School fundraising

School fundraising

I can always tell when the school year begins in the fall. My doorbell rings at least twice a week with children trying to sell me something that is way overpriced or super impractical. Usually, the first one or two kids who target my house will walk away with an order. After that, I’m not interested. School fundraising is something that will never go away and students will always feel obligated to do for their schools. Usually, prizes can be earned or won – a supposed incentive for these kids to sell their hearts out. In all honesty, you could buy the prize for a lot less than the amounts you have to sell in order to earn it.

Typically, the items that school fundraisings are overpriced. You’ll find yourself paying double what you’d pay in a department store for wrapping paper or candy. However, times have changed. There are so many different things that school fundraising sells to the public today that really can be reasonable and of great assistance to the schools. I’ve seen pizza sales, sub sandwich sales, chicken barbecue, raffle tickets – lots of creative things. Typically, I buy an Entertainment book each year from the first kid who knocks on my door. I’m not sure how much gets given to the school fundraiser, but it is something that I use frequently and would much rather buy from a student than a store.

My daughter’s preschool has a school fundraising project every year. It seems a bit ridiculous because these are children under the age of five who have no clue how to ask people to buy things, so moms and dads get to sell stuff for them. I’m currently selling pies to help the school buy new playground equipment. I don’t mind participating in a school fundraising project because I know that my child will be benefiting from it. And, I know that they desperately need to get some new things for the playground and there just isn’t the state aid or donations there to allow for that to happen.

A lot of times, school fundraising is for sports or another extracurricular activity. Perhaps the teams need money to buy uniforms or take a trip someplace. It isn’t always fair to ask the parents of the children involved to continue to dump money into the programs on top of the fees that they already incur by allowing their children to participate. That’s when school fundraising reaches out to the community and public. Purchasing one item, even something small, puts some cash back into the school or fund that allows for some growth and success. Not only are you helping by participating in school fundraising, but, you are also helping to teach the children life lessons as well.