did for the regular band fundraiser! It seems ridiculous. 

ETA: just found out now that hs choir is kicking off selling the SAME JUNK I just had to buy for middle school band!!! And also a coffee sale, but at least that's a local product. Something local or more creative I would have an easier time getting behind!

[waverly]

I only ever sold for Girl Scouts and Cub Scouts, and that was at my office. Both kids have officially quit Scouts which feels very freeing right now in the middle of fall product.

I do not sell anything for the school. So basically, I think my fundraising days might be over with unless something major happens in high school.

[mccallister84]

This is timely because we are in our first Girl Scout fall fundraiser. Last year we just did cookies. I am refusing to sell it and am just writing a check for $100 directly to the troop. I’d rather just give them money directly.

Our elementary school doesn’t sell stuff - we just do a fun run and partner with local businesses - restaurant nights, a local farm gives us 10% if you use our code when purchasing stuff, etc.

The only thing I’ll sell is Girl Scout cookies because they are relatively cheap and people actually like them. I’ll send the link to my family to donate directly to the fun run if they want to but otherwise I don’t ask anyone else to support my kids activities.

[cmeon]

I don't buy or ask my kids to sell, it's just a ridiculous dance for us because we don't have anyone that works out of the home to foist that shit on. We will make donations to clubs/competitions, and we just pay the kids' way for trips. We only have two, so that's what works for us.

[stemmie]

A lot of the time, I just wrote a check. Most fundraisers net around 50% (except GC cookies), so all the money I send goes to the group.

When DS was older, the local scouts and band did a range of fundraisers so you could pick what works for your family. Restaurant gift cards to places I eat were good, seasonal flowers (bedding, baskets, mums) and carwashes worked for me. The local discount card (good for %off or a freebie) at a dozen places for a year with no limits was very popular and friends would ask me for them.

[wanderingback]

If and when the time comes I will not sell stuff. I have lots of other things that I need to do with my time. I will donate as needed to the club/organization instead and will explain that to my daughter.

[minniemouse]

I hate fundraising. We only sell to family for the most part- grandparents, aunts and uncles. Often I just make a donation instead, but sometimes dd really wants a prize and asks to sell. Right now dd2 has 3 going on 1) music , selling to family 2) color run for PTA we will donate 3) dance team fundraiser that’s similar
To a football square- haven’t decided on this yet. Most people we know like this type of fundraiser.
Dd1’s band is selling frozen pies. We are not participating because we plan to pay for her trip out of pocket.

[meanie]

My mom is the only one who I bother with this stuff, she actually wants to buy it.

I see other parents posting on Facebook, not sure what response they get from that. I do look out for one of my friends to post about the mum sale her girls do for dance, it's a good deal.

We buy stuff occasionally. I know only a percentage goes to the school, so I don't feel too bad if we can't. I do volunteer and my company gives the school $500 for every 16 volunteer hours (they are a 501c).

[jinkies]

At some point during elementary school, they went to "Please donate $50 per kid to the HSA so that we don't have to do fundraisers" and I happily wrote a check.

We really only participated in the big school fundraiser, once, when DS was in middle school. They had a really exciting field trip as the reward, and DS wanted to go. So we did solicit grandparents and buy some things ourselves to allow him to go. Then they added a level where if you sold even more, you were allowed to bring a friend on the field trip. DS spent over $50 of his own money on items so that he could bring a new friend. Then the school placed them on different busses; you did everything with your bus group and DS knew no one on his assigned bus. I'm still bitter about that one.

Luckily DD isn't as easily swayed by the sales pitch. I don't see us ever doing fundraising again. If we can't pay for it, the kids can't do it.

[glitzy07]

I pay to opt out as often as possible.

For lacrosse we're supposed to sell $350 per family from a local floral center, or you can pay an opt out fee of $100 or something. I'm obviously aware that we are in a privileged position that we can afford to pay the fee, because I'm unwilling to coordinate deliveries of fundraiser things anymore. We're busy enough with two kids in sports, so I'm not going to race around town to drop off poinsettias, frozen pizzas, or wrapping paper.

