1. One of the reasons our son's preschool fundraises rather than just charging more tuition is that we can get matching funds for local businesses (or the local outlets of national chains, e.g. Sam's Club) for some of the funds raised. Also, we solicit donations from local businesses for our auction.
That said, I agree that it's a pain and have given the school a check instead of buying unhealthy food that I don't want to have in the house several times. But I also know that some folks struggle to pay tuition as is and are better able to do the fundraising.

Posted at 2:53PM on Mar 14th 2008 by AB

2. This is the first time that I have heard of a PRESCHOOL doing fundraising...oh my..

Our school does two fundraisers...The PTA holds its annual Turkey Trot and the school holds one with cheesecakes, cookies, and such that gets there right in time for christmas.

THe Turkey Trot is WONDERFUL and takes ALL Day and the children look forward to it each year. The children ask neighbors, friends, etc to either donate money per lap they run/walk or for a flat donation, their pick. Business donate prizes and money to the school, etc. The children run laps or walk and families are encouraged to join in. It's wonderful, raises alot of money, and it's a one time deal.

THe school sells cheesecakes, cookie dough, and other things and they arrive in time for Christmas Break. Helps save time during the holidays.

Posted at 3:04PM on Mar 14th 2008 by rebecca Biernesser

3. The absolute last thing schools need is more money. It's all this money that allows teachers to assign silly activities such as making posters, creating a diorama, etc. This is not learning, this is arts and crafts. Certainly, art has its place, but inept teachers use it in lieu of actually teaching. Less money would mean less of all these frills and more actual *schooling.*

Posted at 3:10PM on Mar 14th 2008 by Mel

4. If you're talking about preschool, which this post is referring to, then those "arts and crafts" are the foundation for children learning to write. Fine motor skills are needed to write, and things like cutting with scissors, help develop those skills. Games such as matching and sequence, are basic math concepts. It's not "frivolous". Children learn in a variety of ways.

Posted at 11:35PM on Mar 15th 2008 by Tree

5. Agreed. In full. We have the auction coming up. Not only have we donated, solicited local businesses, even brought in items donated by our employers, but we are asked to attend said action at $50/head AND of course to bid on auction items. On top of school fees and all of the other annual fundraisers, as mentioned in your post. At Christmas they ask parents to "donate a gift" to their child's classroom, which sounds a great idea, but in fact simply entails writing yet another large cheque made out to the school in order to purchase one of the pricey gift list items. Oh, and if you'd like to save an additional $250 "facility fee" each year, you also must donate 12 hours of your time on various weekend work days. Another great idea, but really, if it were voluntary we'd probably donate even more time and do so without feeling forced. All in all, this school thing is a time consuming and expensive endeavor!

I'd feel better if they were actually in school for five days of any given week or five weeks of any given month. But, you know, teacher work days, obscure holidays, snow days, school breaks, you name it. Bitter? Me?

Posted at 3:13PM on Mar 14th 2008 by Nicola

6. I agree - if the auction items are donated by businesses, you really aren't out of pocket and may actually save some money (like when I got about $300 worth of donated art supplies for $150 and gave it as a very appreciated gift to an artist friend).

But yeah, it's a pain. I refuse to participate in projects where I am basically paying a fee for the privilege of wasting my time (e.g., the March of Dimes walk and stuff). I would rather pay the money and NOT waste the time. If this is not an option, I give to some other worthy cause instead. Or, I have no problem volunteering to do something that has a direct impact, such as tutoring kids. It just has to have some meaning, because my "wasteable" time, with kids, job, and many nonprofit commitments, is very limited.

Posted at 3:14PM on Mar 14th 2008 by SKL

7. Another comment. If schools don't stop demanding more and more time from parents in the form of homework help, volunteering, etc., personally that would weigh heavily on my decision whether or not to home school. If I'm going to spend the time anyway, I may as well do things my way, and probably shorten my kids' school day as I trim a lot of BS out of it.

Posted at 3:23PM on Mar 14th 2008 by SKL

8. Drives me crazy. I think our (public) school has averaged more than one fundraiser per month! I opted out of most of them, instead I found a task at the school that needs to be done regularly and I've taken it on. They have a 55 gallon fishtank at the entrance and no one good at caring for it. I get some of the costs donated by a local pet store (good advertising for them) and I put a lot of my own money into it. However, I feel like I can now skip many of those fundraisers. My "job" is very visible, so I'm meeting lots of people at the school, and the job is much appreciated, which gives me more feedback than having purchased wrapping paper.

