Monday, November 19, 2007
Fundraising fatigue: Schools tap new ways to get money
Fundraising fatigue: Schools tap new ways to get money: "Want to buy some cookie dough? How about wrapping paper? Interested in a magazine subscription? A growing number of parents are saying no, even to their own kids, tired of the incessant stream of order forms, catalogs and discount coupon books coming home in backpacks from school. Their freezers are crammed with cookie dough from last year's sale, their spare drawers filled with wrapping paper and their mailboxes overflowing with magazines. Parents are burned out, and as a result some cash-strapped schools are changing their fundraising ways."
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The problem is that schools invest too little time to make their potentially larger fundraisers really count. Instead of making the most of maybe one or two fundraisers a year, which would probably satisfy the parents and build credibility and trust, schools bombard parents with lots of meaningless fundraisers that end up not raising much money at all (which is why the schools have to do so many in the first place). What the schools should do is be up front with the parents and tell them that we are now limiting ourselves to one fundraiser. If everyone puts in enough effort and we reach our financial goals then that will be it – and stick to it! Otherwise we will come back and do a supplemental fundraiser in the spring. Whatever money we then raise, we will live with it no matter what. There needs to be an understanding and agreement between the school and the parents up front however first.
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