[Jalapeñomel]

I just buy something and then send on to grandparents. I'm not asking anyone else.

[sent]

Last year I bought $300+ of the fall product sale for Girl Scouts. Two of the items were tumblers for the spouse and my brother. They don't need tumblers annually so no more buying those. The rest was buying magazines and we hardly read any of them.

This year I plan to just give whatever the profit would have been from $300 worth of sales directly to the troop. I don't have time and don't want to bother with this. Same for the school fundraiser and the choir fundraiser.

I like to push DD to sell cookies to the community as a way to force her to be social and attempt conversations with cookie-buying strangers. My parents buy lots of them too. MIL writes DD a check and DD donates that amount of cookies to the food bank. She really should hit up more relatives but she doesn't. 

I'm still figuring out the Boy Scouts popcorn but I won't be so sad if I don't get it together in time for it this year. I've spent approximately $400 getting DS up and running with Boy Scouts. This has me wondering how this can possibly be an inclusive activity across the country. It was not nearly this expensive to get DD up and running with Girl Scouts. It was under $100.

[midwestmama]

The few times fundraisers involved buying something, only DH and I and my parents bought something. I didn't want to ask anyone else. If it's something easy or something that has a chance of selling well and I could post it social media, then I would consider that.

What we have experienced most over the years is asking for cash/money donations. The last few years, schools/school groups have tended to use Vertical Raise, which is an online fundraising platform for $ donations.

[sdlaura]

Our only fundraiser is a football squares thing for DD's softball. My parents and sister buy one, and then we buy the rest of the required ones. A lot of the kids' sports teams require sponsorships, but usually one parent on the team is able to get their company to do it. Our family paid to sponsor one of the kids' baseball teams when they weren't able to find anyone.

I'm generally pretty happy to donate/buy stuff for kids in my life if asked. But feel really weird asking other people to do so.

[nicolewi]

Sept 30, 2024 12:36:18 GMT -5 sent said:

Last year I bought $300+ of the fall product sale for Girl Scouts. Two of the items were tumblers for the spouse and my brother. They don't need tumblers annually so no more buying those. The rest was buying magazines and we hardly read any of them.

This year I plan to just give whatever the profit would have been from $300 worth of sales directly to the troop. I don't have time and don't want to bother with this. Same for the school fundraiser and the choir fundraiser.

I like to push DD to sell cookies to the community as a way to force her to be social and attempt conversations with cookie-buying strangers. My parents buy lots of them too. MIL writes DD a check and DD donates that amount of cookies to the food bank. She really should hit up more relatives but she doesn't. 

I'm still figuring out the Boy Scouts popcorn but I won't be so sad if I don't get it together in time for it this year. I've spent approximately $400 getting DS up and running with Boy Scouts. This has me wondering how this can possibly be an inclusive activity across the country. It was not nearly this expensive to get DD up and running with Girl Scouts. It was under $100.

YES. I am a GS leader and I don't think people realize that Boy Scouts is much more $$. GS uniforms are crazy in cost, too, but not as extensive. Plus we pay for them for our girls from our cookie money. Also, GS does not require you to have the uniform. 

[expectantsteelerfan]

Sometimes if one of my kids is doing a unique fundraiser or one I think people might actually like because it's not the same thing everyone else is selling, I'll post on FB a generic, hey my kid is selling this, send me a PM if you'd like to order.

Otherwise we don't sell. We also usually don't buy ourselves.

Band sells hoagies 2x a year. Last year was ds's 1st year, and we sold to our close family members and bought a bunch ourselves. Then we got the hoagies, and they were the saddest, lamest hoagies ever even though everyone in band talks about how great they are. It's home-made bread from a local bakery, and the bread was good, but it was seriously like 2 slices of turkey and 1 slice of cheese broken in half for a 12 inch hoagie. So now we just donate the expected 'selling' amount.