Ever seen the bumper sticker that suggests the Pentagon have a bake sale to buy bombers?

Posted at 4:05PM on Mar 14th 2008 by Jill

9. I agree. We're subsidized for preschool where we are now, and with the amount my DH makes, however we've been looked down on by other families because we couldn't afford the $75 fee to be background checked in order to volunteer inthe classroom, and they only offered that "reduced fee" at the beginning of the school year. If we'd have tried to save up the money, we'd have ended up paying the higher regular fee. I've been looked down on because instead of trying to sell raffle tickets for a handmade quilt, I bought all the tickets ($10)and threw them away and gave the check to the school instead. I've been hassled because I bought my child a $5/year subscription for popcorn every Friday but won't also donate my time to pop/bag/and distribute this poppcorn (that my DS is allergic to and I'd have to bring him along). I was even hassled when I offered to donate money to the fundraiser pizza night without actually going or buying pizza neither of my kids can eat (allergies again). They refused to let me donate $10 in lieu of going, and of course we didn't show up. All this fundraising has added up to about $25 this year, which we can manage, but all the time they expect parents to donate is up in the 20 and 30 hours a month range. I couldn't "afford" that much time even if my son was healthy enough to be babysat! How could a working single mom or a two-income family manage to do it? I've even gone to thrift stores to pick up little things the classroom needed (shoes for a shoe store, faux jewelry for a jewelry store, a coffee mug tree to display things on, etc), but it seems no matter what I do that we can afford to do, it isn't enough. *sighs* I can't wait to see what it'll be like when they're in elementary school and involved in extracurriculars. I may never have time to get a job.

Posted at 4:12PM on Mar 14th 2008 by Sabrina

10. As a director of a preschool, I don't do fundraisers; and I run a state funded preschool where parents don't pay anyway. However, when I worked in private pay centers, I sitll didn't do fundraisers. I don't think you should ask parents for more money than they are already spending. I do, however, ask parents to volunteer or donate.
I am constantly hitting up the dad's who are plumbers when we have a plumbing problem. Or, I'll ask a parent to cook for the day when my cook is on vacation. If we need something built or repaired on the playground, the parents are the first ones I ask. By doing this, I don't have to raise funds for the center. I am better able to spend my money on other things when I have a parent volunteer their services.
I have two lists on the front door: one is volunteer opportunities the other is a wish list.
I would tell a parent who doesn't want to participate in a fundraiser to find a creative way to help the school. If each family bought one box of markers during back to school sales, we would be set for the year! And they are usually very inexpensive at that time. If you have a skill you're especially good at volunteer to share that; we always have plumbing problems, something that needs to be hung or built, gardens to be planted, or even someone to just come and read books to the children. By doing those things or donating those inexpensive items, you allow the money to go elsewhere in the program and could even eliminate the need for fundraising all together...we did!

Posted at 4:30PM on Mar 14th 2008 by Jenni

11. My sons won't be going to public schools (we're goign to homeschool), but my daughter (who lives with her dad) always has. When she was in Girl Scouts, too, and they did fundraisers it seemed like there was *always* something going on.

They did one every year where they sold discount cards to local restaurants. For $10 you got some sort of "buy one/get one free" at a bunch of different local restaurants. We didn't use a lot of them, but for some reason Pizza Hut never punched the cards, so we would end up with several free pizzas out of that one!

Otherwise, though, I would rather just write a check to the school. I always HATE when kids (my nieces and nephews have had to do it, and now our neighbor here) come by with these catalogs of random junk that you feel obligated to buy something from. Really, I would much rather just give them a check, but yeah, you do get a weird reaction to that.

And I had problems with donating time, too. If you can't ever come in to help with anything, they think you are a slacker. But I had a baby and no one to leave the baby with, so I couldn't come in and help very much. Is that so uncommon?