The other exception is that DD sells chocolate for dance 2x a year, right before Christmas and right before Easter. It's from a local very popular chocolate shop. The inlaws got into the habit of buying from her for this, and they give the chocolate as gifts to us and dh's siblings' families for Christmas and Easter, so they would probably buy directly from the store if not from the fundraiser. And we buy some too to put out when we host and to put in kids' Easter baskets. I used to post this one on FB, but now a bunch of other sports sell it too, so I don't anymore.

[plutosmoon]

DD's dance team does a lot of fundraising. I ask my coworkers, but stick to one or two a year, I don't want to be annoying. I post links on Facebook if it's something an out of town friend might be interested in. I may buy something myself like we just did a cash calendar and I'll get 100% of the sales price back. I already donated cash for the prizes.

We do more events than selling, I prefer this to selling crap. At the events our focus is getting business sponsors. We also have a few local places that donate a percentage of a days sales.

[186momx]

We don't do school fundraisers anymore. I just stopped once COVID hit. I'll send $$$ in or donate items for a raffle basket but I don't hit up friends and family anymore.

I don't mind doing the out to eat places that give a % back to the schools if we would normally eat there.

[momin2013]

We don’t sell anything to anyone. When DS’ school has a fundraiser I’ll typically order something (or we’ll sometimes go if it’s an event of some kind) but that’s it.

People selling stuff at work bugs me, especially if they’re in a ‘boss’ role. At a previous job this one boss used to bring in Mary Kay catalogues ‘on behalf of her daughter’ and she used to lay the pressure on pretty thick. I thought it was so inappropriate.

[niq]

The elementary school doesn't have any "sell stuff" fundraisers. We are telling donor's to O's jog-a-thon fundraiser that we'll send them one of her art projects as a gift.

The music program at V's middle school sells greenery at christmas time. IDK if we'll buy any. There are lots of "eat at this restaurant and they'll give to the school/music program".

The middle school does bake sales too, but I don't know if there's anything else.

[polarbearfans]

I’ll post a link online for Girl Scout Fall product and cookies, but otherwise ignore all other fundraisers. I like the fall product items, so I always buy nuts and candy. We do the opt out donation for school. I would rather donate than buy anything or sell anything. We have bought from the flower fundraiser, and that was great with good quality plants for my garden. They don’t do it every year, and I don’t let my daughter sell them to anyone else because I don’t want the hassle of delivering them. Other fundraisers we donate rather than selling. I would rather donate the full amount than buy junk I don’t want.

[arehopsveggies]

Last year my class sold a product and the percentage we made was pathetic.

This year we are just asking for donations. I wonder if it will end up better…

[sent]

Sept 30, 2024 14:32:59 GMT -5 nicolewi said:

Sept 30, 2024 12:36:18 GMT -5 sent said:

Last year I bought $300+ of the fall product sale for Girl Scouts. Two of the items were tumblers for the spouse and my brother. They don't need tumblers annually so no more buying those. The rest was buying magazines and we hardly read any of them.

This year I plan to just give whatever the profit would have been from $300 worth of sales directly to the troop. I don't have time and don't want to bother with this. Same for the school fundraiser and the choir fundraiser.

I like to push DD to sell cookies to the community as a way to force her to be social and attempt conversations with cookie-buying strangers. My parents buy lots of them too. MIL writes DD a check and DD donates that amount of cookies to the food bank. She really should hit up more relatives but she doesn't. 

I'm still figuring out the Boy Scouts popcorn but I won't be so sad if I don't get it together in time for it this year. I've spent approximately $400 getting DS up and running with Boy Scouts. This has me wondering how this can possibly be an inclusive activity across the country. It was not nearly this expensive to get DD up and running with Girl Scouts. It was under $100.

YES. I am a GS leader and I don't think people realize that Boy Scouts is much more $$. GS uniforms are crazy in cost, too, but not as extensive. Plus we pay for them for our girls from our cookie money. Also, GS does not require you to have the uniform. 

I meant to post my mini-outrage at spending so much in the weekend randoms on ML, except I opened the page and couldn't remember why I was there. 

It's actually over $400. $200 in dues for all the levels including local. Then I've spent close to $200 on the uniform, the wrong book followed by the right book, and we don't even have the right pants yet. The bill went over $400 because I bought some local swag stuff. It sounds like they're going to be outside for stuff and need the swag clothing because the uniform will get covered. IDK, this is all very overwhelming. And to think we almost didn't get into this pack/den because there is that much demand in our town for Boy Scouts. But it is the only activity DS has specifically voiced he wants to do. He's been patiently waiting to join since DD started GS and he was just 4 at the time. His excitement is adorable.

In contrast, DD's troop started with $0 in their bank account the year she joined. I know I paid under $100 for the dues AND the sash. They made a little money from fall product sales that year which helped them get off the ground until they went gangbusters on cookies. 

[pittpurple]

Whenever my kids have a fundraiser I just donate the money directly. I'm fortunate to be in a situation where this is financially doable for me without going to ask my friends and family to pay for my kid to have activities. My parents have donated directly to the school library and they help out with some of the dance stuff and such directly.

For my daughter's graduation, on my recommendation everyone was given a choice between directly donating £x or working together on fundraising and every.single.family just donated the money and we never had to talk about it again.

[UMaineTeach]

I flat out threw away the wrapping paper and candles fundraiser from school.

I am trying unexpectedly hard on the Girl Scouts fall campaign. 10 more boxes and we can be done! That will get us all the prizes that are not available on Amazon for $1. It’s our first year, I begged to get into the troop, my kid is five and has no idea anything is happening.

The leader said something about the algorithm looks at what the troop should have as an average sold and determines how much money we get. She needs everyone to sell 3 items. One person can’t carry the team.

She also said she hates the fall nuts and candy, but if we opt out of it (or cookies) you are not allowed to do any independent fundraising activities and she would even have to go pull out bottle donation bin at the dump.

[UMaineTeach]

Oct 1, 2024 21:31:31 GMT -5 sent said:

Sept 30, 2024 14:32:59 GMT -5 nicolewi said:

YES. I am a GS leader and I don't think people realize that Boy Scouts is much more $$. GS uniforms are crazy in cost, too, but not as extensive. Plus we pay for them for our girls from our cookie money. Also, GS does not require you to have the uniform. 

I meant to post my mini-outrage at spending so much in the weekend randoms on ML, except I opened the page and couldn't remember why I was there. 

It's actually over $400. $200 in dues for all the levels including local. Then I've spent close to $200 on the uniform, the wrong book followed by the right book, and we don't even have the right pants yet. The bill went over $400 because I bought some local swag stuff. It sounds like they're going to be outside for stuff and need the swag clothing because the uniform will get covered. IDK, this is all very overwhelming. And to think we almost didn't get into this pack/den because there is that much demand in our town for Boy Scouts. But it is the only activity DS has specifically voiced he wants to do. He's been patiently waiting to join since DD started GS and he was just 4 at the time. His excitement is adorable.

In contrast, DD's troop started with $0 in their bank account the year she joined. I know I paid under $100 for the dues AND the sash. They made a little money from fall product sales that year which helped them get off the ground until they went gangbusters on cookies. 

I just watched the webinar that GS sent out to everyone to explain the increase in dues proposed for vote at the national conference. If they stay at $25/year they are basically out of business. If they take the board recommendation of $85 they can do everything they want, if they go $100 they will be rolling in dough and can live the dream.

I can’t imagine what the fancy graphic would look like at $200/year.

[minzy]

<Thank you for the reminder that I need to make my kids set up fall product tomorrow and that I need to donate to the annual GS giving campaign.>

[redheadbaker]

I don't, I just donate money directly.

That being said, DS did have to raise money for his school's theater production, but not sell anything. So far, myself, my parents, H's dad, DS' friend's mom (also has a kid in the school, not in the play), and my parents' best friends donated money. The play director set the fundraising goal for each student at $500 ($12K overall). We're not even close to that, and I doubt we'll get there.