Posted at 5:15PM on Mar 14th 2008 by Judy

12. I just spent a year of my life chairing an auction that raised $150,000 for a dinky little preschool with sixty kids run out of a lady's basement in a residential neighborhood. I have to say about half of the parents were like you. It made my job really hard and frustrating from time to time. I really believe you have a choice--there are plenty of schools that charge so much tuition that you don't have to do any fundraising. There are schools that have a "give as you are able" policy where you just write a check each year for as much as you can afford. There are schools that have fewer "bells and whistles" and cost less. But I believe, after my recent experience, that if you sign on to a school that does fundraise, you are obligated to participate in that fundraising. At our school everyone is informed of the enormous amount of time and energy that is entailed in the auction when they are interviewed for admission by the director. They are told they are expected to procure, volunteer and attend. They sign an agreement saying they will do these things. I held them all to that agreement, as much as they were able given their situation and resources. One family donated their time to a Holiday package to go to someone's house and wrap all of their Christmas gifts. Another family donated a year of carwashes, another a year of homemade cookies delivered to your door. We found creative ways for everyone to contribute.

Now if you aren't comfortable with they type of fundraisers the school does (I think I'd have a problem with doughnuts too), you can jump in and volunteer to steer them in a different direction. And I know plenty of people who choose not to attend schools because they do a lot of fundraising and I'm cool with that too. I just think it's a choice!

Posted at 6:55PM on Mar 14th 2008 by lisa

13. I'm in the fundraising committe for the creche that my daughter goes to (it's a parent co-operative), and at our last AGM I actually proposed that parents should be allowed to opt out of fundraising activities, so long as they contributed a pre-determined amount of money instead. And, despite parents' occasional moaning about the amount of effort that has to go into fundraising each year, the parents all voted against the proposal. Go figure.

Posted at 9:34PM on Mar 14th 2008 by violet

14. HATE it. And there are so many of them. Nobody I know want to buy overpriced pastries or chocolate or hams or wrapping paper. I don't need that crap either. I can't afford to buy something every time. The only fundraiser I don't mind is the candle one, and that's because one of my friends actually waits all year for it.

Posted at 11:13PM on Mar 14th 2008 by bremarie03

15. Thanks to everyone for your comments! The school didn't list volunteering as an option (in lieu of, or in addition to, fundraising) but I think that's a great idea, and I'll definitely make that suggestion. I also agree that it would have made a lot of sense to solicit donations for an auction from businesses, but that's not what they asked.

Lisa -- There was no discussion of fundraising obligations when I registered my daughter for school. I'm impressed with your $150K outcome, but wonder why you were so frustrated with "parents like me." If you were leading, and HALF of the parents weren't following, maybe there was good reason for that. As I said, I'm not opposed to supporting the school with my time, energy, or money. I just question the logic of how it's currently being done.

Posted at 12:19AM on Mar 15th 2008 by Nicole Teed

16. Well I definitely think the school should be up-front about fundraising. And our school is. Also we do one fundraiser every two years...our auction. Our kids go there for two years so basically you do one auction per child. There aren't junk sales every three to six months. I get what you guys are saying...how many magazine subscriptions can we all justify anyway? I get magazines I don't remember ordering!

Many of the parents who weren't committed didn't show up at all. They weren't there for me to lead. Didn't return phone calls, emails, come to meetings or anything. But they knew what they signed up for...it wasn't a surprise. I got them to contribute by stopping them on the porch even when the were trying their hardest not to make eye contact. It was a tough position for me to be in, especially as a "recovering shy person," but I was passionate and willing to take the risk. Many of them were delighted when their items sold well at the auction. And I think the whole school is proud of what we did, in retrospect, and I think that's why our director continues to have an auction, despite the pressure to do something more simple.

So I guess in summary I'd say I agree with the general tenor of what people are saying here...there are too many fundraisers. And in truth a lot of it is I think throwing nickels and dimes at the real issue of underfunded schools. Maybe the issue isn't fundraising or not, but meaningful fundraising? Something that raises an amount of money that is significant to the school or organization and brings the community together rather than asking grandma and grandpa to buy another ound of magazines, cookie dough, wrapping paper and such.

OK I took sort of a roundabout way to getting to what I was feeling...but I'm totally passionate about this! I see the necessity for fundraising but I'm sick of the junk too. What's the answer?

Posted at 2:44AM on Mar 15th 2008 by lisa

17. From the business point of view we are now getting an average request of 30-50 per month from schools, church groups, and other community events. Now we are getting requests from individual people for things like fighting cancer, we love to support the community but every time we give, it still is a real cost to the bottom line. Please remember this if somebody says no, we are all facing tough times.

Posted at 12:58PM on Apr 19th 2008 by WEAVER